Internet hijinx move at the speed of high school gossip

I often wonder how internet phenoms begin, and how things travel around the internet so quickly. As an interactive researcher, I spend most of my day on the web, and I come across so much of the craziness that makes web 2.0 go 'round. Today's gem... well, like most day's gems, I'm not sure exactly where it came from. But it's causing quite an uproar.


This photo montage of President Obama throwing a snowball (presumably) at a cat has caused furious cries, from cat lovers who believe it's real, and demands that PETA be called immediately. It has also caused a stir among Obama adversaries who feel it adds justification to their cause.

Of course there is a large camp out there (myself included) who believe that this whipped together to cause precisely the stir it is causing now. Let's go to the numbers: Reddit is showing nearly 400 responses to this photo, BuzzFeed is showing over 6,000 views and it has been "Dugg" over 8,000 times on Digg. Do you think we'll get an official presidential statement?

UPDATE: The snowball photos seem to be from December sometime. The cat addition is fairly recent.

Pepsi hearts the Obama Generation, but do they heart Pepsi back?

PepsiCo has been making big waves this month in the blogosphere with design overhauls for three of their largest brands. There's a lot of negativity about Tropicana's new minimalist design, and Gatorade's new Sesame Street- looking getup. This bottle of Gatorade is brought to you by a lightening bolt, and the letter "G." Says one DieLine.com commentor, "I saw this and immediately thought of Super Grover from Sesame Street."'

But the most buzz has gone to the new look for Pepsi, and their "Refresh Everything" campaign, which includes a logo that looks a lot like Obama's. The logo has even been grouped, by the New York Times, with "Obamabilia," merchandise that shows or references the President-Elect in order to generate sales.

So is PepsiCo trying to follow Obama's footsteps and gain grassroots popularity? Are they reaching out to America's youth? They sure are. Pepsi has created a cutesy video full of celebs, calling on "YOU" to film an open letter to President-Elect Obama, and upload it to their YouTube Channel, which currently has 44 videos and a mere 352 subscribers. The Jonas Brothers Channel has 421,646 subscribers.

So if Pepsi is not wildly popular on YouTube, what about on the Facebook? During Obama's campaign, he had widespread support across Facebook, including groups, events, applications, and mentions in profiles, posted items, and blog posts.

Facebook's Pages feature allows users and companies to create a page dedicated to a product/organization/person/etc., and then allows users to become fans. Users can also search to see which pages have the most fans, overall or by category. So who has the most fans of any page on Facebook? Barack Obama, with over 3 million fans. Coca-Cola is in at number three with over 2 million fans, but Pepsi does not even appear to have an official page. A search of Pages brings up fan pages for a few of the Pepsi varieties (Max, Crystal) but none for the soft drink itself. Clearly, they are not capitalizing the way the Obama campaign did. Even Captain C.B. Sully Sullenberger has a fan page, (with over 24,000 fans!!!) and he's only been famous for less than a day!

So, if Pepsi is serious about riding the Obama wave to become the new All-American cola, they need to get to the heart of Obama's success: Change you can believe in. Can a campaign called "Refresh Everything" really convince consumers that Pepsi is any different than the soda that's been trailing Coke in US sales for years? If it could, wouldn't Pepsi be riding in between Obama and Coca-Cola in Facebook popularity, instead of who is there now? D'oh!

How did America Watch the Election Unfold?

On October 15th, the Seattle Times reported that Puget Sound area eateries experienced a surge in business during the presidential debates. In New York City, residents crowded bars and cheered as if the candidates were sports teams. On the morning after the election, we wonder, how did Americans pass the election night?

Facebook showed over 500 public results for “Election Party”

On Gather, members congregated and posted live while the results were unfolding.

On CafeMom, users shared election night games to play with their families.

Windows Live Space had little ocnversation about election night

A number of bloggers reported that they went to a bar or restaurant specifically to watch the election unfold.

I went to a bar that was holding an election party featuring CNN and r&b remixes of obama speeches, and the people in there were all cheering and jeering at the big screen with the vote count. (Female, 20s, Chelmsford, MA)

Several friends met at Stubbies to drink beer, eat German sausages, and watch the election returns. (Male, 39, Gainesville, FL)

I'm really glad I went out to Real Art Ways tonight to watch the election results, with a group of all races, young and old. (Female, 30s, Ellington, CT)

Shel and I watched the election at Neumos--a fairly large bar on Capitol Hill--crammed in with about a thousand other Obama supporters. (Male, 30s, Seattle, WA)

There were also many reports of people gathering at home to watch the results with friends.

There were happy riots of people all up and down frat row. My house, all 40 people, happily gathered into a bundle at the end of the long dining room table, where we'd been gathered to watch the election, and we all screamed. Then everyone got whatever alcohol they owned and poured everyone shots. We all cheered and took them. (Male, 20s, College student)

William, Neek and Chuck came over, we watched election returns and cooking shows and noshed on bagna cauda, hoping the night would turn out well. (Male, 30s, Wisconsin)

I watched the election results on ABC at Antoine's place, with Creighton and Carolyn, and The Hammer. I like being on my laptop when election results are reported so that I can check more local results. (Female, 22, Wisconsin)

Some bloggers reported watching the results at home alone, or with significant others.

Headed home and put on ABC to watch the election coverage, then switched to Comedy Central to watch Futurama and South Park, and then the Daily Show/Colbert Report election special, while still switching back to ABC for updates. (Male, 25, Philadelphia, PA)

Overall, election seemed to be a social event among bloggers. A majority of those who blogged about their election night plans reported to have marked the occasion with some level of social activity, whether at their own home with friends or family or out on the town.