OpenAI Drama and Black Friday Overtime: November’s Most Meme-Worthy Digital Marketing News

OpenAI Drama and Black Friday Overtime: November’s Most Meme-Worthy Digital Marketing News
01 December, 2023 • ... • 195 views
Doris Day
by Doris Day

Hey, missed us? This year is almost over! We know that the last work weeks of the fourth quarter are messy and stressful. Give yourself a little break while dealing with all these deadlines and check out this month’s most interesting, controversial — and, of course, meme-worthy digital marketing news. Keep reading to have a laugh and get back in the loop!

1. OpenAI CEO got fired… and resigned?

We’re starting off with this month’s number one tech scandal. OpenAI CEO and co-founder Sam Altman got fired for allegedly “being not consistently candid in his communications”. The company’s staff wasn’t happy about this decision. Over 730 employees, including Ilya Sutskever, co-founder and lead scientist, signed a letter threatening to quit unless Sam Altman is reappointed as the CEO. This worked, and by November 22nd, Altman was brought back to the company.

Don’t ask us, we don’t know what the hell that was either.

Black man crying meme, the first frame “You’re the CEO of the company that killed the job market with ChatGPT”, the man is quietly crying, the second frame “You’re fired too”, the man is having a full breakdown

2. Generative AI products are not safe for kids, apparently

Since AI is still the talk of the town, here’s some interesting info for you. Common Sense Media, a non-profit organization that provides media ratings for parents, reviewed some popular generative AI tools, including ChatGPT, Stable Diffusion, Google’s Bard, and even Snapchat’s My AI. And none of these tools received a rating higher than 3 stars, which means that they’re not safe for kids due to potentially harmful, incorrect, or biased content. 

According to Tracy Pizzo Frey, Senior Advisor of AI at Common Sense Media, all generative AI contains cultural, racial, and other biases — and the ratings are created to prevent kids from reproducing these stereotypes via AI output.

I, Robot meme, Will Smith and the robot talking: “Why are you biased and wrong so often?” - “Because you built and trained me”
Source: Mimir’s Well on Substack

3. Google opened up Bard for teenagers — meanwhile, the new bot got its own bootleg

Just as Common Sense Media deemed AI tools unsafe for kids, Google opened Bard, its own AI chatbot, to teenagers in most countries. Bard will be available to teenagers who are 13 years old and above, it will come with extra safety measures and will help users find inspiration and solve their everyday problems.

At the same time, Google filed a lawsuit against scammers who advertised a fake Bard chatbot that was actually malware. 

Big thumbs up meme, a guy with the Google logo instead of his head inviting a group of people to try Bard, one of the group members shows a thumbs up, and they keep ignoring the Google guy

4. Marketers work at least 11 extra hours on average during Black Friday

Okay, enough about AI, let’s get back to marketing and stuff. A study showed that on average, marketers get at least 11 additional working hours because Black Friday campaigns require more content than usual. In more extreme cases, 6% of 600 surveyed specialists worked more than 25 extra hours around the Black Friday weekend.

And did you work overtime on Black Friday?

Wojak meme: “consumers during Black Friday” and a very elegant and well-dressed trad man and trad wife surrounded by shopping bags, “marketers during Black Friday” and a couple of tired people with messy hair, under-eye circles, wearing black hoodies, surrounded by Monster cans

5. 58% of Americans feel stress thanks to holiday marketing

Black Friday is not that easy on consumers either — let’s take a look at the recent Aprimo survey. According to it, 58% of U.S. adults feel that promotional holiday content adds to stress levels. Even worse, 31% of American consumers said they were so done with excessive promotion they unsubscribed from a brand’s communications — and 15% even left negative reviews.

At the same time, 85% of Americans said that holiday content affects their purchasing decisions, so poor marketers work overtime for good.

Wojak babe it’s 4 am meme: a smiling woman says “babe it’s the end of november, time to buy stuff you never knew you needed because look it’s 30% off” and a very tired man says “yes marketer”

6. Email marketing is the most effective channel for B2B, survey shows

Still questioning if email marketing is alive? Consider this study. Turns out, 73% of B2B marketers say that out of all channels, emails are the most effective way to connect with prospective customers — outperforming phone, events, and even paid ads.

By the way, isn’t it ironic that we actually have a definitive guide on B2B emails in our blog? What a weird twist of fate…

Woman yelling at cat meme: “You said emails would work!!!” - “I said good emails would work”

7. Amazon has a spam problem

Apparently not only marketers work extra hours during the season but also scammers. This month, Amazon claimed to have shut down more than 45,000 phishing websites and 15,000 fake telephone numbers. The problem is, the scammers get more intricate and entice victims with emails offering deals on rare items and fake “Amazon” websites with ridiculously cheap prices. 

A kindly reminder from Selzy: if it’s too good to be true, it most likely is. 

Corporate needs you to find the differences between these pictures: “a legit email from amazon” and “your account was suspended from a weird sender like @amazonprimeus.mail.com”, the woman says “They’re the same picture”

8. Google Maps is trying to become a social media platform

Google Maps has released a few updates including functionality for planning group outings within the app. This will allow users to save their favorite places to a list and share it with friends, discuss the options in the Google Maps group chat, and plan the entire route together.

Sounds great on paper but we’ve kinda seen this before with Google going social…

”First time” meme: people are about to get hanged, one guy with the Google Maps logo is sad, the other with the Google+ logo asks “First time?”

9. E.l.f. cosmetics started a promotional campaign on Roblox

Brand loyalty can be achieved via many ways, including but not limited to… video games? This month, E.l.f. cosmetics entered Roblox with the game “E.l.f UP”. It’s a tycoon-style open world where players can try walking in entrepreneurs’ shoes and run one out of four shops that are related to E.l.f. and its makeup and skincare products.

Yep, Gen Alpha is becoming an audience for ads now, feeling old yet?

Two buttons meme: “Promoting on Fortnite” and “Promoting on Roblox” button, the nervous man is signed as “Brands trying to get Gen Alpha and younger Gen Z to buy stuff”

10. Bluesky reached 2 million users and shares further development plans

Decentralized alternative to Twitter Bluesky reached 2 million users this month, despite being an invite-only platform. Since the audience keeps growing, the company plans to launch a public web interface, so Bluesky can function more like a regular social media app. They’re also planning to launch “federation” next year.

Federation is a structure that will allow users to join “micro-Blueskies” or run their own and freely move their accounts and all their connections between them, which makes the platform “billionaire-proof”.

Bennie Sanders picture signed as “I am once again asking for a Bluesky invite”
Source: Reddit
01 December, 2023
Article by
Doris Day
An experienced writer and editor with a degree in theoretical linguistics and a specialization in B2B/IT/SaaS marketing copy. I see my mission as an educator who explains complex phenomena using simple terms. My favorite show is "What We Do in the Shadows" and I usually spend my weekends somewhere in nature.
Visit Doris's
Selzy
Selzy
Selzy
Selzy
Selzy
Latest Articles
Selzy Selzy Selzy Selzy