Department of Totally Related Events

Everyone knows that the announcement of Hulu as the name for the NBC/News Corp video outlet, an outlet devoted to the TV and movie content from those two media companies, and NBC Universal’s decision to pull their TV episodes from iTunes at the end of December are completely related, right?

Just want to make sure.

LOTD: 8/31/07

• Linden Labs has introduced age verification to parts of Second Life in order to make sure under-age residents aren’t getting into places they shouldn’t. You’d think, from some of the reactions I’ve seen, that they had just said everyone must have a human-looking avatar. Settle down, everyone. (CT)
• Fast Company has a good read on how the internet allows for personal branding, something that I’m all about since every opportunity I’ve gotten in the last two years has been a result of the online brand I’ve built around myself. (CT)

Larry Craig would, in this example, be the Cop

Quote of the Day via C&L:

When conservatives gush about how macho Fred Thompson and President Bush are, we do sound a little bit like Village People fans.“

Things that occur to me while walking to the train

If I turn 40 and feel the need to buy something fancy for my virtual avatar, am I having a Second Life crisis?

LOTD: 8/30/07

• Okay, I’ve been sitting on this one for weeks, but who else thinks it’s absolutely wacky that there’s actually a formal name for the fact that people text up a storm when they can’t smoke, like what’s gone on in the UK? I mean, “smexting?” (TB)
• All right, all right, I’m cleaning out my RSS closet. I’ve gotta say – and I don’t live near LA at all – this entry from Thrillist LA last Friday has got to be one of the most useful looking things I’ve seen in a really long time. I mean, serious no-brainer, right? You could *totally* make this a Web 2.0 function somewhere. VC’s I’m looking for you! (TB)

LOTD: 8/29/07

• A few months ago, my pal David noted that you couldn’t post “get crazy with the cheez whiz” on Twitter. He was right, you sure couldn’t. Turns out you still can’t. At least on its own. Combine it with other words and it works. But for some reason, Twitter doesn’t like that particular Beck lyric. Anyone else find things that Twitter gobbles up and spit back out? (TB)
• DailyCandy is opening the doors to five Kids Local editions as of September 17. Folks in New York, San Francisco, Chicago, Los Angeles and Boston can get all the details they need to know about what’s hot (or not) for the little tykes. (TB)
• Finally, a “2.0″ moniker that doesn’t make me want to poke out my eyes, Lunch 2.0. (TB)
• Ian Schafer has what I think is the best write-up of the newly announced Hulu.com (the joint NBC/News Corp. venture that’s been “unnamed video site” for six months) if for no other reason than the line, “Anywho(lu).” (CT)

Celebrities: Just like us, only better

If you’re a Cubs fan like myself than you (hopefully) accepted the fact that all the Tommy John surgeries in the world (not a reference to how many he could have, but actually did have) would not bring Kerry Wood’s arm back to what we all hoped it would be. I don’t even say “what it was” because it wasn’t healthy long enough for us to see what it was. We collectively had this belief until about 2005 that just one more trip into the operating room would bring back the pitcher we saw in 1998 striking out 20 Astros. But now we’ve largely given that up. It’s just easier and, frankly, more realistic.

But the corporate advertising world still seems to be stuck in the “It’ll all work out” phase familiar to Cubs fans, survivors huddled in the basement after nuclear wars and people who think J.J. Abrams has a plan for “Lost.” Advertisers still see a situation wherein a company or retailer faces the challenge of gaining market share or stemming sales declines and think that celebrities are the answer. Macy’s picked Donald Trump and Martha Stewart, meaning they can cash in both their “place” and “show” tickets “The Apprentice” window. Ben McConnell dissects this effort nicely. HP has tapped rocker Gwen Stefani for a new campaign, since she had that big hit “Color Cartridge #22″ and so is known as a printing industry guru. And don’t get me started on The Gap, which launches celebrity-driven campaigns with the same regularity Sisyphus pushes the boulder of the hill, and with about the same effect.

Wouldn’t it be better for companies to spend a fraction of what they are on lining up celebrities – celebrities that will endorse their competitors at the drop of a larger check – on seeing how they can build up their existing customers and empower them to spread their own word-of-mouth? They could create online communities where people talk about the brand, share their own stories and meet other like-minded people. And all this could probably done for a fraction of what Trump asked to utter a couple lines and pose for a handful of pictures.

People want to connect with each other – it’s a natural human instinct. The myth of the celebrity has been almost shattered by tabloids – both print and online – and that has taken much of their endorsement credibility with it.

LOTD: 8/27/07

• Well, now that LOLcats can be officially designated as passe by their inclusion in the WSJ this weekend… (TB)
• On that list of news you don’t want to see floating around the blogosphere regarding your vehicles, this item at AutoblogGreen is probably in the top two or three items, whether or not it’s 100% legit or not. That is, true believers, because you know people will try it. (TB)
• I find it amusing to no end that one of the reasons cited by MySpace for not wanting to allow people to sell things directly from their profile is the desire to avoid “clutter.” (CT)
• If you don’t follow the social media crowd on Twitter you might not have seen people this morning complaining about slowness on YouTube, problems with Tumblr and delays on getting Twitter updates. All those gripes have, of course, arrived delayed because of the Twitter delays, thereby slowing down the rotation of the Earth and endangering us all. (CT)

Titles are your friends

Dear Eric Zorn,

Chris and I really love you and your blog. Just one piece of feedback I’d like to share after seeing this gem of a post title earlier today (for link click slackers, it’s “The call is coming from inside the house!!!!”), I wanted to point out that if you’d get the fine folks at the Trib to make your title tags as your post titles, you’d get far better search engine traffic for whatever pithy witticism you chose to put in there.

Cheers!

Tom

LOTD: 8/24/07

• Yeah, that’s right, the kid hacking the iPhone and getting it to work on T-Mobile is from New Jersey. You know you’re jealous. (TB)
• Am I the only one that thinks Nielsen’s idea of using participants in its new social network venture as a panel of sorts is a tremendously bad idea? (CT)
• It’s always good to read reminders that customer service – of the old-fashioned call-center variety – is every bit as important to your business as all the fancy marketing plans in the world. (CT)