Dear Monica Rockle:
I got an invite to your “Psychology Marketing Project” on Facebook. (Note: Facebook has since removed this “Project.” Too bad.) And as someone who professionally conducts and teaches marketing I have to hand it to you: pretty damn clever…
First of all, it’s written just like a college student would write it — no whiff of advertising copywriter here:
I’m doing a paper in my Human Behaviors – The Psychology of Marketing class. The paper is about the marketing world and the changes that have taken place in the last 5 years. One of the main points that I’m trying to make is how influential viral marketing can be. One individual with an average facebook account can reach (screw it) 400,000+ people in less than 10 days just by making a group and inviting people. There have been other experiments where this worked, my paper talks about the likelihood that it can be duplicated.
What you need to do to help me is:
1. Join this group.
2. Click on “Invite People to Join” from the menu on the right.
3. Select all your friends (for this to work you must do this).
4. Click on “Send invitation”
5. Add me as a friend! (only if you want!!:))The experiment begins now!!(Friday March 14th 4:45 PM PST). The paper is due when I get back from spring break on March 31st!!
Thank you to everyone in advance!!!
It’s complete with smileys and typos and triple exclamation points. How very coed. And so far, this “student group” of yours appears to be working: as of March 22, you have 383,082 members. Nice! It’s rare that any kind of promotion on Facebook generates this kind of following — least of all, gets people to spam their friends.
Now I love supporting the future marketers of the world, and if you were in my class, I might have given you an “A” for creating awareness. The problem is, only real people are allowed to take my marketing class, and I’m not quite convinced that you’re, well, real.
First of all, your “contact info” is a link to a Café Press store for La La Land Shirts. I guess you could be a junior entrepreneur trying to sell T-shirts to finance your college education. But that’s not the only thing that makes me a little suspicious.
True, there’s a link to your Facebook profile complete with a stock-photo-caliber picture of you studying (nice of you to let the US Census Bureau distribute your photo free of charge). Your profile is nicely detailed, listing your hobbies (“I like hanging out with my friends, playing basketball, school, having some fun on the interent.” [sic]), etc.
But what, exactly, is your school? Most students who are on Facebook proudly display their school affiliation. Plus, it makes networking much easier. Since your profile puts you at age 28, I assume you’re in grad school and have several schools in your background. If you are a real aspiring marketer, I would suggest tapping into those alumni networks as soon as possible.
And, by the way, when are you going to post more photos? Most young people I know on Facebook post tons of photos of themselves and their friends on their profiles. I do, however, see more images of T-shirts from La La Land, which seems to specialize in politically themed merchandise.
Speaking of politics, I’m a little confused about your orientation. You claim to be a Democrat, but you also joined clubs supporting Mitt Romney and Ron Paul for president. Indeed, you’ve joined 207 clubs on Facebook — but not a single one about marketing or business. Kind of odd for a graduate marketing student…
But maybe I’m being too harsh. If you’re a real person, I apologize. Just confirm that you’re legit and I’ll retract this entire article. Since you can’t email in fear of having your Facebook account deleted, why don’t we meet up? I see we’re both in Los Angeles, so why don’t you pick a Starbucks where I can interview you about your marketing project? (Though if you’re in L.A., why is the top location for your friends Toronto, with your next most friend-intensive cities London, Australia, Alberta…?) You should really get to know more people in Southern California. I can introduce you to some great ones.
I also tried Googling you, but for a 28-year-old marketer, you’ve left hardly any trail on the Internet. There is some arcane post about you being a plagiarist — which maybe isn’t so arcane, when I think about it.
But honestly, Monica, if it turns out that you’re just an employee of La La Land T-shirts, that your real name is Akash and you’re a 33-year-old Canadian who hasn’t left his apartment in three years, that’s even better. ‘Cause this really is a killer piece of viral marketing you’ve got going on here. Seriously. Hell, you’ve racked up nearly 400,000 converts on Facebook in just over a week! Most companies haven’t generated that much of a following their entire time on Facebook, despite running banners and contests. You also added a face to your company — a young attractive single female face at that. How very Lonelygirl15 of you! Persona-driven marketing is so Web 2.0! Just let me know how many T-shirts you’ve sold through this campaign so I can complete my case study — and hire you to promote my clients.
