O'Donnell Online
Public Relations in a Digital World
Are You Tough Like Chuck Norris?
Sep 3rd
The National Rifle Association (NRA) in the States have launched a new advert encouraging people to register to vote in order to protect their right to ‘bear arms’.
The ad is set in a gun lovers group meeting which is chaired by Randy, a tubby, trailor-trash Chuck Norris-wannabe and features some choice individuals including a gun-toting granny who will have to have her gun taken from her ‘cold dead hands’. The real Chuck Norris also makes an appearance and is the honorary Chairman of the ‘Trigger Your Vote‘ campaign.
This video actually looks like a piss-take of an NRA video as all the pro-gun people depicted are hillbillies or dullards…hardly something to inspire a pro-gun lobbying initiative. I’d be asking for my membership money back if I was in the NRA!
How to Find out Who Broke the Embargo
Sep 3rd
News can spread quickly online. This week when a gunman entered the headquarters of the Discovery Channel, Twitter users had the news first. An office worker at the building took a picture of the gunman in the courtyard which was circulated to colleagues and then posted to Twitter using Twitpic. Word of the hostage situation was quickly out and the net was alive with discussion on the topic.
However when a story breaks about your brand online it can sometimes be hard to find the source of that story. Particularly if you’re under time pressure, wiping your clammy brow as you ponder how best to stem the flow of inaccurate information used or counteract claims being made. Similarly if an embargo has been set for a news story and this embargo is broken by an eager-beaver journalist, how can you find out who broke that story first?
Google Realtime Search is a handy tool which can help to find the origins of a story online. You simply type in the keywords from the story or headline and set the timeframe you want to look at. You can also narrow your search to updates with images if you wish.
For example:
(h/t Digital Inspiration)
Anti-Google Video Running in Times Square
Sep 3rd
A new cartoon is running 36 times a day on the jumbotron (540 square foot screen) in Times Square, New York. Toy Story 3? Some government motivational animation? Nope.
It’s an anti-Google video called ‘Don’t be Evil‘ from a nonprofit group ‘Consumer Watchdog‘ as part of their ‘Inside Google‘ campaign. Their aim is to “educate the public and opinion leaders about Google’s dangerous dominance over the Internet, computing and our online lives.”
The video highlights what the Group believes is Google’s malicious disregard for people’s privacy. It depicts Google CEO, Eric Schmidt, luring ‘little Timmy’ and ‘Susie’ to his van with free ice-cream. He then corrupts them with tales of their parents online activity, while conducting full body scans and stealing their secrets.
The Consumer Watchdog group hopes this video will motivate people to lobby their local Government representative to support the creation of a ‘Do Not Track Me’ list “to prevent online companies from gathering our personal information”, just like the “Do Not Call” list used to prevent intrusive telemarketing calls.
Ironic that an anti-Google group is using a Google service, YouTube, to reach a wider audience.
Full press release here.
Interactive YouTube Video – Dancing with Bears
Sep 2nd
Tipp-ex have developed a clever interactive YouTube video to promote the brand. ‘Shoot the Bear’ asks you to help a hunter who is about to be attacked by a bear. If the hunter doesn’t shoot the bear, you can type in what you’d like him to do…I typed in ‘dance with the bear’ and sure enough boogie on down they did!
Try it yourself here and see what you can make them do…
For other great YouTube videos and takeovers, check this out.
New Irish Online News Site to Launch in October
Sep 2nd
A new website, TheJournal.ie is set to launch in early October. The site is brought to us by the brothers behind Daft.ie who were inspired by the Huffington Post to create a “community site based around news”.
The online news outlet will have five journalists and an editor (Jennifer O’Connell) on staff with the aim of posting 60 stories a day to the site.
The volume of readers comments and interest in each story will be gauged and content steered accordingly. Journalists will recieve regular updates on what stories are proving most popular.
The Journal will be fuelled by money from advertisers. Brian Fallon said:
“Online advertising can pay for online journalism. Ten per cent of ad spend in Ireland is now online. In the UK that figure is 22 per cent. Ireland is going to catch up in the next few years.”
Read more about the new site here.
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