Richard Edelman is a blogger and he hired Steve Rubel, another blogger, to lead the way into the uncharted waters of web 2.0 agency work. David Weinberger has long been an advisor to Edelman’s company as well. The complaints echoed by my lemming like mewling were complaints about lack of transparency. These hosers set up and sponsored a “road trip” blog that didn’t acknowledge the sponsorship. So it was a professional effort masking as amateur. The shills doing the blogging were there to suck people into the wonderful world of walmart and that’s pretty much the same as a free taste of crack on the playground in my opinion. I don’t like military recruiters in the schools, dope pushers on the playground, or retail scams in the blogosphere.

Amanda is different. Not only is she transparent regarding the Ford sponsorship, but also she broadens the range of the earth friendly discussion out into alternative fuels, river clean-up, progressive politicians and a bunch of more or less boring goofy shit like the time wasted at the St. Louis Museum of Goofy Shit.

Amanda’s corporate and agency relationships may not all be perfectly transparent, but the thrust of her blog is moderate progressive action, with sponsors acknowledged on a page given over to that. Ford sponsors public radio too. I see this as no more and no less egregious.

So I disagree that the walmart flog was more transparent. In fact, the web marketing at walmart is enormously sophisticated and the stories they tell are often persuasive lies. See this link:
http://paidcritics.com/

Regarding Mayor Dave, Big Milk, the Dolly Llama, and Zionist oppression of native people in the middle east… well, yes. Those stories deserve expansion too.

The entire notion that corporations can be humanized, suddenly given a human voice, must end. Now. All this making nice through blogs or otherwise is just creepy and is absolutely no different than traditional advertising. Primary objective: let’s establish emotional contact. No, actually, the conversation is creepier. Let’s get back to branding. I feel less dirty.

Knocking Edelman for putting laquer on the plywood is like knocking the white house press secretary for obfuscation.

Ford makes hybrid vehicles, aren’t they a good bunch of folks. Opportunists looking to cash in with the envirogeek set, using the fineboned ms congdon as the bonesetter. And there’s walmart looking to cash in with the winnebago crowd, all ugly ball caps and hallmark logic.

Less damage in the hybrid, though. Ah, yes, the Environment. Sacrosanct. Like Israel or the Dalai Lama. I’m sure the mayor of Madison rides his bike to work everyday in that cheap suit of his with a clear conscience now that he has signed on to Kyoto. And we should all feel good about the dairy expo, even though it’s probably just a front for Big Milk. Feel feel feel. But it’s organic milk. Still effluent out the back side of a cow. Oh my aching ozone.

It’s the same basket of eels, Frank. Poached or deep fried, your choice. Clean up, aisle seven.

Which would lead, of course, to the follow-up phrase, Phuck Wal*Mart!