Amnesty International “Protect the Human” project has gone to some interesting lengths to promote its cause for human rights. It’s even employed shock tactics to drive traffic to its website. However, one of its recent campaigns pokes fun at the DRTV industry.

As an industry that’s had its battles with credibility, many direct response marketers try hard every day to improve our collective image. This is one of the main reasons ERA (formally NIMA) was founded in the first place!

Does this sort of joke offend you? Or, are you flattered that an international cause would use a faux live shopping segment to promote its agenda?

Pat Cauley, eMedia editor, Electronic Retailer Magazine

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Never would I have thought that something in my office would happen today that would be more entertaining than what the guys at CollegeHumor.com came up with in the post below. But, here’s my story…

As you may know, Electronic Retailer magazine is based in Southern California. However, I work out of ERA’s D.C. office. I often get mail for my California co-workers at the ERA address and I simply put it in another envelope and send it on. Earlier today, my co-worker Stephanie came into my office and placed a FedEx box on my desk addressed to our executive editor, Tom Dellner. I e-mailed Tom and told him I had a package here and asked him if he wanted me to open it and see what it was, or simply send it along in another FedEx box. Tom told me he wasn’t expecting any mail, that it was probably a press kit, and that I should just open it and make a judgment call.

As I’m opening the FedEx box, I hear my co-workers chatting down the hall. I walk into Robin Greenspan’s noisy office while slowly opening up the box. As I look inside, I see a red bag with hearts all over it. I realize it’s a personal item and my face begins to blush a bit. Everyone in the room starts asking me what it is, as my co-worker Stephanie blurts out, “It’s for Tom.” That’s where the trouble begins.

“It’s a gift!”

“Tom sent you a gift?”

“Tom Dellner??”

“Is Tom gay?! I thought he was married??”

“Is Tom having an affair?!”

Avoiding the awkward questions, I rush back to my office with Stephanie to look up Tom’s home address and ship it out ASAP. While trying to move the contents from one FedEx box to another, I see an order form that reads “Fuzzy Handcuffs,” right as Stephanie pulls them out to place in the new box. Not being able to fathom that things had escalated to handcuffs, our co-worker Christy walks by, sees our astonishment, and demands that we tell her what else was in the bag.

Acknowledging that things couldn’t get much worse, I pull out the order form and much to my surprise, a note was attached to it from a company called Quova. “Hello Tom. Relax. Don’t panic. It’s just a joke. We at Quova just wanted to send you a nice little Valentine’s Day surprise we knew would grab your attention.” The note goes on to talk about Quova’s expertise in online data security and privacy. Congratulations to Quova—your guerilla marketing tactics mortified me and certainly got our attention and disrupted our entire office.

Oh, and don’t think I wasn’t above putting the gift bag on Barbara Tulipane’s desk while she was out to lunch with a note that read, “From Your Office Crush- XOXO.”

Pat Cauley, eMedia editor, Electronic Retailer Magazine

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At a conference two weeks ago, I had the unique pleasure of hearing Ricky Van Veen, co-founder and editor-in-chief of CollegeHumor.com, speak about engaging users and developing ad platforms. Van Veen started CollegeHumor.com as a freshman at Wake Forest and by 2006, Barry Diller was knocking down his door to buy the site. Now part of the IAC family, CollegeHumor continues to engage its users on an interactive, participatory level. “Everyone forgets that viewing videos on TV is a passive activity, but viewing videos online is an active activity,” said Van Veen, acknowledging the delicate balancing act of mixing online entertainment with brands and advertising.

During his keynote, Van Veen said he has monetized CollegeHumor by starting a t-shirt company (BustedTees), which sells shirts on the site. He also tries to entice brand advertisers, but most importantly, he likes being upfront with his audience- letting them know that they’re being advertised to. Van Veen thinks the Internet content world is heading toward the migration of advertising budgets and big talent. Can anyone say Budweiser and Will Ferrell?

While discussing online videos, Van Veen talked of an inter-office prank-rivalry between two employees, Amir and Streeter. He then shared this hilarious video with attendees. I thought it might be fitting for a cheap laugh. Happy Valentine’s Day!

