Old Spice Can Do No Wrong

Recently, Old Spice released two new advertisements introducing their new bar soap product. Per usual, the video ads are ridiculously absurd and hilarious, which is why Old Spice is great. The videos quickly gained popularity on sites like Reddit and racked up millions of views on their YouTube channel. The first ad is of a guy who is always so fresh that his shower follows him around. Normal.

Great stuff. The next video involves watermelons and basketball and doesn't really have a proper explanation so you should probably just watch it.

Superb. The songs in both the videos really capture the cinematic grandeur of the entire situation. If only every company could be as fantastic as Old Spice.

How Twitter Killed Lil Wayne

On March 15th at 7:50 PM, TMZ broke the news on Twitter than Lil Wayne had suffered a seizure and was in critical condition.

This single tweet instantly sent the Twitter world into a frenzy with #PrayForWeezy quickly trending worldwide. Love him or hate him, Wayne has a huge following and is one of the most recognizable celebrities in today's entertainment world. TMZ, who is known for it's over-the-top stories and lack of ethics, escalated the situation pretty quickly. As people were still in the dark on what was really happening, TMZ sent out a tweet saying Lil Wayne was now being given his last rites and family was flying in to say their goodbyes. The social media world were shocked as dedicated fans and friends did not know what was going to happen.

Amid TMZ's reports, close friends of Wayne were consistently tweeting that Lil Wayne was fine and was watching basketball on TV.

So Lil Wayne was either on his deathbed in a drug-induced coma or he was relaxing while watching a Syracuse basketball game. Who knows. 

Days continued to pass and there still was very little news on Lil Wayne's condition. TMZ eventually deleted their tweet on Wayne being read his last rites, and it turns out TMZ over-exaggerated the entire situation. No one really know the exact details, but it seems Lil Wayne was diagnosed with epilepsy and is now fine. He released a video to his fans thanking everyone for their support, however, due to the amount of explicatives, I've decided against posting it.

Bottom line, don't believe everything you hear on Twitter.

Doritos Locos Tacos: Cool Ranch Edition

I realize I've begun to get extremely off topic in relation to my blog title, but we're just going to say that's me being edgy and trend-setting. Anyway, I apologize for the late post, but I've got a good reason. A tasty, fantastic reason. You can't rush innovation anyway, right?

For those Taco Bell lovers, I'm sure you've tasted one of those delicious Nacho Cheese Doritos Locos Tacos. Well after several rumors of a new Cool Ranch flavor of these delicious specimens, Taco Bell finally announced a release date. On February 23rd, Taco Bell released this commercial announcing the official date to be Thursday, March 7th.

Exciting right? Well it gets better. Followers and fans of Taco Bell on Twitter and Facebook found out that they could in fact get this pristine taco a day early on Wednesday, March 6th. In fact, Taco Bell personally tweeted back at me to inform me of such an amazing event.

Of course I now was obligated to go and try one... or two. But I settled on three... and I must say, it was incredibly phenomenal. It rivals the Cheesy Gordita Crunch as the best item on the menu. It would just be irresponsible if you did not go try one. Good work Taco Bell, good work.

The Harlem Shake

I'm going to go a little off topic here and talk about the whole Harlem Shake phenomenon that's sweeping the world currently. I'm sure by now you've seen at least one video on YouTube with people dancing ridiculously to the Harlem Shake song by Baauer because there are over 40,000 different versions of it. The videos are around 30 seconds in length and consist of one person dancing to the song alone for about 15 seconds, then it cuts to several people in absurd costumes making strange gestures for the rest of the video. I've seen plenty of things go viral before, but I don't think I've ever seen something get so popular so fast. This fad became famous almost overnight.

It all started on February 2nd with a video uploaded by The Sunny Coast Skate, who are five kids from Australia. 

This video kickstarted the whole Harlem Shake craze. As of February 10th, 4,000 Harlem Shake videos per day were being uploaded. It seemed like every famous person or group you can think of were getting in on the action. Videos were being shared over every social media platform in existence. The online site, Reddit, was a big factor in probably my favorite Harlem Shake video by the UGA swimming team.

The strange part to me is that this song came out almost a year ago, but thanks to five teenagers in Australia, the song is more popular than ever. In my opinion, this video craze will die out just as fast as it became popular. I'd say that by March we won't be hearing too much about the Harlem Shake anymore.

