LonelyGirl15

[Dinner]

It was an advanced marketing campaign designed to sell more tickets and to promote the people who created the campaign. It will likely work. I wouldn't be surprised if the actress and/or the writer and production crew end up breaking into the industry because of this.

[Elok]

Originally posted by Blaupanzer
What was the point of the whole thing? Why make up a phony person with a phony life? When people thought it was real, they were intrigued. But as fiction it is pretty low-grade.

Why did that "Million Little Pieces" book get tagged as a memoir when it was mostly BS? Because authenticity makes things a lot easier to sell. Or at least the appearance of authenticity...

[BlackCat]

she looks nice but too young

http://lonelygirl15.com/

[Gatekeeper]

*shrug* It's just one more reason not to believe what you see or read on the Internet without doing more digging yourself.

Unlike "traditional" media, there's no quality control ... on one hand, it's great to see that spontenity and whatnot but, on the other hand, it means you really can't just take what you see or read at face value, unless it's on a "proven" Web site (defined by me as a major news organization, ala AP, Reuters, McClatchy and so on ... groups that have something to *lose* if their credibility is ever shot to hell).

No, I don't have a conflict of interest.

Gatekeeper

[Whoha]

If people believe what they see on the internet it is their fault. drama

[Q Classic]

Here's the thing--it might be sneaky, yes, but really? Something like this was bound to happen, and honestly, we'll be seeing more things like this in the future.

Why? Well, viral marketing, alternative reality marketing, and all that sort? It's hip, it's fresh, it's new--and on top of that, it provides the sort of engagement very little else can. It's subtle enough that it doesn't immediately set off advertising alarm bells in most of the people of our cynical generation, it's clever enough that when it's revealed, it's somewhat respected: "Well played, OmniStarMegaAgencyCom. Well played."

These new forums are... practically free, cutting costs enormously (largely because they're leeching the most expensive part--the bandwidth costs--from the service providers (in this case, YouTube (which has been replaced by Revver, which will allow the agency to make a little money off of this story))). Very little needs to be paid in terms of media distribution; very little needs to be done in terms of media setup.

===

Anyway, I'll still say this. I thought it was an art project, largely because it was a bit slicker than it could have been, the video quality was better than it could have been, and it was written tighter than it could have been (as in, it has a bit more coherence and less noise than most blogs).

Finally, The Show with ZeFrank, which is at least real, is so much funnier and better video blog.

[Ming]

Originally posted by Wezil
Why 'shady' Ming?

While I appaud and respect the creativitiy, I'm in the camp that believes that deceptive practices will come back and haunt you in the end. You can be creative and upfront about it at the same time, and still be effective.

It's like when a "paid" spokesperson tries to come across as an independent expert... or salting blogs with comments from a company spokesperson without that person identifing who they work for...
I'm not a big fan of those kind of tactics. I think that if you want to believable, you should at least be honest

[Japher]

I'm on the fence with this one

while it's deceptive, I don't see how it is more so deceptive than a lot of sales pitches

I mean, do I really think those people in those commercials use those products?

I think Ming is just mad. Kind of like when you hear a really snappy song on the radio, and go "I like that" only to find out it's a new commercial for Chipotle.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by BlackCat
she looks nice but too young

http://lonelygirl15.com/

In real life she is a 19 year old actress who moved to LA from New Zealand.

[ajbera]

Originally posted by Ming
It's like when a "paid" spokesperson tries to come across as an independent expert... or salting blogs with comments from a company spokesperson without that person identifing who they work for...

But in those cases an endorsement is being made under false pretenses. Lonelygirl15 isn't endorsing anything. So, again, who is being hurt here?

It seems to me that most people who are pissed had an emotional investment in the lonelygirl saga, and are irate because it's not true. These strike me as the same kind of losers who got pissed at JK Rowling when Hermione ended up with Ron instead of Harry. Can these people think of nothing more deserving of their ire? [Note: Ming is not one of these people.]

I was hoping it would turn out to be the seed for a Blair Witch Project kind of thing (and for all I know it may), another subterfuge that I wholeheartedly approve.

[Dinner]

Originally posted by Q Cubed
Here's the thing--it might be sneaky, yes, but really? Something like this was bound to happen, and honestly, we'll be seeing more things like this in the future.

They aren't even the first ones to do this. Just last month ExxonMobile was exposed for putting anti-Al Gore stuff up on youtube. It was just basic "global warming isn't real" type stuff. If Exxon wants to put that stuff out there then they should have the balls to sign their name to it.

[Ming]

Originally posted by ajbera
It seems to me that most people who are pissed had an emotional investment in the lonelygirl saga, and are irate because it's not true.

I had never heard of lonelygirl before... I just think that marketing should be easy to identify as marketing...
Deception in marketing usually comes back to haunt you.

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by Oerdin


In real life she is a 19 year old actress who moved to LA from New Zealand.

Yeah, I know, not too young, but me being more than twice her age, she is too young

[Apocalypse]

What about the Blair Witch Project? There are many people who thought it was true long after it came out.

[Apocalypse]

Oh, btw...new video up.