Interesting read by Shea Bennett about Google+. It’s refreshing to hear some naysaying when most commentators are too risk-averse to make early calls, but generally evangelize the holy b-jesus out of Google+.
Granted, the article is posted on Allfacebook.com, the unoffical Facebook blog, but still, Shea goes as far as attacking some of Google+ most touted features, such as circles, and also blasts social media celebs such as Robert Scoble as being responsible for ruining everything, and repeating the much heard diagnosis that Google+ is just Friendfeed all over again. Death sentence.
If you haven’t had enough of Google+ articles yet, make this the one you read.
Enough already? How many more so-called “viral” videos of brands copying the flash mob dance in public places phenomenon can a human person take? After the “Sound of Music” flash mob in Antwerp, I had it.
Ok, so we posted them too here on the blog, back in the day, but now it’s too much. It’s always the same:
choose a song
choose a train station
get some performers dressed as “normal” people
rip clothes off, do the song and dance
get some “normal” people to pretend to be “normal” by-standers who are suddenly totally exhilirated by the experience and join in
film it “unobtrusively” from at least 27 different angles, alternating tele and wide-angle shots with “hidden” cameras
slap a logo on it at the end
post it on youtube and forward to everyone you know who works in an agency and start a viral that is seen mostly only by people within that industry
Call it viral and put in your credentials deck
So maybe flash mobs could still be interesting, but how about a little bit of a different idea? Does it have to be so formulaic? Playing some music and entertaining is not always enough to really make a difference, even if the perfomance is great!
Wanna see what really happens when you don’t have hired people create this fake effect? Watch the Performance by virtuoso Joshua Bell in a Washington DC subway station, covered by the Washington Post. A sobering experience for the artist: 3 people listened to a free world-class performance which sold out at the concert hall for 100 bucks a pop that same night. Here is the take-out.
