Dr. Pepper Tries New Astroturf Method

glh writes "Blogging continues to make its way into corporate America. Dr. Pepper is now blogging to build a community around their new dairy based Raging Cow product by using "key influence bloggers". The key influence bloggers are currently made up of six people mostly in their late teens/early twenties who get promo merchandise as their only form of compensation. In return, they get to "advertise however they want" through their blog. Seems like this experiment could turn into the next "big thing" in advertising-- assuming people are willing to sell out their blog space. Bloggers beware!"

Comments

Raging Cow?

[wembley]

I hope they don't try to launch that brand in the U.K.

Advertising: Nothing new

[Metallic Matty]

This is just more of the same ol' story: companies sticking their advertisements everywhere: cramming every possible orifice full of their logo. Now instead of being obnoxiously located above, below, and to the sides of all the content your reading on the net: it will now be located inside the content.

George Carlin was right.. bend over a little more..

Re:Advertising: Nothing new

[Triv]

ever been to New York City?

ClearChannel Communications (my current nemesis of choice) has such a strong foothold in NYC it's scary. Want to listen to the radio? Most of the radio stations are run by clearchannel. See a show? They own broadway theaters. See a concert? Irving Plaza and Roseland (among others) are run by clearchannel. Avoid all that and take a walk? They own a good portion of the billboards. Take the subway instead? Sorry, the advertising in the subways (including the new digital billboards cropping up around certain subway lines) goes through them too.

Gives a new meaning to the word "Tentacle," don't it?

Triv

(It's not as scary as what I saw a few months ago, though - a Post Office truck with a big honkin' Microsoft MSN ad on the side.)

Re:Advertising: Nothing new

[JimDabell]

wait, you mean people actually read weblogs?!

...he posted to slashdot.

Re:Advertising: Nothing new

[hackstraw]

To be honest, I would prefer more advertising like this vs the flashy blinky noisy things all over the fscking place.

This is akin to product placement, and I would rather my favorite actor, Bob Dole, or whoever to casually use a product in my view while not disturbing the plot or whatever else I'm doing.

However, the problem is that everywhere I go, and everything I do is now inundated with advertisements. This is complete bullshit. I for the most part ignore advertisements. Besides the psychological, subconscious affects of advertising. (eg, Product X is a good company because we give back to the community, or simply product recognition), I don't see where advertising has any influence on my spending habits. And the few times that it has, I have felt burnt most of those times.

Here's a list of advertising bullshit that bothers me to no end:

• There's too much of it in magazines, I can't find the table of contents so I can read what I bought the magazine for.
• Ticketmaster advertises. These assholes are already charging me for the priveledge of buying a ticket, and they have the nerve to charge for advertising space too!
• Endlessly repeating .gif's or flash ads. I've got galeon set up to only repeat animation once, and I don't have a flast plugin, thank you.
• TV music programs where they play an ad between each song
• The amount of ads on cable television in general. What do I pay $40 a month for?
• A local university got $10 million from a car dealership to rent their name out on their new football stadium. I will not buy a car from them ever. If it had something to do with education, fine, but all I read from the car dealers actions is that they already make way too much money.

There must be more, I just can't think of them right now.

I guess that advertising is like spam, it exists because there must be some kind of reward for doing it. I ignore it. Word of mouth works fine. Believe me I trust someone I know much more than some washed up actor/athlete/Bob Dole pushing a product on me because they say they like the product. I feel as though ads are insulting, because I can go to a store and evaluate products or ask a sales person, or read up on a product beforehand. Bah, I've gone on too long already.

Re:Advertising: Nothing new

[MisterMook]

Part of the idea of ad marketing is not that a viewer actually likes the product but that they see the name so much that when the time comes to purchase a product the consumer automatically thinks of the marketer's product. There might be dozens of chicken restaurants in town, but when crunch time comes and the consumer is trying to think "where will I eat right now" they can't come up with a better solution than KFC, Churches, or Popeyes. Word of mouth might be a better solution to judging value, but advertising doesn't attach itself to better solutions it attaches itself to recognition.

That's the reason commercials are sometimes cute and that you even KNOW Bob Dole does commercials, recognition. At some point eventually you run into an area that word of mouth doesn't cover, that's where advertising works best.

