Subservient viral marketing, round two

This year may go down as the year of the viral marketing –or should that be the year of ‘subservient’ marketing?

After the wacky Subservient Chicken Web site featuring a man dressed as a chicken, came the ‘subservient president.’ This week, AdWeek reports that Crispin Porter & Bogusky has done it again for Burger King.

AngusDiet is a patently fake health site –populated with birds, fountains, and happy people—sprinkled with cynicism, humor, and a printable ‘honorary doctorate’. Even an Anthony Robbins-type of motivational film clip that ends with the line “Respect the angus. Respect the beef!”

It’s easy to see health advocates stomping all over this. But in the end, the question will be asked if this faux site is a viable marketing tactic. Maybe it is not supposed to be anything but a buzz generator (even targeting blogs like this!) to make the connection between the word ‘angus’ and Burger King.

Clear Channel’s Woes

To add to Clear Channel’s misery, Howard Stern supposedly blogs. Even without it, he manages to get his message out as in this comment on a section of the MTV site.

“This is a joke and a smokescreen that it’s about sex,” Stern said on Wednesday (June 30). “I dared to go on the air and say that I do not support George W. Bush, I support John Kerry … all of a sudden, Clear Channel took me off the air in six markets. When you criticize the president, you get thrown off the air.”

Businessweek (July 12, 2004) reports that Stern was influenced by Michael Moore’s book “Dude Where’s My Country.”

An interesting sidebar: There’s a Web site run by radio consulting firm Jacobs Media, which shows communicators the limits of this ‘indecency’ act. You can test your ‘Indecency Quotient’ here.

Sample question about what’s permissible on air:

Double entendres such as “Están cambiando el aceite” (“they’re changing the oil”) in a foreign language are safe. True or False?

Don’t know? Take the quiz!