Despite promises, and hype, to the contrary, Ford’s Bold Moves campaign is about message control. Do you see any of Ford’s executives interacting with visitors to the site? Nope, You see neatly packaged movies about how hard Ford is trying? Do you see Ford seeking customer-created content or suggestions on how to save the company? Nope. What you see is a gussied up, glorified PR campaign engineered by ad agencies.
Yes, there’s a blog-like Community Buzz, with a “humble community editor”, Mark Rabinowitz, co-founder of indieWIRE.com, who blogs at http://www.rabbireport.com. He says:
“”Ford Bold Moves is not a stunt: just give us some time and we’ll do our best to prove it to you. I have every faith that you all will let us know with a sharp rap across the knuckles if we stray into the realm of garden variety flack speak! “
And it’s not garden variety flack speak, it’s very sophisticated flack speak, but it’s flack speak nonetheless.
Now would be a great time to start some real interaction with the online community.
@radicalmedia.com, is handling video production and shooting. It describes itself as “a media and entertainment company.” J. Walter Thompson-Detroit is handling design and engineering.
