Why FasteriskasteriskK isn’t Authentic

by Ari Herzog on July 16, 2009 · 4 comments

Marketing agency Espresso shares this presentation with the world–and as you can see from the first slide, there are two asterisks from F to K:

With a hat tip to Adam Cohen for the find, I look at the two asterisks from F to K and wonder, taboo aside, if anybody can’t pronounce or identify the real word.

I mean, come on. We’re talking about social media. We’re talking about transparency and authenticity. If you’re a company and sharing information but bleeping out letters and lines in case one is offended, I don’t think that’s a sound marketing strategy.

Some people are offended “under God” is part of the Pledge of Allegiance, but you don’t appease them by writing the lyrics as “under G*d,” are you?

What would George Carlin (or anybody recognizing why I mention his name) say to Espresso about online authenticity? I’ll give you a four-letter hint that begins with F and ends with K and isn’t pronounced like “FasteriskasteriskK.”

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July 20, 2009 at 3:44 AM

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1 Kikolani July 16, 2009 at 1:19 PM Twitter: @kikolani

Maybe they do it more because they are afraid of it getting censored by SlideShare as being offensive, if they just spell it out. Kind of like how they can meddle with the audio in a movie to make the f-word come out as fudge so they can show an R rated movie on a regular network channel.

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2 Ari Herzog July 16, 2009 at 10:04 PM Twitter: @ariherzog

I doubt the presentation was created specifically for Slideshare. But beyond, think of the general principle. That was my point.

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3 Joel McLaughlin July 21, 2009 at 2:48 PM Twitter: @seomclaughlin

LOL, not a sound marketing strategy at all…

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