The North Face has deliberately defaced Wikipedia

[macon]

Article here:
https://wikimediafoundation.org/2019...ing-wikipedia/

Not pleased. Bad move for TNF.

[Skidog]

Weird move. Huh

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[OldLarry]

Any specifics here? Seems kinda cunty but...


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[scrambledbacon]

IME, everything but their summit series gear goes to shit most Ricky tick

[snowaddict91]

Pretty douchy IMO. Especially to go and boast about it. I remember when I used to troll and edit wikipedia when I was like 15 though.

[macon]

Read more about this directly from Wikipedia on their twitter page, here.

https://twitter.com/Wikipedia/status...7Ctwgr%5Etweet

[JayPowHound]

What am I missing here? Isn't Wikipedia editable by anyone and everyone? Does that not immediately mean anything there lacks credibility?

Maybe it's evolved, but I've never given it any real thought as I always assumed there are no regulatory checks and balances...

[cmcrawfo]

But its not intended for marketing.

A company intentionally manipulating or editing the content in favor of their brand is inappropriate.

To say the content on the site lacks credibility isn't fair. Its far more credible than many other sources, the provision of supporting links and having the content moderated by a community and official editors makes its a rather sound source for information. I would challenge you provide a website that offers more credible information free of charge.

[mcski]

I don't get how any mktg or ad exec would think ya, good idea. let's do that. Who are the trying to appeal to, aspiring hackers? Seems to me the same crowd that would actually care about some perceived TNF brand would also care about Wikipedia staying clean of cunty mktg. All PR is actually not good PR

[old goat]

I'm a big fan of Wikipedia and of how accurate they are. I give them money. But aren't they taking themselves just a little too seriously here?

[doebedoe]

I'm a big fan of Wikipedia and of how accurate they are. I give them money. But aren't they taking themselves just a little too seriously here?

Not really IMHO.

It's not a big deal in an isolated incident perhaps. But if it caught on they'd be basically fucked in trying to keep branding off of Wikipedia. The effort to undo and prevent such digital graffiti would be yet another drain on their resources.

[macon]

I'm a big fan of Wikipedia and of how accurate they are. I give them money. But aren't they taking themselves just a little too seriously here?

Absolutely not. Just because something is open source does not mean it should be amenable towards abuse. Rather, I'd argue the opposite is necessary in order to maintain the legitimacy of the product.

TNF manipulated their platform as a means for free advertising, knowing full well it was outside of the acceptable terms of service.

But its not intended for marketing.

A company intentionally manipulating or editing the content in favor of their brand is inappropriate.

To say the content on the site lacks credibility isn't fair. Its far more credible than many other sources, the provision of supporting links and having the content moderated by a community and official editors makes its a rather sound source for information. I would challenge you provide a website that offers more credible information free of charge.

I totally agree with you. While Wikipedia might not be a valid source for a scholarly journal, it is a totally legitimate reference source. Also, the citations in those articles offer an aggregate of further information from additional sources. To treat it as though it's 'fake news' is laughably short-sighted.

[BmillsSkier]

So what did they do exactly? Put TNF logos on everything?

Does that one band’s wiki page still mention that Iceman’s wife’s company hired them to play a gig?

[muted]

I see it as the ad agency was trying to be clever, in hoping that cleverness would win an award in the ad world. They then somehow convinced TNF that it was a good idea, and really the publicity stunt was for the ad agency getting an award and not really for TNF. But it's such a bad call for both of them, so it's a weird move.

[billyk]

So what did they do exactly? Put TNF logos on everything?

They looked up a bunch of famous places that had pictures on wiki. Then they went to those places and took similar pictures, but included models wearing TNF gear with visible logos in the pictures. Then they edited wiki to substitute their pictures for the originals.

Part of the play was the increased buzz in the aftermath of getting caught. Eg the fact that we are discussing this now. They WANTED to get caught. That’s why they made the video. And if they could shift the blame from TNF to their ad agency, so much the better. TNF gets the attention, essentially free advertising, and the ad agency are the bad guys. It’s all playing out pretty much to plan.

[BmillsSkier]

They looked up a bunch of famous places that had pictures on wiki. Then they went to those places and took similar pictures, but included models wearing TNF gear with visible logos in the pictures. Then they edited wiki to substitute their pictures for the originals.

Part of the play was the increased buzz in the aftermath of getting caught. Eg the fact that we are discussing this now. They WANTED to get caught. That’s why they made the video. And if they could shift the blame from TNF to their ad agency, so much the better. TNF gets the attention, essentially free advertising, and the ad agency are the bad guys. It’s all playing out pretty much to plan.