I look forward to hearing from you, Monica Rockle — but I won’t hold my breath.
Sincerely,
Freddy
PS: Thanks to Jen R of Busan, South Korea for finding the source of your photo on the U.S. Government Census website!
Update 3/26/2008: Reader Doug Cone did a little detective work and found this lalalandshirts profile on my.barackobama.com (see clipping below). The author, James McMinn Jr., claims to work in advertising and design, and suggests “engaging crowds with flash mobs and pr stunts.” So if it’s you, James, behind this Monica Rockle sensation, then, seriously, high-five on the brilliant crowd work! You’re good at this. Really good. Forget T-shirts: you could be making serious money selling your hype skills in Silicon Valley or Hollywood…
Updated 4/4/8: I took a look at the my.barackobama.com address today, and the name in the upper left hand corner was changed to you know who.
Note: James is following this blog, so he has changed it once again since this post.
Update 6/14/8: The project is back as a “six degrees experiment” by a “Monica Cook.” Gotta hand it to James for perseverance — one of the key elements of successful marketing.
For more on this story:
Are You For Real, Monica II: The Updates, the Photo, and… the Haunting?
“Wait, That’s My Face”: Identity Theft, Social Networking Style
Great article about this. It is very suspicious. I found something else quite similar. While the group about the Psychology Marketing doesn’t post pictures of T-shirts, all of the pictures posted are from that cafe whatever and under the folder for La La Land T-shirts.
Then I looked into it deeper and found another group I had seen and thought of joining; “1,000,000 Strong in Support of Banning Facebook Applications!” Just from pure annoyance with getting invite to applications all the time.
Rachel Moss (not quite as possible through a google search) is one of the admins for the group.
The other, your very own Monica Rockle.
The group has pictures of T-shirts clearly posted.
—In the following I mention “She” in reference to the alias ‘Monica Rockle’—
In the post you mentioned Politics, what I see in this group is a large section focused primarily on marketing for presidential candidates. That would be why she joins all of these political groups in support of both Republicans and Democrats. She is using facebook to simply advertise for this T-shirt company that. I think if anything it’s focusing marketing effort on groups that are most likely to want to purchase it. I mean, what is the point of spamming a facebook about people who trying to share their dislike for (something random) Manatees. They, for the most part, maybe not care too much, in that situation, about the presidential candidate, seeing as the presidential election this has been over Iraq, the economy, and I suppose the other big one being foreign policy.
Since advertising through a facebook group is free and 100% legal no matter what you do (granted you follow facebook’s rules) you can do anything you want. These people have a lot of power. Monica Rockle could message the entire group if she pleased. Having the power to send a message, that most people will see mostly within the day, for some maybe up to a week. That is something spectacular. Sure, television can advertise, and millions will see something. But so often people are focused on something else. They may be watching TV with friends, and the commercial break comes on and they talk or do whatever. Or they just zone out, as I do, and just wait till the break ends so I can watch my show. If I see that I have a facebook message, I’m probably going to go and look at it and be focused on that. If it’s something advertising a product, it may be in my head, like “Hmm, this person messaged me about this? Why would they do this? I guess they are trying to sell me this [Insert random product]? Whatever, I won’t buy it, it’s probably some scam” (But it will be in my thoughts)
Isn’t it amazing how it barely takes anything for people to give their information to a group? It’s actually a little scary. Thanks for pointing out the discrepancies, people should do that more often.
The same group exist also in French… It’s just a translation :-(
http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=10323037335
130.623 members in 4,5 days :-((
I have also write à “article” in my blog about this… but in french :-(
http://www.ed-productions.com/leszed/index.php?facebook-l-experience-interdite
You are awesome!
I personally have not received an invite for this group, but I find it interesting to see what my friends are doing. I like to keep my lamebook page clear and uncluttered (unlike some of my friends) so I tend not to add things or join groups at the drop of a hat. I just had a look at my groups list and most of them are ones made by friends (you know, how you feel bad ignoring an invite to join a group that your friends has made, even if you’re not going to have anything to do with it). I just don’t understand why people would join some random group made by some random person. Do they actually think that they are helping out in any way? Sigh, people are silly and influential. What can you do? (Aside from writing an in depth blog post about it….)
I wonder how much “she” gets paid/earns?
