Electing to use PR

Welcome back all the voters and non-voters tuning in.

Well, elections are coming up and tensions are high, but that's not stopping people from marketing their products. People are taking the presidential election fever and using it to their advantage....or disadvantage.

First up in the election circus is Pizza Hut. They are offering pizza for life to anyone who asks the Presidential candidates if they like sausage or pepperoni on their pizza. This will be done on the October 16th debate that will be set up in a "Town Meeting" style. This will allow audience members to ask the presidential candidates questions themselves. The subjects are domestic and foreign policy.

How does pizza figure into that exactly? In this day and age I don't think anyone should be trying to make the Presidential election silly, which is exactly what Pizza Hut is doing. This question has no reason to be asked during the debate. If someone really does ask it, I will probably be a little upset. Taking time away from them for a stupid marketing ploy is, in my opinion, ridiculous and inappropriate. I am all for promoting your product along with the election, but not at the cost of bringing down the level of seriousness that should be incorporated with electing the president of our country.

Another company poking fun at the election is Jet Blue airlines. They are offering to give away over 1,000 flights to voters who have their candidates lose in the election, so they can "escape" the country.

Once again, I am glad they are taking interest in the election, and they are definitely not as bad as my previous example. However, something just doesn't sit well with me that they are joking about people escaping from our country. I will not post my political views here, but I believe both candidates have there good and bad points. No matter which is elected, they will both do their best to to do what they feel is right for our country. So, to mock that by saying that all the sore losers that don't get their candidate can just run away, is insulting. If someone is that upset over the election, or feels that strongly, they should either get more people to vote, or stage a protest. I understand that I may be taking this a bit seriously, and it's supposed to be poking fun, but I feel like some things need to be taken seriously. We joke about a lot of things in this country, but sometimes joking must be put aside. If you are only joking about who is going to lead our country to make a profit, then I won't be jumping at the chance to buy your pizza or a plane ticket from you.

Finally, "Cabbage Patch Kids maker JAKKS Pacific will be auctioning on eBay, via a fundraiser for Rock the Vote, a line of dolls that look like the two candidates — and their VPs. (There's also a Michelle Obama doll.)"

Rock the vote is an initiative to get the younger generation to register and vote.

That's why, this is probably the only marketing strategy that doesn't make me irritated. Are they trying to get money? Yes, but they are raising it for a cause that is trying to get people to really participate in our countries election process. I feel like that's a pretty good cause.

So, weather you think these are funny, silly, or absurd, there still will always be election style marketing around the Presidential elections.

My New Space

Good morning all you readers out there, and welcome. Today I was skimming around the internet and found something very interesting.

MySpace...

Yes, MySpace is not that interesting because it's old and outdated and everyone uses Facebook, or twitter, or blah blah blah.

But wait! There's a new MySpace? Preposterous! I look into it, and in fact, it is true. Myspace has been bought out by financial backer Justin Timberlake and Specific media for $35 million from News Corp. That's a lot of cash for a website that seems to be outdated and unused by a good bulk of social networkers. Now, this may still be old news for some of you, since it happened back in 2011. However, the fruits of the design team's labor are starting to pop up on the web.

You can see a welcome screen now. The welcome page features a spinning disk and a place to enter your e-mail address if you want to be a part of the new MySpace. Well, be a part of it if and when it actually launches. Right now, it seems they are focusing on artists. People who are into music, art, singing, acting, and all those types of activities are being targeted as the demographic for the new launch. MySpace wants those types of users to return, since it is who they feel made the site popular in the first place. This focus might also be why Justin Timberlake is involved, as he is always interested in promoting the fine arts.

There is also a short video on the new site.

The two top comments on this video right now are:

• Facebook seems more like an online contacts book, it is useful but you never meet new people. Twitter on the other hand, you always meet new people but there isn't much conversation and "friend making." Hopefully MySpace will give something that can be the best of both worlds.                     Josh Rado 1 week ago 37 (thumbs up)    

 

•   I couldn't really tell what was going on in most of that thing, but Facebook's Timeline sucks so bad I might just give MySpace a chance again.                                                                                     carlos valencia 1 week ago 37 (thumbs up) 

 

I find these two comments very interesting. Starting with the second one, people really have been complaining about all the changes Facebook has been making. It seems to be a trend now that the major Social networking sites are not listening to their users, and just doing what they feel will make them more mainstream, thus gaining them more profit. So, my bias may be against Facebook always changing its look. I know that they have probably done studies on this kind of thing. But when you implement something and there is that much backlash, sometimes you just have to admit to your mistakes! Facebook seems to be trudging through though. However, if MySpace plays it's cards right, then maybe they can snatch back some of their users.

