Behold the Power of Strange New Products!
Wednesday, January 18, 2006 
Back on December 12, we blogged a strange new product called "SenSlip", an artificial piece of foreskin, designed for circumcised guys. We blogged on the same day it was unveiled by the manufacturer.
We expected to fetch some comments due to the nature of this thing, but we never expected 103 comments thus far. The comments centered around a very emotional debate between the pros and cons of circumcision, even some being critical of Jews. Note that I deleted several inappropriate comments that attacked Jews with nasty four-letter words.
Today, the maker of SenSlip issued a press release saying that in the weeks since the product launched, their offices have been flooded with thousands of letters expressing concern about the detriments of circumcision. I imagine they also they also received thousands more in jest or in defiance of the product as well.
Anyways, the company said they sent letters to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the US Secretary of Health and Human Services, in an effort to cease the practice of circumcision.
Was our Strange New Products blog the driving media force that drove people to these letters? I think so, considering the amount of comments our article fetched, the fiery debate that took place within the comments, the number of blogs linking to us, and perhaps many other blogs who saw our piece and wrote about it as well.
This viral form of grass-roots marketing that we call "blogging" is very powerful towards publicizing a product, and generating its sales. We certainly didn't receive any compensation for this company's early success, and we didn't ask for it either. But the symbiosis is evident, they got their publicity, and we picked up backlinks and bookmarks.
However, I can't help but concede that today's existing PR firms will launch their own line of blog networks (with no stated connection to the PR firms) that will consist of all the consumer niche groups, just for the purpose of generating this kind of buzz. Heck, AOL now owns Weblogs Inc., and who here thinks that AOL is not a PR firm?
We expected to fetch some comments due to the nature of this thing, but we never expected 103 comments thus far. The comments centered around a very emotional debate between the pros and cons of circumcision, even some being critical of Jews. Note that I deleted several inappropriate comments that attacked Jews with nasty four-letter words.
Today, the maker of SenSlip issued a press release saying that in the weeks since the product launched, their offices have been flooded with thousands of letters expressing concern about the detriments of circumcision. I imagine they also they also received thousands more in jest or in defiance of the product as well.
Anyways, the company said they sent letters to the American Academy of Pediatrics and the US Secretary of Health and Human Services, in an effort to cease the practice of circumcision.
Was our Strange New Products blog the driving media force that drove people to these letters? I think so, considering the amount of comments our article fetched, the fiery debate that took place within the comments, the number of blogs linking to us, and perhaps many other blogs who saw our piece and wrote about it as well.
This viral form of grass-roots marketing that we call "blogging" is very powerful towards publicizing a product, and generating its sales. We certainly didn't receive any compensation for this company's early success, and we didn't ask for it either. But the symbiosis is evident, they got their publicity, and we picked up backlinks and bookmarks.
However, I can't help but concede that today's existing PR firms will launch their own line of blog networks (with no stated connection to the PR firms) that will consist of all the consumer niche groups, just for the purpose of generating this kind of buzz. Heck, AOL now owns Weblogs Inc., and who here thinks that AOL is not a PR firm?
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