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Is there any chance that FunnyJunk has played the Oatmeal for promotional purposes here?
by TomGullen 14y ago
Is there any chance that FunnyJunk has played the Oatmeal for promotional purposes here?
- redthrowaway 14y agoI'm guessing not. This isn't exactly the kind of publicity they need.
- pavel_lishin 14y agoWhat kind do they need? I'd wager they got quite a bit of traffic over this incident, and if the court case comes to nothing, they'll be able to show advertisers their numbers.
- flyinRyan 14y agoI don't know. I've never heard of them before and I didn't click on them because of this (though I did read all the oatmeal blog posts). Doesn't sound like there's a reason to click on them if they just copy other sites for which Oatmeal has a link to the originators.
- Symmetry 14y agoIf 90% of everyone who hears about this story hates their guts and only 1% start using their service that's a big win for them. Being a small website is not like being a politician or national brand where you can't afford to alienate large numbers of people.
- hobin 14y agoI thought that, too. 'Bad publicity is still publicity'?
- gbog 14y ago> 'Bad publicity is still publicity'? Obviously. For obscure brands, the first problem to solve is being unknown. It is much better to be hated than to be ignored. For well-established brands, it may be less true: I guess Shell and Total would prefer no publicity related to oil spills. But even then, bad publicity can have good outcome. I know from personal relations about a brand that has been under fire on Facebook and blogs: the amount of clients did actually increase during and after the hit.
- calciphus 14y agoThere's always a chance, but if so they're very poor marketers. This is the modern world - there IS such a thing as bad publicity. They just got a mountain of it, and The Oatmeal came out smelling like roses. And raised what, $40k for charity in a few hours?
- Kluny 14y agoSpeaking for myself, I have no more desire to go to funnyjunk than I did before this mess started.
- sirclueless 14y agoThat's not how advertising works. You are certainly more aware of FunnyJunk now. For example, the next time you see a link that points there you will probably pay more attention than you would otherwise.
- cynest 14y agoMaybe. The problem is that a year ago when this first came up the admin(s) resorted to homophobic name-calling. This doesn't give them much credit in the image control department.
- antihero 14y agoEveryone is playing everyone for promotional purposes.