Thanks.

All that sounds exhausting.

[jackstraw]

They looked up a bunch of famous places that had pictures on wiki. Then they went to those places and took similar pictures, but included models wearing TNF gear with visible logos in the pictures. Then they edited wiki to substitute their pictures for the originals.

Part of the play was the increased buzz in the aftermath of getting caught. Eg the fact that we are discussing this now. They WANTED to get caught. That’s why they made the video. And if they could shift the blame from TNF to their ad agency, so much the better. TNF gets the attention, essentially free advertising, and the ad agency are the bad guys. It’s all playing out pretty much to plan.

Yeah, sleazy brilliance.

[iceman]

I was reading somewhere (maybe here?) about a guy a couple years ago who got backstage at a concert by editing the band's wiki to show that he was a family member and showing that to the security people on his phone I guess. Pretty funny and creative.

[TAFKALVS]

They looked up a bunch of famous places that had pictures on wiki. Then they went to those places and took similar pictures, but included models wearing TNF gear with visible logos in the pictures. Then they edited wiki to substitute their pictures for the originals.

Part of the play was the increased buzz in the aftermath of getting caught. Eg the fact that we are discussing this now. They WANTED to get caught. That’s why they made the video. And if they could shift the blame from TNF to their ad agency, so much the better. TNF gets the attention, essentially free advertising, and the ad agency are the bad guys. It’s all playing out pretty much to plan.

I think it's funny.

[AdironRider]

I don't see how this sways anyone's purchase decision ultimately, but it got us talking about it, so they were successful in this marketing gimmick.

You can't take wikipedia that seriously as a source if this is a possibility really. Therefor, people are getting a little to worked up over it IMO.

They could shut it down to public editing and actually pay some scholars to write for them, but they don't and this is the cost.

[old goat]

Part of the play was the increased buzz in the aftermath of getting caught. Eg the fact that we are discussing this now. They WANTED to get caught. That’s why they made the video. And if they could shift the blame from TNF to their ad agency, so much the better. TNF gets the attention, essentially free advertising, and the ad agency are the bad guys. It’s all playing out pretty much to plan.

Exactly--the difference between this and real fake news (did I just write that?) is that it was open and harmless. People covertly plant lies on Wikipedia all the time but while they seem to get caught they can potentially cause a lot of harm. For some reason Wikipedia doesn't see fit to draw as much attention to that. We are entering a scary time--when photos, videos, and audio will be increasingly easy to fake and the fakes increasingly hard to detect.

[SkiBall]

This is the tip of the APackyLips-berg

[macon]

They looked up a bunch of famous places that had pictures on wiki. Then they went to those places and took similar pictures, but included models wearing TNF gear with visible logos in the pictures. Then they edited wiki to substitute their pictures for the originals.

Part of the play was the increased buzz in the aftermath of getting caught. Eg the fact that we are discussing this now. They WANTED to get caught. That’s why they made the video. And if they could shift the blame from TNF to their ad agency, so much the better. TNF gets the attention, essentially free advertising, and the ad agency are the bad guys. It’s all playing out pretty much to plan.

I'm pretty sure they didn't WANT to get caught necessarily. But yes, they made the video for an advertising award.

TNF terminated this campaign with Leo Burnett (the ad agency) as a result of this.

More about this:
TNF Brazil is the branch that hired LB Tailor Made (the brazil branch of Leo Burnett). TNF Brazil CEO defended the action, whereas TNF corporate/HQ (in the Bay Area) has terminated this campaign.

[iceman]

Did they cancel their contract or just the campaign? Because if you ask me, the campaign was done and

[macon]

Did they cancel their contract or just the campaign? Because if you ask me, the campaign was done and

[mission accomplished.jpg]

Fair point, I just edited my previous post right before you posted.

TNF Brazil is the branch that hired LB Tailor Made (the brazil branch of Leo Burnett). TNF Brazil CEO defended the action, seemingly citing "all press is good press", whereas TNF corporate/HQ (in the Bay Area) has taken the opposite approach, apologized, and terminated this campaign.

Idk if the LB Tailor Made is still with TNF Brazil or if they were terminated altogether - I'm not sure on the specifics of the contract - but it doesn't seem to me like this was the press TNF was looking for.


more here:
https://adage.com/creativity/work/no...ESGVGz6JsA_yvE