Did you hear about David Perez and his recent adventure? If not, let me fill you in.
This 29-year-old advertising guy wanted to attend a weeklong fete at the Cannes Lion’s International Advertising Festival in France. (Yeah, I had no idea that advertising guys threw big shindigs in France, either. But there it is.)
Anyway, Perez’ agency agreed to send him over to the wine-and-dine event on one condition: that he would strap on a webcam and stream live video of his actions to the Internet, day and night. On top of that, Perez agreed to stay connected to a “David on Demand” Twitter link and fulfill any request—outside of anything illegal—that followers might tweet in his direction.
Like Pavlov’s dog, tweeters rang and Perez jumped. Through the course of six days followers watched as this chubby, bearded fellow ran the streets of Cannes while wading through 20,000 tweets and fulfilling as many requests as he could.
He got an odd-looking whale tattoo, he ran into a swanky French hotel and tried to track down Tom Cruise, he flew a helicopter, he stopped by a random party to sing Hey Jude. He taught two European cuties how to pole dance in the street, found a guy to kiss and, as shown above, got his head shaved.
Was it all just a publicity stunt to gain Perez’ employers a little online attention? Sure. But in an ABC interview, Perez stated that their purpose was to illustrate that the Internet’s latest wave of tethering together real-time technology and social media is moving us into a brand new “live age” of communication.
Now, I don’t think that means our lives will soon be controlled by faceless observers who tweet us their daily to-do lists (although that does sound like a movie coming soon to a theater near you). But it is intriguing how advertisers are working tirelessly to use that constantly streaming social network tie-in to subtly send us their daily to-buy lists.
Then there’s the whole “can’t turn it off” side of things. In a pre-event article, Leslie Minora, a writer for the Village Voice, communicated her doubts about Perez’ then upcoming escapade. “Well, it’s a bit creepy, kind of stupid, and altogether frivolous,” Minora said. “Regardless, I’ll be watching.”
And I’m convinced that Ms. Minora’s choice isn’t unique. In a way, that Pavlovian reaction I joked about goes both ways. We’re being conditioned to tune in. To stay connected. And that can feel a bit creepy in its own way.
Recent Comments