Trump was punk'd by teenagers.

In case you missed it Trump held a campaign kick-off rally in Tulsa Saturday night.  Only 6,200 people showed up.  The upper levels of the stadium were empty and his people took down the outside overflow area since only about two dozen people were present there. (Russonello, 2020)

Only days earlier his campaign had been bragging about having over a million requests for tickets.  (Singman, 2020)

How did they get it so wrong?  Thank the Zoomers.  Yes.  That's right Gen Z has rechristened itself as Zoomers.  Interesting.  I wonder if it will stick.  As a Boomer who remembers the 60's, I am anti-war, pro-equality, care about the environment and am concerned about police violence and gun laws in this country.  All the things Gen Z cares about too.  So it makes sense to me.

But let's talk about what they did.  K-pop stans used their amazing organizing skills to order lots of tickets to the rally.  Connecting through Twitter, Tik Tok, Instagram and Snapchat they posted not only encouragement for others to register for the event, but also advice for those who did about how to hide their identities and mess up the campaign's data mining efforts by creating fake phone numbers and social media accounts for their dogs. (Lorenz, Browning & Frenkel, 2020)

Trump's team was so embarrassed by the incident that they denied it happened and cast about for different excuses for the poor turnout.  They even claimed that they knew about the plot but stopped it and got all that good data.  Who knew they wanted to text dogs?

But the fact that on Monday Trump's team had to shut down the online sign-up for his Tuesday rally in Arizona due to fake applications, confirms the validity of the original story.  And apparently Pence's rally in Wisconsin has caught the attention of the teens as well. (Boswell, 2020)

Of late, K-pop stans have been getting increasingly politically active.  In May, they spammed the #WhiteLivesMatter hashtag.  In early June they crashed the app the Dallas police were using to track protestors. And on June 8th they sent Trump some very special birthday messages.  They also matched a donation from BTS, the K-pop band with the biggest following and raised $1 million for Black Lives Matter in 24 hours. (Coscarelli, 2020)

According to current estimates, there are 89 million K-pop stans and they can be found in 113 countries. And,  K-pop is the most tweeted about musical genre - with 6.1 billion tweets in 2019.  

Those that ordered tickets for Trump's rally are likely Americans.  And many will be voting in the fall.  They have made it clear that until then they will continue to make themselves heard.  

132 days to go.

I can't wait to see what they do next.

Russonello, G. (2020, June 22)  Trump’s Tulsa Rally Attendance: 6,200, Fire Dept. Says.  nytimes.com.  Retrieved June 23, 2020, from  https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/22/us/politics/trump-rally-coronavirus.html

Singman, B. (2020, June 15) Trump campaign touts 1 million ticket requests for Tulsa rally.  foxnews.com.  Retrieved June 23, 2020, from  https://www.foxnews.com/politics/trump-campaign-touts-1-million-ticket-requests-for-first-rally-since-outbreak-of-coronavirus

Lorenz, T., Browning, K. & Frenkel, S. (2020, June 22) TikTok Teens and K-Pop Stans Say They Sank Trump Rally.  nytimes.com.  Retrieved June 23, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/21/style/tiktok-trump-rally-tulsa.html?action=click&module=RelatedLinks&pgtype=Article

Boswell, J. (2020, June 22)  EXCLUSIVE: Donald Trump's Campaign ABANDONS online signups for his next rally and asks supporters to just turn up as Tik Tok teens vow to keep trolling his events after Tulsa debacle.  dailymail.co.uk.  Retrieved June 23, 2020, from https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-8448781/Donald-Trumps-campaign-ABANDONS-online-sign-ups-rally-TikTok-teens-vow-trolling.html

Coscarelli, J. (2020, June 22)  Why Obsessive K-Pop Fans Are Turning Toward Political Activism  nytimes.com.  Retrieved June 23, 2020, from https://www.nytimes.com/2020/06/22/arts/music/k-pop-fans-trump-politics.html?action=click&module=Well&pgtype=Homepage&section=Style

Instagram Rules

Instagram usage has doubled in the last two years, and it now reaches an average audience of 500 million people on a daily basis, more than double that of Snapchat or Twitter.  75% of users are outside the U.S.  90% of users are under 35.

So what accounts for its growing popularity?  It's nice.  According to the company, "they are striving to create a safe, happy environment.  One that people say is super positive and optimistic." (Rosenbaum, 2017)

Works for me.  Although I suspect not having to read has something to do with it as well.

In her "Tips for Taming Your Wild Facebook Feed," Katherine Bindley points out that if prioritization, hiding posts, and updating your likes, doesn't create an environment where you can go back to just the happy stuff - i.e. birthdays, brides, and babies (she forgot cats) then you can always switch to Instagram.  (Bindley, 2017)

Apparently more and more people are doing just that.

