The Great Twitter Punk

 

I've seen worse. | Photo via Advertising Age

So, as many of you have noticed via this blog, I have become madly obsessed with Twitter. It's quick, easy and a fun way to interact with others throughout the day that is way less demanding, immediate or intrusive than an IM (which can be my death when swamped with articles and projects. Damn you, Facebook!).

But recently the social-networking, blog-ish interweb whatchamacallit sparked a furious battle between two very unlikely adversaries: television news juggernaut CNN and film and television star and entrepreneur Ashton Kutcher.

I follow  neither, as both don't really fall within my need-to-know-ASAP radar (though Colin Meloy's love of Cilantro does, so what does that tell you?), however it has come to light that Kutcher's "win" was impacted by Lamar's donation of billboards in major population centers. Critics are claiming that this makes Kutcher's win entirely inauthentic, even questioning if he should be disqualified.

Publicity stunt or not, the outcome would have been positive regardless of who won as both parties had pledged to donate significantly to malaria relief in Africa. The only major change is bragging rights. So before getting uptight about some donated billboards, just be glad that the charity is winning out in the end, anyway. 

As Kutcher continues his lead over CNN (numbers are Kutcher: 1,149,454, CNN: 1,060,023, currently), people should be far less concerned with the role these advertisements played in the battle (CNN is a 24-hour news network--how often did they mention daily to follow them?), and more concerned that people are more interested in what the guy who created PUNK'D is up to  than keeping up with what's happening in the world. CNN is hardly the end-all, be-all of news, but if the choice is between staying informed and keeping abreast of what the guy from That 70s Show has to say to Perez Hilton...well, shouldn't the answer there be obvious?

For all you twitterers here's a shameless plug, follow me @CheshireNat.