Thursday September 22, 2005

Lebron James, Idiot Widget

As you might have heard, the internet is hot again, at least with advertisers. Branded content, viral, and other forms of non-traditional advertising are also hot. And, as you might expect from all that heat, we are in the midst of a new media advertising bubble. Every brand has to be online and viral and providing content, whether it makes any sense or not. Does Kleenex really need a fancy website with Flash games? How many people go there? And why? (Answers: Apparently not many and who knows.)

Here’s my new favorite example (courtesy of Alexandra, who picked up the mail-in somewhere): Bubblicious’ LeBron James Voice-Activated Software. This is how it’s supposed to work. You send two proofs-of-purchase and $1 in the mail to Bubblicious and, in 3 to 4 weeks, they send you—via email, praise God—a code that allows you to download a widget that makes LeBron James “the point guard on your computer.” Using Windows’ voice-activation software, you teach LeBron some verbal commands and he runs around opening and closing programs for you. It’s Clippy all over again.

Who will bother? Bubblicious-chewing basketball fans who are computer-savvy enough to get this software to work, yet somehow not savvy enough to realize that using snail mail to acquire a Cracker Jack-grade widget is super lame? One wonders if anyone at this meeting had ever been on the internet—or met a tween. I’m guessing that the number of kids who tore themselves away from their Xbox blood sports long enough to put a stamp on an envelope in pursuit of this branded geegaw was rather low.