Consumerist: Digg

3M Steals Viral Image Idea To Avoid Licensing It

Chris Walters — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 21:53:01 EDT

There is probably nothing more pathetic in the world of marketing than watching a big corporation try to do something "viral"—usually they end up looking like Elaine dancing. But sometimes, they're so cynical and soulless about it that they don't just come across as incompetent, but as exploitative cheapskates as well. In 3M's case, they wouldn't pay $2,000 to license a well-known photo with its own viral history, and instead recreated a fake version of it to save a grand. We guess they're just hoping none of the sites and communities that made the photo popular in the first place will notice. Oh wait, this is supposed to be viral or something...

Melanie at All About Content has the entire story, from the original office prank that went viral thanks to sites like Digg and BoingBoing, to 3M's attempt to appropriate it, to their shabby treatment of the owner of the photo and their subsequent workaround.

Michelle, the "eMarketing Supervisor" who was negotiating with Scott, comes across as particuarly disingenuous in her email to him:

We were quoted about $750-$1000 to shoot our own, but if you could allow us to use yours on a couple in-store displays for 6 months within that range, we could arrange for that instead.

Really, Michelle? ~~Only two displays throughout the entire country? Are you a really bad eMarketing manager, or lying to Scott about how much you'd use the photo?~~ [We think mmmsoap makes a good point about how this was probably meant.]

We guess what's most offensive about this is 3M can surely afford to pay a legitimate licensing fee to the owner of the photo, which would have also served as a goodwill gesture to the community that most likely gave it the campaign idea to begin with. As Melanie puts it in her article:

But let’s pretend the legality of this move wasn’t even a question for now, and focus on this: Social media marketing campaigns rely on the social media community to carry them. As a marketer, you have to respect the community and its members. Ripping off community members and then turning around and asking that same community to generate buzz for your campaign is just ballsy... or stupid.

The irony: The YouTube contest rules say “Remember, creativity and true brilliance will get you noticed.”

Is that part of the rules, or a threat from 3M?

"3M Carjacks the Post-It Note Jaguar" [All About Content] (Thanks to Craig!)
(Photos: 3M display and original Post-It car by Scott Ableman)

Liveblogging Digg's $#@*!storm

Ben Popken — Wed, 02 May 2007 02:45:16 EDT

1:30, Diggs started to take longer to register . The digg box on one post started showing 11 diggs, when the post really had 56.
1:40 Our post is the top blog post when searching for digg in technorati tags, resulting in our first noticeable traffic ever from technorati. good thing we got reinstated in the directory for the 3rd time or so recently.
1:43 Serious slowdown after digging posts...more than 30 seconds.
1:44 Digg pwns sel: "Digg will be down for a brief period, while we make some changes."
1:45 Listening to the "Oh Nine, Eff Nine" song.
1:47 Digg still down.
1:48 It is going to take them a really long time to remove all the stories with the code in it. And then there's all those pesky users to ban.
1:49 Still down.
1:51 They are never going to keep that number out. People will add it as comments just for no reason. Congrats, MPAA, you've created a powerful new meme!
1:52 Just noticed that Kevin Rose, Digg founder, posted something two hours ago about how they're effectively going to tell the MPAA to shove the C&D. It uses the AACS code as a headline so you know he is for reals, or maybe it's just Digg-bait to increase his AdSense revenue.
1:59 People say it's up. But they also say it's timing out and hanging. Still down for us.
2:03 Now everyone sees "We'll be back shortly."
2:05 We remember enjoying the headline that said, "BREAKING: DELL DUDE LANDS ON MOOn!" With the subheading "also 09-f9-11-02-9d-74-e3-5b-d8-41-56-c5-63.jpg." Think it linked to a picture of Kevin Rose, a shovel, one of those terrorist creatures from Aqua Teen Hunger Force, and a graphical representation of the deadly number. Not quite the perfect Venn diagram of Digg user interests, but cut 'em some slack, they're working on the fly.
2:08 This is a phat rap about the number.
2:09 Fatigue, thoughts of this post's pointlessness, begin to settle in.
2:12 Posting more screencaps taken shortly before the crash, inside.
2:16 People say it's up!
2:17 Hasn't propogated to us yet. Apparently the top story is Rose's, "I will never take this down."
2:19 It's back for us. Looks like the same crazy pile of hex stories. It's well past the tipping point of where people are just clicking on, and submitting all, the hex code stories they can.
2:20 Wonder if Digg will credit their advertisers for all the page refreshes.
2:21 Again, Rose: ""But now, after seeing hundreds of stories and reading thousands of comments, you 've made it clear. You'd rather see Digg go down fighting than bow down to a bigger company. We hear you, and effective immediately we won't delete stories or comments containing the code and will deal with whatever the consequences might be."" Let's see what kills Digg first, fighting the MPAA suit or no one wanting to read a site full of hex spam.
2:28 Submitted this post to Digg.

