pepsi blue posting pattern

April 29, 2003 4:31 PM

We all hate "Pepsi Blue" posts, but what if they're part of a pattern? [more inside]
posted by mkultra to Etiquette/Policy at 4:31 PM (24 comments total)

I stumbled upon this after the michael the's comment in the "White Stripes on Conan" thread pointing out the "Free Razor" spam threads (only one of which got deleted. I followed that through to SandeepKrishnamurthy's post history and was pretty amazed at what I found.

• This thread about "Blockbuster late fees" just seems like a thinly-veiled shill for Netflix.
• Here's an ad for Kartoo
• And one for ShareBuilder

Depending on how paranoid you are, there are arguably quite a few more. I have to admit, the Free Razor posts are quite obvious, but I remember the Blockbuster thread and not cluing into it until I saw it alongside his other posts. Sandeep Krishnamurthy makes no bones about his interest in advertising, and I think that there's an argument to be made that many of his "topical" posts are really leading questions designed to solicit market research on things like m-commerce, green marketing, pop-up ads, and why MSN is failing.


If this is a new form of Astroturf Marketing, it's pretty good, and it doesn't surprise me that it's here. MeFi is full of trendwatchers and early adopters, so there's prime market research to exploit here. I feel kind of bitter, yet fascinated.

Then again, I could be wrong. What do y'all think? I'm not really interested in punitive consequences- I'm more curious about how everyone feels about this going on.


Then again, maybe this is all just meta-market research ;)


(N.B. I tried contacting him directly via the email on his user page, but did not receive any response)
posted by mkultra at 4:33 PM on April 29, 2003 [1 favorite]

I tried contacting him directly via the email on his user page, but did not receive any response

Did you give him sufficient time to respond?
posted by eddydamascene at 4:39 PM on April 29, 2003

Yeah, over a week. He's posted since I emailed him.
posted by mkultra at 4:45 PM on April 29, 2003

I think you're making a mountain out of a molehill. If you look at his posting history, you'll see a pretty wide variety of posts. As for the advertising posts, he is an "Associate Professor of E-Commerce and Marketing." I'd expect anyone with that level of interest in media and advertising will invariably post some of that stuff to MeFi, not for some ulterior motive, but simply because that's what he find interesting. His papers don't seem to point to any use of MeFi for either marketing or marketing research.
posted by monju_bosatsu at 4:58 PM on April 29, 2003

maybe yes, maybe not, it's not crystal-clear.
but the question is, are we an interesting focus group? (I'm not ironic, I'm asking)
posted by matteo at 5:16 PM on April 29, 2003

MeFi is full of trendwatchers and early adopters, so there's prime market research to exploit here.

Ah yes, that all important gloomily masturbating
unemployed bitter loser demographic.
posted by y2karl at 5:37 PM on April 29, 2003

whappa whappa whappa!
posted by quonsar at 5:46 PM on April 29, 2003

IIRC that user is a marketing researcher at a university. He probably comes in contact with lots of interesting products and sites, though I doubt he has any connection to them.
posted by mathowie (staff) at 5:56 PM on April 29, 2003

Just for the record, I will be happy to shill for anyone's product for $1000 a pop (I think that's fair). Contact me via email for info on where to send the money and marketing copy.

However - Please keep in mind that any glowing recommendations for certain "feminine" products may sound very odd coming from me.
posted by y6y6y6 at 5:59 PM on April 29, 2003

"Ah yes, that all important gloomily masturbating
unemployed bitter loser demographic."

Some of us are gloomily masturbating employed bitter losers, thank you very much.
posted by mr_crash_davis at 6:04 PM on April 29, 2003

what if one is _happily_ masturbating, anyway?
posted by matteo at 6:12 PM on April 29, 2003

y6y6y6: Please forward all requests for glowing recommendations for "feminine" products to the address in my profile. You, of course, will get a 15% agent's cut of my revenue.
posted by padraigin at 6:31 PM on April 29, 2003

Can't discriminate on the basis of suspicions. But, for your efforts, you get appointed a junior detective. Downside: the secret decoder rings Mefi gives out suck.
posted by Shane at 7:06 PM on April 29, 2003

Can I be an honourary newbie for a sec? "Pepsi Blue"?
posted by twine42 at 2:26 AM on April 30, 2003

This is why I come to metatalk. I'm now a happier person than I was before.
posted by taz at 3:47 AM on April 30, 2003

Oh come now, quonsar.
posted by i_am_joe's_spleen at 2:33 PM on April 30, 2003

Watch it, he's going to blow!
posted by y2karl at 3:27 PM on April 30, 2003

Some of us are gloomily masturbating employed bitter losers, thank you very much.
Or gloomily employed masturbating bitter losers in some cases.
posted by dg at 8:49 PM on April 30, 2003

Who you calling gloomy?
posted by gottabefunky at 9:05 PM on April 30, 2003

And don't nobody touch that tagline.
posted by gottabefunky at 9:06 PM on April 30, 2003

MetaFilter: gloo.. Ow! Who threw that?
posted by dg at 11:45 PM on April 30, 2003

For what it's worth, twine42, Pepsi Blue has become a sort of catch-all cat-call for something that's a possible shill posting on Metafilter -- that is, an ad or product endorsement for reasons other than just overall consumer joy.

If I recall, the reason why Pepsi Blue was chosen had to do with the large number of bloggers who seemed to pay special notice of the foul product's launch ..It was even mentioned here on Metafilter. It was sort of a subversive web advertising success story. (more)
posted by crunchland at 2:02 AM on May 1, 2003

Ahhhh... I'm with it. Cheers Crunchland.

Odd thing is, I searched MeFi for Pepsi Blue and got no results. Odd.
posted by twine42 at 2:06 AM on May 1, 2003

Pepsi to release blue soda.

I had to use Google.
posted by timeistight at 1:00 PM on May 1, 2003