Dino Baskovic Can't Lose

Earlier Wednesday morning, he or she was tweeting on behalf of the Chrysler account. As I and many social-media pros do, this person probably had multiple desktop applications open on their screen, or maybe one app that fed multiple Twitter feeds—one of those being a personal account. One misfired tweet laden with the F-bomb, followed by immediate panic and what must have been some horribly uncomfortable phone calls, and by the afternoon said staffer was severed from said interactive agency as confirmed by the automaker.

(Read the offending tweet here, which was first RT'ed by @tverma29 and later reported on by Jalopnik, Mashable, The Detroit Free Press and even HuffPo before it was later regurgitated by USA Today, CNET, Autoblog and other outlets. For the record, @tverma29 has a name, and Trisha wryly gives her take on her personal blog.)

Everybody has an opinion on this incident, whether the punishment fit the crime, if one could call it that. Did Chrysler and New Media Strategies do the right thing, the only thing to do in this case and terminate the employee, or should they have taken a page from last month's Dogfish-Red Cross case? I'm torn, to be honest. I see every side of this, from Chrysler needing to act swiftly to protect its consumer brand to NMS needing to preserve the agency-client relationship at all costs, to coming to the defense of the pour soul at the center of it all. Hey, that could one day be someone from my social-media team. That could be me.

Sure mistakes happen, though for as forgiving a society as we claim to be, we are first-most cold and unforgiving, all too quick to cast the first stone, calling "OUT!" at the first strike. That's not a complaint, that's just reality. Face it, dropping the F-bomb, even accidentally, was a career-limiting move well before the web. I am a bit perplexed that NMS won't so much as acknowledge the incident on their website, blog, Twitter or Facebook. But I know all too well how that can go. Imagine the conversation: "Utter so much as a hint of this on any of your sites and we'll lawyer up." Maybe that's an unfair assumption, and perhaps both agency* and client are working up some sort of joint mea culpa, potentially to pre-empt any of those year-end business blunder lists.

But what of this mystery offender in question, alleged critic of Motor City traffic and current jobseeker? I don't really care what was going through his or her mind at the time, and I'm sure this person will land on both feet just fine. How, exactly, is what most intrigues me. Will we see this character at a conference any time soon, recounting that crazy day in March when their world turned upside down in a matter of minutes? Can they parlay this into a guest spot on Freakonomics Radio or a better gig or whatever golden egg gets laid before them, being a little older, a bit wiser?

Or will it all be a waste, just another cautionary tale for community managers to consider while a would-be web genius dons a smock at Starbucks? Because that would make me one angry f#@$%!...

* Interestingly enough, one of my Twitter followers pointed out that NMS seems to like a loose tongue.

The above bag and affixed slogan was one of many cheeky trinkets you could buy from Modern Humorist, the long-defunct satirical website from the late '90s. The site was known for its irreverent tongue and nearly won the Webby Awards, way back when those mattered. For reasons unknown and uncared, it never grew wildly popular as did The Onion and fell into dormancy. 

Alas, Modern Humorist never got to, nor ever dreamed it would, break Google's heart like Groupon did. Granted, Groupon is more about cheap deals than it is cheap laughs. I rather enjoy the a-musings that run under each day's Featured Deal. Frankly, I find their consumer engagement strategy to be refreshingly candid. Even their local Twitter accounts (I follow @GrouponGRR) are witty and well-run.

So why did you all fuss over their Super Bowl spots? Sure, there's all sorts of arguments being made about whether Groupon put too much trust in its ad agency, when the company should fire said agency and how fast could Groupon burn itself in effigy. Personally, I thought the ads were a bit confusing and probably moreso to folks that hadn't heard of Groupon up until the big game. Their PR was a day late and a dollar short, and I'll spare you the puns tweeted at their expense.

If the charity thing was so important to Groupon, it could've found a better way to correlate endangered rain forests or commercial whaling or... whatever. Maybe it was a dumb idea from the start, I dunno. The human rights struggles of Tibet, which we are so magically well versed in since last Sunday, are no joke to Tibetans. Yet other sites can tease Tibet (see above) so why is it when Groupon does it, we freak out?

Three reasons:

• We long ago lost any remote sense of humor in this country.
• We grossly overact to any and everything politically incorrect.
• We are a nation of prudes.

