[Jon]

I'm looking for feedback, comments, or constructive criticism on a new website which I've recently completed: SpankMyMarketer.com.

Some of you may remember, earlier this year, we were spammed with a promotion for a car giveaway at the upcoming SEMA show. The promotional material included a photograph of two gentlemen wearing nothing but women's thong underwear imprinted with the slogan "Spank My Monkey", and a video in which the owner of a fairly well-known hot rod shop declared that he was "Quickly establishing himself as the Anti-Christ of the Hot Rod World".

We did some research, exposed the marketing campaign, parodied the promotional material, and spread the word around the net. In response, Corky Coker, the outgoing SEMA Chairman of the Board (whose company and brother were featured in the promotional video), came on the board and attempted to defend the campaign. He failed, and a "mystery" user registered on the board, put his location as CO (where I live), and made a threatening "watch your back" type of post. IP address data showed that the "mystery" user and Corky Coker had the same IP address, and had been posting from the same location. Though Coker denied that he had personally made the threatening post, he admitted that it had been done by someone at Coker Tire.

Word got around. SEMA's public relations firm confirmed that SEMA had canceled the giveaway, and the industry distanced itself from the failed promotion. Episodes of Overhaulin' which featured Gas Monkey Garage were even pulled from the air by The Learning Channel.

I had thought that would be the end of that situation, and we would get some closure.

Unfortunately, Corky Coker would then embark on a publicity campaign in an apparent attempt to cover up the events. A one-page website that lauded Corky's achievements was put up at CorkyCoker.com. A heavily-biased "biographical" article of Corky Coker would even be placed on Wikipedia, by a user named "CokerTire". Coker failed -- Wikipedia administration deleted the article, and our page about his misadventures now comes up #1 in Google when searching for his name: http://www.google.com/search?rls=en&q=corky+coker&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8. SEMA and The Learning Channel refused to discuss the situation.

In researching the campaign, I discovered that the SEMA "rat rod" giveaway was part of SEMA's larger attempt to market to the "rat rod" culture, which they defined as an "emerging youth culture trend", and encouraged people to attend the upcoming SEMA show, where they could "see up close and in-depth what's next for this lucrative market, and get everything you need to take advantage of it.

The "Spank My Monkey" thong pic, the Anti-Christ video, Coker Tire's threatening pseudo-username, and the fake wiki article were bad enough. Finding out that it's all part of a campaign to squeeze money from the "youth market" really puts it over the edge. So, I started work on SpankMyMarketer.com.

SpankMyMarketer.com serves two purposes. First, it documents the failed Spank My Monkey/Anti-Christ marketing campaign, with many pages of content, and numerous footnoted sources. It also presents evidence as to Discovery's use of guerrilla marketing tactics to promote its shows on the internet, and definitively answers the "are the shows scripted?" question, once and for all. Obviously, nobody is going to read dry information, no matter how useful it is. So, the articles are filled with funny parody comics, and there's even an entire gallery section filled with comics. This will be especially effective for the "youth market", whom we want to see the site.

Second, SpankMyMarketer.com attempts to reverse the failed marketing campaign with the use of a special software tool called "The SpankMaker". With The SpankMaker, you can make your own parody comics of manipulative marketers, and then send the comics back to the original marketers. It's fun, funny, and perfectly legal. It's also very easy. Just type some text into a box, then it's one click to make your comic, which you can download, or post on the net. One more click to email it to your favorite marketer .

Anyway, I've already received some valuable private feedback, and I'll be "officially" listing and promoting the site soon, so I wanted to take the time to gather a round of input on the board. Let me know what you think: SpankMyMarketer.com.

 

[killerformula]

Its a difficult situation to explain to an outsider, I think. I think maybe one of the most useful items would be a bullet pointed or numbered "play by play" of who did what wrong in a paraphrased format. I did find your page about "coker is a jerk." I'm not an expert by any means, I just think if you give a new reader the opportunity to make one click, get a fast, accurate synopsis of events and then offer more in depth reading beyond that to prove your points that would be really useful.

BTW, I like the depth of research into coker's history. It was an interesting read-

K

 

[Jon]

Thanks kf -- other people have mentioned the same thing. I'd like to do a 3 or 4 sentence summary on the first page, but I'm having some trouble whittling the situation down to one paragraph. I'll keep working on it.

 

[powerrodsmike]

Jon- I have clicked on both links in your first post and all I get is a huge black screen with "spank my marketer" and "home" on the top.

Is this another one of my equipment shortcomings or is the website only visible to those capable of being enlightened?

