Blah, blah, blah, raging cow, blah, blah...

You know about this, right? (If not then you don't get around much, do you?) It's the latest in marketainment. Ragingcow.com is a Dr. Pepper advertising project disguised as a blog. They use Movable Type and everything. And they really really like Raging Cow, the super nifty new "milk like" fun drink!

Right. So anyway, the site I linked to - ragingcow.blogspot.com - is a parody put up by Kevin Marks' in the hopes of taking the number one spot on google away from Dr. Pepper. I'm not actually recommending you should visit that site (and if you do, get ready for some annoying background music) but I just wanted to link it a few times and throw my minor google strength against Dr. P.

(If you really must know, it was the fan signs that tipped me over the edge. These people must be stopped.)
- jim 3-07-2003 7:11 pm

Marketainment is relentless: All of those "fan" faces are stars of the webcam world (which has its own little cult of celebrity), with high ranked cams and blogs of their own.
- tom moody 3-07-2003 8:43 pm


We won't ask how you obtained this information.

Yeah, drat fink pointed to project blogger earlier this week which is more of the same. Free t-shirts and other worthless "compensation" in return for surreptitiously hawking product on your blog. Whatever. People can do as they wish. And I can mock them as I wish.

In the end I think the marketers will find the blog world a little more hostile than the webcam world. Or at least I'm going to do my part...

Now stop bothering me, I have to enjoy another surprisingly refreshing Raging Cow milk like drink.
- jim 3-07-2003 9:02 pm


the reason i linked to project blogger was to avoid overtly mentioning the product they were trying to market virally.
- dave 3-07-2003 9:17 pm


Yeah, I mentioned ragingcow.com, but I didn't link to it, so google won't pick it up. (Well, ok, I linked to the sub page with the webcam pics, but I don't think that will matter.)

But I did link to the parody site, and if it does get driven to the number one spot on google searches for 'raging cow' then I think that will go pretty far to dispelling the idea that this sort of marketing can work. More than ignoring it, which is what I was doing. Note you have to make the link text 'raging cow' for this to work.
- jim 3-07-2003 9:23 pm


im all for mocking it, but you are raising brand awareness in any case. not that i care that much but i was trying to avoid feeding the beast while highlighting the phenomenon.
- dave 3-07-2003 9:30 pm


OK, not to draw this out, as I totally agree with you. I was ignoring it as well, for exactly the reasons you mention. But I think there really is a chance to nip this whole thing in the bud. If the known result of this sort of advertising is that the number one search result for your product on google will be a parody site, then my guess is that marketers will quickly abandon this type of thing.

Or maybe google isn't as important as I think? I feel like this is, yes, feeding the beast, but also kicking it in the head at the same time. If it wasn't for the kick part I would have abstained as well.

Still, your point is well taken.


- jim 3-07-2003 9:36 pm


FWIW I didn't know about the product before today.
- tom moody 3-07-2003 10:44 pm


Sorry you didn't like the music, I thought it was neat (and appropriate). The chances of getting No.1 on Google with this are low (particularly as an indexing run just finished) but showing up on the front page would be good. I wanted somewhere for people to link to when discussing this without feeding the DPSU trolls.
- Kevin Marks (guest) 3-08-2003 3:41 am


Wow. Kevin Marks. Hi.

Xenu.net got the number one spot as I remember, although it's presently number 2. But given the serious oposition they faced (scientology) I can't see why kevin's site can't get number 1 for raging cow. Seriously. If a couple hundred bloggers link it that's all it will take (once google updates it's index.)

Drat fink, you should link him.

Kevin, it's not that I don't like that music, it's just that I don't like any background music. Even rageboy's. Nothing personal.
- jim 3-08-2003 6:40 am


This article takes the tack that the campaign backfired. Also that blogging is a teen-to-20-something phenom. The cam personalities I mentioned are described as "five of the Web's most popular bloggers."
- tom moody 3-16-2003 4:57 am


just a note -- right now this site is the number one spot on google for "number one spot on google".

Interesting.
- anonymous (guest) 4-22-2003 6:53 am


Hey, it's true. I guess my work here is done. Oh no wait...
- jim 4-22-2003 6:11 pm





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