Our society is so quick to scoff, to judge, to dismiss. One wrong wall post on a Facebook page and the pink slip can't come soon enough. The fries are too hot or the soup too cold, so off with the CEO's head. Angry Birds charges an extra dollar per download and we become angry mobs and take to the streets to throw Molotov cocktails at... no, wait, was that last example was too close to Cairo? Too soon?

So the "Save the Money" campaign was ill-conceived. That's Groupon's problem. Don't make it yours. It's one thing to voice an opinion, calmly. It's another altogether to declare outrage. Outrage? Really? The company came into your living room, made fun of the manatees, clubbed a baby seal and dumped waste oil on the way out? You're going to go and protest now, boycott the brand? No you're not.

I'll tell you what you're going to do. You're going to forgive and forget. You're going to stop casting the first stone. Shake off what you saw, say your peace if you must and move on with your day. It's not worth the frustration. Still think Groupon has some 'splainin' to do? Guess what, they did already. The company doesn't have to do any more 'splainin' to you. Don't like it? Don't use Groupon. Otherwise, you have at least another day to get $75 worth of vino from Wine Insiders for only $25. Whine about that, why don't you...

"Tasteless" or not, I dig Groupon and am going to chalk this episode up as I did my entire sophomore year in college: Pretty darn sophomoric but in no way indicative that I'd never grow up. And maybe you all should, as well.

It was 1997, and I'd just relocated to Detroit to intern for a PR firm. I serviced several automotive accounts and fast learned that the North American International Auto Show was pretty much Mecca for the OEMs. Heck, I even learned what "OEM" meant.

Things were different then. There was no Twitter account for the show—for that matter, there was no Twitter. The old MSN CarPoint was the official website of the show, and if there were ever open discussion boards on that site, I'm guessing the top car execs weren't logged on congratulating each other with "Neat concept, can we steal? LOLz!" or "Aw, shucks, we didn't win car or truck of the year, but great for those other guys!"

So why are today's breed of execs doing just that? The slew of tweets these last few days between some well-known Motor City marketers is surreal. Granted, these individuals run in the same social circles as they do industry ones, so retweeting amongst themselves is not uncommon. So on top of sharing a common passion for cars or Detroit's rebirth or green tech, these gearheads blog about college football, juicy couture and their choice of best chili dog, garnished with a little ribbing all the while...

Which is nice when you think about it. Make no mistake, these peeps are pit against each other for market share. I wouldn't go so far as to call them buddy-buddy, but they are chummy with each other. As a consumer, that appeals to me. These are real people that drive the same cars and slog through the same morning commutes as the rest of us. And as a social media marketer or PR pro or whatever the heck I'm supposed to be these days, I find the camaraderie refreshing, perhaps even representative of some new form of Cola Wars where both sides aren't sworn enemies.

I myself chat with my industry counterparts on the more popular social networks. Mostly friendly talk, usually about what we hate and love about social media, or like today, why we can(not) wait to get the new Verizon iPhone. We're supposed to despise each other, but we don't. And why would we? We treat each other with mutual respect, and not because we may one day trade favors. We frequent the same trade shows and share the same stages in front our own peers. We learn from each others' failures and successes. Sometimes, we form friendships. Without question, we do it out in the open for all the web to see.

Is there something to all this hippie love between competing tweeps? Hard to say. It's likely to rattle some corporate cages, those run by the old business-is-war types with all their tired boardroom battle rhetoric. I never bought into that personally, and maybe this trend is more like-minded souls manifesting themselves one tweet at a time. Will it sell more cars? Hard to say, though maybe that's missing the point. Selling a car is one thing. Selling a brand is an entirely different matter altogether, especially when competing brands intertwine online.

Regardless, it makes for good "tweeple" watching.

Leave it to my ol' boss to remind me, the 35-year-old whipper snapper that I am, to keep on top of nonsensical wacky web fads.

Do you remember that one goofy viral video of the band OK Go on treadmills from a year or so ago?  Their newest installment blows well past it.

Remember when MTV used to have innovative videos like this?  Heck, remember MTV?  Anyway, there is a back story to this Rube Goldberg machine-inspired meme.  Apparently the band was upset when their record label prevented them from earning royalties on the YouTube version of the video if said video was embedded on other websites and not directly viewed on said YouTube.  A recent op-ed by OK Go's lead singer elaborates on the issue.

