With all the hype about Barstool’s Dave Portnoy in February, we did not keep you informed of Boston’s other famous media scumbag, Ernie Boch Jr.
The man with the traveling pubes has used his latest vanity ad in the Improper Bostonian to call for a vote on whose ass is the better looking ass: Kate or Pippa Middleton.
In one picture, Kate Middleton’s head, smiling, looking pretty … and in the other? An ass. Pippa Middleton has something of a following based on her butt, and Mr. Boch Jr. decided to initiate a fantastical viral campaign based on this nearly year-old meme.
“Who has the better assets?” said the advertisement, asking people to tweet at @ErnieBochJr with #RoyalAssets making their vote known on the topic.
“What is wrong with this dude?” came an E-mail into headquarters. “Mainstream media won’t report on this, because he’s pumping so much revenue into every appendage.”
That’s not to say it wasn’t a win-win in terms of a marketing campaign.
Three people talked about it.
James O’Sullivan, a realtor in Duxbury, voted: “go with Kate since [sic] is royalty.” “I agree,” Boch Jr. responded. “+10 bonus points for being royalty!!”
“[O]mg at this ad!” said Ashley Greene. “Thanks for the input,” replied Ernie. “I hope you liked it!”
“Totally disgusted by @erniebochjr latest ad,”
ruh-rohly said Rachel Poor, a fitness buff and PR gal (“It takes a lot of energy to be me!”). “I rarely post negative tweets,” she continues, “but was compelled to say something. GROSS!”
“You’re right,” EBJ replied. “Sorry about that.”
Viral marketing!!
“JOHN SMITH IS READING ABOUT PIPPA’S ASS” might be up in your Facebook timeline thanks to the idea of “frictionless sharing,” and in adapting to the new internet landscape, few have been more successful than The Guardian. In September last year, the company specifically designed an app which would adapt to a user’s Facebook account, in the effort called “Frictionless Sharing.” So how’s that going?
As of February, astonishingly well.
Digiday.com reports that nearly 6 million people have installed the app and, maybe most alarmingly, over half of them are under the age of 25.
“In the U.S. people spend about 25 minutes a month on news sites, and eight hours a month on Facebook,” The Guardian’s Martin Belam told digiday.com. “As a news organization, why wouldn’t you want to publish where the audience is?”
In the United States, the Washington Post is perhaps the most adaptable media company. Their “Social Reader” (“News. Better with Friends. [!!!—Ed.]”) Facebook app was recently made available to Android, iOS and Kindle Fire, bringing its userbase up to 11 million people.
Just be careful who your friends are.
“Snooki Poses in a Bikini For New Book Cover (PHOTOS)”
These are the top three stories of the WaPoSoRe news feed, most of them from “Content Partners” like WetPaint and AskMen.
The question remains if driving people to Facebook keeps them off your site and away from your advertisers. Belam and his ilk don’t seem to be concerned with that as much as simply keeping the brand in the feed of users.
It’s such a momentous idea that last week MTV News, the Today Show, MSNBC and even top aggregator Buzzfeed each launched its own applications last week, all of them to trying to reach the young users of Facebook.
Now, if only they could post a year-old meme-enabled poll to get those numbers up … the BochApp anyone?
QUESTIONS? COMMENTS? HOW’S YOUR ASS? MEDIAFARM@DIGPUBLISHING.COM @MEDIAFARM
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