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Wow. This is absolutely fascinating. With this campaign, Greenpeace has shown more Internet savvy than the vast majority of professional "viral" marketers. I
by redthrowaway 14y ago
Wow. This is absolutely fascinating. With this campaign, Greenpeace has shown more Internet savvy than the vast majority of professional "viral" marketers.
I'm not going to weigh in on the moral aspects of this incident, as I don't particularly care. I'm far more interested in the mechanics of how this was pulled off, as it has huge implications for corporations, activists, and even political candidates. I could easily see some Obama supporter pulling something similar and creating a firestorm around the Romney campaign.
Love it or hate it, these tactics are here to stay. It will be incumbent upon entities with interests in online perceptions to guard themselves against these kinds of attacks and, should the pros outweigh the cons, engage in them as well.
- mcantelon 14y agoGreenpeace enlisted the amazing Yes Men as consultants via their thinktank: http://www.yeslab.org/ http://www.yeslab.org/.
- noahlt 14y agoA brief glance at their previous work shows that spreading hoaxes via social media seems to be their modus operandi.
- archangel_one 14y agoAnd traditional media - their Bhopal apology hoax was done via a TV interview.
- raverbashing 14y agoyou seem to have forgotten the words "fsking amazing" between apology and hoax See: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiWlvBro9eI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiWlvBro9eI
- archangel_one 14y agoI was trying to stay fairly clinical about it because it's pretty controversial. But yes, I did have a good giggle when I first saw it on The Yes Men Fix the World.
- waterlesscloud 14y agoThis would be absolutely suicidal for a political campaign.
- naner 14y agoI'm far more interested in the mechanics of how this was pulled off Here's an earlier analysis: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanholiday/2012/06/15/how-greenpeace-manipulated-the-media-like-a-pro-analyzing-the-shell-oil-hoax/ http://www.forbes.com/sites/ryanholiday/2012/06/15/how-green... I could easily see some Obama supporter pulling something similar and creating a firestorm around the Romney campaign. Political campaigns already use similar tactics to create/shape news.
- ams6110 14y agoI have to say I'm laughing, I was completely screwed by a Shell-franchised service station back in 1992 and I have held a grudge since. I never buy Shell gas unless there is no other choice. Formerly I was a loyal customer, if I needed gas I would always go to Shell if I could (since then I've learned that gasoline in any given area pretty much all comes from the same wholesale terminal and it doesn't really matter which station you buy it from). In the larger sense, lampooning ads is as old as advertising. They are pretty obviously not "real." Not sure why this is news.