What makes this new video -- 3.4 million views and counting -- even more intriguing than the last -- only 1.4 milliion views -- is that State Farm subsidized it.  "State Farm," you ask?  Yeah, me too.  Some where, some how, the band and the insurance behemoth made fast friends so that the video would benefit both parties (more coverage at BusinessWeek, Digital Media, Mashable and TechDirt).  Social media circles are buzzing about the secret handshake, whether this is a isolated case of strange bedfellows or a sign of brand synergies to come (State Farm has two subtle placements in the first 60 seconds, then the band thanks them outright at the close).

Business speak aside, it's just a refreshingly cool and creative music video.  Watch it.  Love it.  Share it.  You don't even have to like the music.

Thanks, boss.  I owe you one.

UPDATE: YouTube Darlings OK Go Say Bye-Bye to EMI (Mashable, March 10, 2010)

Five o'clock on Friday.  Quittin' time.  As the TGIF status updates spill all over Facebook and Twitter, I turn to my trusted bourbon of choice, Maker's Mark.

Not that I need a bracer so late in the day.  Then again, the night is young, I haven't blogged in a bit and I need some "spirited" material to end the week.  'Nuff said.

The above billboard photo is borrowed from the Maker's Mark Facebook fan page.  Like most bourbon/whiskey/spirits/beverage brands, Maker's is an active social marketer.  Bill Samuels, Jr., president of Maker's Mark, personally and frequently blogs with new recipes, sampling events and other good reasons to get my butt back to Loretto.  (Last time I visited, I dipped my own bottle in red wax, dined at their downtown Louisville steakhouse and ordered a personalized barrel which awaits my return.)

I am also a card-carrying member of the Maker's Mark Ambassadors -- and that's no joke, they give us business cards.  So when I stumbled on the fan page today, I was pleased to see the Ambassadors in action.  I don't know how this started, but the M.O. is to announce yourself as an Ambassador from where ever you live along with well wishes on their wall.

Now that is grassroots branding at its best -- from the Bluegrass State, no less.  Simple, personal, influential.  I guess all of those holiday tchotchkes they mail each year to Ambassadors pay off.  That, and some consistently good and reasonably priced hooch helps.  So what if Maker's Mark "only" has 40,000+ fans on Facebook, compared to one pickle's 1,500,000+?  Memes come and go, but the marketers will take a smaller but fiercely loyal fan base any day, myself included.

Hats off to you, Mr. Samuels and company.  Online and off, your sense of community is truly on the mark.  And now, I think I'll find myself a rocks glass.

I have a sense of humor.  I really do.  And I, ahem, read the articles.  But why Marge Simpson is posing for Playboy is beyond me.

Maybe Murdoch hopes to rejuvenate the "Simspons" brand.  Or is it Hef hoping to lure Maxim readers back through the rabbit hole?  For that matter, didn't Maxim have the dirt on Marge back in '04, making Playboy guilty of copycat-- er, copybunnying?

CNN sauces it up:

Playboy's lackluster showing as of late can be attributed to two things, [Media Industry Newsletter online editor-in-chief Steve] Cohn said. One, the audience transferred some of their desire for tastefully disrobed women to the Web. Second, Hugh Hefner got old.

"The reason for their audience shift can be seen in Hugh Hefner. I went to college in the '70s and Hefner was in his 40s back then. He was the symbol for what kind of guy I wanted to be," Cohn said. "Now he's in his 80s -- it's hard to identify with someone like that. That's a problem for Playboy."

Almost makes you wonder if a good chunk of the Twitter generation has even heard of Hugh Hefner.  Regardless, it's harmless fun and PEI expects to sell out the issue to honorary citizens of Springfield across the globe.  I will say that, in doing extremely NSFW research for this article, I was impressed to see use of social media tools throughout the site, including a slick AJAX toolbar resting at the bottom of the browser chrome chock full of widgets.  (Ah, there I go talking like a web geek again...)

It plays well for FOX, too.  They shot some carrot juice into a 20-year-old brand competing with the "Girl Next Door" and the rest of the Griffins.  The two shows trade friendly barbs on-air while jockeying for top-of-hour Sunday night slots, and it's fun to watch who's winning (answer: FOX).  Aside from cancelling "Family Guy" twice, taking a chance on Seth MacFarlane proved to be pivotal in building needed street cred for the "fourth" network.  Two decades ago, BBSes were long-living Matt Groening.  Otherwise, we wouldn't be having this conversation and the voice of Quahog wouldn't be pitching Windows 7.

Alas, at least one blogger agrees with me that another TV mom should be in the spotlight.  God Bless Animation Domination.