Gawker: valleywag, celebrities

Twitter No Longer All About the Art

Hamilton Nolan — Thu, 19 Mar 2009 11:57:04 EDT

Marcelo Tas is a Brazilian TV host described as "a tropical version of...Jon Stewart." But you could also describe him as "the first celebrity to trick a company into paying him for bullshit on Twitter."

Marcelo is pioneering the world of paid endorsements—on Twitter! Everything is different now. Here's how it works: people watch Marcelo on TV; they think he's funny and interesting; they follow him on Twitter; then, when he bizarrely busts out and recommends a specific new fiber optic internet service there, in Brazil, they'll all buy it, because hey, it's Marcelo!

In his first tweet mentioning Telefónica's service, Mr. Tas told his followers about a recent promotional event he hosted in São Paulo. "Xtreme event was fun, informative and full of insights," he wrote. "I loved it!"

We congratulate Mr. Tas on his new, creative way of soaking a corporation for its marketing budget. He should have gone into branding. [WSJ]

Outrage: Apple Continues To Mock Microsoft!

Hamilton Nolan — Mon, 20 Oct 2008 12:36:12 EDT

Oooh, ad war escalation! You remember how Microsoft got so mad about Apple's ads that they had to run out and spend $300 million on a fancy ad campaign consisting of Mac lovers declaring their love for PCs, as well as celebrities doing things seemingly unrelated to computers. Meanwhile Apple has just been sitting back chuckling, and now they've released a new ad making fun of Microsoft's ad spending. Which is too insidery, but very entertaining to people forced to write about ad campaigns. Apple's only problem: the people who buy PCs, such as myself, don't even know what this "Vista" thing is. (If we knew about computer things we would have bought a better one!). I imagine that Microsoft grows ever more apoplectic, though. Full ad below:

Microsoft: Saving Itself With Celebrities Galore?

Hamilton Nolan — Thu, 21 Aug 2008 14:56:08 EDT

This morning we learned that Microsoft had selected the $10 million spokesman to revive its uncool brand: Vintage Mac aficionado Jerry Seinfeld. The collective response could be summed up as, "Really, him?" But Seinfeld may be just be one small part of the Microsoft coolness project! Fishbowl LA is reporting that the company's ad wizard and diet book author Alex Bogusky is considering lots of other celebrities for the campaign to help convince you that Vista is a smart buy. The (real) list of those purportedly under consideration:

Vagina-touting comedian Sarah Silverman!

Weed-burning singer Willie Nelson!

Motorcycle-riding person Travis Pastrana!

Laid-back actor of sorts Matthew McConaughey!

Hopeless politico Ralph Nader!

Mockery specialists Rob Cordrry and Stephen Colbert!

Deceased jokester Bernie Mac!

Sounds like a fine plan.

[Tina Dupuy at FBLA]

Techmeme founder Gabe Rivera's new WeSmirch...

Paul Boutin — Thu, 11 Oct 2007 10:01:00 EDT

Techmeme founder Gabe Rivera's new WeSmirch Leaderboard repurposes the software that runs his technology A-list to track the top 100 celebrity gossip sites. WeSmirch replaces boring TechCrunch and The New York Times with the far more salacious TMZ and New York Post. Skimming for Britney videos turns out to be a lot like surfing geek blogs. You remember she used to get you all excited; now you only stick around for the next trainwreck.

Chad Hurley isn't a king, he's just Diddy

Nick Douglas — Tue, 10 Oct 2006 14:03:03 EDT

In a video announcement, YouTube's founders referred to its purchase by Google as "two kings are coming together." Cocky? Not really — they were just making a Sean Combs Burger King joke.

See? Even the salt and pepper's in there. Even if Chad Hurley and Steve Chen really are dicks, they're not crowning themselves royalty. They're just comparing themselves to a superstar entertainment mogul who sold out to a fast food joint. And isn't that what they are?

Diddy TV is on. [YouTube]
Earlier: Chad Hurley we want your babies (and Gawker doesn't mean what it said) [Valleywag]

Yahoo's CEO was a Scientologist sympathizer

Nick Douglas — Wed, 04 Oct 2006 10:00:00 EDT

Is it a coincidence that Yahoo invited two Scientologists to its campus this year? First, CEO Terry Semel arm-wrestled Tom Cruise. Then, Beck (who quietly acknowledges his faith in L. Ron Hubbard) played a concert at Yahoo Hack Day. Is Semel the missing link? Is a ten-year-old letter to the German Chancellor any hint?