— BEN POPKEN

RELATED: A good explanation of what this is all about, over at BoingBoing.
PREVIOUSLY: Digg Goes Ape$#@*!

BEFORE

AFTER

Digg Goes Ape$#@*!

Ben Popken — Wed, 02 May 2007 01:35:34 EDT

A wide-scale user revolt is disrupting popular social news networking Digg. It's a protest over Digg acquiescing to MPAA pressure and deleting a 15,000+ dugg story about a crack for the HD-DVD/Blu-Ray DRM system.

Now, every single story on the front page contains the cracked number in some way.

The madness began after not only was the initial story deleted, but the user's account was deleted as well. Other people who submitted stories linking to the number also got their accounts deleted and their sites received takedown notices. Even people who submitted stories about the deleting of other accounts, stories which did not contain the number, also got deleted. That's when things really got bonkers.

Users are hiding the number in all sorts ways. One story claimed that a new Jules Verne manuscript was found, entitled, "09:F9:11:02:9D:74:E3:5B:D8:... Leagues Under the Sea." Others link to pictures of the number. A new one says Jesus has "the secret key." Others coyly ask, "anyone know what this number is?" Diggers are digging the stories like crazy, trying to keep the number on the front page and thumb their nose at Digg and the MPAA.

Screencap of the chaos, inside...

Fostering internal civil disobedience cements Digg's status as a democratic news site. The question is whether it can endure what it created. Will all the stories get removed? Will all the users that submitted them get banned? Will Kevin Rose get his panties sued off if they don't fully comply with the MPAA's directive? Will people ever understand that trying to ban something on the internet only ends up making it propagate like meth bunnies?!?!

It'll probably be all over by morning, with only a top-ranked Digg story to recap the memories. — BEN POPKEN

Do The Right Thing: Digg For Corporations

Ben Popken — Tue, 30 Jan 2007 19:44:12 EST

Do The Right Thing is Digg for corporations.

Users vote on the impact (which we take to mean impact on the common good) of various stories, like Exxon cutting ties to global warming skeptics. Do The Right Thing encourages participants to bring other sources into the discussion to bolster their arguments, and places easy

Certain companies, like Starbucks, Walmart and Whole foods are put up for 60 day "evaluation review" where the aggregate of all the stories about a company are compiled into a total score.

Another cool feature is that official company representatives can register and tell their side of the story.

Launched only a week ago, the site currently has 760 registered users and shows promise for positive growth.

The one drawback we see is that it takes 3 clicks to actually get to rate a post. Perhaps this is to encourage people to actually read what's going on rather than voting on the headline, but it does take away from some of the immediacy that is one of Digg's strengths.

Overall, a very nifty idea. We've joined up and will be checking the place out. — BEN POPKEN

Do The Right Thing [via NewAssignment] (Thanks to Paul!)

Sutori: Digg for Consumerists

consumerist.com — Tue, 08 Aug 2006 06:08:46 EDT

Always give a sucker an even break. In addition, always give a new consumerist oriented web site a plug!

