Derek DeVries – Imprudent Loquaciousness

After declaring Grand Rapids, Michigan a “dying city,” Newsweek is now backing off the characterization after GR’s flashmob empresario Rob Bliss organized the world’s largest lipdub video in response to the charge.

Perhaps written up best by Gawker (“Dying Michigan City to Newsweek: Drop Dead”), the response boggled my mind:

“To the Grand Rapids crowd:

First off, we LOVE your YouTube LipDub. We’re big fans, and are inspired by your love of the city you call home.

But so you know what was up with the list you’re responding to, we want you to know it was done by a website called mainstreet.com—not by Newsweek (it was unfortunately picked up on the Newsweek web site as part of a content sharing deal)—and it uses a methodology that our current editorial team doesn’t endorse and wouldn’t have employed. It certainly doesn’t reflect our view of Grand Rapids.”

A couple of immediate concerns spring to mind:

• Newsweek recycles content under its masthead?
• Newsweek publishes analysis it doesn’t even stand behind?

Here’s my problem:  A Facebook status update is hardly as prominent as an article on Newsweek’s website.  Fairness demands that Newsweek publish a retraction of equal prominence.

As Grand Rapids (along with the entire state of Michigan) attempt to attract emerging industries to the state to diversify our economy (which suffered so greatly recently because decades of incompetent leadership allowed us to grow far too dependent on manufacturing) – publishing a characterization like this isn’t just an interesting diversion; it has real economic ramifications.

As I teach my Communication students: perception is extraordinarily powerful.

So my challenge to Newsweek still stands: let’s wait five years and see which institution better fits the adjective “dying.”  

It’s on.  Time to take yer beatin’ like a grown-up.

*Updated with Photos Below

Like I said – the Follow-Through.  Kudos to Rob Bliss.

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Last week during a press conference announcing his plan to put a giant waterslide down Lyon St., Rob Bliss was heckled by radio personality (and local ass clown) “Producer Joe” from a ratings-starved local terrestrial radio show.  Today I got an invite to join a Facebook group “G.R.A.B.” (Grand Rapids Anti-Bliss).  The Grand Rapids Press even stopped to muse about the phenomenon (“Heckling Rob Bliss: Radio station takes it to an art form; online commenters never cease“).

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Haters will hate, I guess.

I don’t think I understood why some people succumb to the temptation to hate Rob Bliss until I considered what goes into his events.  For example:

• Do you have any idea what kind of red tape nightmare it is to set up a water slide on a public street in a major city?
• Or to raise the money necessary to purchase the world’s largest custom, inflatable water slide?
• Or coordinate thousands of people into a zombified flash mob?
• Or navigate the endless layers of bureaucracy necessary to close down streets, secure an orchestra, and get permission to dump tens of thousands of paper airplanes from city rooftops?
• OR to take on the challenge of any of the above as a 20-something college student?

The thought alone would make most of us recoil in horror.

Not Rob.  That’s what separates him from all of the naysayers who deride his events for being simplistic, infantile or unoriginal: they lack the minerals to see their ideas through to fruition.  Rob doesn’t.  Rather than using him as a screen on which to project all of one’s own shortcomings, he should be an inspiring example to hold oneself to.

Here’s the thing though: Rob doesn’t claim to have been the first (or only) person to have come up with these ideas.  If anything, that’s a bit of slothful induction on the part of the media.  All Rob has ever asserted is that he likes social experiments and bringing people together.  What’s so wrong with that?

So traffic is tied up for a half hour.  Big deal.  The guy even picks up after himself – coordinating a cleaning crew to pick up the paper planes from his ArtPrize entry (not that they needed to given that overjoyed children picked up most of them trying to collect all of the colors).  That’s more than most of the drunken St. Patrick’s day or Pulaski Days revelers can say for themselves.  Best of all, Rob frequently incorporates accepting charitable contributions as part of his events.

If you hate Rob and his events – keep it to yourself.  Don’t infect the rest of us with the wretched disappointment you have in your own life.

[Disclosure: I'm not really sure that it's necessary, but to satisfy my nagging notions of intellectual honesty, I'm compelled to note that I work at GRCC and Rob Bliss is a GRCC student.]

Grand Rapids NBC affiliate WOOD TV 8 just announced that it hired social networker Rob Bliss as a “multi-platform account executive” (which sounds like a euphemism for “social networker for hire”).  Their hope is that Bliss will help the station “reach a new generation of media consumers.”

I must confess disappointment.  I’m of the opinion that Bliss’ appeal comes from the fact that his social experiments were organized for the fun of it.  By trying to monetize the experience (or use it to attract eyeballs for advertisers) he stands to lose a measure of his authenticity (and thusly his ability to attract followers).

Granted his events already were being monetized around the fringes; sponsors underwrote the costlier events, local watering holes were hosting after-parties and there were some limited sales of event-specific items.  The primary motivation for the events, however, remained “pure” in that it was purely social experimentation (how many people can he get to unite in a common activity).  With commercialism being the primary factor now driving the events, I worry WOOD’s move has robbed Grand Rapids of one of its “unique value propositions” (as one might say in businessspeak).

By way of example, my recollection is that donations/sales of T-shirts at the last Zombie Walk did not go well and they ended up with something in the neighborhood of a $6,000 deficit.

What follows will be interesting to watch because I tend to think it has implications for the use of social media (and how much commercial interference audiences will tolerate to participate in an enjoyable experience).  Unfortunately I think that introducing the profit motive will turn off a large portion of Bliss’ audience (who, as members of Gen Y, are deeply mistrustful of the traditional media and corporate America). Having a pillow fight for the fun of it is one thing.  Having a pillow fight to sell cars for a local car dealership is entirely another.

I hope I’m wrong.