Thursday, September 01, 2005
Chad Kroski All Your Base Meme Propagation
from flickr user:Kombinat.
This time in German. And it started in July. You can read the entire story at German Wikipedia.. Basically T-Mobile is doing an ad on TV in Germany for a Web'n'Walk product, a wireless gizmo thingi. Goes something like this: At the Singles meeting this chick meets this dude who has a book by Chad Kroski. She goes to the bathroom, whips out here gizmo thingi Web'n'Walk product and Googles Chad Kroski and finds out he is the bestselling author. Then she comes back and flirts with the dude. - Such an ad on TV, and of course Chad Kroski is a ficticious bestselling author created by T-Mobile corporation but to add a bit more flaire they create an official fake website http://chadkroski.de/ complete with Bio and Review of Books.
Funny thing happens. chadkroski.de mulfuncttions a bit and blogggers take over Chad Kroski theme and start writing fake reviews of his books and post photos. Apparently someone has published an essay by Chad Kroski which was lost a long time ago. Then there are people writing about secret meetings with Chad Kroski and so on and so on. Basically Chad Kroski is out of the hands of the Corporation and in the hands of the Webheads. chadkroski unofficial websites are created, Chard Kroski has been turned into a Carnival. Out of the hands of the Corporation, into the hands of Jokers, Pranksters and Tricksters. Bravo!
So how does T-Mobile react to this? You would think they would let it go and join the Carnival and the Web Play Party but no, they kill the independent operators, file lawsuits and pull the ads. - Draw your own conclusions because this marketing was brilliant and what got in the way was their compulsion to control the outcome and there you have it. What started as a Worst Practices type of Marketing ended up as a Rightious Move to Kill it.
See: sichelputzer.de in english who also writes about another fake site soulmelon
from flickr user:Kombinat.
This time in German. And it started in July. You can read the entire story at German Wikipedia.. Basically T-Mobile is doing an ad on TV in Germany for a Web'n'Walk product, a wireless gizmo thingi. Goes something like this: At the Singles meeting this chick meets this dude who has a book by Chad Kroski. She goes to the bathroom, whips out here gizmo thingi Web'n'Walk product and Googles Chad Kroski and finds out he is the bestselling author. Then she comes back and flirts with the dude. - Such an ad on TV, and of course Chad Kroski is a ficticious bestselling author created by T-Mobile corporation but to add a bit more flaire they create an official fake website http://chadkroski.de/ complete with Bio and Review of Books.
Funny thing happens. chadkroski.de mulfuncttions a bit and blogggers take over Chad Kroski theme and start writing fake reviews of his books and post photos. Apparently someone has published an essay by Chad Kroski which was lost a long time ago. Then there are people writing about secret meetings with Chad Kroski and so on and so on. Basically Chad Kroski is out of the hands of the Corporation and in the hands of the Webheads. chadkroski unofficial websites are created, Chard Kroski has been turned into a Carnival. Out of the hands of the Corporation, into the hands of Jokers, Pranksters and Tricksters. Bravo!
So how does T-Mobile react to this? You would think they would let it go and join the Carnival and the Web Play Party but no, they kill the independent operators, file lawsuits and pull the ads. - Draw your own conclusions because this marketing was brilliant and what got in the way was their compulsion to control the outcome and there you have it. What started as a Worst Practices type of Marketing ended up as a Rightious Move to Kill it.
See: sichelputzer.de in english who also writes about another fake site soulmelon
