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 Introduced in May of 2000, The Lowbrow Lowdown has had a long run -- over 100 columns in a span of 7 years. The column and website was created and produced solely by Kate Kaye with the intent of analyzing and irreverently poking fun at advertisers, marketers and their creations. The result: an opinionated, contemplative sometimes goofy, sometimes provocative collection of thoughts touching on a wide array of subjects from politics and pop-culture to literature and history. The Lowbrow Lowdown was written purely as a labor of love, with an excess of alliteration and puns, and never, ever advertising support. Unlike the surfeit of immediate, reactive punditry cluttering the Web, The Lowbrow Lowdown took time and forethought to produce. Hey, it could have used a decent writer with half a brain, but you can't win 'em all.... As of May 2007, the author -- one who writes about and talks to advertisers, marketers and ad industry types for a living -- is just plain uninspired when it comes to writing about this stuff in her free time. She'd much, much rather be watching, listening to or writing about baseball. So, this li'l word-smithy is closed indefinitely. Please peruse the extensive Lowbrow Lowdown archives, read Sales Pitch Society, or look for Kate on her Punk Rock Kitchen blog, or on ClickZ News where she covers the online advertising industry as a full-time reporter and editor. Thanks for reading! 
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2.27.07 Public Brandsportation -- OR -- Citizen Monikers 
"Did you just say something about hay-ah?"(That's Jersey City for "hair.") "I thought I just overheard you two talking about hair." The exuberant chick in front of me on the #80 bus barged into a conversation these other two chicks across from me were having. To ask them about hair. "Have you ever heard of Tangles-Be-Gone?" she squealed. "It works great. If you get a lotta tangles, you just put it in your hair at night and it doesn't leave no goo or nothing. I use it all the time." No way. Could she be pitching this hair gunk as part of some word-of-mouth marketing effort? Or is this chick just really into this stuff? I held my newspaper up, pretending I was still reading. The product demo continued. Then genuine gratitude from the two interrupted riders. Crazy hair lady blurted out the name of another product. Directions to a beauty supply place followed. Then, more thank-yous. If the hair lady has a blog where she's written about the marvels of Tangles-Be-Gone, or if she's uploaded a video displaying the cracked fingernail extension that was torn while she struggled to pop the product's flip-up cap, she's what the authors of "Citizen Marketers" would call a "1 Percenter." They'd call her that 'cause she's a rebel, like the gnarly biker dudes who call themselves 1 Percenters. The story goes, 99 percent of motorcycle riders are model citizens just lookin' for some good, clean weekend fun. The remaining 1 percent are badasses who like to stir shit up. Here's how Jackie Huba and Ben McConnell, authors of "Citizen Marketers: When People are the Message," put it in an interview with tech entrepreneur Guy Kawasaki: "Our research for the book led us to create the 1% Rule, which states that about 1 percent of a site's total number of visitors will create content for it. The 1 Percenters flout cultural conventions. Americans love rebels, therefore the 1 Percenters often become the influencers of American culture." Hey - like Britney! The marketing duo refers to 1 Percenters like the dude who's built an online shrine to some Italian notebook brand, and the one who worships McDonalds, and the other guy who runs a Web community for Mini Cooper lovers out of the geekiness of his heart. Leave it to marketers to attribute the same social relevance of a radical counter culture to a bunch of dorks with nothing better to do than create websites dedicated to reviving some defunct soda brand. If the real 1 Percenters knew their identities had been co-opted to label brand slaves, the next Word of Mouth Marketing Association conference would end up like Altamont. Huba and McConnell say they coined the "citizen marketer" term in 2005. Since then, it's been embraced by marketers who like to think of themselves as brand abolitionists paving the way for some consumer rights movement. In his 2/19 Media Centric column in Business Week, Jon Fine employs the "citizen marketing" and "citizen advertising," monikers "instead of the excruciating 'consumer-generated advertising' and 'consumer-generated marketing.' " Hey, I don't appreciate the notion that we're all mere consumers, either. But in the case of people creating content centered around stuff they can buy, if they ain't consumers, what are they? As I wrote in Sales Pitch Society II, "swapping 'citizen' for what's more appropriate in this case, "consumer," is disingenuous. It paints WOM [Word of Mouth] marketing in a non-commercial light, positioning it as some kind of civic service. There's a righteous sense of patriotic duty implied, a calling. I picture the brave citizen marketer hoisting a flag emblazoned with the Coca Cola logo, or lowering it when he sees his friend drinking Pepsi." Leave it to marketers to equate the importance of civic engagement with making a YouTube video touting the wonders of the Toilet Duck. There's no question that the Web and simple publishing and social media tools afford people in some cases to have a bigger impact on companies and their brands than ever before. In that way, I'll admit it's all somewhat revolutionary. Hence, it comes as no surprise that marketers -- who are wont to pounce on cultural shifts and label them -- think of the folks supposedly leading the movement as rebels. Applying the 1 Percenter appellation to people who devote endless hours to brand worship (or criticism) engenders a hip, renegade quality on them, and also gives them a false sense of empowerment. But in reality, Huba and McConnell are convincing marketers that those so-called revolutionaries, the outsiders who refuse to be pegged or kowtow to The Man, can be turned into brand believers and prodded into recruiting more believers. They say it themselves on their book's site: "When customers are truly thrilled about their experience with your product or service, they can become outspoken 'evangelists' for your company. This group of satisfied believers can be converted into a potent marketing force to grow your universe of customers." Leave it to marketers to insist we'll be empowered by helping them sell us a bill of goods. Send this issue of The Lowbrow Lowdown to a friend!
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