Politics & Society

Honey Maid Takes On Haters, and Now I Want Graham Crackers

A month ago, the graham cracker brand Honey Maid launched a new program that aimed to redefine “wholesome” by telling the stories of interracial, single-parent and gay families. The idea was to align the 90-year-old Honey Maid with a modern yet steadfast narrative on what makes for wholesome. Families might’ve have changed, Honey Maid suggests. But “wholesome” — with both its moral and health connotations — never will. Here’s the original video produced by Honey Maid (which is owned by Mondelez International) and created by Droga5, New York: Accompanying it were longer profiles of real-life families on YouTube, like Jason and Tim — a married couple raising their two sons. Side note: Their lives are pretty pedestrian, and almost boring — like a lot of our perfectly ordinary suburban lives. But that’s precisely the point: The original video, which aired nationally in early March, received lots of public complaints for […]

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The Problem with Banning ‘Bossy’

Yesterday, Facebook’s chief operating officer, Sheryl Sandberg, and the Girl Scouts of America announced their joint war on the word “bossy” in an impressive social media campaign, media blitz and content program. The idea is inspired by a line from Sandberg’s book, Lean In: “I want every little girl who’s told she’s bossy to be told instead that she has leadership skills.” Backing her are many familiar and accomplished women, including Michelle Obama, Jane Lynch, Jennifer Garner, Condoleeza Rice and Beyonce. Some of them appear in this PSA here: It’s an impressive lineup, which makes you think that “bossy” might as well relinquish its spot in the dictionary right now: Go home, bossy. You’re finished. But here’s the thing: “bossy” and “leader” aren’t the same thing, by any stretch. We can’t swap one for the other—because they aren’t synonymous. Let’s look at the data on bossy vs. leadership—or, in this

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When Facebook Launched: Marketing In 2004

Facebook celebrates its 10th birthday this week, which made me wonder: What did marketing in 2004 look like? I was there, of course. Maybe you were, too. But time has a funny way of recasting memories. (Which explains how my siblings and I sometimes have annoyingly different takes on our childhood.) In marketing and perhaps in life, it’s easy to notice how much things have changed. In February of 2004, when Mark Zuckerberg launched thefacebook.com from his Harvard dorm room, it entered what seemed at the time like a crowded social media world. Friendster, Classmates.com, Habbo, and MySpace all preceded Facebook. And remember FullCircle? Me, neither. It seems cute and provincial to think of that time before Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn, YouTube, Vine, Slideshare, and the rest as “crowded,” doesn’t it? This was before content marketing was a thing; before Big Data was our big daddy; before his first infographic was

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Joint Effort: Why Ben & Jerry’s Won Social Media Last Week

Last week, Colorado legalized recreational marijuana. And Ben & Jerry‘s brilliantly tweeted this on Thursday, January 2: BREAKING NEWS: We're hearing reports of stores selling out of Ben & Jerry's in Colorado. What's up with that? pic.twitter.com/zBs8nyxZWn — Ben & Jerry's (@benandjerrys) January 2, 2014 The tweet has been retweeted 9,584 times and favorited 5,750 times, to date. There are either a lot of stoners on Twitter, or it’s a great example of how to be engaging on social platforms. Or maybe both. “We didn’t plan to jump on Colorado’s news, but the idea came up during a meeting and we thought it was very funny,” says Mike Hayes, who handles social media for Ben & Jerry’s, based in Burlington, Vermont. “Because of the team we’ve developed here at Ben & Jerry’s over the last year, we were able to execute it within a few hours.” It’s not just that

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The Best Worst Words of 2013

The school that comes on my radar exactly once a year, Lake Superior State University, today released its 39th annual List of Words to be Banished from the Queen’s English for Misuse, Overuse and General Uselessness. Or, as I’ve renamed it, the Best Worst Words of 2013. LSSU releases on New Year’s Eve a list of words compiled from a list of nominations submitted mostly through its website and Facebook page. The list is closing in on its 1,000th word banishment. “Banishment” is, of course, merely suggested. Language is a fluid thing, and also personal and ephemeral. Why does one word culturally ignite while another does not? For example, “selfie” is the number-one worst word, according to the LSSU list. Yet my inability to make “us-ie” happen—to describe a group selfie—is one of my biggest disappointments of 2013. Here’s the LSSU list with its explanations (in quotes), some of them

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Justine Sacco: When Bad Gets Ugly

So now the news of Justine Sacco’s moronic tweet heard round the world is well-documented: The top PR person for InterActive Corp. (but otherwise unknown) Sacco stupidly tweets an offensive update (now deleted): “Going to Africa. Hope I don’t get AIDS. Just kidding. I’m white! —Justine Sacco (@JustineSacco) December 20, 2013” Her employer, IAC—a New York media company that owns the Daily Beast, Vimeo, CollegeHumor, About.com, Match.com and Ask.com, among others—issues a preemptive statement distancing themselves from her: “This is an outrageous, offensive comment that does not reflect the views and values of IAC,” the company said. “This is a very serious matter and we are taking appropriate action.” Sacco was on a long, apparently Wi-Fi-free British Airways flight from London to South Africa. And in the 11 hours it took for her to arrive, a kind of Twitter mob formed—mocking her, condemning her, threatening violence, and looting her other

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Tell True Stories Well: Hire an Artist

The best content isn’t storytelling. The best content is telling a true story well. It’s a subtle difference. But the creators of the best content of 2013 contemplated not just what story was worth telling, but how to tell it. And one way to do that is to hire an artist. I’m tempted to insert something here about how stories have a remarkable capacity to stir our souls, to connect us, to shape a kind of shared experience. But since you are human, you know that already, right? Increasingly, the best marketing groks that, too, and so this year we’ve seen an incredible abundance of inspired brand storytelling. But we’ve also seen some terrible efforts. Because coming up with your bigger story is (relatively) easy, yet telling a true story in an interesting way “turns out to be about as easy and pleasurable as bathing a cat,” says the writer

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The Best Political Ad Ever

I know that’s a strong statement, but I’d only amend “best political ad ever” with a “so far.” Because that’s how good this video is. It blurs the line between traditional political advertising and content marketing, because it tells an incredible story in a little over a minute. And in doing so, it breaks the mold in political campaigning: I’m certain that every politician in America directed his or her campaign manager over the past few days to figure out how they can replicate some of this magic, too. Take a look: Carl Sciortino is running for a Massachusetts Congressional seat in the 5th District, which includes several communities outside of Boston (but not mine). He is one of seven Democrats running for the seat in a special election this December that is part of a sequence of events set off when John Kerry became secretary of state. The 5th

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Ann Handley is not impressed. (The back story.)

Dani Hagen had the idea late last week to create a MarketingProfs version of the Olympic-inspired meme, “McKayla is not impressed.” Because I live under a rock, apparently, I had only a vague notion of what Dani was referring to. It turns out that she was referring to US gymnist McKayla Maroney’s sour expression after settling for a silver medal in the women’s vault final, which promptly birthed the Tumblr that transported the 16-year-old’s hilariously sour face to places far away from London. Like the Sistine Chapel. Into an Andy Warhol painting. And what not.

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