Pat Cauley, eMedia Editor, Electronic Retailer Magazine

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At a time when attention is being shared among various media avenues, traditional television advertising has to try very hard to reach consumers. The writer’s strike certainly hasn’t helped their plight either. However, every year there’s one media television event where an advertiser is guaranteed to reach a huge audience. During the Super Bowl, consumers not only watch the commercials, but they watch them very closely. This year’s Super Bowl was the highest rated broadcast in the game’s history. But which ad made the biggest impression?

According to Media Post’s Search Insider, this year’s Super Bowl drew an estimated 97.5 million viewers and was the second most-watched TV program ever (next to the final episode of “MASH”). They found that 64 percent of Super Bowl advertisers included a website in their ad; however, just 12 percent of the ads actually called out the advertisers’ websites in the voiceover.

E-Trade Financial had the biggest impact on viewers, according to TiVo, which put together a list by using aggregated, anonymous, second-by-second audience measurement data about how TiVo subscribers watched the game.

Are you surprised by TiVo’s findings regarding the E-Trade Financial ad? Which ad was your favorite?

And on a personal note, as a Pittsburgh Steelers’ fan, thank you to the New York Giants for ruining the Patriots’ perfect season!

Pat Cauley, eMedia Editor, Electronic Retailer Magazine

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The tragic and untimely death of actor Heath Ledger actually has some serious implications in the media and advertising world. Not only must his death make Warner Bros. executives scratch their heads about how to move forward with the viral marketing campaign for the upcoming “Dark Knight” Batman film, which stars with Ledger as “The Joker,” but even President Bush is halting a prescription drug abuse ad campaign.

Set to launch tonight from the Roosevelt Room, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino was quoted as saying, “We thought it would be better to postpone the event rather than run the risk of anyone thinking that we were being opportunistic in highlighting the issue.” According to recent a Wall Street Journal article, Ledger’s Joker was the central theme to the movie’s viral marketing campaign, ranging from the online site and games to the actual poster for the film.

Since the viral marketing article I wrote for our September 2007 issue was published, I can think of two recent examples where viral marketing has shown its strength. Office Max’s ‘Elf Yourself’ campaign increased the site’s traffic more than tenfold from last year as 26.4 million Americans interacted with the brand this holiday season. The latter example is the marketing genius behind the advertising for the new thriller “Cloverfield.” Mixing Blair Witch tactics with a Hollywood budget, “Cloverfield” has kept audiences guessing what the film is even about.

The less is more, push-to-the-web approach proved hugely successful for the film as it broke MLK weekend box-office records, making $41 million. This proves how important the details of a marketing campaign can be to the success of a film.

If you were an advertising executive at Warner Bros., how would you handle Heath Ledger’s death as it ties to their Batman brand and upcoming film?

Pat Cauley, eMedia Editor, Electronic Retailer Magazine

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Things sure have changed a lot in the past 12 years. I can remember like it was yesterday standing at a pay phone near the field where I played little league baseball. I proudly dropped my quarter into the slot and dialed the 800 number I had written down on a little piece of crumpled up paper. I pressed the number corresponded to the color blue and the rest was history. It would soon be revealed that I had voted with the majority of Americans, 54 percent to be exact, in deciding the new M&M color. With over 10 million votes cast, blue won in a landslide over pink, purple or no change. Being just a kid, I couldn’t help but think that I had a huge impact on making the new M&M blue. That’s the brilliance of a successfully executed marketing campaign.

This is all somewhat ironic now, first and foremost because M&M’s don’t differ in taste depending on color, but also because of the way in which I interacted with the campaign. A recent L.A. Times report revealed that AT&T plans to phase out its pay phone business by the end of ’08. Additionally, a kid today would probably never fathom having to write down an 800 number on a piece of paper, but instead would be asked to text a quick code to vote for something or log onto a website. This all came to me when a current television commercial asked consumers to help create the next Mountain Dew. The “Dewmocracy” campaign asks consumers to join the movement, play games, and take a journey with fellow consumers as they develop teams eventually leading to a new flavor, color, name, logo, label, and tagline for the next Mountain Dew. This innovative campaign is a far cry from pressing 1 for blue. Only time will tell if it will be a success.

Dewmocracy Site

Do you think the Mountain Dew campaign will take off? Are there any recent interactive marketing campaigns that you’ve been impressed with?

