Josh Groban Sings Kanye West Tweets – Thumbs Up

Kanye West is on Twitter (@KanyeWest).  This isn’t news to anyone who is a regular on The Twitter.  Since he has joined Twitter, Kanye West has earned a reputation of having some interesting and random tweets.  He also used his Twitter feed to release some songs from his new album before it hit stores.

Back in late July/early August, I wrote a blog post about how comedy duo Paul and Storm used various Kanye West tweets and assigned them to an assortment of The New Yorker comics, resulting in very humorous captions.

Now, the tweets of Kanye West are being use for another ruse.  Oscar and Grammy award winner Josh Groban has decided to make a compilation CD of the very best Kanye tweets.  Putting his tweets with comic strips are one thing; placing them to the sound of music is quite another.  Check out the video below to hear Josh Groban put his angelic and award-winning voice to the tweets of Kanye West.

PS- Thanks to my friend Maura for bringing this gem to my attention!!

Gap Logo – Thumbs Down

UPDATE: Gap went back to their old logo, which was probably their best way out of this mess.  I doubt this was an orchestrated stunt, but I don’t think it is impossible that it was.  Read more about the switch back at AdAge.com

There’s been a bunch of buzz around the Gap logo recently (and not the good kind).  Without any sort of announcement, on Monday, they changed their iconic, classic logo from this:To this generic, uninspired logo:

In my senior year at Boston College, I took a class in Photoshop and there was one student that lacked either the motivation or skill (possibly both) to put together any decent projects. The Gap logo looks like something he would produce.  I can even imagine our sarcastic teacher commenting on it during the assignment review period at the beginning of every class.

“Okay, lets check this one out now. Hmm… What did you do here?  You spelled out Gap in a basic font. Okay… Then what’s this over here? A gradient box, huh?…..Interesting stuff Jerry*”

After everyone started ripping on the new Gap logo online, Gap posted this message on their Facebook page:

Thanks for everyone’s input on the new logo! We’ve had the same logo for 20+ years, and this is just one of the things we’re changing. We know this logo created a lot of buzz and we’re thrilled to see passionate debates unfolding! So much so we’re asking you to share your designs. We love our version, but we’d like to see other ideas. Stay tuned for details in the next few days on this crowd sourcing project.

I have no idea how they could ‘love’ their version, but I’m really interested to see where they go from here.  Will they force the new ugly logo down everyone’s throats? I can’t imagine they will really take someone else’s idea from their ‘crowd sourcing project.’  Will they go back the old one?

What if Gap is pulling a Joaquin Phoenix on us all and is going to elaborate measures all for a publicity stunt?  I doubt that’s the case, but an interesting (sinister) possibility to consider.  They did get people to start talking about Gap when no one cared about it before.

More fun with the gap logo:

Follow @OldGapLogo and @GapLogo on Twitter.

Make your own crappy logo: Crap Logo Yourself

*Jerry is not his real name

Facebook Movie Parodies – Thumbs Up

Update: Added the eBay movie

So the Facebook movie (aka The Social Network) is coming out soon.   The official preview came about a month ago, and within the next few weeks, parodies for the other major social networks (YouTube, Twitter, and MySpace) were made.  Here they are all in one spot for your enjoyment:

Facebook – The Original

YouTube

Twitter

MySpace

And the MySpace movie trailer (WordPress wont let me embed it)

eBay

Which one is your favorite?

Kanye West Tweets with The New Yorker are Dope! – Thumbs Up

Last year, hip-hop artist Kanye West made the news for reasons that no one would be proud of.  He jumped on stage during the MTV Video Music Awards interrupting Taylor Swift while she was accepting her award for “Best Female Music Video” and uttered those words that will forever be remembered (and mimicked in multiple different ways):

“Yo Taylor…I’m really happy for you and I’mma let you finish, but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time!”

Most recently, Kanye West jumped on another stage to display his rants: Twitter.  And, the great thing about it is that Kanye tweets just as you would expect him to talk.  Nothing changes.  You can follow him at @kanyewest and see for yourself.

Well, with the new Twitter account and the 140 characters of gold that Kanye gives to the world each time he tweets, comedy duo Paul and Storm decided to use that gold and turn it into comedy gold.  How did they do that?  By taking various Kanye West tweets and using them as captions to a number of The New Yorker comics.  You can see a few good ones below or a whole slew of them here.  You can also see future ones posted on twitter by following the hashtag #kanyenewyorkertweets.

(via Mashable)

Old Spice Youtube Responses – Thumbs Up

Update: great article from AdWeek about how this Old Spice campaign worked behind the scenes: Article (via @JGF3)

Update 2: Another interesting post about how the videos are made, with a behind-the-scenes picture.

Earlier today, Old Spice (@OldSpice on Twitter) took a giant leap forward in the viral marketing world. Utilizing two of the most popular social media tools in Twitter and Youtube, Old Spice responded to Twitterers messages to the brand by use of Youtube videos featuring Isaiah Mustafa and his recently popular character in Old Spice commercials like the one below.

In their most recent genius marketing idea, Old Spice gets personal with its viewers, followers, consumers, and admirers by having the Old Spice Guy respond individually to numerous @replies on Twitter. Through this campaign it encourages other viewers, followers, consumers, and admirers of Old Spice IN ADDITION TO the everyday person to do a few things:

1. Watch at least one response video on their Youtube channel (which leads to watching 10-15 more response, which leads to watching other commercials)
2. Follow @OldSpice on Twitter to see what they’ve been saying
3. Interact with the brand by @replying to Old Spice your own question or comment in hopes that the Old Spice Guy will respond.

