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The “What’s Hot” Plug-in for Google’s new Sidebar tool automatically generates a list of what is most “popular” on the web. Google doesn’t say what criteria the “What’s Hot” titles are based on. They are obviously keeping their own interests in mind with the insertion of titles like “Google Sets Tongues Wagging with Talk.” It is interesting what you can do when you control the means to information. Anyway, I deleted this little propaganda machine.
Google has a reputation for clearly separating advertising from information content. Are the waters going to get a little muddy going forward?
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I was deeply disturbed on Friday when I read The Washington Post article about President Bush’s support for teaching intelligent design in public schools as an alternative to evolution. Roll back the clocks to 1925 and prepare for another round of Scopes trials, because that is where President Bush is taking us.
Yes, it seems that reason and science are losing out to mysticism and religion these days, but the interesting question from a marketing perspective is, why?
How did there come to be a “debate” between scientifically researched and established evolutionary theory, and intelligent design, “a cleverly marketed effort to introduce religious — especially Christian — thinking to students.”
Seth Godin offers an excellent analysis of how this “debate” came to be in his cleverly named post, “Gravity is not just a good idea…“. Seth’s answer is that intelligent design offers a compelling story that resolves difficult questions and conflicts, so people are likely to believe it regardless of the facts. The scary fact about human nature is that we are more compelled by a good story than they are by the truth.
Unfortunately, science with its burden of proof can not make the same sweeping claims that can be made by the mythology of intelligent design, so from a marketing perspective evolution enters the “debate” at a serious disadvantage.
Science and reason have offered a good story for the past 400 years and slowly chipped away at mysticism, but I’m not so sure that this enlightenment can last for the next 400 years.
We marketers should be asking ourselves some questions about how to deal with the pop-culture mythology that we have so proudly created. Capturing human lust and desire, and inspiring faith is our job, but maybe we have succeeded too well. Truth, reason, and science need some consumer evangelists these days. Any takers.
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Dear Byron,
I just read " On the Web, Fearlessness Meets Frivolousness by Sarah Boxer, and I am wondering where she is coming from in saying the following about werenotafraid.com.
“We’re Not Afraid, set up to show solidarity with London, seems to be turning into a place where the haves of the world can show that they’re not afraid of the have-nots.”
I read the article and visited the website thinking that I was going to see some hideous displays of hedonism. I am no fan of the largess I see in New York and around the world. However, all I found on the website was a bunch of goofy pictures and people having fun.
Sure, werenotafraid.com is a little defiant, that’s its purpose, to say, "We Live!" in the face of death and destruction.
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Interesting contest from Contagious Media Turns up interesting rules of Meme propogation on the internet in a 22 day contest to create the most popular website from scratch.
