A Tale of Two Character Blogs: Cosmopolitan and Sonic
by Teresa Valdez Klein | October 23rd, 2006Blogosphere expert and BBS keynote speaker Dave Taylor says that the backlash against character blogs has been overblown. “I mean, c’mon folks,” he writes. “Once someone does a good, amusing character blog everyone will suddenly decide that it’s rather cool after all.”
Of late, a couple of companies have tried to do just that. Cosmopolitan–the favorite read for the bodice ripper set–has its own fictitious blogger: a TV news producer by the name of “K.” She wants to get married before her 30th birthday and nurses a “heavy-duty crush on her very sexy, very married boss.”
To be fair, the “Cosmo Bedroom Blog” is about as compelling as the rest of Cosmopolitan. The blog reads like “chick lit,” replete with “impossibly gorgeous” men and constant improbable excitement. If “Cosmo” has set out to reach their readership with this blog, they’ve likely succeeded. The blog does seem to be a value-add for people who identify with Cosmopolitan.
At least “Cosmo” is up-front about the fact that their blogger isn’t real. It seems to have inoculated them against any hardcore criticism from the blogosphere. Marketing firm Barkley and their client Sonic Drive-In may not be so lucky. Given the recent conflagration over Edelman’s Wal-Marting blog, you’d think that companies might be loathe to launch a questionable blog on behalf of a client. Still, that’s just what Barkley did with The Brian Blog.
If you’re a connoisseur of cable television, you’ve likely seen the commercial (which I love) starring Brian and his wife going through the drive through at Sonic. Brian says that he’s going to write about the yummy strawberry cheesecake shake he’s eating, while his wife teases that only his mother will read it.
The blog, which prominently features a photo of the very same actor from the Sonic commercial, was built and written for Sonic by Barkley. I know this because the link to the blog was e-mailed to me by a Barkley staffer after I called to compliment them on their hilarious commercial. I responded almost a week ago with an e-mail expressing my concerns about the character blog, but have not recieved any response.
Unlike the “Cosmo” blog, this blog doesn’t add value for those who care about the Sonic brand. At least the “Cosmo” blog gives readers what they’ve come to associate with the magazine: cotton-candy fun. But other than the picture of the actor, the Sonic blog gives no indication of who writes it, or why. It features posts about random things that didn’t actually happen. Even when “Brian” talks about Sonic, he doesn’t acknowledge that he’s associated with the company in any way.
Now, I’m the first to say that the blogosphere tends to overreact any time a business blog lacks authenticity and transparency. But the bottom line is that this blog doesn’t add any value for people who like Sonic and it doesn’t add any kind of value to the blogosphere this blog isn’t transparent. It’s not even that funny I don’t find it that funny. Unlike the ingenious “bring it on” campaign they initiated on YouTube, or their hilarious series of “two guys” commercials, Barkely has really dropped the ball with this blog.
UPDATE 12:33 p.m. I just recieved an e-mail from the aforementioned Barkley staffer. She says that these are valid concerns and that they have considered them. It’s good that they’ve considered the transparency/authenticity issue, but then why did they launch the blog as is? I’ve reiterated my recommendation that they post a disclaimer in the sidebar of the blog. We’ll see what happens.
UPDATE 1:09 p.m. Commenter Linda says that she was thrilled to find that there was actually a blog associated with the commercial. I suppose that’s a matter of taste. I don’t find the blog funny, but some people do and I’m happy for them.
Hear, hear! I’ve been saying this forever! Can’t wait for it to come up again. At least Dave and I are on the same side and maybe can gang up on Scoble ;-).
October 23rd, 2006 | #
Teresa, I don’t think the Sonic blog strategy is operating the way you see it.
This blog exists to further color and give life to the commercial. It does not exist (nor intends to exist) as its own entity on the web. It as an accessory and nothing more. I, for one, was delighted to see that there was an actual blog of the character in the commercial.
I think you’re looking at this too strictly from a blog-o-centric viewpoint and not seeing things from a wider, multimedia perspective.
By the way, I am troubled by your comment policy. Blogs are supposed to be about the free exchange of ideas yet your comment policy specifically grants you editorial rights. Please consider removing this feature. Thanks for your time.
October 23rd, 2006 | #
Linda: If it’s meant to be an accessory, it should say it’s an accessory. I don’t think they’re trying to deceive anyone, I just think they should be transparent. It’s simply an industry best practice. Just look to Edelman’s reforms in the wake of the Wal-Mart scandal for proof of this. I don’t really like the blog, but the problem isn’t that it’s written by a fictional character. It’s that they don’t expressly say “this blog is fictional.”
As for our comment policy, what do you mean by “editorial rights”? We reserve the right to not post any offensive of off-topic comments. If we allowed every comment to automatically go through the queue, our readers would be inundated with spam and “troll” commenters using dirty language. We do not reserve any editorial rights beyond that.
Thanks for your input!
October 23rd, 2006 | #
Teresa, I’m actually going to disagree with you about the Sonic blog. The characters that Sonic’s ad agency created for the commercials are hilarious and I personally enjoyed reading the blog. It’s about extending the illusion that Brian and his wife are “real” people, and that they’re funny.
You say that they’re not being transparent, but on the About page, they clearly say that the blog is a character blog from Sonic. (Now, caveat here is that they may have added that after the fact)
I talked about character blogs on my blog a while back:
http://www.communityguy.com/index.cfm?commentID=586
I actually think that the fact that they’re not putting this blog on the Sonic site, for instance, is part of doing character blogs right. I *want* the illusion to be extended. Other character blogs like Barney’s blog (from How I Met Your Mother) are a ridiculous failure because they’ve tried to be so transparent.
All in all, I think this is a fun blog done right. I don’t think every blog needs to be “business” oriented. This is a new form of media and as such can be used in a variety of formats.
November 12th, 2006 | #
Jake: It looks like they added that “about” page since the last time I looked at the blog. It wasn’t there when I wrote this post.
I still don’t find the blog all that funny, but I’m glad other people do. My main beef with them was the lack of transparency, and now that’s been resolved.
November 13th, 2006 | #