SXSW: worst social media ad campaigns from 2007

Here is a list of what the panel rated as the worst. Not sure I agree with all of them, but judge for yourself

Molson
Asked students through Facebook to send pics of themselves having a party with Molson and they could win a trip to Cancun. Apparently this is quite irresponsible.  Read more

Carlton Beer
This was a viral clip, I suppose to look like the BA ad from way back, then. No one remembered who the ad was for.

HP pay per post
HP paid bloggers to create videos about their product. Here's one of those clips.

Wal-Mart flog (fake blog)
A fake blog set up by a fake couple traveling across the US with their RV and staying in Wal-Mart parking lots. Check out the blog here

Rahodeb - Whole Foods CEO
The CEO of Whole Foods posted comments on financial forums slating Wild Oats Markets (a competitor) and eventually ended up buying them. Was this done to lower the share price? Article

Cisco Human Network
Posted an entry onto Wikipedia to the concept of a Human Network and asked bloggers to write about what the term means to them. Wikipedia has now linked the term to Social Networking.

Mentos/Diet Coke
Coke originally didn't feel that the viral clip fitted their strategy. As it became more and more popular they quickly jumped on board. Article.

Vespa blog
Vespa found real owners to participate on a Vespa blog, but Vespa eventually lost interest and the blog became really outdated.

Agency.com & Subway pitch
The agency was asked to pitch and produced a clip that showed their passion for the brand and uploaded it to YouTube. It did not go down well. In an attempt to do things differently they just came across really stupid.

Going to Work for Subway

Target Rounders
Target asked students who belonged to the Target Rounders group on Facebook not to disclose to their friends that Rounders was part of Target, but to let them discover for themselves. This offended many people and the agency who was responsible for this started back tracking fast. Article.

Guiliani MySpace campaign
He created a MySpace page that no-one could get into because it was set to private.

All I want for Xmas is a PSP
Another fake blog about a guy who wanted a PSP for xmas was uncovered as a scam when people started realizing there was inconsistencies in the character's story.

I'm not entirely convinced that all of these sucked as badly as the panel made out to be, but the ones that stand out for me are the ones where companies/agencies openly lied and deceived their audience.

In case you were wondering the HP campaign was voted by the audience as the worst.

Comments

[Leon Jacobs]

I watched the HP thing with the most incredible feeling of dread.

This is why the world hates America.