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Showing posts with label social media. Show all posts
Showing posts with label social media. Show all posts

Monday, May 4, 2026

Fighting the Attack of the Clones

 

It's May 4th, the perfect time to bring up Star Wars.

But I'm not doing the standard post. Instead, I'm waging my own war on cloning, which is why I selected the image of the poster for Star Wars Episode II Attack of the clones movie poster.

If you haven't seen it, the clones in the title are the duplicates of Jango Fett who requests one clone for himself that grows at the normal pace rather than the expedited one set for the clones made for the Empire to serve as storm troopers.

In the foreground you see Jango Fett (what you can see of someone in Mandalorian armor and helmet) along with our other main characters. But the clones themselves who are even named in the title practically fade into the background.

Why? It's because clones are not interesting. We're interested in characters who have their own personality and story -- not interchangeable copies.

Have you guessed yet where I am going with this?

AI slop is a real life attack of the clones


What we've come to see on this platform, as well as many others, is the equivalent of an attack of clones, that AI slop that has no character and holds no real interest. Often it's used in clickbait or engagement posts like this one from Technology Advice:

But you see it also in standard ads like this one.



However, it could also be put in standard posts, as I now see hundreds -- if not thousands -- of people allowing
LLMs to talk for them on LinkedIn, as you see in the examples below that all sound exactly alike.


It makes the platform sound completely repetitive and everyone who uses the formula utterly forgettable.
By adopting the quick and lazy approach of allowing generative AI to write your posts, you turn yourself and your brand into a clone, robbing yourself of the opportunity to establish a unique identity and voice.





If you hire a content marketers whose posts have the earmarks of AI, as in using this kind of construction - "Most businesses don't have a marketing problem. They have a sameness problem." (So ironic that this person put in that message through generative AI-speak that reinforces sameness!) -- then you're paying for a cloned content rather than content that is specific to what you're about.

And why would you do that? It's like paying a chef to cook you a meal from scratch only to be served microwaved TV dinner.

It's possible to cook up something good when you actually like the challenge of cooking with the ingredients available to you. If you don't, you shouldn't be a cook. Heating up TV dinners is not cooking, and pushing out AI slop is not creative content marketing.


It takes a bit of effort to differentiate yourself 


It is possible to do better with just a bit of effort from someone who cares about the craft of writing and marketing. I'll give you quick example based on one of the many posts that used the formula in a promoted ad. 


It says "Your BD person
isn't failing.
You set them up to. "

Notice that the second sentence doesn't logically follow the first at all. In fact, it contradicts the first because it acknowledges that the BD person is -- in fact -- failing, though it blames the "you" rather than "them" in this case.

This kind of illogical nonsense said with a straight face by people who think they sounds smart is the result of being so used to seeing this pattern of posts that you don't even pause to think if it makes any sense.

Here's what they could have written instead with a logical progression.:
"Is your BD team coming up short?
It's not their fault.
You set them up for failure."

There is an affordable alternative to AI 

Perhaps one of the reasons people let the opportunity to truly connect with customers through their communications slip through their fingers is because they think that they can't afford to pay for quality content. That is as ridiculous as saying you'll just eat food out of vending machines to save money on groceries. That is not sustainable and can cause real harm like vitamin deficiency, high blood pressure,  and even diabetes. Compromising on content quality is the same thing. You can get cheap and fast but not good enough to contribute to your overall health when you rely on LLM output. 

So here's my affordable plan to help you avoid turning into a clone that just fades into the background: a special package offered in May and June 2026 only!    Get a consultation and a plan for social media posts that attract organic traffic through differentiated messaging and a distinctly human voice for just $1500.  Contact me for details. 

And for proof of my writing ability, check out my many publications assembled on my portfolio where you can search by topic. 


Tuesday, November 19, 2024

See it here before it makes AdAge: the Jaguar fiasco

If you're in marketing but announced to the world that you have left X, you would not see this latest randing disaster as it unfold. There's something meta (not the company) about reception happening in real-time to the "Copy Nothing" Jaguar video copied from YouTube below.  It wasn't greeted warmly on that channel either.


In fact, I predict that the comments will be closed there because this is the gist of the top ones on YouTube:
How to destroy your brand in 30 seconds.
103
This will go on as the worst new Jaguar logo ever.
150
Jaguar died.
97
Is this an ad for a car company or a discount fashion store for 12 year old girls?
70
Fire everyone in marketing responsible for this.
73
"Are you sure this will help us sell more cars?" "Cars?"
145
This marketing agency is completely out of touch.
61
Dear Jaguar, sack your advertising firm. This is aiming for an audience who will never buy a car. Also, why wasn't there a car in the advert?
176
I think the marketing department took the term "it's good to be bad" wayy too seriously 😐
55
Shocking. An automotive marque with +100 years of tradition in making world record breaking, elegant cars degraded to weird fashion house like branding with the sloppiest logotype I've seen in a long time.
141
To use a phrase that only an actual Jaguar owner would use: “What the hell is this tripe?”
49
I drive a Jag, I film adverts, this is deeply upsetting. I've seen this type of advert a thousand times before, there is nothing original about it..?
59
But back to the meta observation on virtue-signalling that you're leaving X and how it parallels this off-the-mark marketing: If you close yourself off from those who have different views and expectations than your own, and those people happen to also overlap with your primary customer base, you're marketing is likely to miss the mark.

On X there are now thousands of comments in response to this video, , and not a single one of them seems to say, "You've piqued my interest." Instead they say things like this:

@pixel_preet: "Umm where are the cars in this ad? Is this for fashion?"

The poor intern in charge of the X account for Jaguar then responds:
"Think of this as a declaration of intent."

And is slammed by @dave_watches retort: "To go bankrupt? Got it"

Another exchange: @SwitcherB: "What the actual hell is this?"
Jaguar intern reaches for what has long ago become a cliche to answer: "The future."


This comment ( and others like it) got 3K likes: @LodgieFromLanza "Oh... That is bad, very bad. You will lose your core clientel [sic] and fail to attract any person who wants to purchase a quality product. If you were seeking woke under 30's who are serially unemployed then you've hit the mark."

That's the thing: staying within your own bubble and deliberately closing off your ears to the voices of other points of view means you'll be convinced that your idea is brilliant with no reality check until after you've unveiled it to the world and  fallen flat on your face.

Remember the Apple Crush crash? This is the same kind of mistake. 


P.S. added on November 20th: Don't think that this is only a problem for fuddy-duddy conservatives. John Aziz considers himself Th liberal, and this is what he posted:
Millions of people who were never going to buy a Jaguar in the first place are now really mad at Jaguar.  This is a bizarre advert for a car as it doesn't involve any cars, but the vast majority of the people who are getting mad weren't even potential customers.

P.P.S. Did the "Where are the cars?" comments remind anyone here of the famous "Where's the beef?" Wendy's commercials? That was a memorable and effective ad campaign. This Jaguar one is only memorable the way the introduction of  New Coke is memorable -- as a bad idea for most people. (Yes, I know some people still buy and enjoy the New Coke formula, though they're far from the majority.)