In a month where an ill wind has blown devastation across the eastern seaboard of the United States, the innocuously-labelled Hurricane Sandy also gave rise to some second-rate photographic fakery across our social media spheres. A blend of schmalzy Americana and Roland Emmerich-infused end-of-days image plagiarism hit the networks with the exquisite comedy timing we’ve come to expect from enthusiastic Photoshoppers when the threat of death dealing natural disasters hove into view.
This stirring picture of U.S. soldiers guarding the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier at Arlington National Cemetery whilst the hurricane lashed down, is a case in point – although the picture was actually taken a couple of months before Sandy made landfall.
There was also this brilliantly unconvincing piece of computer-generated extreme peril, masquerading as a live webcam of the tempestuous onslaught; however, this badly doctored screenshot was courtesy of the brilliantly unconvincing piece of extreme peril that is The Day After Tomorrow.
It just goes to show how quickly we can be duped by counterfeit media that manages to hoodwink both the average social media afficionado and certain . To quote an aptly titled, but terrible song from an even worse movie (in order to furnish an even worse metaphor!), unless you want to be ‘Stranded at the drive-in, branded a fool…’, then it’s always advisable to check the validity of content before you share it across your social media stream of choice. That said, the speed with which faux content like this gathers momentum can be directly proportional to how quickly they can be exposed and crushed using the same channels.
Now I don’t know about you, but I generally take exception to being accosted in the street by adults in massive animal costumes with rictus grins – as my caution for ABH and lifetime ban from Disneyland proves beyond doubt – but even I found this promotional stunt by Mellow Mushroom Pizza Bakers mildly amusing:
The idea that following a brand on Twitter may result in that brand actually following you down the street appeals to me immensely, not least because it strikes the fear of *select deity* into those of us who enjoy the arms length anonymity of social media and makes us realise that we may not be as untouchable as we think. The agency who dreamt up this little gem, after carefully selecting their unwilling participants, have done a fantastic job of giving the campaign an ominous warmth, so as not to send potential followers running for the hills. Whilst this clearly worked well for them, I’m not sure this kind of campaign would be an appropriate panacea for all brands racking their brains for the next big idea, as I think you really need to be able to get away with having mascot called Mel the Mushroom to really make it sing. It would be a dark day indeed if certain other food outlets followed suit – imagine being chased down the road by this!
Putting all thoughts of being potentially incarcerated for involuntary regicide against a masked plastic monarch behind us, the New York Times didn’t do themselves any favours earlier this month by getting militant with a light-hearted and popular of them. When the NYT brought in the big legal dogs to complain to Twitter, who subsequently closed the account for using the NYT’s iconic logo as an avatar, there followed a fully anticipated social media backlash, decrying the cynical actions of the news beast. Less than 24-hours later the account was reinstated and the issue had been resolved. It seems that all of this negative press against the NYT could have been avoided and possibly even turned to their advantage, had they chosen to approach the matter with a dram of self-mockery, or played to the parodic nature of the enterprise and got involved in the joke. Going running to lawyers before entertaining more imaginative options – thereby risking the full weight of a global social media counteraction – arguably causes substantially more brand damage than minor copyright infringement of their logo.
I might be able to find a definitive answer to this and many other life questions by segueing seamlessly to the You Asked It site for some inspiration. The site which exclusively aggregates tweets that contain question marks and invite users to respond within a 30 second timeframe, is already active in five languages. Dubbed ‘Chatroulette, but without all of that nudity…’ by the TechCrunch site, it’s still obviously ripe fodder for filthmongers and shockjocks who like nothing more than asking total strangers amusing questions about their genitalia, but, if you look beyond these inevitable grubby trolls, it’s potentially quite an engaging idea.
At the very least, this site is an imaginative use of Twitter’s API, but with some clever filtering to deter our genitally-obsessed aquaintances, it could be sensibly re-purposed to fulfil its live-human-search-engine potential, with serious commercial value; then again, if I had worked harder at school, I wouldn’t be here talking about other people talking about their private kingdoms.
Anyway, it’s that time again and now that the temperatures are plummeting to untold depths and the foul stench of seasonal festivity is approaching with menace, I can only advise you all to get early nights in preparation: Here is this month’s to soothe you dreamily into the arms of Morpheus. Hide the matches…
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