Yahoo! offering questionable fashion advice

Purple

Microsoft has Bill Gates and Jerry Seinfeld. Will Yahoo! soon put Jerry Yang and Prince in its commercials? That's not much of a lead, but I'm reeling from Yahoo!'s "Start wearing purple" push and can't seem to think straight. Purple, Price's favorite color, supposedly symbolizes innovation. In Yahoo!'s new campaign, it looks shag-rug ugly. Online copy reads: "Go ahead. Take the road less traveled. Zig when others zag. Wear purple after Labor Day. Be you with Yahoo!" And it gets worse when you click through to content such as "spontaneous purple happenings directed by New York comedian Charlie Todd." This stuff makes Bill and Jerry's antics seem like Shakespeare. It's a put-on, right? A so-bad-it's-good attempt that, sadly, really is just so bad? I wish Microsoft would buy Yahoo! just to get this stuff off the Web. The way the markets are heading, Yang and his crew better take whatever deal they can get before a whole lotta green slides off the table for good.

—Posted by David Gianatasio

September 16, 2008 in Gianatasio, Search, Yahoo | Permalink

Comments

Feed You can follow this conversation by subscribing to the comment feed for this post.


It's called a lede.

Posted by: Emil | Sep 16, 2008 10:12:12 AM

It seems that the practice of using a jingle if you don't have an idea has become, use an already popular song for your campaign instead. At least this one isn't by Iggy Pop. It's a little creepy, this new form of brand hijacking by way of corporate affiliation to a successful song. And "Start Wearing Purple" by Gogol Bordello is an obscenely successful song that's already about four years old. The original video for it on YouTube has had nearly 2 million views. That's them (I think) and their version of the song in the Yahoo! piece.

This info from Wikipedia: The song and variations thereof can be heard throughout the 2005 movie Everything Is Illuminated. The song is also the unofficial theme song of the Baltimore Ravens.

So, how do the Ravens fans feel about this move by Yahoo!?

And what the hell was anyone thinking when they (um) greenlit this otherwise 80s throwback hideous thing?

Posted by: Marc Arsenault | Sep 16, 2008 1:19:21 PM


Post a comment





The opinions expressed in comments are those of the individual poster. They do not necessarily reflect the views of Adweek or Nielsen Business Media. Comments of a promotional nature or comments that are otherwise inappropriate may be removed.
 
© 2009 Nielsen Business Media, Inc. All rights reserved.
Terms Of Use and Privacy Policy.