Levis took a great leap into the world of curvy women by launching their line of jeans called “Curve ID” in 2010. The concept of the line was to eliminate the physical and psychological issues associated with bigger women shopping for jeans. The overall message for the new line is, “Hottness comes in all shapes and sizes” yet they are managing to fail miserably to portray the average women’s size in advertisement, after advertisement.

Here is the ad under the most controversy: 

As you can see, “hotness” does come in all shapes and sizes, as long as that size is under a 4. Here at the agency we find the failure to get the correct message across to be a critical one for the campaign. This advertisement must have passed through the hands of multiple people before it got to print; which is outrageous to think about. It is amazing to us to think that there is an advertising department who believed that this ad would help encourage bigger women that there are “curvier jean options” out there without having to feel shame. Not one person in our office needed to take a second look to understand how much of a tragedy for advertising this is.

Levis tried to help retract this early ad and made a few changes to their campaign. The sizes for the “Curve ID” vary, there were originally 3 body style fits called: Slight, Demi and Bold. They added a 4^th body style type (you know, to help encourage bigger women to buy their product without shame) and that body style has been classified as “Supreme”. Way to go Levis, as if showing your curvy jeans on stick-figure women wasn’t killing your campaign enough; why not compare some of the women to food products that have an enormous amount of extra loaded toppings and stuffings (ex. Supreme Pizza, Taco Supreme, etc).

 Here is their most recent ad campaign they launched last week to help display all of the “curvaceous” women that wear their jeans:

http://shine.yahoo.com/fashion/jeans-ad-sparks-controversy-levis-models-come-other-202400157.html

Although SOPA (Stop Online Piracy Act) has approximately 4x more congress members “leaning no” towards the bill than it does in favor of it, the reality of how far the bill has got is scary. Many of the congress members admit that the bill needs some reworking from its original proposal. However, a simple reworking of the bill does not seem to be enough. The idea that the justice department would be able to take the legal actions a step further and not only take down a link posted on a popular website, such as Twitter or YouTube, but shut down the website as a whole because of one copyright infringement is an absurd concept.   

The amount of problems that could arise from SOPA is too much to estimate. Specific advertisers that are paying to be a part of a social media website will fail to produce the results that they once had. Here at TagTeam creative, we focus a lot of our time on Search Engine Optimization for ourselves and clients. We have dedicated a great amount of time into strategic planning for the companies we work with and if copyright infringement was filed it has the potential to drag our name down as well as the clients. The plans we help implement for generating income will also be immediately affected because within the bill it states that the credit card companies can be demanded to stop all further payment processes associated with the website. With so much emphasis focused on the internet and all the ways it is furthering our country’s business strategies; how are we supposed to find security in the fact that it could be taken away so quickly with one misrepresented allegation?

  Although the bill is still in the beginning stages the reality of the bill getting this far is one that anyone who relies on the internet and social media should fear.  The idea that someone can claim copyright issues and entire site will shut down only has the possibility to benefit people seeking the upper hand. Imagine that a post or link goes up on a popular site with information about the government, or about a specific candidate facing scandal, one call and the entire website would be shut down. It is very apparent how convenient this set up would be for the people in charge to legitimize their actions.  This is where companies who have any involvement with the internet should come together and propose a different strategy for blocking piracy on the internet.

Here at TagTeam Creative, we have interns that get their feet wet by learning all about the industry from web site design to reputation management.

When we teach them about reputation management, we discuss that amongst other things, the first page of results on Google are imperative for assessing a person’s reputation. So, obviously, the interns Googled themselves.

 One of our interns found that her Gowalla account, which she no longer uses, pulled up on her first page results. She had checked into a restaurant in 2010 and the comment on the check-in was “We’re drunk.” Not a fabulous thing to have thrown in your future employers face.

She soon realized that deleting a check-in on Gowalla isn’t a two-click fix.  Getting frustrated, she searched the site finding their ‘help page’, help.gowalla.com, and typed out a question as a last resort.

She entered- “Can you please delete my check-in to Kona Grill on Tuesday, May 18 2010? I would really appreciate it.” Then she proceeded to submit her username, email, and the little link to the post. Watching her do this made me think about how rare it is that you get online help unless it is a generated computer response.

This is where it gets interesting. She posted this request at 11:23AM on June 30, 2011 and was responded to WITH her check-in deleted by 1:22PM the SAME DAY! She even got a response from a real person, Lora L. Abe (Gowalla’s answering agent), who confirmed that she had gotten my post removed.

This kind of thing is rare and wonderful, so I just want to give kudos to Gowalla for being on top of their game. You guys rule.

Just case you don’t “ego surf” like I do, because you know I do, reputation management just got a bit harder.   In an article by Chris Crum for smallbusinessnewz.com http://ow.ly/5ht5B  he reminds us (if you’re me) or tells us that Bing and Google are now scraping deeper into your social life.

Just type your name into your favorite search engine and it’s easy to tell that they are beginning to use social media platforms as a primary means of hunting out key words and phrases. But what does that mean to me (or you)?

It means that even before hearing your voice or meeting you in person, future employers or clients are pulling you up on Google, and more than likely investigating your personal Facebook page, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc.

Suddenly it becomes their concern as well that you had a crummy day, someone made you mad, or if you had the best mac & cheese ever today- is he/she always like this? This is where the fine line is drawn between being personable and unprofessional. While it may be okay to post a tweet or status saying “Go, Mavs!” (HELL YEAH), one saying something crude about the Heat would not be so acceptable.  These platforms require the user to use their personal judgment about what they are okay with being on the internet about them.

So, knowing this can either make or break a reputation for a person or small business for that matter. Social media platforms bring a new definition of the term “first impression.” People decide if you or your company is worth their time after meeting your online persona and before meeting you in person. Social sites have transformed in the past few years from dominantly personal to a blurred line between personal and professional. They are now a method of reputation management that many neglect to maintain.

http://mashable.com/2011/06/07/reward-twitter-followers/

http://on.mash.to/jToJqB

Mashable shares six easy ways to keep your Twitter followers happy and feeling like you care. They are super easy, so there’s no reason to not try them out!

First, everyone likes free stuff- duh. Occasionally offering small freebies to followers encourages consumer loyalty and brand interaction.

Another thing you can do is give followers some control, like, say they guess a number or answer a question correctly- let them pick the special of the day or the music played at your business.

Number 3: Talk directly to your consumers through Twitter. We all want attention; so, if a consumer tweets about your business, why not ask them how their experience was?

You can provide useful information for followers by providing relevant blogs and articles that teach them something new.

The fifth thing you can do is to give them a ‘behind-the-scenes’ look into your company. Do this by posting pictures or video content of what’s going on in the office where they don’t normally get to see. It makes your brand more personal.

Lastly- make them laugh. Everyone needs some comic relief sometimes. If you can personify your brand it will be more likeable to followers who are already interested in you.