OMG: am I old?

What is even going on here.

I was reading my client Michael Gordon’s Pitchfork review from 2004 to see if I deemed it worthy to put in a press kit just now, and I clicked on the 5 Gum banner ad in an attempt to send my friend James a link to the new “Zing” gum (he says “zing!” a lot, OK?). Instead of a Zing or a 5 Gum website, I got to this.

5 Gum’s marketing campaign is just a super imeem page?? Fair enough: what could they possibly say about gum at this point? Might has well push Katie Perry and Lady Gaga associations and throw people off a bit. Also, The Brunettes, School of Seven Bells, and Fleet Foxes are actually cool; what the deuce kind of awesome marketing intern does 5 Gum have working for them??

This makes for a great argument for a complete lack of boilerplate marketing copy. When promoting a concert, why not just link to a playlist of the music? Actually, when marketing anything – a play, a dance performance, a museum exhibition – why not create a unique playlist? It’s free and more interesting than any words you could possibly use.

5 has a playlist for each type of gum and is asking viewers to vote for their favorite playlists:

Solstice seems to be most squarely in my iTunes camp. I wonder what it tastes like. I guess I willl buy it and find out. Marketing logic dictates that if I like what it sounds like, I’ll like what it tastes like, right?

For what it’s worth ((nothing)), I’m declaring 5 Gum the Official Gum of Life’s a Pitch. All three readers must now chew it exclusively.