4 ms·
What we learned from putting a ridiculous billboard on 101
- WayneDB 15y agoAt $50k for 4 weeks, maybe I should just start a billboard company instead of an internet startup!
- michaelcampbell 15y agoThe money's in the picks, not the gold, son!
- dkokelley 15y agoMeme backlash is certainly something to be watchful for. Reddit and other meme-hubs can be absolutely vicious when it comes to their sacred symbols. Hot Topic recently started printing some memes on their shirts, and 4chan trolled them in a very public and embarrassing way. (see: http://www.urlesque.com/2010/11/18/hot-topic-rage-guy-shirt-4chan-racism-troll/ http://www.urlesque.com/2010/11/18/hot-topic-rage-guy-shirt-...) I guess if you go this route you have to weigh the risks and rewards.
- rokhayakebe 15y ago4chan trolled them in a very public and embarrassing way And I suspect the majority of Hot Topic customers do not know 4chan, hence it does not matter. On the internet it is very easy for a group of people to overestimate their impact.
- dpritchett 15y agoHot Topic stopped selling the shirts and issued an explanation. 4chan got exactly what they wanted.
- dkokelley 15y agoThey weren't embarrassed on the internet alone. It was in the local news media. Still not influencing the customers, but I'd imagine their parents were not happy about their kids buying 'racist' tshirts.
- Typhon 15y agoIt's funny, though, because many * channers probably consider a meme 'ruined' when reddit starts to use it. Some of them probably consider it ruined when it reaches 4chan/b/, actually. But it's not new. It's always the same "We used/liked it before all the people that came after us" mentality. It applies to memes, it applies to bands, TV shows, clothes etc... People just want to be insiders and distinguish themselves from the rest, sometimes desperately. To that, I must add that using popular pictures in a commercial way is risky unless you know the guy who owns the copyright to the original, and despite what some people may be misled into thinking, it does apply to memes.
- ChuckMcM 15y agoReminds me of the comic one liner "That Italian restaurant? Nobody goes there any more, its too crowded."
- sylvinus 15y agoThe good thing about these internet memes is that nobody will come and claim copyright on the image ;-) (Or will they?)
- dkokelley 15y agoIt must be difficult to prove original art for something that becomes a meme, especially if it's created through a semi-anonymous forum.
- wccrawford 15y agoThe backlash is particularly interesting. 1 person checked out the site because they were intrigued, but left confused as it seemed to be a business chat. Didn't seem very professional to them. Another wondered why you'd use an 'obviously racist' meme to advertise your business. ... I still can't figure out how it's racist. I'm guessing some of the jokes were, and not he associates all use of the meme with those jokes. But most importantly, you haven't successfully gone viral until someone's upset with your success. Congrats, Hipchat! :D
- dkokelley 15y agoThe 'obviously racist' remark comes from something similar 4Chan did to Hot Topic when the store began printing memes on tshirts. 4Chan created incredibly racist rage comics and submitted them to media outlets, accusing Hot Topic of promoting racist memes.
- michaelcampbell 15y agoThe good (and bad) of these sorts of "why didn't I think of that?" deals is that they are just that; mostly 1-shots. Kudos to the guys that did it, and woe be to the inevitable copycats.
- powdahound 15y agoGood point. It also means that it's not a repeatable marketing angle for us.
- michaelcampbell 15y agoYeah, gotta keep being creative! =) FWIW, I loved it. I hope I didn't come across as critical; I thought it was fantastic. (I lay as my only excuse a bad storm last night with a very nervous 10 year old keeping me to a mere pittance of sleep...)
- codyrobbins 15y agoAre more billboards coming in the future?
- huhtenberg 15y agoIt's great that it gave them TC airtime, but concrete traffic numbers would've been far more interesting to see.