Strangely enough, in the hermit-media culture we live in advertising has it's best chance. People work at home or don't talk with their coworkers very much, when they go out they go places to experience media formats and not to talk. Word of mouth is probably on the upswing on the internet, but it's still lacking much sense of community that makes most people's word of mouth recognizable as having more value than your average advertising campaign. After all, there are a lot of idiots who actually WATCH those commercials.

Slashdot blog implements new astroturf method

[br0ck]

Slashdot has legitimized this concept by linking to Raging Cow since the site is high on Google's pagerank index. I hope Michael enjoys his new hat.

Sheesh

[Bob Abooey]

First they hire "Garth Brooks" as their spokesman and now they target bloggers... I think they are showing their total lack of "clue" when it comes to marketing. Why not mix the two and go after redneck bloggers who dig bad country music?

Or maybe they should think about picking up Britney Spears now that Pepsi has dropped her for Shakira...

Raging Cow is great

[Col. Klink (retired)]

Why would they have to pay people? Raging Cow is such a wonderful product, it sells itself.

Before I used Raging Cow, my life was miserable. Now I'm more popular than ever and my sex life has improved!

Where do I go to apply for my free stuff?

Re:Raging Cow is great

[PD]

Now that gives me a great idea. Everyone who has a web page, make a link to goatse.cx with the link text "Raging Cow" or else put the actual photo on your site with the text Raging Cow in the image tag and in some text around it.

We'll overflow google with links to goatse.cx. Every time someone searches on Raging Cow, they'll get what their stupid ass deserves.

Re:I guess it's OK

[stratjakt]

It's all about Mountain Dew Code Red these days, old timer.

I'm sure Dr Pepper goes just fine with your FORTRAN subroutines.

next "big thing" in advertising...

[Queelix]

What does it tell you about this 'next "big thing"' that I spent 5 minutes at this site trying to figure out what it was trying to sell and had to google 'raging cow' to figure out somewhere else that it is flavored milk. Ugh.

Chicks wrestling in mud to sell beer. Now *that's* the 'next "big thing"'!

Q...

This is absurd.

[generic-man]

I find it impossible to believe that in this day and age, a large soft drink company such as Dr. Pepper thinks that they can buy their way into the hearts of good American people and get them to buy their new drink Raging Cow. Shame on you, Dr. Pepper, for inciting many good-hearted Netizens to shill for your company, Dr. Pepper, and its new drink Raging Cow.

I would just like to say that advertising has no impact on me and that I do not associate this ongoing Dr. Pepper campaign with Raging Cow. I am a free-thinking, free-willed individual, and it would be an outrage to think that I am dumb enough to fall for Dr. Pepper's marketing. In fact, all marketing is evil, and you (Dr. Pepper) are furthering that stereotype with the marketing for your new drink, Raging Cow.

I'm so mad, in fact, that I will instead drink dnL , another new beverage. dnL has all the great taste of 7-up, but with caffeine and a new rush of citrus flavor taste! dnL - Flip it! In fact, if you reply to this post, I'll send you a coupon good for one free dnL. dnL - Flip it!

they're testing the advertising, not the colas

[GLowder]

With product names of "Chocolate Insanity" and "Pina Colada Chaos" it seems they'll bomb. Some exec at Dr Pepper probably decided to try and see what kind of impact this "new medium" might do for advertising what should be a quickly dead product. If it makes their marketing marginally better, you'll see it down the road for Dr Pepper's regular products. (Dr Pepper Exec)"Let's not just tarnish the good old Dr Pepper and Diet Dr Pepper just yet with something that might be thought of as odd from an advertising standpoint."(/Dr Pepper Exec)

this doesn't bother me a bit.

[Hitch]

no one takes bloggers as an "unbiased news source" to begin with - and the people are free to advertise in any way they want, right? that means if they really do think it's crap, they're either a) going to say so or b) stop accepting it and stop writing about it. their only form of compensation is merchandise, so I'm more inclined to trust them than someone who says "oh, yeah, I LOVE Dr. Pepper! that's why they paid me $30,000 to appear in this commercial!". This blogger is saying "I LOVE Dr. Pepper! That's why I'm happily accepting crateloads of stuff to tell you about them!". IMHO, (I know, no such thing) this is actually a bit more sincere.

Re:Where do I sign up?

