Friday, February 12, 2010

Poor Johannes Gutenberg

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Facts Be Damned!

The old joke about journalism is that you shouldn’t let the facts get in the way of a good story. We won’t debate that one at the moment (although feel free to do so in the comments area below!), but take a look at what the advertising moguls on Madison Avenue are doing to Johannes Gutenberg.

This short post on WeMedia recounts how the MadAve geniuses just make stuff up, since it’s so much trouble to Google stuff—like when Gutenberg produced the first typeset Bible. If you click on the link to Madison Avenue Journal, which the WeMedia post mocks, you'll see the kinds of free-wheeling and lose grasp of facts that gives admen a bad name (and which college students find will yield terrible grades!).

The Madison Avenue Journal thing is instructive, because it illustrates how advertising people are now trying to use social media for product placement and promotion.


Why is Johannes Gutenberg crying?