Company Twitter Mishaps

For my third blog post, I'm going to switch it up from the usual celebrity talk and focus more on companies and social media. In this instance, I'm going talk about some of the infamous social media screwups companies make. Social media is a huge part of companies today because customers can connect and interact with the business. Because of this, every single tweet and Facebook status from the company reflects upon their image. The people in charge of posting these things to the Internet must be very careful with their words.

KitchenAid is one of those companies that did not choose their words very wisely over Twitter. During the 2012 presidential election, the official KitchenAid Twitter account decided to discuss politics with its over 20,000 followers.

                           

Whoever runs the account apparently forgot to switch Twitter profiles and instead tweeted a very politically incorrect tweet. I for one have a couple Twitter accounts and sometimes mix them up myself, but one would think to be a cautious tweeter when you're getting paid to do it. KitchedAid quickly apologized, but the damage was done. KitchedAid doesn't like President Obama.

The same thing happened to Chrysler back in 2011. The Chrysler Autos Twitter account thought to take to Twitter one day to profess it's hate for some traffic.

"I find it ironic that Detroit is known as the #motorcity and yet no one here knows how to f***ing drive"

 This F-bomb filled tweet was sent to its 7,000 plus followers. Chrysler apologized as well, but these things don't sit too well with customers, and one mishap like this can ruin your reputation.

Bottom line: think before you tweet/post. Choose your words carefully because one slip up can really damage your brand image and reputation. Social media is great with connecting to people, but make sure whoever runs the social media department is a professional that doesn't tweet stupid things. Your company does not ever want to be in the position that KitchenAid and Chrysler were in.

Kanye West vs. Social Media

For my second post, I'm going to talk about something I briefly touched on in my last post, Kanye West. I'm sure by now everyone has seen the "I'ma let you finish" moment at the 2009 MTV Music Awards that solidified Kanye as the most hated person in America.

I for one think this event helped Taylor more than hurt her but many disagree. Nevertheless, this story was all over blogs and social media sites everywhere for weeks, portraying Mr. West as the enemy.

In this particular case, saying social media is a powerful tool would be a giant understatement. Kanye was crucified on Twitter, blog sites, and media outlets everywhere. His interruption of Taylor quickly racked up views on YouTube and even the President of the United States called him a "jackass." For the next couple of months, Mr. West was completely silent and did his best to hide from the media so this would go away.

Fast forward a couple months into 2010, and we now have Kanye West joining Twitter. How would this be received? Answer: Not great. Kanye would frequently go on rants and tweet absurd things.

People were already looking for anything and everything to bash Kanye, and this just fueled the fire. Kanye was now hated on social media and hated for participating in social media. This is a prime example of what not to do with a Twitter account. After several threats of deleting his Twitter entirely, Mr. West ended up deleting every tweet he has ever had and started fresh. He now rarely ever tweets. Perhaps he's going for that pristine image where he only ever tweets once in a blue moon so when he does, everyone thinks it's a big deal. Or maybe he's scared to tweet. I for one feel bad for the guy. Give him a break. Maybe one day he won't feel the wrath of social media rain down upon him every time he tweets. Probably not, but one can hope.

The Katherine Webb Effect

This is my first attempt at a blog so bare with me as I try and impress you. As a novice blogger, I have decided to discuss a more broad topic; the effect of social media on celebrities. Ever since the creation of Twitter, fans have been able to interact with celebrities easier than ever. This, however, can be a blessing or a curse. Celebrities have been known to go on crazed rants over their Twitter accounts that followers criticize them for. Take Kanye West for example...

Back in May, Kanye went on a rant of all the things he hates ranging from khaki cargo shorts to button up shirts with hoodies. Classic. Twitter however can be a blessing for those celebrities who take advantage of the moment. Take Charlie Sheen for example... 

Following his fallout with "Two and a Half Men," Charlie Sheen became insanely popular for his quotes in interviews, most notably, "Winning." He was able to gain over 1 million followers in 24 hours and now has a new TV show "Anger Management." He is indeed #winning.

This brings us to the most recent Twitter celebrity that's all the craze. Katherine Webb. Or as most people know her, AJ McCarron's girlfriend. During the biggest night of college football, all the attention was turned to Ms. Webb who was flashed for maybe 20 seconds on TV. That was enough. And so was Brent Musburger's creepy commentary. 

She quickly gained over 100,000 new followers and was the topic of everyone's conversations the next day. What else has she gained? A spot on a new reality TV show "Celebrity Diving." Why can't these things happen to me? 

Like Charlie Sheen, Twitter and other social media forms have propelled Katherine Webb's career into a whole other dimension, in a good way. Be like AJ McCarron's girlfriend. Take advantage of the spotlight and use social media to excel yourself.