I don't have any filters or content blockers turned on that would prevent me from loading the site on. The googlesearch link works.

I remember the wikipage that coker set up. It was continually edited by another user and discussed with the wiki admin until the page was deleted because it was a "vanity page"


Crap, I wanted to see.. I even have speakers that work now.
What's the deal?

Later, mikey

 

[powerrodsmike]

OK it works good now :thumbup:

Musta been a dielectric disambiguity.


I got some reading to do.
Later,
Mikey

 

[Henry Highrise]

Very Interesting. I think you did an outstanding job of putting that together. :thumbup:

 

[powerrodsmike]

In all fairness to SEMA, I think that they have done far more good for the industry than harm.

I won't condone marketing the next profitable "trend" to kids, like the tobacco, beer, clothing and music companies do, but they have been working towards changing legislature and auto equipment and registration regulations in the US to be favorable to our hobby. SEMA is one of the driving forces behind keeping smog requirements in many states tolerant of the cars we drive.
Here is one of those divisions: http://www.semasan.com/main/main.aspx?ID=/content/SEMASANcom/HomePage

I have personally worked for and know past officers and members of SEMA, I know that the sole purpose of that organization is not marketing . It may be a big part of it, but by no means is it the only reason for it's existence.
Check this, another sema page.http://www.semasan.com/main/main.aspx?id=60079

By and large, SEMA is a worthwhile organization who happen to have some greedy drivers in charge of some of their divisions. Show me one organization that would be able to do all that they do for the hobby. Does NSRA have a PAC to go to bat for the hobbiest? How about goodguys?

There is not a doubt in my mind that guys like Corky Coker, Richard Rawlins and Stephen Andrews need to be given a big swirly, but show the SEMA organization in a little more objective fashion.

Just my opinion.

Mikey

 

[lowROLLERchevy]

simple suggestion, the navigation links at the top are cramped, double spacing would help make it easier on the eyes, right now its like reading a post thats one massive paragraph

so that instead of:

Home • About SpankMyMarketer.com • Summary.............
Corky Coker • David Coker • SEMA • ..............
Parody Comic Gallery • The SpankMaker..........

its:

Home • About SpankMyMarketer.com • Summary.............

Corky Coker • David Coker • SEMA • ..............

Parody Comic Gallery • The SpankMaker..........

 

[Jon]

Thanks guys -- keep 'em coming.

mike -- I can't comment on whether SEMA has done more harm than good. I do know that their latest attempt to market to the youth rat rod market needs to be addressed, and that using "Spank My Monkey" and "Anti-Christ" tactics is out of line when marketing to kids. In regard to legislation, I do understand that they support a lot of pro-hotrodder legislation. However, if there was a piece of legislation that benefited hotrodding companies, but did not benefit hotrodders, I would think that they would support the companies over the hotrodders. I'm actually quite curious about this, and am tempted to start doing some research on the bills that they've backed.

Also, I thought that their line "SEMA has no plan for a car giveaway at the SEMA Show" was inappropriate. Obviously, they had a "plan" for a car giveaway, and canceled the plan, and refused to admit that the plan ever existed. In addition, Coker was in an advisory position as past-immediate Chairman of the Board of SEMA when he posted here, a fact he neglected to mention. Nevertheless, I'll keep my ears open for similar comments -- if the general opinion is that SEMA should be handled more lightly, then the article can always be re-worded.

lowROLLERchevy -- added more spaces, let me know how it looks now. It looks a little over-spaced on my display.

 

[powerrodsmike]

Thanks guys -- keep 'em coming.


Nevertheless, I'll keep my ears open for similar comments -- if the general opinion is that SEMA should be handled more lightly, then the article can always be re-worded.
QUOTE]

To see you willing to take a look at the SEMA organization in a broader sense is all I was asking. :thumbup:

It seemed like the whole organization was being judged by the actions of a few officers and a few opportunistic members.

That would be like judging all of HR.com by reading my posts.

Later, mikey

 

[Jon]

Good point. My thought was that SEMA had a chance to make an official statement. They didn't say that what GMG or Coker had done was wrong, and they didn't acknowledge any responsibility. Instead, they tried to pretend that they weren't involved, with the "no plan" line. Nevertheless, their PR firm has my number, and if they want to communicate again, my door is open. If they want to take some responsibility, or at least admit that the tactics were wrong, or that they've spoken to Coker about it, then maybe that would be a good first step in the right direction.

