Top Edelman PR Exec Says Web 2.0 Companies Drunk On Own Kool Aid

By Tom Foremski - October 30, 2007

steverubel.jpgSteve Rubel is a senior guy at Edelman, the world's largest private PR firm. He wrote a post titled: "The Web 2.0 World is Skunk Drunk on Its Own Kool-Aid."

He blames the media and advertising!!!

Well, didn't Edelman and hundreds of PR firms hype and hype Web 2.0 companies and continue to do so???

If Mr Rubel feels this way then ethically, he and his colleagues in PR should tell their Web 2.0 clients they don't have a chance. Oh, wait, he just did! (Now give them their money back....)

- - -

Please see Silicon Valley Watcher:

August 2006 - A plethora of Web 2.0 = Way too many Swiss-army-knife-collaborative-platform-technologies

November 2006 - Web 2.Uh Oh Week in SF - Where are the Users?!

November 2006 - Tired of all the 2.0 hype? Here comes Web 3.0

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By Tom Foremski - October 30, 2007 | Permalink | Comment | Category: PR Watch
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Comments (3)

Steve Rubel:

Tom, re-read the post. I don't blame the media. The cause is really irrelevant. We're here. Now how do we get back to reality?

Posted: October 30, 2007 8:08 AM

Tom Foremski:

Steve, you write:
"No one's casting a cynical eye anymore. No one's looking at valuations and reality - or at least very few people are."
I was casting a cynical eye more than a year ago...
You write:
"And yes, the ridiculous BS press releases are flying into my Gmail box."
These come from PR firms such as Edelman...
You write:
"Meanwhile, the sleeping giant many of us mocked - the big media - got with the program."

How do we get back to reality? We don't get to go back, things don't work that way.

To create that amount of "mis-reality" took hundreds of millions of dollars in PR to create. I know because I deal with it every day. How do you undo that?

Posted: October 30, 2007 2:42 PM

David Scott Lewis (Zytech Solar, a Going Green 100 Winner):

I'm a huge fan of both blogs (i.e., SVW and MP), have been reading both for quite a long time (measured in years, not months).

Besides the fact that Steve is right, it's certainly correct to point a finger at him for helping create so much hype. Twitter, Facebook, Second Life, all the crap Steve goes through, plays with. Some of it might have legs (e.g., Facebook), but some is destined for the deadpool (e.g., Twitter, Second Life).

I've picked on Steve for being a Web 2.0 Jihadist in many of my comments over at MP. Maybe he's had an epiphany and realizes that he was wrong.

At least he's not as goofy as Scoble; Scoble is way off in Neverland. And Arrington finally seems to be getting some grounding, too. The Troika: Arrington, Rubel and Scoble. It could be worse: SR could be as detached from reality as Second Life -- or Scoble.

Posted: November 3, 2007 12:17 AM

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