In the It’s So Stupid It Could Only Happen in Advertising category, we have an update on GeniusRocket and 99 Designs’ attempt to rename crowdsourcing. The effort to do so was launched back in May. It was stupid then and it’s stupid now.
Whether a proponent crowdsourcing or not, the process already has a name and its a perfectly good one. This renaming project just reeks of late 90’s high tech companies which, over and over, just made up new names for categories they wanted to own hoping they would stick. OK, so some terms did stick but renaming a category isn’t something you take on lightly. And not for a stupid $1,000 prize.
Defending the renaming, GeniusRockets’ Peter LaMotte said, “We aren’t trying to change the world here, it was simply a fun little project. This isn’t an attempt to convince anyone of anything. You can check out our site, we use the term Crowdsourcing pretty liberally. We simply had the idea ‘what if we could “crowdsource” a new term’. If it doesn’t work, then at least someone submitted a term that earned them $1,000 in popularity contest. If it does find a cool new word then even better. “
OK so, um, why the hell attempt to rename the process when you really don’t care if anything comes of it or not. You might as well say, “Ah, fuck it. This will never work but we might get some press.”
Oh wait.
AgencySpy’s Kiran Aditham, one of the three judges who narrowed down the submissions to 12 finalists, should be ashamed of himself. After all, Kiran, isn’t it your job to keep the ad industry on its toes? To make sure stupid stuff life this never happens? And not to perpetuate idiocy? Rethink, man. Rethink.
All of the 12 finalists suck (Grapes of Wrathing? WTF?). When the effort was first launch, we hesitantly published a few suggestions: Lamevertising, MobMarketing, Franchisevertising, SwarmTeaming, HerdHocking, SocialSwarming, IdioIdiation, FlockFlacking, Social Marketing, SocialSeeding, SocialSourcing, Distributed Marketing, Collaborative Marketing or I’m So Fucking Lazy I Have to Ask Other People to Do My Job…vertising.
All of which are equally as stupid as the 12 finalists.
Crowdsourcing is crowdsourcing. It already has a name. We have more important things to do in this industry, people, than fuck around with the name of something that’s pretty stupid in the first place.