 

[lowROLLERchevy]

lowROLLERchevy -- added more spaces, let me know how it looks now. It looks a little over-spaced on my display.

i donno, im on the fence here, its alot of stuff to try to fit into a small area, w/o looking overcrowded at the same time ....

im gonna play w/ some stuff and see what i come up with

 

[tfeverfred]

I'll just do what I've always done where the majority of rat rods are concerned. I'll look, compare them to safe road worthy vehicles, shake my head and move on. But, now I'll also not spend money at Coker and will advise others to do the same.

Jokes and comments on the net will do some good to spread the word, but a kick in their wallets is something that seems to work even better.

As for Gas Monkey Garage... isn't a pro-built rat rod against the whole idea behind them in the first place? Next thing you know, someone is going to come out with glass bodys that have metal panels installed so they will get rusty and look "period" correct.

Oh my.... that's not a bad idea. I could call it "New Rust" and sell it by the corner newstand next to the meth dealers.

 

[Jon]

tfeverfred -- my thought is that a joke on the net can result in a kick in the wallet. We'll see.

Regarding rust, grouch raised some interesting points about the rust on Gas Monkey Garage's vehicles: Gas Monkey Garage rust.

 

[lowROLLERchevy]

^^^ link takes me to post 180-some

the post jon speaks ofit post 105 of that thread if you wish to check out what grouch had to say

 

[Jon]

Good call lowROLLERchevy -- that link only works if you have the default number of posts per page set in your user options. Here's a direct link to that single post: rust post . The picture that grouch is referencing can be seen here: spank my monkey promotional photograph.

 

[tfeverfred]

Fake rust!? I nearly sprayed soda all over my monitor and keyboard.! My dog is still looking at me funny. If that's the case and it sounds like it, those guys are pathetic.

And as for safety, I find it crazy that being a rebel can be defined by not having a safe car. Some rat rods are done well, but it does often look like they try to hard. No mufflers, missing floorboards and partial firewalls... it took a long time for hot rodders to get respect back in the day and now it seems like a few have decided to go backwards. Except now it's being called fashionable. Looks like the new 1%ers have moved in.

I keep looking for vintage pics of guys cruising around in rusted hulks and I have yet to see any, so it sure as hell isn't tradition. It seems more like guys who want to be hot rodders and they are willing to cut all corners to do so. Trust me, I'm on a budget and my build is coming along fine. Not as fast as I would like, but when it is done it will be first off safe. I'm learning that you can get in this hobby and have fun without a lot of chrome or a high dollar paint job if you just use your head, seek help and plan things out.

Has anyone ever seen a rat rod at a NSRA safety inspection? I know I have not.

 

[Henry Highrise]

Good point. My thought was that SEMA had a chance to make an official statement. They didn't say that what GMG or Coker had done was wrong, and they didn't acknowledge any responsibility. Instead, they tried to pretend that they weren't involved, with the "no plan" line. Nevertheless, their PR firm has my number, and if they want to communicate again, my door is open. If they want to take some responsibility, or at least admit that the tactics were wrong, or that they've spoken to Coker about it, then maybe that would be a good first step in the right direction.

From everything that I have seen or read on this.......SEMA is never gonna do that while Mr. Coker is still the Immediate Past President....not without his OK anyway. From what I see.....is that Mr. Coker should be the one that comes forward and says I am sorry...thats easy to say Mr. Coker if your reading this...I am sorry and the tactics were wrong I am sorry for the whole thing and I also apoligize for threatening Jon . I don't see it ever happening though.....If he was gonna do that he would have and should have done that a long time ago.

 

[Henry Highrise]

Maybe you could get Rosie O'Donnel to say something bad about him like she is doing Trump....now that would be funny!

 

[home brew]

Jon - I am not sure if you are beating on a dead horse at this point. That is up to you and how much effort you want to expend to pursue this. One thing I have noticed is that Corky's and Honest Charlie's PR system is very hard at work. Take a look at the latest 32 roadster they built and drove to SEMA this year. They, along with several other SEMA members, built cars and drove them to SEMA and displayed them with the road grime they had collected on the way. I think this could be a modification of the rat rod promotion they were going to use earlier. As you know many of the "rat rod" no billet events promote driving ( although a lot of the cars are trailered) and many of the owners leave them with all the mud intact when they display them. After seeing a 37 Fiberglas Ford three window coupe made to look like it is rusting and was just pulled out of a barn the pseudo rat rod movement is moving into the realm of street rods by manufactures who wish to up their sales. In fact you can now buy a rolling rat rod chassis and body from a company in Canada. They will build it for you and even add an engine and tranny to make it turn key. What started out as a reaction (rat rods) to the billet industry has been turned around to make the manufacturers of brand new 97's and flathead blocks rich.

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