Whassup in 2008?

One catchphrase that I never thought would come back, besides use by Michael Scott in the Office, is Budweiser's "Whassup" slogan. It has indeed resurfaced again, this time with political relevance as a promotional ad for Obama.

The video visits the Whassup guys 8 years after their debut on TV and shows what they are up to now. One just lost his house, one is in Iraq, one needs health care, and one is watching his stocks drop. This is obviously trying to reach out to all of the different issues in the election.

The Effect
So far the video has over 2.5 million views on YouTube. It has circled around on numerous blogs and was featured in the Wall Street Journal today.

Will this have any impact on how people vote? Probably not. It is more so a clever way to bring back a catchphrase that died out 7 years ago. There have been thousands of political videos on YouTube parodying other videos, songs, and movies. This is just one of the more well done and creative spots.


On a side note, I hate when companies or individuals representing their company shout out their personal opinion on politics via their blog or twitter. Below is a humorous video promoting Obama. Here is a humorous article favoring McCain from The Onion.

Ditch the One Size Fits all Pitch

You must be completely naive to continue in the graces that is bad media relations, not PR, but bad media relations. Online spells transparency and as the frequency of bad flacks outweighs the good, you’re even more likely nowadays to end up on the Bad Pitch blog—or something a lot worse… the subjective of a forum flame war where you have to play defense.

Our Pitch-Perfect session last week featured the mastermind behind Axiom Marketing, an integrated communications business developed during prep days at Kellogg School of Management. Mr. Mike Reiber discussed the new frontier of new media and the passing of traditional tactics still in use by the many today.

Among the many topics discussed with Mike, one really hit home for me: Journalists have more to do now and less time to do it. I was informed of this earlier on as our team ventured off to meet with a Star Tribune reporter, herself reiterating the importance of learning Web so she and many others wouldn’t lose their job.

What this also means is you better have the pitch right the first time sent out. With all the e-mail clutter, all those microbloggers updating their Tweets to appeal to the news masses following, it’s time for a Cadillac to park in their garage.

If you’re a Ford lover, shame on you.

Google Earth on the iPhone and iPod Touch

I visited Beijing and Seattle over lunch. How? Through the new Google Earth app.

An updated version of Google Earth recently came out for the iPhone and iPod touch. It is insane. I'm not sure what else to say about it. The video below gives a pretty good overview of it.



There is a reason why Google is dominating the internet. They do remarkable things. They have remarkable applications. They are a remarkable company. The lesson isn't for your company to try to be like Google. The lesson is do something remarkable like Google has done with the internet.

This "Guy" Will Not Be A Guest Blogger For Daily Axioms

The Japanese are far ahead of most of the world in technology, but they often cross over the thin line between genius and insane with some of their useless and silly products. A university engineer recently set up a potted plant in a cafe that writes blogs. Using a sensor that measures bio electric signals, the plant translates its "feelings" into a blog post each day.

Not sure how interesting that could really be, but I would read a blog by this plant:

Your Online Democracy

Democracy is happening online, because every time a comment is made—change is imminent or entirely avoided. Today’s marketing is customer service and though this isn’t new to the digital PR attendees of the world, it still sends the majority.

A person’s comment is now so much more powerful than what a marketing research team gathers from a paid-for focus group. Yes, those TV ads do say these people weren’t paid for the ad, but who wouldn’t love having their mug on TV? I raise my hand in embarrassment.

The new integrated strategy that should be part of every campaign (starting with research) is comment moderation. The tactic-- subscribing to the RSS feed comments pertaining to your client, your client’s product or service, and topic of interest for your targeted media contacts. Boy would that save you time and energy in place of your exhaustive search on Google’s front page.

Consider scrolling below those USA Today or New York Times articles, those blogs tied to top 50 publications and reading the 21 or so complaints from customers who have really experienced the journalist’s cutting jest about a service or this-just-in bad news. It may come as a shock to hear that your customers don’t want flare; they want simple. In immediate response, you change those key messages and give your product, service or simple PSA announcement (are those still happening?) a makeover.

It’s time to listen to your customers online. Remember they are your audience and can turn to or away from you—if you don’t hear them.