Mark good recap on the pulse of the reaction to the story. And thanks for the link!

I would argue that it wasn’t truly a “traditional” campaign. Yes it was a commercial and yes it was not done with any of the usual social media hooks, but it was put online for audiences to enjoy and obviously for people to talk about.

If companies are going to be getting online and trying to get their message out they need to start doing a bit more research into current online environments and trends first. I do still think people overreacted way too much, but I’m still blaming them for not at least be doing a google alerts for what was being said about their online (though not social media) campaign.

We are quickly evolving to a more social internet and if you are putting something up to share then you are making the first steps into the social web and should be prepared for the consequences. I’d liken it to these marketing blunders which could have been avoided had the companies taken the time to research and understand the group they were reaching out to. When it comes to marketing “internet people” really are a group in and of their own and if you’re putting something on a website that’s typically who you’re trying to reach.

I also agree that they should be forgiven for what happened so long as they learned from their mistake. So long as they don’t repeat it and cause another uproar, then I think we should all just forgive, move on, and just keep this one on the books as a good example of what happens when you enrage the digital natives.