Oh what the heck, is it too late to catch the bandwagon?

So while it would probably be more worth while to write about the: Vatican's new laws, Avandia drug, BP's capping success (they really need a sarcasm emoticon) or Cowboys defending their way of life, instead the series of Old Spice commercials and the social media phenomenon that it has become is what these manly words shall be devoted to.

If you don't follow twitter, facebook, or read the news then you may not have heard of this feat of social media marketing and the popularity of the Old Spice Manly Man.

The often random commercials combined with the over the top machismo portrayed by former Football player Isaiah Mustafa became the most popular videos on youtube, though the real genius of the advertising campaign is the interaction with consumers.

After the first series of commercials were produced they used twitter and facebook to 'tweet and retweet' the videos while targeting celebrities and popular accounts that had large followings. They then posted video responses to questions that users had 'tweeted' or posted on their facebook page.

Even a few celebrities got in on the fun, the interactivity and hilarious videos caught the attention of the mainstream news and well... that darn bandwagon got pretty darn full.

So, what is the point in commenting on this? Not much really, while one does have to admire the skill in which this advertising campaign was compiled and it does demonstrate the proper use of social media to get a 'message' out - it is just another way to sell something to consumers.

Sure the whole this is entertaining, heck I am on a mission to eventually watch all these hilarious vids at some point, however it also shows just how shallow social media is. While the media will heap praise on the campaign for its genius (ie success - if it had flopped there wouldn't have been one word of the 'genius'), it also shows that entertainment is still the driving force of information in this age.

To be fair, social media has been used to highlight issues, unfortunately is more of an 'after the fact' event that cannot really be used to prevent problems at this point. If we lived in an ideal world (a hilarious hope I know), social media would be a way of keeping informed of topics so as to prevent harm to the public interest. For example, say if social media was used to provide accurate information before the second Gulf War, or highlight the safety cutbacks at BP as well as growing conflicts within the MMS so that a public outcry might have ensured action before there was every an oil spill to talk about.

As it stands Social Media is just a recycling centre for old ideas and marketing gimmicks, people will see something interesting and post, comment and like. There really isn't anything wrong with that, I just wish people would stop treating the 'Social media' as some great advancement in our society, it really isn't that great for society - marketing maybe, society no.