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Too Much Hollywood

Last year, Mitt Romney, also known as the Mormon Stallion, punched off against five-time world heavyweight champion Evander Holyfield.

Who should have dressed up as Apollo Creed. Just to keep it real.

In 1989, Back to the Future predicted Biff Tannen would be President in 2016.

Remember Trading Places?

Mortimer and Randolph Duke own a successful commodities brokerage in Philadelphia. Randolph is convinced nurture is more importante than nature. He thinks he can make a street hustler into a successful businessman, while ruining the life of a loyal employee of theirs with false accusations. Mortimer disagrees.

They bet a dollar.

Puzzled?

This is what happened. Trump was playing golf with a billionaire friend.

(yeah, on one of his golf courses, which are the best in the world…)

He said: I am sure I can get elected.

His friend was unimpressed.

Yeah, I bet I can get elected President in 2016, like in Back to the Future.

They bet a dollar.

Trump won.

Too much Hollywood for your own good, America.

Social Media

How would you define social media?

If we consider that even a site like Vimeo is considered social media, I think that the definition of social media should be: a single-column website, content being presented to users in (apparent) reverse-chronological order.

Kind of like blogs, but with content coming from more than a single user, from people you either know or follow, and with algorithms in the background altering what is in fact an only apparent reverse-chronological order.

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Meaningful Connections

Branded content has been heralded as the future and the saviour of online media for some time now, and yet apparently 50% of publishers have a renewal rate of only 50%. Worse, another 39% have a renewal rate of 25% or less.

Not great, but I love how John Schneider puts it:

Brands are having a lot of one night stands, creating meaningful connections and then abandoning them.

Meaningful connections? No, those are called shags. Paid shags, to be more precise.

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McDonald’s and Digital Nonsense

I found a post on AdScam in which the great George Parker makes fun of Oh fucking yes, another “Agency of the Future”, this time from Omnicom and for McDonald’s.

Can anybody please explain to me why McDonald’s is so obsessed with digital, data, mobile apps and, of course, deeper connections with their customers through “storytelling”?

Don’t they sell hamburgers — and fries with that?

I thought their success was based on the physical part of the business: they are among the largest private owners of real estate in the world, apparently even ahead of that two thousand year old company based in Rome with a CEO with a funny hat.

They use the advantage they have in location to serve crappy food in places with a lot of people passing by, either road junctions or places that have become food deserts, the poor being left with little to no choice but to eat at one of their “restaurants”.

But now they want me to download their app? Read their blog? “Like” them of Facebook?
Why in the world, for God’s sake? When will this nonsense come to an end?

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