Digital Graffiti

Tuesday's Ad Contrarian post called "The Consumer Is In Charge. Of What?" didn't exactly go viral, but it went kind of semi-bacterial.

Here at the Ketel One wing of The Ad Contrarian global headquarters, we pay very close attention to the social media commentary about our blog posts.

Okay, maybe not very close.

Okay, maybe not at all.

It's not that we don't respect the opinions of others, it's just that we don't really give a shit. (Try it. It's liberating.)

Nonetheless, we studied up on the commentary generated by the post in question. As the title suggests, the post concerned the digi-doofuses who think "the consumer is in charge." As I expected, it generated a lot of hot air about social media being the way consumers are banding together to control everything.

This is me giggling.

Social media whining is to marketing as graffiti is to politics. It is little more than the drumbeat of the powerless trying to get the attention of our corporate masters.

The people who post "McDonald's Sucks" on Twitter and think it affects anything other than some poor bastard locked in a "social media war room" (gag me) in a basement in Chicago are totally delusional.

Do you think the United Airlines guitar guy didn't teach the big boys a lesson? Do you think they don't know how to neutralized your social media bedwetting? Do you think the  corporate PR monkeys haven't figured out how to handle your digital graffiti yet? Do you think the $5 coupon they send you when you complain on Twitter is anything other than lip-service?

Social media complaining is the opiate of the asses.

Amigo, you are not in charge. Get used to it.