Monday, January 07, 2008

Advertising in Disguise: Cough up a Few Million and Call It Social Media


I finally had a chance to read a few back issues of PR Week, they have been sending them to me as a promotion, and I saw an article about a new "social networking site" called Connecting with Cookies.

Cookies offer sweet way for ladies to connect with friends."

Can they really be serious?

More scary is that the campaign has a $2 to $3 million budget.

The campaign included a survey, which is a nice touch (as much as I love research), but let us not delude ourselves that this is a social media initiative -- unless you count a survey about women talking to each other as social. The only interactive part of the site is an e-mail newsletter sign up. Maybe you get a coupon, which would be the only interesting thing about this campaign.

Chalk this up as another example of why most brands should join in a conversation rather than try to create one.

Connecting with Cookies is pure advertising and the site is a brochure. There is nothing wrong with that, but if Pepperidge Farms was sold a social media site, this isn't it.

Worse, PR Week promoting it as such is misleading at best.

Oh, and there is this bridge in Brooklyn that I can sell you...