Give this guy some credit. And he blogs whatever he comes across. Most people do. He happened to get invited to this deceptive group. The people who are arguing for (the fake) Mrs. Rockle are just upset that they fell for it.
I appreciate you (Mr. Freddy) posting this on that facebook groups’ wall. I personally linked my friends who invited me to read your article. I hope these ridiculous groups stop. It is like those text message chain letter you get, they are freaking pointless and i wish i never received them. Only this group is clearly to market her (the person/company/whoever)shirts. And i agree that they definitely did a good job at getting the word out. Just in a deceptive, tricky way. I also admire how you admit any mistakes or misread’s on your blog or reposts. Great writer. Wish more people knew how to critically think.
I greatly appreciate the supportive letters and kind words. I also heartily welcome constructive criticism. If more people would speak up about issues in our society — and if more so-called authorities (like myself) would learn to admit their faults and listen to what their critics have to say — then the world would be a cooler place. Or at least a lot more interesting. This “old man” has certainly learned a lot from this little adventure, and looks forward to new ones.
Nice work…a quick google search for lala land shirts reveals some interesting facts…first I would like to point out that I doubt cafepress has anything to do with this, they seem fairly content to sit back and cash in on all the rest of our ideas and what not not really needing to generate any ideas themselves…back to the quick google search. The google search revals a myspace profile and a squido profile.
http://www.myspace.com/lalalandshirts
http://www.squidoo.com/cafepress/lalalandshirts
Sadly the myspace profile lists lalaland as a 27 year old male living in COLUMBIA, Missouri. I find it much more likely that cafe press has nothing to do with this and a couple fellows between 30-40 have just perfected thier viral marketing techniques…using Ms. Monica…if I had the time it would be interesting to do some more research but I thought I’d put in my 2 cents :)
ok so I just couldn’t let this go and dug a bit deeper…poking around reveals an affiliation from the lala land site to a hotmail email address…that address leads to a facinating blog post you MUST read Freddy!:
http://my.barackobama.com/page/community/post/lalalandshirts/CXqy
the line that most caught my attention: “But if Barack believes in thwarting evil, I’ll believe in him. Barack will need dedicated persons — hidden heroes: faces we’ll never see or know about ”
most I just wish people around me weren’t such sheep…but then I still have a facebook and myspace account…guess I can’t say too much
Interesting stuff….also interesting is when you check Monica Rockle its an anagram of amongst other things – Comical Krone or Lark Economic – great viral marketing stunt whoever did it!
I’m not quite sure what led me to click the link to this page, but I must say that I very much enjoyed this blog. It was well written, rather interesting, and even mildly entertaining. You did a great job exposing the hidden agenda of this anything-but-innocent Facebook group, and hopefully you have made people more aware of the deceitfulness of the world we live in.
Still, you have to admit, real girl or not, the pic of the blond worked a treat! She/he (whatever) didn’t even offer free beer! I’m also confused about calling it a marketing project though. This proves anyone can lure unsuspecting masses easily (especially blond coeds) but it doesn’t prove those eyeballs would purchase anything.
A better experiment is seeing how many will fork over a dollar for something stupid, like, oh, I don’t know, a picture of a cartoon maybe, or a virtual drink. That’s genius.
I absolutely loved your blog. That kind of wit is too few and far between now a days. Plus, who gets a professional quality picture taken of herself studying in class?
Very interesting blog. What I find funny is how the group is based around a marketing project and it’s real purpose is for, well, marketing.
When I was invited to join this group, I didn’t join for some reason. I had a feeling that it had no point whatsoever.
Once again, a great blog.
Fantastic, thank you for the insight. I am glad I went with my gut and did not join this group.
Very interesting post, and it does make sense…I enjoyed reading it. You have a great style of writing as well!
Wow. Maybe you should get a life. Who cares if this is real or not. There is so much spam on the internet and this is hardly the worst of it. If you think you are so smart than maybe you should invest your time in something more useful instead of wasting hours stalking this girl (whether she is real or not). I am truly disappointed in all of you who thought this wasted space on the internet was “awesome, fantastic”, etc. Seriously people, get a life.
Oh and also…anyone can join facebook now. You don’t have to have a school affiliate.
U failed to mension the part of leaving her project while going on spring break…lol, too funny.
-big FAN!
