Admit it, you Tweeted during the #SuperBowl. But did you Tweet about the game? Or did you Tweet about the commercials? Yeah, me too.
That’s okay for the Super Bowl, but what about the rest of the year? Do you tune out commercials on the telly to get your Tweet on? Here’s some data in sweet eye candy, infographic form for marketers wanting to be in the know. Hashtag Awesome.
A fake Shell Oil billboard in Houston reads “You Can’t Run Your SUV on Cute, Let’s Go.”
The sign, courtesy of Greenpeace activists, mocks Shell’s current advertising campaign with an image of a polar bear and cubs. According to Greenpeace, “by chasing after hard-to-reach oil in remote and dangerous places, Shell is putting polar bears, walruses, and other Arctic wildlife at risk.”
Interestingly, the ad was crowdsourced, being selected from over 10,000 user-generated online submissions to ArcticReady.com, an online collaboration with Yes Lab to increase awareness of their anti-Shell campaign. The website, which is modeled to look like an authentic Shell site and created by Greenpeace and Yes Lab, includes an iceberg-zapping game and more spoof ads.
The Houston billboard is one of several moves for opponets of Arctic drilling. Protests have been staged around the globe to bring attention to oil company’s planned exploration in the Chukchi and Beaufort seas. Activists in England, Holland, Germany, and other countries unfurled “#SaveTheArctic” banners and also blocked access to Shell gas stations. The Twitter hashtag campaign included pleas from Sir Paul McCartney and Pamela Anderson.
The Guardian described some of the protesters’ tactics in England, which involved using an emergency-shut-off switch to prevent the pumping of petrol and then removing a fuse to keep it from being reactivated. About 70 Greenpeace activists also blocked access to Shell’s headquarters in The Hague and hung a banner on the building proclaiming “Stop Shell, Save The Arctic.”
Here are other examples of the campaign:
AT&T announced it will buy T-Mobile USA from Deutsche Telekom AG in a $39 billion cash-and-stock deal that would make it the largest cellphone company in the U.S.
There are already outcries against the deal over concerns of an AT&T/Verizon duopoly and how that negatively affects consumer choice in the wireless marketplace. Twitter is atwitter with mocking comments such as @MattBinder‘s “Nothing says ‘we love our customers’ like airing commercials about how AT&T blows & then selling the company to them.”
Speaking of commercials, the biggest loss will be the end of Carly Foulkes as the T-mobile girl. Carly Foulkes, a Ralph Lauren model, stepped in to the role once held by Catherine Zeta-Jones. Of course having a beautiful model as a spokesperson is rarely a bad thing. But she’s also beautifully branded in T-Mobile magenta dresses—providing instant brand recognition.
As pointed out by @MattBinder and others, the T-Mobile ads consistently make fun of AT&T for it’s widely panned quality, dropped calls, and lack of 4G service. The commercials are witty, and effectively convey the message that T-Mobile has superior service at lower prices.
Without T-Mobile in the wireless ad rotation, we’re left with largely weak and bland ads from AT&T, Verizion, and Sprint. It might be a while until we must say that final goodbye to Carly Foulkes, the beautifully branded T-Mobile girl, but I’m already in mourning—and I’m considering wearing a PMS 214 dress to the funeral.
If you came home at 3:00 in the morning and found a strange guy in your bed, what would you do? I know back in my college days there was a good chance it was a buddy of mine who just passed out. I probably would have strolled to the sofa and crashed there for the night. No biggie, right?
But, in the adult “real” world, it’s cause for concern. When that happened to David Prager he didn’t call the cops. He turned on a web cam and started Twittering about the event. Way to go David. I’m very happy the guy was just pissed drunk and not a meth-head who ripped your face off. It does make for a funny story.
