Sony has begun shipping personal computers equipped with the Chinese-government mandated filtering software days before the July 1 deadline.
http://www.toptechnews.com/story.xhtml?story_id=13100C1G2AUA

The software, called Green Dam, is apparently designed to filter out adult content to protect the innocent minds of children in China. The linked article discusses vulnerabilities, but I’m not concerned about that. I’m concerned about how far they will go with this censorship technology and who in the world will adopt it in order to control free speech.

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Billy Mays is my personal marketing hero. Not only is he the best pitchman in the business, but he has proven that people like to buy from a sales pitch. Billy Mays played a major role in the recent popularity of informercials. There are jokes flying around twitter.com about a conspiracy involving Ronco knocking off Billy Mays. I’m sure the Sham-wow guy is a suspect as well. Okay, so maybe it’s a little soon for such humor. But this goes back to the story about Michael Jackson in that twitter.com is my source for the news. After all, I don’t stare at CNN all day, I am on the Internet doing my thing. I can have a movie or whatever going and my trusty twitter.com account feeds me with all the static from the outside world (dumb stuff as well as useful stuff).

Okay, back to Billy Mays. What I love about Billy Mays is that he is the epitome of the high pressure salesman. He is the personification of what every consumer in the world despises about salesmen. The only thing more disgusting than an infomercial pitchman is … well … maybe they really are the most disgusting example of the stereotypical sales slime. But that’s what is interesting. If no one likes the slimy pitchman with the high pressure “but wait, there’s more!” tag lines, then why do they sell so many products? This is a huge industry and these guys make millions in sales off of their pitches. If everyone hates them, why does it work so well?

Everyone in the world was shocked by the sudden death of Michael Jackson. Yes, Michael Jackson was the “King of Pop” and he has his place in history for his influence on the world of entertainment. Most people genuinely mourned the loss. Some people were rejoicing at the death of the “child molester”. Some capitalized on the emotions and started looking for ways to make money off of the event. That is what I want to talk about. The death of Michael Jackson will produce millions, if not billions of dollars in sales and may have even been the tipping point in the transfer of power from traditional media to social networking.

My first reaction when Michael Jackson’s death was announced was shock, as with everyone. But then instead of drifting into memory lane about how I grew up with him, I started to explore “What’s Next?” From controversy to capitalization, this is the beginning a new post-Michael Jackson decade. In the realm of social media and Internet marketing, the Michael Jackson death along with the Iranian election protests have become catalysts for a new paradigm.
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