Meet Sutori. It's Digg... for complainers! Describing itself as "The Voice of Today's Consumer," Sutori aims to make it easy for you to post your complaints about companies, as well as your accolades. You can then tag, rate and post your story for the world to see.

It's a great idea, but needs a big influx of visitors to truly be useful. So go on over and check it out. It might seem like we're plugging an upstart competitor here, but we're all on the same side when we're staring down the barrels and our backs are to the wall. Just don't forget to keep sending us your most juicy stories, for the good ol' Consumerist je ne say what?

Sutori Beta (Thanks, Mark!)

Diggers Tell Netscape To Fuck Itself

consumerist.com — Thu, 27 Jul 2006 04:46:56 EDT

We love Netscape. They're just so cute! Ever since they responded to our AOL Wants to Sell "Internet" to the Dead by claiming "there is no corroborating evidence... something smacks of the urban legend or mythology in this piece" we've just adored them. It takes balls to be that painfully bought out.

After all, what's so hard to believe? According to AOL, a cancellation is just a sales lead.

Anyway, Netscape's got a bit of an image problem since they got purchased by AOL and dropped browser development. As you know, they've recently re-envisioned themselves as a sort of Web 1.5 digg, with each site recommended by an editor.

Diggers have been none too thrilled by Netscape's attempts to jump on their cool kid bandporsche. And looks like the community struck back, via a nasty little Javascript exploit that greeted all users with "a four letter word of Anglo-Saxon origin but obscure etymology." Then it greeted all diggers with a triumphant hail and a hearty well-met. Score one for digg.

Netscape vs. Digg [The Register] (Thanks, JPac!)

The News; High Interest Charged For Lending Of Ears

Ben Popken — Fri, 14 Jul 2006 13:11:56 EDT

• Isn't the real solution just to stop making more children? [NYT] "Congress Identifies Pornography Purchasers"
• Investment slumming on the backs of the marginal of wealth. You stay classy, broker-dealers. [CT] "Subprime Lenders Getting 2nd Look As Investments"
• You guys are so unamerican. [NYT] "Retail Sales Dipped in June"
• Have you ever heard of this wacky new site called Digg? It's all the rage with the kids. [CT] "They Can Digg it: Sites Let People Decide News"
• The "states secrets" that isn't. [CT] "Dismissal Sought of Phone-Records Suit Against AT&T"
• Home field advantage. Shortness of breath ensues amongst the 16,000 coat-tail hopefuls, causing them to reach for their pills. [LAT] "Verdict Bolsters Merck's Vioxx"

Pith & Vinegar; Irony Available in 26 New Colors

Ben Popken — Fri, 16 Jun 2006 20:57:10 EDT

• Hope they boned up on their nighttime maneuvers. [WOAI]
• Stay inside this summer and get free books from Barnes & Noble, just for reading. It's a dark spiral of increasing literacy. [NoOnesHome]
• When the president of the cruise ship company comes forward to apologize, does he have a funny little admiral's hat and epaulets? [CruiseCritic]
• Usually its the airlines that stink too much to fly, not the passengers. [Ananova]
• Digg users rush to fill AOL's Digg ripoff with stories about AOL's Digg ripoff, inadvertently swelling the member list AOL can tout to advertisers in the process. [Valleywag]

Remainders: Digg and Slate Edition

consumerist.com — Tue, 24 Jan 2006 14:38:39 EST

Although we don't intend to make this a regular feature just yet, we spotted a rash of Consumeristy links over at Digg that we thought we'd pass on.

• DLP bulbs and Dynamic settings [HDBeat] This goes for all bulb-based displays, including projectors. And these bulbs cost hundreds of bucks, on average.

• Restaurant Sued For Playing Copyrighted Music [CBS13] This isn't a new development, actually. BMI licenses are also technically required by restaurants or clubs featuring cover bands.

• Apple Ranked Top Brand in U.S. [MacObserver]

• What to do when they ask for your Social Security Number [Totse]

• Sick and Twisted: The creepy new ad for Theraflu. [Slate]

• Congratulations, You've Been Upgraded: What I learned from my medical-insurance victory. [Slate]