A priest, a rabbi and a witch doctor walk into a bar. The rabbi tweets, “Oy, you’ll never believe where I am and who I’m with. Can’t wait for the punch line.”
Five minutes later, the bar’s phone rings. The bartender picks it up, listens and shouts, “Is there a Rabbi Glickman here? ” The rabbi takes the phone, asks the bartender who’s calling. Bartender shrugs. “Tel Aviv,” he says. Rabbi says, “Hello?” Voice on the line says, “Rabbi Glickman, like this phone call, death can catch you anywhere, anytime. Don’t you want to leave a last message before it’s too late?”
Rabbi says: “WHO IS THIS? HOW DID YOU FIND ME HERE?”
OK, the reason the joke isn’t exactly funny is that it isn’t exactly a joke; it’s an actual scenario, being played out again and again, in the service of a web app called If I Die from a startup called Willook. Two Israeli boutique agencies have collaborated in the effort, which chooses prospects from the Twittersphere, follows their feeds and — using the geolocation metadata embedded in the tweets to ascertain the prospect’s whereabouts — phones them there to recommend If I Die.
Yes, the marketer just appears, like the Grim Reaper, to warn you that the Grim Reaper can just appear. The offer is to leave a farewell (or parting shot) for friends, enemies or loved ones via your iPhone or whatever.
Oddly, some people — upon being phoned in a bar or restaurant by a total stranger to warn them about sudden death — aren’t amused, much less motivated to start downloading. Rather, says Erez Rubinstein of the Tel Aviv engagement-marketing boutique Twentythree, some targets are “a bit concerned.” Expressing-total-freakedoutedness concerned. Slamming-the-phone-down concerned. In at least one instance, calling-the-police concerned.
“We were really surprised by how much people were surprised that we know where they are,” he said. “We were aware that it was a thin line, but we didn’t illegally break into something public.”
Continues at: Death Stalks the Twittersphere, Offering a Lesson in Consumer Exposure | Bob Garfield – Advertising Age.
