The Citizens For Our Betterment Viral Campaign...and then some

I'm So Blogging.

About two viral campaigns that have gone terribly wrong...or right? I really can't decide. I think it's a great demonstration though of how viral campaigns can really go viral.

You see, Fall Out Boy put up this viral campaign for their upcoming album (read about the random things they orchestrated to get the buzz going - they're pretty cool!). And then this other band, Copeland, intentionally put up a similar viral campaign to kind of steal some of the buzz that FOB's campaign was generating, and things got messed up and the fans got all confused and now no one knows which is which. Things are far from being over at this point. MTV posted a pretty decent summary of what has happened so far:

http://www.mtv.com/news/articles/1593226/20080821/fall_out_boy.jhtml

I took up IMC in college and one of my favorite topics was viral marketing campaigns / guerilla marketing tactics. They're just so...anti-establishment. Not to mention freaking awesome. And I think the above is just a case study waiting to happen.

Pete Wentz might have married Ashlee Simpson, but he's got a brain up there somewhere. And props to Fueled by Ramen / Decaydance - how they think up all these random campaigns for when their bands release new records is just brilliant (they did something similar for Pretty.Odd., but not as elaborate as this CitizensForOurBetterment thing I think). John Janick should write a book about his business. At the very least, it'd be a lot more interesting than reading John Maxwell and "The Story of Starbucks" books. And Pete Wentz should write about being a 21st century maverick, because the more I read about him, the more I'm convinced he's pretty out there...sans the "marrying a pretty pop star" factor. No wonder there are guys I know who have a Man Crush on him. *wink*

In other news, RyRo has started a blog! It's at weresoblogging.com and there's been just the one entry so far, and hundreds of comments...of which I'd say about half are from haters and half are from fans. It's pretty hilarious. Apparently Ryan Ross took up Creative Writing on a SCHOLARSHIP before he quit school to focus on Panic!, so I expect his writing to be pretty darn interesting. Let's hope it is! I also can't wait for Brendon's entries. I'd have to say though that Jason Mraz's journal is still by far, hands down, my favorite online read. You should click your way on over there and check it out for yourselves. :)

Crazy week ahead - I'll be out of town for most of it, first for a business planning session, then for a teambuilding thing. I just want this month to end. And in a good note, hopefully.