**UPDATE AT BOTTOM OF STORY**

Something that is making the rounds in social media right now is a link to an article on The Chive called “Girl quits her job on dry erase board, emails entire office (33 Photos)“.  The article is, as described, a series of photos that tell a story of a girl that got fed up with the behavior of her boss and quit by emailing a series of pics of her and a white board around her office.

Great story, but for some reason I just don’t buy it.  I can’t help but feel that this is a contrived marketing campaign, although I’m not sure for what.  The pictures and set seem a little too polished, and the timing it just a little too close to the story of the flight attendant that quit by yelling at a customer, grabbing a beer then inflating the evacuation slide and heading off into the sunset (well…handcuffs, actually).

So what could this be shilling? My best guess is TheChive.com, but there’s a strong play for Farmville, the “little office snitch” (network monitoring tool?) or even a job site like Monster or CareerBuilder.

If it is a campaign for something, it’s already succeeded in getting press as it is being talked about on Twitter, and Mashable just wrote it up. In this case, we should see another installment come out in the next day or two, maybe an update to how “Jenny” is doing, and what a wonderful new job she landed.

If it isn’t, well, I’m sure at the very least Jenny will be getting a lot of attention for just long enough to get another job! We’ll also see a wave of photos, videos and blogs about people publicly quitting theirs…

**UPDATE #1**

Valleywag picked up the story and is calling it a “near-certain hoax” that “sucked the whole internet”.  I agree, as I called it earlier.  They say they will reveal the identity of “Jenny” tomorrow.  My money is on [name removed because it wasn't her], which savvy commenter Stacy called out earlier today.  What do you think?

**UPDATE #2**

I hate to tell you “I told you so”, but…I told you so.  Totally fake.  TechCrunch has the write-up here.

So what can we learn from this? People (and “news” outlets) really do believe everything they read on the internet…

It’s a :30 spot in black and white, with Tiger Woods standing still.  He says nothing.  He blinks.  The voice over is of his father, Earl Woods, who passed away in 2006. He is talking to his son, and says, “Tiger…I am more prone to be inquisitive; to promote discussion.  I want to find out what your thinking was, I want to find out what your feelings are, and…did you learn anything?” It flashes to a black background and the simple, iconic Nike swoosh.

That’s it. The whole ad.

As I’ve considered this spot, I’ve heard and read many other opinions. Donny Deutsch went on the Today Show to discuss it.  The full video is here, but the bottom line is that he likes it. Although I didn’t watch The View this morning (nor will I ever, unless threatened with serious physical harm), I did (unfortunately) watch their opinion of the spot online.  You can see it here. Barbara Walters asks, “will this make you buy Nike?”  With no real response, she asks it again.  Although Ms. Walters is great at many things, I think it’s clear she has never done any substantial brand marketing.  TV commercials are not a call to action to go out and buy, that’s what coupons are for.  How many TV commercials or online videos have you seen that have incited you to purchase something? It’s possible, but it isn’t likely.

This spot is about building brand power, and I think Nike has a home run with this spot. No, the video itself will not make a person turn off the computer (or the TV), drive to the store and buy something from Nike.  But what it will do in many people is stir an emotion.  Not the same emotion, it will be different in each person, but when you are standing at your local sporting goods store with black Adidas shorts to your left and black Nike shorts to your right, you will likely be driven to purchase either by subconsciously weighing price value or emotion.  You may not associate this spot with your Nike purchase decision (good brand building isn’t tied back to any one event) but chances are, you’ll go with the Nike shorts because they stir some sort of visceral reaction within you, even if it’s not entirely positive.

I could speculate about why Nike went this direction, or why Tiger approved it.  I have heard the very angry admonish this spot, and the very forgiving say that it is the perfect mood for his return to sports.  I could speculate that Nike has put themselves in a fatherly position by pushing creative of this nature, but I don’t know that for sure.

What I do know is this: I’ve been thinking about the Tiger Woods Nike video all day. And that, my friends, is effective advertising.

(video embedded above, go to original article if you can’t see it)

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Letter Between Presidential Daughters

I couldn’t get the video to embed for some reason, but you can click on the image to be taken to it. I would love to know what you think about this.

Below is the video for “Prisoner of Society” by The Living End.  It’s done on expert mode, but not exactly the way you are used to seeing it. It gets really good at the end, so make sure you watch the whole 3:36. I really want these guys to do this with Freebird next.

RSS Subscribers: Video Embeded, go to original post to see it.

It’s Free.

Yes, the great minds that put this together, Mick Boogie and Terry Urban, are giving their music away.  You can go download it right now, DRM free, no strings attached…all 20 tracks. I wonder how hours they put into this project? I wonder if they were tempted to try to sell it? What kind of buzz would they have if there was any cost involved to the consumer?

I have lost track of how many business owners and managers have asked me to create “something viral” that makes money for them right away.  They want visible, tangible results that they can track on Excel, sort of the equivelent of a coupon that tracks sales of a product.  Here’s the thing…you won’t always see immediate results, but if you can break free of the traditional business model of cashing in on the first step, you will probably do better in the long run.  I don’t know what the future holds for Boogie and Urban, but I think they are going to do well. Buzz about this project will continue, people will download their work for free, and they won’t make a nickel off of it at first glance.  But…they will make money.  Publicity, offers, promos…

In your next team strategy meeting, will you try to figure out something that you can give to your customers and fans free of charge? Don’t add conditions and hoops to jump through, just give it away. The loyalty and buzz you create will likely produce more long term gain than anything you can gather in the short term.

I should probably note that before you download the album, the language is, well…hip hop.  If you are not familiar with Jay-Z and are easily offended, you may want to proceed with caution.  Consider yourself warned.

I downloaded the .xls file just to see if it work…and it does!  I think this has viral written all over it.  If you don’t have Excel or don’t want to download the file you can watch it on YouTube as well. I’ve embedded it here for your viewing pleasure.

It’s nice to see a band that has been around for a while coming up with really new and creative ways to get some buzz going about their music!

Case in point: I love this video from The Natural Confectionary Company!  My friend James Whatley from Spinvox pointed this out to a group of us at Blogworld Expo 2008 and we just couldn’t stop laughing.  Why?  I don’t know…it’s a ridiculous script with gummy animals making no sense.  It’s brilliant.  It’s too bad their website isn’t equally brilliant, unfortunately it’s as far to the other end of the spectrum as you can go.  TNCC: if you ever want a redesign let me know!

[Embedded Video]