File this under "Sprechen Sie Hearsay," but a web site prints what it claims is a 1996 letter from "friends of Scientology" defending the religion to the Chancellor of Germany. Guess which Internet CEO is in Column 3 of the signatures, below Mario Puzo and to the left of Gore Vidal.

But hey, it's not that sinister. Dustin Hoffman and Larry King allegedly signed the same document, and Terry could just be proving a corollary to the Broadway maxims "Keep it gay" and "You won't succeed on Broadway if you don't have any Jews": "You can't get far in Hollywood unless you're cool with Scientology."

An Open letter to HELMUT KOHL [German Way; photo by Maximum Mitch on Flickr]
Earlier:

DEMO Bono boner

Nick Douglas — Wed, 27 Sep 2006 16:32:20 EDT

Hey, just wanna alert you all that no, Bono is not at this week's DEMO conference in San Diego. There's just some dude who actually looks more like Robin Williams wearing a VR helmet. He fooled plenty of attendees, including PC Mag writers, who later figured out that the U2 star is actually in New York this week. (Is the conference worth going to anyway? No.)

Bono At DEMO? Oh No, U Noob [Gearlog]

Unintended consequences of geek fame

Nick Douglas — Fri, 30 Jun 2006 22:07:53 EDT

The Washington Post and "don't call me the Segway inventor" Dean Kamen want geeks to be famous. Rather than letting creative geniuses get all the glory for their piddly "Oscars" and their "works of timeless art," the Post and Kamen want kids to worship real role models like the Google guys and YouTube founders.

Yes, we all want children to be inspired by the realistic, attainable dream of becoming the next Internet billionaire who beats out a thousand other startups to dominate a field of technology. But there may be some unintended consequences.

President Bush forms agency to investigate steroid scandal at Yahoo
Larry Ellison's head swells to fill entire Oracle headquarters, killing thousands
Youth drop out of high school, lie about age to get drafted into AOL army
MySpace behaves exactly as before
Google VP Marissa Mayer scores record deal

Yep, it's just a matter of years before mothers don't let their babies grow up to be techies.

Recognize me? [Washington Post]

Paris is back on the Black

ndouglas — Wed, 19 Apr 2006 10:56:58 EDT

Attention, VCs, engineers, and product managers of the Valley: You are now using the same phone as Paris Hilton.

The little heiress who said "The Sidekick is way better than the BlackBerry" in 2004 is now back on the crackberry. Maybe she needed the bluetooth support to sync her business e-mail; maybe she needed to read Gawker blogs on Mobileplay.

New game: Party like Paris Hilton on cell phones [Yahoo News]
Paris Hilton says: "The Sidekick is way better than the BlackBerry" [Engadget]

Hard Gay at Yahoo translated

ndouglas — Wed, 12 Apr 2006 21:41:30 EDT

This is what fansubs were made for: Japanese leather-daddy Hard Gay took a trip to Yahoo! Japan last year, trying to nab a spot as their spokesperson. But until now, it was only available in Japanese. (Granted, that means half of the Valley could already understand it.) Now HG's fan club has posted a version with English subtitles. Enjoy!

Hard Gay at Yahoo! with English subtitles [YouTube]

Your privacy is an illusion: Sean Parker pisses off Lindsay Lohan

ndouglas — Thu, 16 Mar 2006 11:08:26 EST

Okay, everyone has a loud drunk moment now and then — I just returned from a week entirely made of loud drunk moments. But not everyone is a Napster co-founder and Facebook's founding president. So here's a Sean Parker sighting, sent by a reader last weekend (all sics apply):

odd spectacle tonight. just witnessed sean parker of napster infamy getting kicked out of bungalow8 in NYC for getting a wee bit too rowdy. he was screaming like a banchee in a faux scottish accent. lindsey lohan was at the next table, so i suspect someone from her party complained and one of the bouncers approached him and escourted his party out.

Then again, it's not hard to piss off Lindsay Lohan.

Have your own spottings (we're shooting for "very Internet famous" and "media famous" here)? Drop an IM to heyvalleywag or e-mail tips@valleywag.com.

Photo: The Last Digerati Dinner [Edge]