Truth in Web Marketing: Why Seeing is Believing

Truth in Web Marketing: Seeing is Believing

“Let me tell you the truth. The truth is, what is. And what should be is a fantasy, a terrible terrible lie that someone gave to the people long ago.” –Lenny Bruce

A couple of weeks ago, Sage posted his weekly SEM news and the lead story on that was “Cup of Joe: The Fact of The Matter Is, I am Pretty Drunk Right Now“ a story from the reputable Marketing Pilgrim about Toby Jones: “a serial entrepreneur that understands successful small business tactics that have given him a competitive edge more than once.” According to Marketing Pilgrim: “This man has the pulse of the people under his finger at all times. To put it simply, he is one with his market. He understands small business tactics so well that he can pull off stellar marketing materials like the one above while completely intoxicated!”

The problem? Toby Jones is 100% fake. That’s right folks, the man responsible for “Jones’ Big Ass Truck Rental & Storage” and “Jones’ Good Ass BBQ & Foot Massage” is a phony. Somewhere, Holden Caulfield is laughing you. It took me approximately 30 seconds with Google to determine that things were not as they seemed. As it turns out, the videos above were made by bigdogeatchild and Toby Jones is actually a stand-up comedian, Robert Hines.

wrong age

Now that doesn’t mean that the spots are any less funny. In my mind, the fact that so many people eat it up, longing for it to be real make this even more funny than originally intended. In reality though, this should speak tons to those of us involved in web marketing. From link bait, to viral campaigns, to text ads on Google there are volumes to be learned and applied from this example.

And if you look to the left here and you realize that that top lady in the PPC ad there might not be 22 years of age, then you should also question where she’s from and if you really would have a chance or would even want to meet her on a night out around town. She’s been following me around the internet so much lately I highly doubt that she even has time to get out if she wants to. In reality though, I’m starting to doubt that she’s even from Akron But for someone, somewhere, this ad is working. Are yours?