March 25, 2011

Who's Next?

This has been an interesting week here at Ad Contrarian world headquarters.

It was a week we devoted to one story - Pepsi's Refresh Project.

It was also our busiest week ever -- lead by a landslide of interest in Monday's post called Social Media's Massive Failure.

The story seemed to grow as the week went on, with more people reading it Thursday than Monday. The interest in the story, ironically, was fed by a lot of activity about it in social media, specifically Twitter.

Which leads me to today's sermon.

As I've said about a thousand times here, contrary to what most social media wackos think, I have nothing against social media. In fact, I use it myself to good effect. I think social media can be useful and valuable when used intelligently and prudently.

What I strenuously object to is bullshit. And social media maniacs and hustlers have been the leading source of marketing bullshit for too many years now. Their promises are outrageous. Their statistics are untrustworthy. Their jargon is insufferable. Their smugness is intolerable. And, perhaps worst of all, their Powerpoints are unbearable.

I also have nothing against Pepsi. They have provided me with a wonderful source of corporate hilariousness for over three years. God bless 'em.

But I'm worried. If Pepsi management gets wise to what's been going on there... and smart marketers start throwing social media hustlers out on their asses...who the hell am I going to make fun of?

I've already squeezed every ounce of blood possible from brand babblers...account planners are going extinct...cmo's are either out of work or about to be...art directors can't read...

I guess there's always bloggers.

One More Thing About This Week...
...I almost never talk about my agency, but it's not every week you win two accounts. Congratulations, guys!

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