In this 5 minute video blog the BetterBadNews panel examine how podcast sponsors EarthLink (the Gillmor Gang) and GoDaddy (Evil Genius Chronicles) benefit from negative buzz by being included in an absurd conversation about advertising in the blogosphere.
Gillmor and Slusher produce two of the best podcasts available online but to snare and maintain sponsors both shows are forced to jump through hoops painful enough to make an immature medium cry.
To complicate the situation Slusher recently attacked Gillmor for allowing an audio ad on the Gillmor Gang podcast that was so boring it made his testicles shrink.
Slusher said that he’d rather hear Gillmor talk about EarthLink for 30 seconds than waste time listening to a radio commercial about an internet company that invokes vague notions of fear to lure consumers.
But user generated ads like the improvised rants Slusher produced for his former sponsor, GoDaddy, are controversial also. GoDaddy’s founder Bob Parsons once vigorously defended the interrogation techniques (torture) practiced at a US run concentration camp in Guantanamo, Cuba.
Parsons retracted his support for aggresive interrogation practices but
will he cooperate with the Government if asked to turn over the personal user data GoDaddy has on its customers?
Slusher speaks proactively for his sponsors in his own voice. Gillmor, on the other hand, lets his sponsors produce the ads. Both approaches can be equally bad.
Eventually, podcasters will have to find a better way to produce their shows or the best we are likely to get are better bad ads.
Gillmor Gang
http://gillmorgang.podshow.com
Evil Genius Chronicles.
http://www.evilgeniuschronicles.org
EarthLink
http://www.earthlink.net/
GoDaddy
http://www.godaddy.com/
Bob Parsons
http://www.bobparsons.com/
On Yahoo and the NSA
http://michaelzimmer.org/2006/02/15/yahoo-on-nsa-surveillance-no-comment/
