Pat Yourself on the Back, Internet!

There's something about the Internet. (See also: interwebs)

Yes, it's true that there are plenty of bad, evil things on the Internet. (See also: trolls, Nigerian Prince scams, dog's speaking English)

But at the same time there can exist a great force of good; a place where destruction, ridicule, and trolling just simply don't happen.

You can look at three recent examples of this.

Golden Ted
First up, the homeless man with the "Golden Voice." When his story hit the interpipes immediately the people got to working and now Ted Williams has another chance at making his life right. Huge kudos to the redditors of Reddit for pushing this story.

Red Cross: #gettngslizzerd.
This was an interesting, easily overlooked story. Gloria Huang, a Social Media specialist with the Red Cross, mistakenly tweeted on Red Cross' twitter account instead of her own, shout out to Hootsuite. Despite the "rogue tweet" getting removed by Red Cross, Michael Hayek from Dogfish Head Brewery took it upon himself to rally Dogfish Head beer fans and create a donation campaign for the Red Cross built off of the #gettngslizzerd hashtag.



No Red Cross parody twitter accounts rose from this, just a lot of people hearing the call to action from a beloved brand and doing what they could to make light of a simple, permissions error. Red Cross got donations, Dogfish Head got brand recognition, and Hootsuite even sent everybody some coozies!

Not bad, Internet.

RoboCop Comes Home (or Take that Mayor Bing, the People want Murphy)
Dead or alive, you're coming to Detroit (RoboCop Statue). What started as a tweet to Detroit's current mayor, Dave Bing, has ended in RoboCop (formally known as Officer Alex Murphy) returning to the streets in statue form. The collective Internet saw this tweet, saw Mayor Bing's response that there were no plans to erect a RoboCop statue and hopped into action by using popular crowd-funding site, Kickstarter.com. Surprise, surprise, they raised the money they needed to make this dream a reality. To see them actually build it, well that's a whole 'nother story.

And although I don't agree with the following revamp to the "Spirit of Detroit" statue, it does look kinda cool.



Just goes to show you; there are people on the Internet who dare to care and will help at a drop of hat for a cause they feel is cool, entertaining, or just the right thing to do.

So pat yourself on the back, Internet. You done good.

Also, tough call on which way of the spectrum this falls:



Sean Sutherland Associate Account Executive/Anti-Troll Troll

Read more...

A new year, a new look at things

I've always been fascinated by stories that knock perception on its ass. We're so tuned to think a certain way - blame education, culture, media, whatever. And when what we perceive to be a certain way isn't, it jars us. Good ads work that way. Remember the Awareness Test? Or even the ageless, and ever-parodied "I learned it from watching you, Dad."

Works the same for people, too. We perceive someone to be one way. Usually, they prove us right. And sometimes, we're delightfully wrong:


I'm taking some inspiration from Ted Williams. This year, I've made a resolution to push myself to make clients sweat...more than usual. Make myself sweat...more than usual. For our own good. For the good of our brands. I want to destroy the image of what we're used to seeing in our categories. Do something more unexpected than ever. Something uncomfortable, even.

I believe that our clients have it in them, too. We're lucky to work for some very smart brands. And this year, I'm challenging them to step out of their safe zones. To buck perceptions. To be honest with themselves. To put it out there for their customers. And to let go for their own good. It may be a wild ride, but when it finally comes to stop, I think we may just capture some of that same magic. And it'll be just as golden.

Read more...