Do you mind if I use this as an example in my marketing class? We have been talking about spam and e marketing, and the mistakes people have made to give marketers a terrible reputation. I believe this is a key lesson to learn.
But really, its a hell of a lot cheaper than pay per click or anything else, but will have the same effect as a mass marketing campaign such as one that would use pay per click. Might not be the most ethical way of going about things (lying about school projects) but it works.
Wow, this whole blog is quite hilarious. People telling you that you waste you don’t have a life, when they themselves are taking the time to insult you. Kudos to you Freddy, for exposing the deception. Its also funny how you have successfully rebuttled every objection to your your opinion that has been presented. I enjoyed reading this, and I look forward to your future blogs!
To me the most obvious sign that this is fake is her Profile picture. I’m not saying she has to have a picture of herself at a popular landmark, on a tropical vacation, or in a drunken group picture of her an her girlfriends, but it would be more realistic of a 28-year old woman on Facebook. I mean, go through your list of friends, and take a peek to see how many people’s profile pictures are not more social in nature. Why is the one thing she wants to share with her friends, family and the facebook community herself in class? How many people would take a picture of themselves at a desk in a cubicle and make that there profile picture.
In fact, the other question that comes from this picture is how and why did she take it. Did she decide to go to class one day with her camera, and then pass it over to a classmate or friend to take the picture? Did she say to the person “Okay, take my picture, but I’m going to look down, rather than smile at you, and pretend to be working hard…oooh this is going to look so cool on Facebook”. Didn’t taking this picture cause a disruption to the class? Or maybe someone took the picture when she wasn’t paying attention, then sent it to her, at which point she just had to put it up on Facebook as her profile pic. I don’t know, none of that sounds very likely or logical.
But I have to commend you on your own “Viral Marketing”, because I would have never visited or even known about your blog if it wasn’t for seeing your post on the Facebook group wall. Surprising that I ended up here rather than the “Hardcore porn groups” someone else posted a few entries later on that wall. I think may have to take some time and consider where I am now in my life.
A thought provoking argument you make. If I might I’d like to share an idea that came to my mind when i read this blog. Could it be that an actual student working on this project created a sort of dummy profile under the name Monica Rockle in order to AVOID having her (or his) actual profile displayed to the entire world? Perhaps asking for group members to add her as a friend was only a means of adding a sense of legitimacy to her claim. Just an idea that occured to me while I was reading. Once again, a very clever piece.
Hey Freddy!
Great piece. For all the skeptics (and by skeptics I mean skeptical of Freddy’s blog) I received the same exact invitation word-for-word from someone I actually know – so obviously it’s fake. It’s a no-brainer at this point, give Freddy kudos for figuring it out before the rest of us. His link was posted on the wall from the invitation I received, and I just happened to click on it. This leads me to wonder if my friend joined Monica’s (or whoever) group and in turn her account was spammed and this invitation was automatically sent to all of her friends. Has anyone else encountered this?
P.S. I can’t wait for whoever said you were an ‘old’ man hits 40. That statement alone pretty much negates anything else they say as they are obviously young and tragically naive.
Thanx for the investigating :) I will NOT be joining this group. I became a lil suspicious when I read that someone had to write a paper :s I decided to scroll down to see if peeps were discussing anything in there. If anyone wants to join anything like this, join 6 degrees of separation :D I think that they may have been competing wit that app :s
Looks like Monica Rockle realized we were on to her. The new Admin of the group is Samantha Durange (York, PA).
The “paper” is also due “when she gets back from Spring Break!” on the 31st. $10 says there’s no paper coming.
I also reported the group to facebook for spam.
Have you noticed that the admins have changed? Now it’s Samantha Durange from York, PA.
I’m impressed with Monica or whoever actually did this. When I received the invite, I didn’t look read the whole description – I just didn’t care. Your comment suggesting the whole thing was a fake caught my eye and that’s when I looked into Cafepress. I can’t help wondering whether they purposefully made her profile so sketchy. THAT would be genius. Then I remember that I don’t live in tv-world where everything is a conspiracy… and it’s a facebook group, which to my knowledge is harmless.
Nice post and comments is too good. Thanks Monica Rockle
hey guys im Samantha Durange
I joined her group when she asked me too. One day i noticed that she left the group as admin so i clicked on Become Admin. So I AM NOT a “student” Im just a regular person!
Samantha Durange