CNN Guerrillas in the Midst: A Viral Marketing Campaign Exposed

April 21, 2005 - 9:34pm

Update: Response to the UK Inquirer

This is CNN: the only major news network using your blog for an experimental guerrilla marketing campaign. [updated 4/28]

400 trackback spams in 3 hours?

April 20, 2005 - 12:42pm

Is that supposed to be the blogosphere equivalent of finding a decapitated horse’s head in your sheets?

Marburg Hemorrhagic Fever: The Uncensored Version

April 19, 2005 - 5:45pm

The Chief Blogging Officer at High Beam Research brought forward some very disturbing news: A serious outbreak of Marburg Fever is occurring in Angola. What is Marburg Fever? To begin, like Small Pox, Ebola, Hanta and Lassa, its classified as a level 4 biohazard; in otherwords, Marburg is as dangerous as viruses and bacteria come. Its

The Ghost of Vice President Wallace Warns: "It Can Happen Here"

April 19, 2005 - 1:28pm

"They claim to be super-patriots, but they would destroy every liberty guaranteed by the Constitution. They demand free enterprise, but are the spokesmen for monopoly and vested interest. Their final objective toward which all their deceit is directed is to capture political power so that, using the power of the state and the power of the market simultaneously, they may keep the common man in eternal subjection." - Vice President Henry A. Wallace (1944)

By Thom Hartmann | CommonDreams.orgJuly 19, 2004 The Republican National Committee has recently removed from the top-level pages of their website an advertisement interspersing Hitler's face with those of John Kerry and other prominent Democrats. This little-heralded step has freed former Enron lobbyist and current RNC chairman Ed Gillespie to resume his attacks on Americans who believe some provisions of Bush's PATRIOT Act, his detention of American citizens without charges, his willingness to let corporations write legislation, and the so-called "Free Speech Zones" around his public appearances are all steps on the road to American fascism.

Time Warner's Guerrillas Change Tactics

April 18, 2005 - 9:22pm

Could the Time Warner marketing people have figured out that we -- the typers in pajamas -- might be intelligent enough to figure out what a bunch of repeated terms would do? Apparently so. In fact here is their April 18th revision of the spam:

Here is the April 18th version of the CNN comment spam.

A battle was won, but the war continues. So, my marketing friends, you might be wondering why am I doing this... Why do I am I trying to ruin the marketing campaign? My motive is fairly simple: all I want is for the media to be honest. Maybe even give us enough respect as to not treat us like little insects who's purpose is to be tricked into brand loyality. We bloggers are actually really nice people; however, we like conversations, not deception. Remember that. So your guerillas are changing tactics, let them know that I'll be right behind them. I Can't wait to see the April 19th release of "real person with a negative opinion that happens to market a show very effectively".

BTW, if you have anything you'd like to say to the Time Warner Guerillas, leave a comment at their temporary homebase.

Arundhati Roy: Non-Violence as a Powerful Weapon

April 15, 2005 - 7:32am

"What we need to discuss urgently is strategies of resistance. We need to aim at real targets, wage real battles and inflict real damage. Gandhi's Salt March was not just political theatre. When, in a simple act of defiance, thousands of Indians marched to the sea and made their own salt, they broke the salt tax laws. It was a direct strike at the economic underpinning of the British Empire. It was real. While our movement has won some important victories, we must not allow non-violent resistance to atrophy into ineffectual, feel-good, political theatre. It is a very precious weapon that needs to be constantly honed and re-imagined. It cannot be allowed to become a mere spectacle, a photo opportunity for the media."

-Arundhati Roy [source text]

A-List Bloggers: Are they regularly exploiting our inner reptile?

April 14, 2005 - 5:43pm

Kathy at Citizen’s Rent read over my earlier post on Women, Geeks, and the Blogosphere, and challenged my argument on why the female bloggers I know wouldn’t make it to the a-list (I would expect nothing less from a fellow ENTP). In response to her points, I’m concede that I incorrectly limited the argument to only applying to females. (see notes 1&2 at bottom)

This post expands upon my earlier claim that rising to the blogosphere’s a-list requires the blogger to publish content that is purposefully intended to appeal to the audience’s reptilian brain (what is the reptilian brain? think sex, survival, and digestion).Kathy, rightfully challenges my claim, “While appealing to the reptilian brain might be an easier path to a large readership, I don't think the a-listers are guilty of this. A few might be, sure, but not most.”

Admittedly, I had absolutely no evidence behind my argument. So I decided I would take a random sampling of bloggers I considered a-list. All of the headlines and leads that I sampled were the top posts at the time of the sample. This data, is of course, not scientifically valid. However, I think it will at least give us a better idea of which side the evidence points.

Tas vs. Goofball: Privacy Concerns & Online Tracking

April 14, 2005 - 10:42am

Tas at Loaded Mouth attempts to clear up some misunderstandings concerning, online privacy and hit-trackers. I've reformated these excerpts into a script format for the sake of readibility. Now, observe as Tas crushes goofball using solar-lunar stance.

***

Goofball: I do have a problem turning over my [IP] address or being followed around the web after I visit a site.

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