Rosenbaum, S. (2017, December 4)  Instagram's Dreamscape Winning Fans. mediapost.com.  Retrieved December 5, 2017, from

https://www.mediapost.com/publications/article/311055/instagrams-dreamscape-winning-fans.html?utm_source=newsletter&utm_medium=email&utm_content=headline&utm_campaign=106413&hashid=c4hmrOYncfZiBl7GlC72xy3E6dw

Bindley, K. (2017, November 8)  Tips for Taming Your Wild Facebook Feed. wsj.com.  Retrieved December 5, 2017, from

https://www.wsj.com/articles/how-to-live-with-facebook-and-still-live-with-yourself-1510160931

Twitter just made me want to buy something.

Despite the President's constant use of Twitter, the platform is not doing well.  It just reported its 10th consecutive quarter of lower revenue, and its stock price declined by 12%. (Poletti, 2017)

But I can't help wondering if there's an opportunity here that the company is missing.

Back in 2013, Pew Research noted that the typical Twitter user was an 18-29 year-old educated minority in a well-paying job, slightly more likely to be male than female.  (Bennett, 2013)

But a discussion with my NYU students last fall indicated that few of them were on it. 

Here's a blog with their comments...

http://pjlehrer.blogspot.com/2016/10/will-excedrins-debate-tweets-increase.html

It seems pretty clear these days that the most active Twitter users appear to be those engaged with politics -- in all likelihood a different audience.  And if indeed the platform is now attracting an older, more educated, wealthier target, that should be even easier for them to monetize. 

Which gets back to me.  Reading tweets on news sites got me interested enough to reengage with the platform.  When I did, they served me ads for The New York Times.  How appropriate.  And effective.  I am now a new subscriber.  Apparently I am not alone.  The Times has experienced a ten-fold increase in subscribers since the election.

Now if Twitter can just figure out how to make it work for them, they might survive.

Poletti, T. (2017, February 10)  Twitter tanks and becomes fodder for M&A chatter again.  marketwatch.com.  retrieved February 10, from

http://www.marketwatch.com/story/twitter-tanks-and-becomes-fodder-for-ma-chatter-again-2017-02-09/print

Bennett, S. (2013, August 6)  Who Uses Twitter?  Young, Affluent, Educated Non-White Males, Suggests Data.  adweek.com.  Retrieved February 10, from

http://www.adweek.com/digital/twitter-users-2013/

Will Excedrin's debate tweets increase sales?

According to AdWeek, Excedrin won the final presidential debate with their #DebateHeadache sponsored Twitter tweets. 

The first one, which went live at 3 am, said: "The possibility of a #DebateHeadache is high.  Be prepared with Excedrin (R)."  The visual was a photo of the product with the line: "64% of Americans say avoiding headaches is impossible during a presidential election."  You can view all six tweets here...

http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/excedrin-won-debate-twitter-it-even-started-curing-your-debateheadache-174165

By the time Wednesday ended, Excedrin had 46,000 Twitter mentions, representing a 3,100% increase versus the previous day.  Mentions spiked by 602% during the debate compared to the hour prior.  (Heine, 2016)

Pretty impressive.  But apparently the promoted trend cost "hundreds of thousands of dollars" and costs were increased further by a scattered overlay of additional promoted tweets.

So the question is, was this a smart move?  Will it translate into increased sales?  Has a tweet ever convinced you to buy something?  If so, what?

Heine, C. (2016, October 20)  Excedrin Won the Debate on Twitter Before It Even Started by Curing Your #DebateHeadache.  adweek.com.  Retrieved October 21, 2016, from

http://www.adweek.com/news/technology/excedrin-won-debate-twitter-it-even-started-curing-your-debateheadache-174165

I love #StarringJohnCho

Full disclosure, I am a John Cho fan -- love both Harold and Sulu.  But mostly I love this campaign. 

In case you haven't heard about it yet, here's the scoop.  After the All White Oscars many minority feathers were ruffled.  That was followed by the announcement that Scarlett Johansson would play the lead character in the manga film Ghost in the Shell -- wearing a black wig of course.  Ewww.

Anger turned to action when William Yu, a digital strategist with mad photoshop skills wondered what it would be like if John Cho replaced the white male leads in a variety of blockbusters.  Then, he backed the idea up with poster do overs.  Here are a few, but you really should check them all out at #StarringJohnCho because they're brilliant.  And, they make you think.

I grew up with All in the Family and Maude and firmly believe that they helped change the way that people felt. 

So I was thrilled when I saw Beyonce's Formation video. 

https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL-E79MQ72MqVQWkmv0BEYOwXMc-hCTqHg

Like #StarringJohnCho, I think both have the opportunity to open hearts and minds. 

I hope that I am right.  I think that Rinko Kikuchi would have made a terrific Major Motoko Kusanagi -- she was mesmerizing in Pacific Rim, if only she had been given the chance.  Maybe next time she will.

Rogers, K. (2016, May 10)  John Cho, Starring in Every Movie Ever Made?  A Diversity Hashtag Is Born.  nytimes.com.  Retrieved June 3, 2016, from

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/05/11/movies/john-cho-starring-in-every-movie-ever-made-a-diversity-hashtag-is-born.html?_r=0

Hess, A. (2016, May 29)  We Will Not Be Ignored.  The New York Times.  Arts & Leisure p1 and 10.