Pat Cauley, eMedia editor, Electronic Retailer Magazine

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My mother always told me that it was inappropriate to discuss religion and politics. I thus find it fascinating that when she’s not talking about the Pittsburgh Steelers, she’s usually discussing those two very topics. As a current resident of Washington, D.C., I’m beginning to see how crazy things are going to get here over the next year. With MySpace’s primary, the Iowa Caucus and the New Hampshire Primary all taking place in the past few days, I thought it may be the right time to throw my hat into the ring of one of the two unmentionable topics: politics.

Social media has become an increasingly important issue within each of the campaigns for the presidency. Howard Dean’s grass root Internet fundraising that raised eyebrows in ’04 is today an integral part of each candidate’s campaign. Just by browsing through their separate websites, I found a space on each page for citizens to get involved with the candidate on a social media level—whether it be through Facebook, MySpace, YouTube, Linkedin, Flickr, etc. But, as most blogs and pundits continue to discuss what the Internet’s impact on politics will be, I’d like to ask perhaps a much more important question: What will politics’ impact be on the Internet?

Net Neutrality is one of ERA’s most important advocacy issues on Capitol Hill. Preserving a free and open Internet, as opposed to a two-tiered system controlled by the telecoms, is vital to the Internet’s thriving e-commerce. If you don’t think it’s a big deal, perhaps you haven’t heard that Comcast was recently caught interfering with Internet traffic. Of the major candidates in both parties, only Democrat Barack Obama’s website tackles this very important issue. Under “Issues,” he has a section devoted entirely to technology, while other candidates make no mention. Of the Republican candidates, Mike Huckabee has shown promising signs of favoring Net Neutrality. Perhaps our fellow Americans in Iowa had electronic retailers in mind as they braved near-freezing temperatures to make Obama and Huckabee the victors. Where were you New Hampshire? Forget gay marriage and Iraq, your bottom line may be at stake depending on the outcome of this year’s election!

I’d ask for your thoughts, but I’m sure that you know better than to discuss politics…right?

Pat Cauley, eMedia editor, Electronic Retailer Magazine

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Even though influential celebrity gossip blogger Perez Hilton has for the moment decided to abandon the video file-sharing site YouTube, everyone in the industry can agree that the site has certainly changed the game. In fact, search engine juggernaut Google thought it was worth $1.65 billion. As we start 2008, and in honor of 2007, please enjoy the most watched YouTube video of the past year:

Battle in the Kruger, though quite long by YouTube standards, garnered 21.7 million views. Viral marketing experts frequently say that humor is the driving force behind sharing videos.

Does it surprise you that this was the most watched video?

Pat Cauley, eMedia editor, Electronic Retailer Magazine

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Growing up I had the pleasure of attending both public and Catholic school. I went to public school for kindergarten through third grade, and switched to Catholic school from third grade through high school. In second grade, I recall crystal-clear memories of coloring in pictures of dreidels and menorahs for Hanukkah along with Christmas trees and stars. What a difference a year makes.

It’s 1993 and I’m sitting in an uncomfortable desk as Sister Mary Clifford commands attention from the front of the classroom. “Sparkle Season,” is all she could muster from her mouth as a tight grimace formed across her face. She took a deep breath, and then explained to us that she was disgusted with the city of Pittsburgh for its crusade against Christmas with the marketing campaign for Sparkle Season. My holiday run-ins didn’t stop there. I still remember being on student council in 8th grade, planning for the big school dance. Since it was in October, one would think that a Halloween theme was an obvious route. Well, not for our bishop. That year, I had a great time dancing to the Macarena at our “Fall Harvest.” Avoiding Halloween decorations like the plague at Party City became somewhat of a laborious task. It seemed fickle to me that they’d want to control the marketing messages of retailers for one holiday, while completely striking another from the record books.

Don’t get me wrong, I loved my Catholic school upbringing as much as the next guilty-conscious Catholic you know, but all these debates about how retailers should configure their December marketing tactics are getting old. The statement “Happy Holidays” does not personally offend me much like “Merry Christmas” does not offend my good Jewish friend Molly. When groups like the American Family Association and the Catholic League decided to boycott Wal-Mart when it changed its greeting to Happy Holidays, one can see the economic impact these decisions can have on a retailer’s bottom line. The following year, Wal-Mart’s advertising was back touting the “reason for the season,” as it switched to Merry Christmas. Could everyone just lighten up and enjoy the CHRISTMAS YouTube video at the top of this post?

Do you think it’s fair that marketers must walk the tight rope of including all Americans while trying not to offend Bill O’Reilly?

-Pat