“I had the shot.
I saw no danger, so I took it“,Lt. Pete Mitchell in TopGun
This is what comes to mind tonight when I see PostSecret’s random drawings for a Nano.
I believe SquareSpace pioneered this this practice for an iPhone. Their competition, MoonFruit followed suit. There have been others and now tonight I see #postsecret. They need some “danger”, some recourse.
Maybe the people that indulge can’t help themselves. After all, they have nothing to risk. Their behavior, however, reinforces the gaming of the hashtag. What if they did have something to risk. Are they risking their reputation?
I say there is a small reputation hit for participants. Do people look at the people empowering the marketers to continue with these methods with a small flash of disappointment? I do. The marketers have crowdsourced their spam for a chance at an iPod nano. It was a brilliant move when SquareSpace did it. I see the repeat rounds as an insult to consumers, that they’d be played this way by the marketers. It’s an insightful blow to PostSecret’s reputation. I thought differently of PostSecret and their understanding of the human condition. Now they’re taking that understanding, and manipulating consumers with it. It’s shameful and needs consequence.
“They have the shot.
They need some danger,
so maybe they’ll quit taking the shot.”
Mon, Sep 21, 2009
2009