With these three actions, repeated by thousands upon thousands of social mediates, the Old Spice campaign successfully went viral and will be something soon that even more people are talking about and interacting with. Here are two examples of the Old Spice Guy responding to Twitter replies.

Old Spice, if somehow you stumbled upon this blog and you’re reading this, would you give yourself a Thumbs Up or a Thumbs Down?

For more response videos, check out the Old Spice Youtube page.

Thumbs Down – TwitterPeek

Earlier this week, a rumor buzzed around that there would soon be a new hand-held mobile technology strictly meant for twittering.  Well, the rumors were true as the creators behind Peek, an email-only mobile device, have now created TwitterPeek, the mobile device meant for the sole reason of twittering.  Not for checking email, sending text messages, or making calls, but just twittering.

I know that Twitter has exponentially grown as a very valuable social media tool since its beginning; I realize that the popularity of Twitter itself gradually increased over time, as people didn’t realize its potential until later; however, I don’t believe that a device only meant to read, send, and receive tweets will gain much popularity.  With the growing capabilities of cell phones like that of the iPhone and BlackBerry, what’s the need and/or desire of carrying another gadget around that has limited use.  The TwitterPeek doesn’t have a web browser so one wouldn’t even be able to click on the numerous websites and other links that are shared via tweets.  With all of the various Twitter applications accessible through phones, there is no viable use of the TwitterPeek.  I don’t see this technology going very far or being very successful.  With all that cell phones can do today, people won’t mind paying the more expensive bills rather than paying less for a device that does so little.  I guess time will tell if the TwitterPeek device will succeed or not.

Historical Tweets – Thumbs Up

Do you like history, Twitter, and/or jokes?  If so, you’ll probably enjoy this humorous site: historicaltweets.com.  It takes famous historical events and supposes what the figure in the event would tweet about it.  While not every historical tweet is very funny, there are quite a few good ones on the site.  If you’re not familiar with Twitter, the things to look at besides the actual tweet (message) are where the person is tweeting from and the date (small text below the tweet), the historical figure’s username (at the bottom of each image), and if they are replying to someone else (you will see an @ before the other person’s name).  Here are some examples:

Thumbs up – tweleted.com

Have you ever been on someone’s twitter page, seen a horribly embarrassing tweet and gone back later to find it deleted when you try to show your friends? Have you ever accidentally deleted your best tweets? Well have I got a website for you.

Tweleted.com allows you to search, based on username, recently deleted tweets. According to the site’s creator, the search can reach back “about 1000 messages or four months, whichever comes first” though results may vary. Also, it allows you to search in good or evil mode, which doesn’t do anything but makes you feel better about the real reason you’re using the site. I personally don’t twitter, but I could see this site being very useful for those of you who do. So go forth and enjoy, and maybe find some really embarrassing tweets one of your friends thought they’d gotten rid of.

TweetDeck – Thumbs Up

TweetDeck, the popular Twitter desktop application, came out with an iPhone application this week.  The most valuable part of TweetDeck, is the ability to separate users into groups, which are displayed in side-by-side columns.  Using this tool, I am able to make a group of people that I know well, and want to read every update, as well as making a group of companies that I follow, where each update isn’t quite as important to me.  It’s a way to cut through the noise of Twitter to get exactly what you want.  TweetDeck also has additional functions of updating every minute to alert you of new tweets, allowing you to sign into multiple Twitter accounts at once, update your Facebook status, and more.

Having TweetDeck for the iPhone is a huge step for TweetDeck desktop users.  The ability to sync their accounts on the desktop application and the iPhone application allows Tweeters to unify their experience with Twitter.  Before I switched to TweetDeck, I was using TwitterFon, but TweetDeck blows it out of the water.  TweetDeck looks and performs better than its competitor and having the same groups that I have on my computer is great too.  While TweetDeck and TwitterFon are both offered for free, the most popular iPhone application on the market is Tweetie at $2.99.  While I don’t have any experience with Tweetie directly, Mashable’s comparison between the two services gives the slight edge to TweetDeck, but mentions that dedicated Tweetie users, and less experienced Twitter users will prefer the simpler functions and interface of Tweetie.

Thumbs Down – Tony LaRussa

Thumbs Down: The St. Louis Cardinals manager, Tony LaRussa, sued Twitter recently because someone had a Twitter account under his name and was posting fake updates. Tony LaRussa decided to sue because he claimed he “suffered significant emotional distress” and “damage to his reputation.”
Here are some of the Twitter posts:
-Lost 2 out of 3, but we made it out of Chicago without one drunk driving incident or dead pitcher… I’d call that an I-55 series.
-Fortunately, Ian Snell sucks now… when Molina and Duncan Jr. go deep off of you it’s time to look yourself in the mirror, have an ice-…
-drinking a cold Zima and wishing fucking Hancock was alive, I bet he could’ve gotten Jack Wilson out.

The account was obviously a joke and wasn’t even being updated very often, so I don’t know how Tony LaRussa could claim that it damaged his reputation. However, he’s a lawyer and I’m not, so he probably knows more than I do on the subject.

On the bright side, Twitter recently announced that they will be starting a program to “verify” accounts of public figures and organizations. When an account is verified, a seal will appear in the top right corner of the user’s profile page to let everyone know the page is legit. The people at Twitter haven’t specified how they will do this exactly, but it will be a valuable addition to the site, as now there is no way to determine if someone is who they say they are.