Amid the warm wishes for the Chinese New Year, there are a lot of advertising plugs. Seems Google may need to add spam filters if their real time search results are not to become inundated with irrelevant information.
I watched the tweets and Facebook posts scroll by for about 15 minutes and saw a large number of ads mixed in with the New Year wishes.
Rosetta Stone jumped in and grabbed the promoted Tweet spot to push their Chinese language courses, clever and somewhat appropriate. Some of others below had to work a little harder to fit.
There was a clever pitch for a Rabbit titled book, the sale of commemorative Euros which was a real stretch, and sex toys – which may share a name but that’s about it.
The Huffington Post has been clever about using social media – their tie in is to celebrities and baby bunnies – one I am sure has gotten then thousands of pageviews. Job openings in China is a clever fit, and a restaurant coupon tie in that uses social and coupons goes the extra mile, but the lantern sale and skin lotion pitch was a real reach.
One of my favorites was from PETA using it to tell us how rabbits scream when slaughtered and horoscope sites promoting themselves is obvious – the new year must be a great time to sell services.
Even major companies have gotten in to the act – Sony is pitching an album with Rabbit in the title. Seems the Chinese should have named this the Year of the Sales Pitch. So Happy New Year and enjoy the Year of the Rabbit.