[LordFlower]

it seems slashdot has signed up already

Well at least SOMEBODY is trying new things

[Bvardi]

At least it is nice to see some advertisers not going the route of picking traditional media and then using legislation to force that media upon people despite changing technology (Can anyone here remember a certain quote about using PVR's to skip ads being "stealing"?) Personally it's nice to see different models of advertising being explored... maybe with some luck we'll see a less invasive model that is more effective for advertisers and less annoying for everyday consumers. (Mind you I realize the likelyhood of that is about the same as Microsoft going the non profit corporation route..) Still, at least product endorsement/placement in blogging is preferable to having them install an LCD on the inside of my eyeballs and forcing ads into my subconscious. After all my subconscious is scary enough as it currently stands.

Beware of what?

[nanojath]

bloggers beware

Beware of what? Guess what kids - your culture is being appropriated by the marketeers! (pause for gasps of astonishment and chagrin).

Is there even a line between culture and commerce anymore? In any event, the raging cow site drips with manufactured "kewl" - if you're influenced by this kind of pap you deserve to be sold carbonated milk, or whatever the hell it is.

Re:Beware of what?

[swb]

I don't know what's funnier, the idea of blogging as some kind of culturally significant activity or the raging indignity of "legitimate" bloggers over people placing commercial content in their blogs.

I'm a blogger, you're a a blogger

[sulli]

he's a a blogger, she's a a blogger, would you like to be a blogger too?

Re:Astroturfing through slashdot posts?

[adzoox]

I'd agree with your posts - the reason one gets modded down is mainly due to the demographic here at Slashdot. The majority of people here are early teen to mid 20's which tends to be more liberal minded or in some cases so far left because of "brainwashing" by educational institutions.

Don't get upset, I've gotten "flamebait" before, but I often get informative, insightful - the key is to be factual NEVER opinionated about religion and conservatism!

I'll use this post to make my comment as well: I have always thought that personalised/compensatory advertising was the way to go anyway. I think the Sprint Cellular painted VW's and other "ad cars" - which are free leases to the driver for a contractual period are a good idea.

Anyone remember the two auctions on eBay:

One auctioned off their child's name.

The other; auctioned off his bald head to walk around in DesMoines Iowa with an ad on his head

I'm surprised more of those types of things haven't happened or aren't pursued by companies.

An event sponsor gets a lot of press by giving away T-Shirts rather than coupons

drink ads

[Lxy]

I dunno, you can advertise a drink in any way you want to, but good advertising does not a good beverage make. Maybe it works for some people, but an advertisement makes me buy a drink once. From there on, the only way I'd buy it again is if it lived up to the hype.

Friends tell me how much I need to try Red Bull. I finally buy a can. Tastes like shit. No amount of persuasion from friends or TV will ever convince me to try it again.

Code Red. Why Pepsi is messing with Moutain Dew is beyond me. I try a bottle. Tastes like shit. I'll never buy Code Red again.

Vanilla Coke. I hear it advertised on the radio. I'm passing a convenience store, buy a bottle. Tastes like Coke and vanilla, but seperate. No blending of flavors. I'll never buy that again.

So, now there's some new drink from Dr. Pepper. I'll probably hear about it on the radio, or maybe see a blog. I'll buy a bottle some day. If I like it, I buy more. If I don't, I won't buy it ever again.

Re:drink ads

[cgreuter]

Code Red.

I'd never heard of Code Red until that IIS worm. Maybe that's what Raging Cow needs too.

After all, aren't they trying to do viral marketing here?

Re:Where do I sign up?

[DJ FirBee]

No reason to sell your blog. Be like all the other nitwits and sell Amway instead.

I went to a guys apartment to watch De La Hoya box on pay per view and there was a bunch of seedy fucks there trying to make me sell Amway for them. Total setup from the get go.

They asked everyone in the room "what would you do with a million dollars?" when it was my turn to answer I said "I would become a heavily armed recluse in a sparsely populated western state with intention of training disciples to dispatch of pyramid growth scams".

It was like ... a minute before any of those morons said their next word. I was nearly out the door by the time the guy said "...but we are not a pyramid growth scam".

I went to a bar and watched the fight with people that were not wanna-be corporate scumbags. Definitely one of my finest hours.

I figured out how they chose the 6 bloggers!

[GreyyGuy]

If you look at the blogs linked on the Raging Cow page, you will see they all have one thing in common.

Each one has some of the most horrible web design I've ever seen! Getting rid of any sort of indicator for URLs. Lots and lots of frames. Colors that make my eyes bleed. It's like they all read every book on what not to do and did it.

