He Always Tried to Be the Flyest Kid on the Block

In an attempt to jump on the Twitter promo bandwagon, Aaron Carter "tweeted" his phone number so fans could call and talk to him. After countless reads on the ONTD thread, it seems that he mostly answered the phone for a 2 second conversation that ended with "Aaron is back!" He even posted live videos of him answering the phone to prove it was the real deal. A great attempt at a publicity stunt, but it seems that only celeb gossip blogs have caught on. Posting the phone number on Twitter seems more like desperation than smart promotion. Nice try, but I don't think all the Tweeting in the world will bring Aaron C. back.

Kutcher to Quit Twitter? *Gasp*

That's right, Ashton Kutcher is threatening to quit Twitter after news broke that Twitter may join up with a reality show: Kutcher Threatens to Stop Twittering.

More Economic Struggles for the Advertising World

Interesting article in the New York times about Titan Worldwide's struggle with the mass transit advertising market: Transit Authority Feeling the Pain From a Crippled Advertising Market.

VH1 Save's the Music with Social Networking

VH1's Save the Music Foundation was been promoting music education in schools since 1997. The organization aims to raise money to provide new instruments to public schools and raise awareness of the importance of music education. According to VH1, the foundation has provided $43 million worth of new instruments to more than 1600 public schools in more than 100 cities nationwide.

The foundation uses celebrities that promote the foundation and raise money. Current celebrities, referred to as "Ambassadors," include The Fray, Natasha Bedingfield, Jason Mraz, Johnny Rzeznik, Gavin DeGraw, and Beyonce. Jason Mraz's upcoming "Gratitude Cafe Tour" will help raise money for the foundation by donating a portion of the ticket proceeds. Other Ambassadors attend SMF events and visit schools where they assist in handing out instruments and spending time with the students using them.

Save the Music also has also teamed up with a number of companies including iPopperz ear buds and LG (See the LG/SMF commercial below!). However, all these company and celebrity promotions are worthless if Save the Music cannot reach its audience. VH1 has jumped into the social networking world by using Facebook, MySpace, and Twitter to update and inform on the progress of the foundation.

Using Twitter, Save the Music can send updates to follower's phones letting them know how, where, and when a Save the Music event or fundraiser is occurring. The Twitter page displays the featured Ambassador of the month (Johnny Rzeznik) as the background image. In addition, Twitter followers benefit by get ticket sale information for favorite artists and Save the Music benefits from proceeds of the ticket sales. Save the Music's Twitter currently has 2,674 followers.


Save the Music is also taking advantage of Facebook's Fan pages. Facebook users can become a fan of the Save the Music Foundation and view the same updates as Twitter users. Additionally, Facebook users can view photos and videos of Save the Music events as well as comment and share news stories and photos posted on the fan site. Save the Music's Facebook page has over 3,600 fans.


The Save the Music Foundation can greatly benefit from using these social networking tools. For example, Save the Music was launched when I was only in elementary school. I remember a few televised concerts and commercials, but knew nothing more about the foundation other than that it aimed to raise money to save music programs in public schools. The Facebook and Twitter pages have given me the opportunity to see how far the organization has come in the past 12 years and provided me with information on how I can contribute to the foundation. Most of the Ambassador artists of the foundation are those that appeal to my age demographic and are heavy internet and social network users. Additionally, it gives the opportunity for music teachers and students that are members of these sites to become involved and pass the pages onto others (I personally suggested the page to 14 friends on Facebook). With the current economic turmoil that is resulting in even more budget cuts for schools, VH1's Save the Music Foundation will be a key part in securing music programs in public schools making it even more important for the foundation to reach its audience.

For more information on Save the Music, visit vh1savethemusic.org.

For Your Entertainment...

My commencement speaker, Francis Collins. While his actual speech was actually good and interesting, start at about 1:30 - it's pretty impressive, especially when you consider the fact that he is a genetic engineer!

Mac v. PC Update

Here is a great article about the Microsoft ads:

http://apple20.blogs.fortune.cnn.com/2009/05/17/would-bill-gates-have-aired-laptop-hunters/

Mac v. PC - Mac Wins & Goes Green

Ever since Mac launched its Mac v. PC campaign the battle between Mac and PC has been going strong. I am a huge fan of this campaign and was interested in how PC would respond. Much to my disappointment, PC did not respond with a campaign that came anywhere close to the Mac campaign.

One of the newest PC commercials joins forces with Best Buy to tell the story of the journey of a girl that needs to buy a laptop. She begins her journey by describing her $1,000 budget and stopping by the Apple store to look at their laptops. Much to her dismay, the only laptop they that is under $1,000 is a 13" screen (because she wouldn't want to strain her eyes looking at Facebook for hours on such a small screen). So she heads over to Best Buy where she is able to get everything she needs to become a PC for under $1000. Okay, not only is this a boring commercial but I really feel the need to mention a small fact - BEST BUY SELLS APPLES. I guess in the poor economy being able to stay under a $1000 budget does sound appealing, but for all those youngsters that do not arm their PC with virus protection (or even use it, for that matter) this will quickly spiral into a much higher budget when the techies will have to be called in just to have their computer work again. I have personally been witness to a "Macboom" on campus in response to frustrated college students that were tired of their PCs failing at the most inconvenient times, but this is beside the point.

There are other aspects of the PC campaign that just do not work. Take, for example, the following two commercials:





Wow, aren't they cute? Thanks Kylie and Alexis for reminding all of those computer illiterates that as long as they have the intelligence level of a child from 4 to 7-years-old they too can use a PC! I hope those parental email controls are keeping Kylie from opening bad email.

The original "I'm a PC" TV spots were a bit better:


A great effort to build a PC brand community, but the ads fall short. I would really love this spot if it didn't seem like such a rip off of the Mac spots. Plus, the ad does not do much to break that PC stereotype set by the Mac campaign.

Maybe I am being biast... I am a Mac & a brand loyal member of the Apple community. I have had my Mac for almost 4 years now and it is still running strong. However, in the world of advertising I am still waiting for something big from PC that will make me say to people, "Yeah, I'm a Mac. I love my Mac, but being a PC is just as good." But while PC figures that out, Mac has moved onto being the Greenest Family of Notebooks.