Back to the first comment. Facebook is like an online contact book. Sure, Facebook as games and ways to keep in touch, but sometimes you get so many people that everything becomes cluttered and it's hard to tell what's important anymore. Also, twitter really isn't good communication. You are limited on words and once again can have so many followers that you can't tell where your twitter feed stops or starts. Maybe the new MySpace can bring back the conversation and sharing of ideas.

For now, the site looks like it's going to be very image oriented. It reminds me of a mix between Pintrest and Tumblr. These forms of social media can get cluttered as well. It will be interesting to see what the new MySpace will do to compete with the already existing and thriving social media sites. People may complain about these sites when they change, but that's because people don't like change. Some people's whole lives are on Facebook and Twitter. How willing will they really be to move their whole life to another site? If people really don't like change, it's going to be a long hard road for New MySpace.

I Think They Have an App for That

Hey there all you shenanigan lovers! This time I have a bone to pick with a certain something

When was the last time you went to the grocery store? Wait, wait! I know that's weird, but stay with me. The last time I went to the store, I needed to buy laundry detergent and dryer sheets. Now, usually I get the three in one sheets that I just move from washer to dryer. What can I say? I'm a busy college student and those are easy to use. Anyway, they were out of those. So, for the first time I had to buy my own laundry detergent AND dryer sheets. This would probably be easy for any normal person, but it was one of the most annoying experiences of my life.

Why? There were way too many choices! I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to buy! The one on the left was for fresh clothes and the one on the right was had a refreshing scent. Pretty much an entire isle in the store was dedicated to cleaning supplies for clothes. For what reason? There is no way we need that many brands of products. And then I got to thinking. It's not just dryer sheets. It's everything.

It is even seeping into our technology. The internet is free (*cough* to those who can afford a computer and to pay for it but free is a relative term anyway*cough). That means there is going to be a lot of information and a lot of choices. So I don't really have a problem with that.

My problem lies in the new phone app market. They seriously have an app for almost everything. Don't get me wrong. Some of them are very useful and others are great entertainment. But at some point the quantity increases as the quality decreases and we all become unbearably lazy because our phone does almost everything for us.

One thing that bothers me is apps for things that are already built into your phone. Why download an app for a calendar or an alarm clock when they already exist in your phone? That's pointless. There's also a jumbo calculator! Things like this don't really need to be created if they already exist!

Then there are the apps that are just lazy in my opinion. For instance, a coin flip app. Really? Just flip a coin in real life!

Finally, there is just the plain ridiculous app that I could never understand the purpose of. Number two on a list of the ten most ridiculous apps is the "make airplane noises" app. What is the purpose of that? Where could you practically use that?

I think our time and energy should be focused on improving useful apps and other things so the quality of the products will increase. I feel like everything else is just a waste of time and energy on the creativity and usefulness scope of things.

Excuse me while I mourn the loss of precious time on silly things with my new lighter cell phone app! Ha-ha ha.

Some Things Better Left Untweeted...

Anybody tuning in also tune in to the recent Presidential Election?

Well, if you didn't, here's a quick fact. "on Oct. 3. During the debates, President Obama referred to his deceased grandmother who had helped raise him." 

This one comment, which in the grand scheme of things doesn't really amount to much when it comes to a debate for who will become the President of the US of A, could be the downfall for a certain company.

There have been some major tweet debacles as of late. Such as the clothing store that used the fact the word Aurora was trending on twitter to try and advertise their product. More on that story here. What they failed to realize was that it was trending because there was a massive shooting.  Maybe they should have seen why the word was trending and read some of the tweets coming out first, before making this PR faux pa.

However, this next company doesn't really have an excuse. I am pretty sure there isn't anything to defend tweeting "Obamas gma even knew it was going 2 b bad! 'She died 3 days b4 he became president."

Ouch! Talk about harsh, insensitive, and great way to ruin the reputation of your company. KitchenAid, the company responsible for this tweet, is going to have to have some major clean up to do after this mess. The company sent out an apology tweet after major complaints, but this really shouldn't have happened in the first place.

Apparently, an employee of KitchenAid accidentally tweeted onto the companies account instead of his own. 

Two things. One, the fact that the employee could not tell his own twitter background from his own seems fishy to me. If he or she is that oblivious to detail, they probably shouldn't have a job involving the brand and reputation of a company.

Two, it is super important to remember to keep your personal and professional twitter responsibilities separate! Even as a student I've already encountered this problem. We have a twitter for our Relay for Life on campus, and sometimes the person in charge will tweet something they meant to tweet on their own account. Now, it hasn't been as bad as this. Usually it is something like "I have too much homework" or something. Still, it is important to keep track of all your social media. Have a list of all your accounts and passwords, and remember to LOG OUT every time you use one. That way there will be less risk of posting something in the wrong location.

As a final word of caution, look before you tweet!!!