Stop by every Friday for Tunheim’s take on the week’s thumb-stopping and thought-provoking headlines in digital, communications, marketing and public affairs.
Rosedale Center to launch 10-day social influencer ShareSpace in former J. Crew store.
Rosedale Center, a shopping mall just outside Minneapolis, has found a new use for vacant store space — a pop-up for social media influencers named ShareSpace. ShareSpace will offer an array of marketing strategy sessions such as panel discussions on “using your platform for good” and the legal implications of being a social influencer as well as interactive experiences with local brands. Rosedale Center has experimented with numerous marketing and retail strategies recently including rotating art exhibits and a new food hall. The ShareSpace experience will run from March 6 to March 15.
Burger King serves up a moldy Whopper to promote going preservative-free
Burger King’s newest ad campaign breaks the mold of food advertising by showing off a moldy Whopper. The campaign, aptly called “The Moldy Whopper,” shows what happens if a Whopper is left out on a table for more than a month. “The beauty of no artificial preservatives,” the ad’s tagline reads. Burger King is eliminating artificial preservatives from the Whopper sandwich in all U.S. restaurants by the end of the year. Other chains such as McDonalds and Panera Bread have already made similar changes to their products, but clearly none of them were bold enough to get ugly.
Some Staples stores in Boston are getting podcast studios
The office supply store is partnering with iHeartRadio to build podcast studios at six of its stores in the Boston area. For $60, customers will be able to rent one of the soundproof studios for a full hour. A recording specialist will be on hand to help, and additional sound editing services will be available for purchase. The studios are part of broader store renovations for what the company calls Staples Connect, which are stores designed to be co-working and community spaces for professionals, teachers and students.
Facebook Says Political Candidates Can Use Sponsored Memes
In an announcement that seems to undermined its recent efforts to build public trust, Facebook said it will allow politicians and political groups to pay for sponsored content on its platforms. The decision comes after Mike Bloomberg paid popular accounts to promote his campaign on Facebook-owned Instagram. Sponsored content is hard to track on Facebook and Instagram unless it is ‘boosted’ like a traditional ad — many influential accounts are paid to simply post organically for their loyal followers. This organic form of influence does not always contain obvious disclaimers and isn’t archived in a transparent library like other paid political ads on Facebook and Instagram.
