Good lordy, the way MySpace is sometimes portrayed you'd be forgiven for thinking that it was hell on earth - sucking in the world's bogeymen like a black hole. This week's Economist reports that it's where paedophiles spend their lives grooming the underage, al-Qaeda communicate plans about world domination, Playboy recruit topless models and - prepare yourself - teenagers are rude about their teachers! Luckily, the advertising community are making themselves available to steer brands through this quagmire of filth. David Cohen, a grand fromage at Universal McCann says he, "wouldn't be caught dead in that kind of environment". Mystifyingly, he goes onto say that when he does recommend it, he tells clients to stick to the bits that News Corporation have built and not to go anywhere near the, "unpredictable, user-generated, content". (Presumably because that's where the terrorists, paedophiles and Hugh Hefner hang out). Furthermore, Cohen says...
...if he really, really, really has to use it, then he has negotiated a
way for his clients to get out very
quickly in case something unspeakable happens. "We can be out of there in a
heartbeat", he says before going onto clarify that
he actually means two days. (Nice one Dave, what could possibly happen
in 48 hours on one of the world's largest networked communities).
Anyway, that's much quicker than the normal two weeks it takes
advertisers who have stumbled into MyCessPit without the expert
guidance of Mr Cohen. Phew! Meanwhile, the tiny proportion of MySpace
residents who aren't axe-wielding psychopaths go ahead organising
political campaigns to stop legislation about immigration that they
feel is a bit unfair. But, let's face it, they're probably up to
something horribly, evil really. ;-)
Comments