Lonelygirl15 proves that the internet loves a good lie

Sarah Gilbert — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 16:52:00 EST

I learned something from Jessica Lee Rose, aka Lonelygirl15, aka Bree. If you make a lie pretty enough, no one will mind being deceived.

Jessica started posting her videos, in character as the 16-year-old home-schooled Midwestern teenager Bree, on YouTube. She used the screenname Lonelygirl15 and became a huge success.

Then one day, she was outed as an actress living in New Zealand. Zoinks! But instead of angering fans and being excoriated by Oprah, Jessica only became more famous and (strangely) kept posting daily videos, still in character. She now posts on her own site, lonelygirl15.com, and hobnobs with the rich and conventionally famous.

Now her video series has reached true entertainment status and she's got guest stars -- most glamorously, Katharine McPhee of American Idol fame. She appears as a girl Bree's roommate (and love interest) Daniel brings home from a bar. Rose is so well-loved despite her deceptions that she was named #1 in Forbes.com's "The Web Celeb 25" ranking, and has been reported to have secured movie deals. Want more indications of fame? A recent Law & Order episode had a character reminiscent of Bree (in the episode, the video star is kidnapped in an elaborate scripted ploy to get "ransom" money from viewers, and inevitably, someone is murdered).

Bree's life, full of mystery and glamour in the midst of an ordinary teen's existence, is everyone's dramatization of their own problems -- the makings of a blockbuster, in my opinion. If you're going to lie on the internet, it seems, make your lie dramatic and beautiful and everyone will love it.

Lonelygirl15 proves that the internet loves a good lie originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 26 Jan 2007 16:52:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Seth Godin: bald is beautiful (and brilliant in modern marketing)

Sarah Gilbert — Fri, 26 Jan 2007 15:24:00 EST

Filed under: Magazines, Internet, Blogs, Marketing and Advertising, Books, Entrepreneurs

If you've spent much time trying to figure out how to market a startup business, you've surely come across one-half of the bald head of Seth Godin. Seth ("still in hardcover, still no hair" he says about his first and most famous book, Permission Marketing) made his fortune by selling a company, Yoyodyne, to Yahoo Inc. (NASDAQ:YHOO) in 1998, and his fame by capitalizing on this instant stardom by writing iconic and colorful books. Books full of buzzwords and internet-savvy platitudes.

Ever heard of viral marketing? "Small is the new big"? The importance of telling "authentic stories"? While Seth didn't exactly invent the concepts, he certainly popularized them, applied them to the web and (most importantly) used them to make millions of copies of his books almost float off Amazon.com's warehouse racks onto the bookshelves of aspiring internet millionaires everywhere.

Fame came naturally to Seth Godin, and it's no surprise he's been named #5 in Forbes.com's "The Web Celeb 25" ranking. But if you ask me the Seth Godin phenomenon is like a pyramid scheme gone legit -- by creating "buzz" around viral marketing, he markets his books virally -- by proclaiming the brilliance of ebooks his becomes the most popular, ever -- by insisting that "All Marketers are Liars" he becomes the most trusted, most "authentic" of all. You could say that he's living (bank account balancing) proof that his marketing schemes work; yes, they work, and best of all for Seth Godin.

Seth Godin: bald is beautiful (and brilliant in modern marketing) originally appeared on BloggingStocks on Fri, 26 Jan 2007 15:24:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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