After completely overhauling their brand’s design, dropping beaucoup bucks everywhere on event marketing and then adding on a massive digital staff to gain a foothold on online buzz (Asylum)… AOL decided to go one further and add “advertorial content” to their front page. Wait. What?

Forget any half-assed destruction of their recent rebranding campaign in exchange for minor Hollywood marketing dollars… These geniuses are going Kamikaze. Ignoring all trending summer blockbusters, they’ve focused on giving tiny-font media critics a run for their money. Now, some small-time regional radio station might get away with saying “MacGruber is the funniest SNL film in ages…”, in exchange for a press-junket gift basket. Not AOL. They’ve decided to show everyone how the big-boys play, by making EVERY STORY ON THEIR NEWS PAGE about the new Katherine Heigl / Ashton Kutcher movie.  The one that seems purpose built to obtain the lowest rating on Rotten Tomatoes.

Way to pick a winner! This will be like Coke Zero branding with Avatar’s release… If you replace “Coke Zero” with “AOL.” And “Avatar” with “Herpes.”

We’re not even saying “Space Herpes” (YouTube). I mean… Don’t they think that maybe, possibly, this could be a bad idea?

Tags: Advertorial Content, AOL, Rebranding
Posted in: File Under: Clueless