January 26, 2004

Clearly pimping something... but what?
I'm predicting Sprite. Is it my imagination or has teaser advertising gotten a big boost from the internet? Useless, obviously commercial crap like the above pops up and three weeks later we finally get a sponsor to match our "grass roots" character. Or am I just cranky?
posted by forksclovetofu 20 years ago
  • or maybe you're a guerrilla marketer being paid to direct our attention to the website Or am i just paranoid?
  • Paranoia: The State Of Perfect Awareness.
  • Or is it?
  • I hate this kinda thing. It somehow sullies the taste of pure, refreshing Sprite.
  • well, let's see : Domain Name.......... milesthirst.com Organisation Name.... Paul Suchman Organisation Address. 1 Sunrise Place Organisation Address. Armonk Organisation Address. 10504 Organisation Address. New York Organisation Address. UNITED STATES There's not so much google-info for this contact, but Paul Suchman could be the director of Business Development for Eagle River Interactive, a member of the silicon valley breakfast cabal club. Eagle River's a development house, or rather, was. They were bought ought by the Omnicom Group in the 90's. Omnicom, as its name suggests, is a big player in targeted marketing. According to this same page, one of the subsidiary companies, has offices in Armonk, New York. However, this company works primarily with Pepsi, not Coke (I mention this because Sprite is a Coca-Cola brand). Our man Miles may be shilling for Sierra Mist, not Sprite -- Pepsi sought last year to chip away at the Sprite/ 7-Up lock of clear, non-caffienated beverages. By all accounts, they did a pretty good job. Pepsi's probably trying to chip away at Sprite's urban/ hip-hop friendly "Obey Your Thirst" campaign with a non-threatening claymation shill. Finally, the contact email is "Mouthpiece@MilesThirst.com". That's right, Mouthpiece@MilesThirst.com. How awful. so, to sum up, * Mouthpiece@MilesThirst.com is the work of dull, soulless people. * This kind of advertising irritates the hell out of me. * I will not buy any product endorsed by Miles, and consider replacing any related products with generics, or simply dropping them from my diet. * "Why don't you have a blog?" -- probably because whatever soulless ad agency really is running this campaign is negotiating with inexperienced and naive bloggers to shill for them, much as we've seen in the past. P.S. Tracicle, please let us use lists in html (ol/ul/li tags. using asterisks makes me feel dirty.)
  • Also, I point you to today's Penny Arcade cartoon. What are they all drinking?! Delicious, sweet "SPR". Ain't nothing sacred?
  • Strangely, 1 Sunrise Place, New York, doesn't show up on Yahoo! Maps or Mapquest. I've probably put my foot right in the doodoo by saying this, and someone will undoubtedly point out in about ten seconds that it's the biggest square in New York or something.
  • Wow, Boo. Nice detective work.
  • BBF - try Armonk, NY.
  • That'll be it then. I'll get me coat.
  • Great detective work, boo_man! MeFi Matt's been struggling to put together a MetaJournalism site for "community investigative reporting" (code name: MoJo), and here goes MonkeyFilter Just Doing It (not TM Nike). Maybe MoJo really means MonkeyJournalism?
  • Boo, I salute you. BBF, some words for you as you hit the mean streets of Armonk: I needed a drink, I needed a lot of life insurance, I needed a vacation, I needed a home in the country. What I had was a coat, a hat and a gun. I put them on and went out of the room. (Raymond Chandler)
  • Honeydips? Boo, great detective work. Now, could you tell me where I put my pants?
  • I wouldn't necessarily call it journalism, but thanks, monkeys. See, there's nothing I can really confirm past my first step. Miles' website doesn't have any real content to pick apart, and it's pretty sparse on metadata. re MoJo : is that what Matt's planning? Boy, that sounds interesting.
  • If you don't want to call it journalism, call it investigative blogging... MoJo? Just remember, you didn't hear it from me... I need a secret identity, like Deep Throat... or, based on my history, Deep Shit
  • Incidentally, I called this one: Sprite it was.
  • forks, I'd like to buy you a Coke...
  • the tipping of many hats to forks - but tinged with the disappointment that all of boo's fine detective work was for nothing, just because of the one foolish assumption that a company called Omnicom wouldn't represent both Coke and Pepsi...
  • I'd like to teach the world to sing in perfect harmony.