Fake MySpace Pages by Advertisers Are Totally Lame

By B.L. Ochman What's more lame than a fake blog? A fake MySpace page. But ad agencies, those clueless wonders, are creating them in droves. Here's one created by Honda agency RPA for Gil the Crab, an animated crustacean who has appeared in past Honda Element ads.

Here's Adweek saying how cool this trend is. Yeah, it's about as cool as the Captain Morgan's fake blog or the MacDonald's Abraham Lincoln-look-a-like French Fry blog that were laughed off the Internet by bloggers.

Like fake blogs, corporation's fake MySpace pages are the antithesis of citizen created media.

So how can corporations participate in social media?

- Sponsor existing content that relates to your product or service. Sports-related companies would be smart to sponsor this MySpace page content
- Run contests employing social media. Marketing should be fun!
- Use a MySpace page to create a forum for community interaction on a real issue

Just don't hide behind a fake page that underestimates real people's intelligence or patience, or willingness to ignore or boycott your products. It's dumb, it's not creative, and it'll bite you on the ass.

I'd agree with you... except that our crabby friend seems to be getting a lot of positive feedback both in Myspace and at YouTube.

Anyway, who are we to say that user-generated content can't be generated by corporations? I also think we need to keep in mind that 'social media' also implies conversations, engagement and relationships. If 70,000+ folks want to befriend Gil the crab on Myspace, and if several hundred people want to spout out how much they like the ad on YouTube, who are we, at least from a marketing standpoint, to say it's inappropriate or lame?

But hey, it's social media, and we're certainly entitled to publicize our opinions. That said, I'm sure that if Honda's target audience didn't like it, they'd let Honda know.

Spot on. I'm curious, what do you think about corporate MySpace or YouTube sites like this one from Dell: http://www.youtube.com/profile?user=DellVlog. They are straightforward about it being corporate-sponsored, but I have to wonder if social media users are put off by this approach. It seems to have none of the characteristics that make social media compelling.

~Barbara
http://babas.typepad.com

Your book cracks me up. I hope one day someone else will think your opinion is important as you do. Then you won't have to self-publish. You have seriously made my day. This page reads like a over-the-top resume. Thanks for the laugh.

And since when can a crab type? It's called entertainment and if you read the page, you would be entertained, just like I was.

Gil the Crab has 76,880 friends. Nothing succeeds like success. That's 76,880 people from the MySpace demographic who have opted in to Honda messaging.

Lame? Nope. Effective.