Why am I even asking these seemingly obvious questions? (I bet most of you are thinking: “Of course marketers are liars, being inauthentic is their lifeblood.”)

Well I was busily attending to the tasks of life in the world of a small company when I got a message from my blogging amigo Chris (the other half of the Crowdspark dynamic duo).

He pointed me to an interesting article at Tom Asacker’s blog about authenticity, which got me thinking. Basically Tom makes the argument that Unilever is inauthentic in the way it presents itself because it shows two different faces to the world through it’s marketing for it’s Dove and Axe brands. Tom argues that:
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Indigo/Chapters, Canada’s largest retail book chain gets “it”. They understand the relevance of the blog as a means by which they can converse with their customers. In a recent post to my personal blog I recounted my experience at a local Chapters while trying to find a copy of Don Tapscott and Anthony D Williams’ book, Wikinomics. What follows is a brief summary of the experience, how Chapters/Indigo responded to my experience, and how I came away from the experience with a renewed appreciation for the company.

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Seth talks about the new rules of naming.

Or so you would think given the number of commercials that use the single giggling child sound effect. Here’s what I’m talking about:

This sound ships with Trillian as the “LOL” sound, and can be found (I almost expect it) in any commercial that features children enjoying a product or toy. I’ve seen it in Mattel commercials, Fisher Price, Slip and Slide, Mini-Helicopters, even this commercial for GelliBaff, a powder that turns your child’s bath water into a brightly coloured slime, and another powder that turns it back into water. Is the world really so short on laughing children that there aren’t an abundance of laughing children sound clips? Let us know what commercials you’ve found this clip in the comments - links to the actual commercials are a bonus! Or maybe we can all upload clips of laughing children so that marketers will have some obvious alternatives the next time they need to find a single laughing child.

CrowdSpark is about telling a story. It’s about sharing experiences, business models, and marketing trends and things that are yet to become trends. It’s about branding, and how we look at branding, it’s about looking ahead, and looking behind us to where we’ve been. It is a process and a work in progress. We invite you to be part of the story, contribute your thoughts, share your experiences and ideas, and bring your spark.