The marketing people must have thought that the pages are so bad they loop around the scale and become super-impressive and a hip.

Switch!

[sweetooth]

I used to be a Mountain Dew junkie. I just couldn't last through an all night coding session without the stuff. Then I switched to Barqs Farmous Red Creme Soda. It's the elixer of life. It's smooth creamy flavor is wonderful. The best part is it's caffeine free. This means after a long night of pumping myself full of it's sugary sweetness while sitting in front of my CRTs I don't have to worry about having trouble falling asleep or waking up with a raging headache due to lack of caffeine.

Barqs Famous Red Creme Soda, I switched! Why haven't you?

I don't know which is worse.

[RatBastard]

I don't know which is worse, the number of "Sign me up, dude!" posts, or the cheap price you all have for selling your soul to corporate America. It's like those Tufts students who let spammers use their email accounts for $20.00 a month.

What amazes me about America is NOT that we seem to be a nation of whores, but that we are a nation of cheap whores.

Re:"a milk based product with an attitude"????

[Erbo]

I liked Glenn Reynolds' comment about that tag line:

"The last time I had a milk-based product develop an 'attitude,' it was because of insufficient refrigeration."

What's really amazing...

[foo fighter]

isn't that people are marketing this stuff in their blog. It is Dr. Pepper providing gear for their efforts.

Most people walk around happy to sport logos everywhere: their t-shirts, shoes, cars, computers (or computer components). They actually pay for the privilege. Why anyone would be surprised or upset about the tables being turned, I don't understand.

Product placement in our entertainment is everywhere and will become even more prevelent as traditional marketing becomes less effective. I view blogs as primarily entertainment and was frankly expecting this.

BTW, anyone see the Ford Focus car chase in Alias? I had to turn it off when they zoomed in for a lingering shot on the Focus' logo. Blech.

Re:Where do I sign up?

[Asprin]

And this is almost symbiotic and worthwhile. If you *really* like a product, I don't see why it would be anything but worthwhile to everybody accept compensation for endorsing it.

And life just gets more and more like TV: Now, I have to consider whether my family/friends/coworkers are "gettin' paid" before I take them up on that recommendation to see "Master Of Disguise II".

Thanks, but no thanks. I like to think that my wife's-best-friend's movie recommendations suck because she has bad taste.

How Ironic

[skintigh2]

I ran a Dr Pepper rip off page (one of the first, not the best) and tried repeatedly to get any response from Dr Pepper. They had no interest in me whatsoever, and the one time I visited Texas and took the opportunity to take a photo of their sign, a SECURITY GUARD ran out and chased me away, as it was a SECURITY VIOLATION TO LOOK AT THE SIGN. What a bunch of assholes. Why the fuck do you put up a sign next to a fucking highway if you don't want people to look at it? And exactly how the fuck is looking at a fucking logo going to ,make a fucking difference to their "security?" (I am not aware if that guard's name was Rumsfeld)

Anyway, when I got tired of my collection and knew others were, too, I wondered if Dr Pepper would want it for their Dr Pepper Museum. Although they make it impossible to find a way to contact them, I eventually did, and was replied to with a form letter about where I can buy merchadise.

I felt loved.

I'm glad I've been so loyal.

Anyway, here is my sadly outdated page

Obligatory Futurama quote...

[taernim]

Leela: "Didn't you have ads in the 20th century?"

Fry: "Well sure, but not in our dreams! Only on tv and radio...and in magazines...and movies. And at ball games, on buses, and milk cartons, and t-shirts, and bananas, and written on the sky. But not in dreams! No sirree."

We're helping plug the Good Doctor as we *speak*..

[Aropax20]

Has anyone stopped to think how this article is giving Dr Pepper a really thorough promotion? I mean, how many times has the product in question been mentioned in this article on /. so far? I heard a theory once that if J. Random Consumer is confronted with a name 7 times in quick succession, it'll stick!

I don't drink the stuff, but I can guarantee I'll be thinking about it all day *grimace*

Now there's an interesting way to advertise - get your product made the subject of a /. story... we've been had!

Fly, my pretties! Storm those blogs and slashdot them to hell and back!!

Re:Where do I sign up?

[Asprin]

Why am I telling you this?

I don't know about you, but I was karma whoring. ;)








(It *worked*, too, though I was shooting for 'funny', not 'informative'.)