“Marketing Truth?”

Ever hear the expression about “six degrees of separation”?

In the “digital world” the degrees of separation seem much smaller and quicker and getting smaller and faster by the second…..And It’s amazing what insights into our “national culture” you can gain just with a few clicks of a mouse.

 

As some of you already know, I’m on Twitter. I’m pretty “selective” about who I “follow” and I don’t have a lot of patience for folks who “follow” me, purely for the sake of selling something.

But I digress

 

The story I want to tell has to do with the recent death of a couple of soldiers in Afghanistan, and the “feather ruffling dust up” on Twitter that started in just the last few hours.

 

First came the announcement:

·        “On Independence Day, a few hours ago, they killed my son, Aaron in Afghanistan.”(davidmasters, Olympia, WA)

 

Then the condolences

·        Even in 2009 soldiers are still paying the price for our July 4th independence #thankyouaaron (tbean86:Denver)

·        Thank you, Aaron…and your family for the ultimate sacrifice…sometimes we aren’t worthy. #thankyouaaron (scubdog,)

·        God bless the family of Aaron Masters, died defending freedom in Afghn. on Ind. Day, and God welcome Aaron into his arms. #thankyouaaron (LordDilly)

 

The skeptics

·        RT @elibraden: RT @davidmmasters On 4th, I made up hoax claiming they killed my son, Aaron, to promote my Chocolate Diet book #thankyouaaron (almondjoi, Chicago, Ill)

(Since the date this was originally posted, the above “tweet” as disappeared from the record. Looks like Twitters “History File” keeps only about a weeks worth of activity before doing a purge of sorts.)

The Defenders

·        RT @veteransairlift#thankyouaaron is NOT a hoax (LiveBugler from Fargo ND http://www.honorguardbugler.com/)

·        @davidmmasters I can attest, #thankyouaaron is definitely not a hoax.I’m researching a story on Aaron, there R pix of David and Aaron online( TommyXtopher, Southern New Jersey)

 

Some evidence

·        http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0705/p99s01-duts.html

·        http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/04/AR2009070402589.html

 

And some apologetic “tweets”

·        It’s true. @StephenKiers http://bit.ly/4uwQ09 and http://bit.ly/c8bBO #thankyouaaron (Jane720, Ohio)

 

The Spammers who “hooked on to the tribute thread”)

·        (I am not going to dignify any of them by listing a single one of them here)

 

And the Folks who “gave the spammers hell!”

·       Hero dies for our freedom and pathetic twitter marketers use a tribute thread to hock stuff. Let freedom ring! #thankyouaaron (jimgilvin, Atlanta)

 

Soooo… Hoax? Cheap Marketing Gimmicks taking advantage of someone’s death in Afghanistan?

Read THIS, and then decide for yourself

Anyway…..

What’s my point in even telling you about this?

I guess it has to do with how much skepticism there is within our cultural ethos (and the reasons for that skepticism). Especially these days when we have seen too many folk try to parley their “fifteen minutes of fame/sorrow” into some kind of marketing promotion.

Maybe we’re getting just a bit “jaded”. Getting hard to know just who to trust anymore….sigh

We seem to have moved from an era in which a person’s “word was their bond”

Through the time of “trust, but verify”

Into the new age of “doubt until proven”

 

Isn’t it sad?

Postscript

“Fairbairn was killed on the Fourth of July when Taliban insurgents attacked his base in Afghanistan. He died when a truck bomb charged the front gate and exploded amid small arms and mortar fire. His friend, Pfc. Justin Casillas, 19, of California, was also killed.” (Jacob Jones-The Daily World)

There was another soldier that died with Aaron that day. His name is Justin and he was buried recently. The following photo links are courtesy of marlinex

Police lined up to honor Justin http://post.ly/1Kav

God bless the city of woodland who lined the streets http://post.ly/1Kap

God bless the Patriot Riders http://post.ly/1KaN

And there is the Article by  TommyXtopher

A Few Final Thoughts

Keep the Military in your hearts and prayers.

Honor their service and sacrifice, be it Aaron, or Justin, or Karina, or any of the others past, present and future.

All gave some. Some gave all.