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| “No Kidding”, by BaubCat |
If I was a new media guru, I’d be listing the lessons we can learn from Harold Camping and his campaign to convince the world that it was ending.
If I was a marketing maven, I’d be calling him a bit of a genius. I’d say he demonstrates the power of one man with one idea to convince many people it’s a good one. I’d probably use the word “viral” somewhere.
If I was a change agent rockstar, I’d applaud his willingness to stick with that idea, even after it demonstrably proved inconsistent with reality several times. He even made millions of dollars doing it.
A social media douchebag would be preaching the successes of Camping’s failure.
But see, people who want to spread their idea can do better than that. First of all, they can have an idea that doesn’t kill people and isn’t batshit insane. More importantly, there are better ways to draw attention than appealing to the worst aspects of human motivation. Getting publicity for doomsday predictions is no better than for whipping out your tits. Of course people are going to notice; people are built to chase sex and avoid death.
Not all publicity is good publicity. Gaining a following for taking the easy route to promoting a bad idea isn’t good publicity; it’s kinda evil publicity. So can we all stop falling for this sleazy stunt and ignore the douchebag next time?
Phronk.com 
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