Latest posts from Danny Brown

Enjoy the latest posts from Danny Brown, and feel free to add your own thoughts in the comments after the post.

Audi and the Super Bowl Social Media Shit Storm

German car manufacturer Audi may be about to enter a PR shit storm, thanks to the naming of their social media campaign in the run-up to their Super Bowl ad.

The campaign (run by Audi of America) is based around a new creation called the Green Police, who will spearhead a social media program to build interest in Audi’s ad at this year’s football showcase. The Green Police enforce ways to protect the environment, and encourage people to a better understanding of environmental issues. There’s currently a series of YouTube mock education videos as part of the program, as well as a Green Police Twitter account.

The problem is, there’s already been a Green Police enforcement organization, but not one that you’d want to be associated with. This Green Police was part of the Nazi persecution and execution of millions of Jews in the Holocaust of the Second World War.

The implications of Audi’s choice of name for their campaign could be huge, especially since Audi is a German company. The first question is obvious – didn’t anyone at Audi’s PR or advertising arm/agency do any research?

It’ll be interesting to see how this unfolds and what Audi’s response will be as the connections to an unwanted history become clear, especially as today marks the 65th anniversary of the liberation of the Auschwitz concentration camp.

What’s your take on what Audi should do next?

Update February 01 2010: Audi of America has issued a response to the post, which you can find here. While their response is sound, they may also wish to look at this resource from the Jewish Virtual Library vaults (if they haven’t already), or this report for further correlation. Additionally, Audi state that they researched and tested the ads prior to running them, and sought input from the Jewish community. Curiosity begs the question: if the research prior to the ad being run didn’t return any “red flags” about possible connotations to the term Green Police, why the need to seek input from the Jewish community about an environmentally friendly product?

Taking Your Blog Mobile with BuzzVoice

One of the benefits of subscribing to blogs by email is the opportunity to catch posts that may otherwise have slipped by in an endless RSS feed stream.

One such one that caught my eye was by Jason Falls over at Social Media Explorer, and his views on new mobile voice service BuzzVoice. It’s similar to Odiogo (which I’ve tried before) in that it transcribes your blog or website into an audio format. The difference with BuzzVoice is that you can get an app for your iPhone or iPod touch (currently $1.99), making it more of an audio library of your favourite blogs.

Not only that, but BuzzVoice also offers a real-time radio widget for your blog’s sidebar (take a look in my right sidebar underneath the option to read my blog on your Kindle). This plays streaming audio of all your posts, which you can listen to via iTunes or via mobile, as well as the option to grab the widget and share on other networks.

The obvious main benefit behind BuzzVoice is its ability to open up a blog or website to folks that want to listen or multi-task online, or on the go (so at the gym, in the car, on public transport, etc). Yet is also has benefits for anyone with impaired vision or sight disability, as pointed out by Glenda Watson Hyatt on Jason’s post (Glenda has cerebral palsy and is a highly respected blogger and author). Additionally, people with dyslexia and similar learning difficulties could use something like BuzzVoice to improve their comprehension of the written word.

BuzzVoice is currently in private beta, with the public launch due next month. However, John Atkinson (co-founder and CEO of BuzzVoice) has very kindly offered readers of this blog 10 private invites. All you need do is email your blog or website’s RSS feed to publishers@buzzvoice.com to be considered for the beta.

Since I’ve just installed BuzzVoice tonight, I haven’t had time to have a look at the more in-depth features available at their website. I’ll be sure to look at it in more depth soon, and share my thoughts in a follow-up post shortly.

In the meantime, what’s your take on BuzzVoice and its approach to opening up the written word?

Digital Storytellers: My TEDx Ottawa Presentation

Last month, I was incredibly honoured to speak at TEDx Ottawa. The shared ideas that came out on the day from the other speakers and the attendees was nothing short of amazing.

My presentation was entitled Digital Storytellers: What We Can Learn from George Lucas, and looked at how technology can enhance our lives as long as we remember the human connections around it. I was delighted to have local teenager Graeme Stewart share his story through music as well.

You can see the other talks over at the TEDx Ottawa YouTube channel. In the meantime, I hope you enjoy Digital Storytellers and I’d love to hear your thoughts on the presentation topic in the comments below.

Learning from Noah

Most folks know the story of Noah. How God warned him about an upcoming flood that would last for 40 days and 40 nights. To preserve nature, Noah took two of every animal onto his Ark in readiness for breeding once the storm had passed.

However, you could also look at it another way. If a cow died, Noah would still have had one cow left for beef and milk. He and his family wouldn’t starve, and they could come back to land and start afresh.

Moral of the story? Always have a back-up plan.

The Future is Now

I’m not usually one to get too excited about buzz. Very often, buzz is simply over-hyping what can’t possibly hope to live up to the claims in reality (I still recall the PlayStation 2 real-time demos that turned out to be just highly crafted CGI).

But now and again I see something and I think, that’s a possibility. This video from Time, Inc and The Wonderfactory is one such example. And with the imminent release of Apple’s own tablet, the future may be closer than we think.

If this is what we have to look forward to, you can just start to imagine the possibilities. Marketers have a captive audience; advertisers can really get creative; non-profits can use images and media to connect emotionally while showing where the donations go. And that’s just for starters – the possibilities are endless.

How do you see something like this being used?