Sometimes you need to stop and consider how far things have come, and it’s often the most mundane, idiotic things that make that clear. The other day, walking down Broad St, Birmingham’s district of vertical drinking establishments and general hedonism, I spotted this poster:
At first it’s easy to dismiss – just another attempt by some marketing dude to associate their brand with something current and hip, like Die Hard 4.0 or those FriedChicken.com takeaways none of which actually own http://friedchicken.com. But look at the text at the bottom:
Tweet us at #hashtag_risa with your guilty pleasure song requests, shout outs, sesh booth bookings and guest list.
Now, that fact that no-one has ever bothered to use that hashtag, or that the @Hashtag_Risa account is pretty dormant, doesn’t matter. It’s a stupid idea that was doomed to failure.
What interests me is the premise is similar to efforts of a few years back that were then considered innovative and cutting edge. The sort of things that, if you were canny, you could get a 4IP (remember them?) or Arts Council grant to fund. Or, if you were Jon Bounds, just do anyway for the fun of it.
Like space dust drawn to the gravity of planetary bodies, everything of value becomes mainstream in the end and five years is a long time in Internet terms. But it’s still amusing and at times sobering to see these models and concepts being used in these contexts.
So, what’s next?