Wow, Copeland are Kind of Dicks

Posted by pixie | Filed under Uncategorized

In the latest “Citizens For Our Benefit”/Fall Out Boy news, it seems Copeland decided to get a slice of the action — by launching a mirror of the Fall Out Boy site [Citizens For Our Betterment] under the amazingly clever URL Citizens FOUR Our Benefit. The only difference? At the end of Copeland’s site, you get a link to YouAreMySunshineAlbum — which is a photo with the date October 14, 2008.

This really makes no sense — but here’s what I gather. Someone posted a link on a Fall Out Boy LiveJournal, and Copeland sort of just latched on to the Fall Out Boy campaign, as they were already doing some viral stuff of their own. [Which is news to me, but hey, let’s face it — it’s Copeland. I don’t think they’ve ever made it to the “elite” area of my overfilled iPod for even an afternoon.]

Speaking to MTV, here’s what Aaron Marsh of Copeland had to say:

“We had been discussing a viral campaign for three or four months now, placing some stuff on the Net, so some of this was just wacky timing. The whole concept behind our campaign was that we wanted people to be looking at our Web site while they were thinking they were looking at someone else’s. So we were poking around, and then FOB started their site, so we decided to use theirs. There was nothing malicious about it; we just saw an opportunity to reel in way more people.

And when I think about how it might affect Fall Out Boy, all I can say is that Pete’s a clever bloke, and he probably would’ve done the same thing had he thought of it,” he continued. “I mean, think about it: The two campaigns are very similar — theirs is supposed to look like an ominous organization that’s mucking around. The way [the two campaigns] crossed didn’t hurt anyone.”

Well, obviously, nobody was hurt! It’s a freaking viral campaign. Then again, is Copeland going to suffer a bit for it? In my eyes, they’re unoriginal hacks. The quote above should really read, “Yeah… well, we were doing a viral campaign of our own, but nobody was paying attention. And then Fall Out Boy did theirs, and it was successful and got people interested and talking, so we decided we’d just copy them since they’re smarter than we are. It’s not like they’d mind, they’re smart, after all!”

It reeks of pathetic, if you ask me. And I find it hard to believe that Pete, being a “clever bloke” would have done what they did. Say what you like about him, he tends to have pretty original ideas and seems above latching on to someone else’s coattails to such an extent. It must suck to be a band and realize that someone has outdone you in the whole viral thing, but that’s how it goes sometimes. Fall Out Boy’s campaign is actually the first viral campaign I have paid attention to in ages — most of them have been boring, stupid, or ill-planned.

For the record, Copeland also launched a fake AbsolutePunk site — Abso1utePunk.net. Which is hilarious because nobody would type that by accident, though I guess if they were putting fake links to AP, it would work. Christ, they’re so desperate, I’m wondering when the EPB mirror will show up… [note to Copeland: do it! I’m writing an article trashing you right now — nobody will catch the fake! That’s what I call using your heads!]

Copeland’s final comment was just a bunch of crying that their “brilliant” idea was destroyed over night [welcome to a world where people can look things up and aren’t entirely retarded] and repeated insisting “Pete would have done the same thing.” I’ve never seen anyone so positive that someone else would do the same stupid thing they did, but check it out:

“The whole idea was mocking other sites, and if life went according to plan, you would’ve seen that continue, instead it got ripped to shreds overnight. But, like I said, this wasn’t done maliciously. And everything I’ve heard about Pete is that he’s a marketing kind of guy; he’s the king of making people talk and ruffling feathers, so he would’ve done the same thing if he could have. So if Fall Out Boy fans are mad about this whole thing, well, all I can say is that Pete would’ve done the same thing.”

Mad? No. Laughing at you? Yes. Pete said there are still “many twists to come” and it may have nothing to do with an album… he said it was really just art. Not surprisingly, concerning Copeland, he didn’t say he would have done the same thing. Go figure.