ASCII by Jason Scott

Jason Scott's Weblog

“Digital Influence Strategist” —

Date: Mon, 18 Sep 2006 13:16:29 -0400
From: “Giesen, Brian”
Reply-To: “Bell, John”
To: ascii@textfiles.com
Subject: Cocktails, Conversation & the Future of Blogging – RSVP Today!

Jason,

I was reading your blog and thought you might be interested in
attending a free event in Boston we are co-hosting with Six Apart
next week.

The event will include an insider’s look at Vox, Six Apart’s new
blogging tool, and it’ll offer a great opportunity to meet other
bloggers and digital leaders from the Boston area.

Details about the event are attached below. I hope to see you at the
event.

Best,
Brian

Brian Giesen
Digital Influence Strategist
360 Degree Digital Influence Group

Ogilvy Public Relations Worldwide
direct: 202.729.4117
1111 19th Street NW 10th Floor
Washington, DC 20036

http://blog.ogilvypr.com

Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2006 05:04:36 -0400 (EDT)
From: Jason Scott
To: “Bell, John”
Subject: Re: Cocktails, Conversation & the Future of Blogging – RSVP Today!

This is going to sound like the stupidest thing in the world, but I can’t
bring myself to attend something that I’ve invited to by a “Digital
Influence Strategist”. Thanks for thinking of me and I appreciate the offer.

Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2006 07:25:04 -0400
From: “Bell, John”
To: jason@textfiles.com
Subject: Re: Cocktails, Conversation & the Future of Blogging – RSVP Today!

Presuming Brian Giesen from my team invited you (that’s his title)
why would that keep you from coming? If he had another title like
“online public relations” or “online marketing” in his title, would
you attend?

Seriously, the event should be a fun opportunity to meet with Six
Apart and us. We did one in July in DC and had folks from PBS,
Discovery, DNC, RNC all there. Good time had by all.

Date: Thu, 21 Sep 2006 12:08:38 -0400 (EDT)
From: Jason Scott
To: “Bell, John”
Subject: Re: Cocktails, Conversation & the Future of Blogging – RSVP Today!

Have a fantastic time!


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5 Comments

  1. Dan Moniz says:

    You really should explain this a bit more, at least to us wandering readers of the blog. I think I know you well enough to surmise, with a certain degree of confidence, your reason for declining the invitation, but some additional chit-chat about it would be interesting to your audience.

  2. Punching Judy says:

    Hah, you’re such a god damned smart ass. It’s why we love you. 🙂

  3. Shii says:

    Got a feeling you just saved yourself from three or four hours of bullshit.

  4. Jason Scott says:

    Well, Moniz, as you guess, most people who read my crap on this weblog would definitely know why, but just to make it explicit:

    I don’t like marketing in general, although I see its use, just like slaughtering cattle and demolishing old buildings has its use (and purpose, reason, etc). It’s when I see it going over personal lines that it turns me off specifically, or bothers me.

    I don’t like someone with a title like “Digital Influence Strategist” on several levels: first of all, it’s a cynical designation of someone whose job is to make things “happen”, as if they were always meant to “happen”, i.e. a liar. Second, the “digital” tells me their job is to do it specifically to an online presence, which puts them about 2 heartbeats above a spammer.

    Some time ago, Creative Commons hired a marketing firm, a particularly odious one who I refuse to name and give search hits to, but which essentially hired people to go around to parties, forums and their lives and push products. They had a lot of fantastic words for why they were doing something meaningful and real in their work, but as far as I’m concerned they could all go choke on their own retinas.

    On top of all this, I don’t really feel a need to be in a room and meet flacks for sixapart, or livejournal, or any of these sorts of companies. I used Movable type because it was around and vaguely easy to set up. Next time around I’d probably use something else. Sixapart’s blazingly hamfisted attempts to go pay were only mitigated because people bitched so much. Who wants to deal with people like that in the long term, or over tiny little snacks?

    Did that all sound bitter?

  5. Jason Scott says:

    Postscript: I switched to WordPress.