Using Social Media To Cover For Lack Of Original Thought - Onion Talks - Ep. 6

The world's most successful companies know that social media is a powerful marketing tool, and Cameron Hughes knows how to make social marketing even more effective: by never injecting an ounce of effort into it.
ONION DIGITAL STUDIOS
Creative Director: Geoff Haggerty
Head Writer: Sam West
Writers: Dan Klein, Matt Klinman, Michael Pielocik, Chris Sartinsky
Writers' Assistant: Matt Powers
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[@cupcakesmakeyouhappy]

"social media" *everyone stands up to clap*

[@Crystal-od5is]

*for an uncomfortablly long time*

[@larrylentini5688]

Best part

[@dylanbyday4630]

Ok Boomer

[@lesquid5540]

yeah.. thats what happened.....

[@AzzWalk]

@@jvaler5 ok someone who doesn't get the irony

[@CrazyMunky84]

This guy perfectly captures a majority of the individuals on Ted Talks.

[@akirak1871]

Right down to that stupid habit of wearing a loose tie with the top button undone. Button that damn thing! And if it's uncomfortable, buy a shirt that fits properly! Do these people walk around with their pants unbuttoned too??

[@coryc9040]

@@akirak1871 yes we do

[@sploofmcsterra4786]

Parodies*

[@sploofmcsterra4786]

@@akirak1871 and pfft it's just fashion don't get upset over it

[@bobobsen]

Also people on social media

[@CrazyCodMusic]

I find the way they all start clapping the moment he says "social media" absolutely hilarious.

[@user-nd2tp5yv6l]

It's like generative AI in 10 years 😂

[@vexivero]

This one is genius; the guy actually sounds like he's in a real TED Talks video up until the point where he starts talking about Speed Stick dummy twitter accounts.

[@alexsmith5606]

but they actually do that. i have internet store and i get tons of offers from people like that (they sell fake friends on facebook)

[@jasonbourne6365]

Vexivero They do that fool.

[@JL-dance]

LagiNaLangAko23 lol why would cops waste their time arresting click farms, the thing that isn’t even illegal

[@d0wns0wth]

@@jasonbourne6365 yes, but that wouldn't be in a real Ted Talk you dunce

[@oltedders]

I love Speed Stick.

[@okrajoe]

That speaker is clearly an original thinker.

[@RonJohn63]

The writers are. He's just an actor.

[@nanonymous9139]

Buy SpeedStick.

[@jb_1971]

@@RonJohn63 what writers? And he is a social media consultant, not an actor. I don't get you...

[@RonJohn63]

@@jb_1971 I'm scared to ask whether or not you realize this is satire, like a high-brow Mad Magazine.

[@jb_1971]

@@RonJohn63 yeah. I know what you mean. The reality surpassed comedy and this guy is the clearest example. How someone can be that unoriginal and still go on and brag about this?!

[@Narokkurai]

I've worked for a "Social Media Management" company. I've sat through the founder's lectures and webinars. This video is so chillingly true, it's not even satire anymore. It's reality.

[@NoNameAtAll2]

and this was 10 years ago...

[@burlak3182]

@@NoNameAtAll2 he said that 10 years ago :)

[@y04a]

This aged perfectly. I love the idea of all humans leaving social media and just letting the robots take over and have this entirely fake economy of advertisement etc. What a great ending that would be for humanity. Might be the only way to really take our power back... I personally don't want to be a cyborg, which is all I can see happening to people if we keep going as we have the last 10 years.

[@yujm7]

any teenager could've done what we did, for no money, and much faster

[@sheela6943]

And cleaned up afterwards!

[@courier6960]

Honestly this became so true for modern day marketing

[@rw2452]

@@courier6960 True😂

[@haze6647]

thats how tesla and space x did it, oops, i also advertising them without even knowing it.

[@volundrfrey896]

​@@haze6647 What tesla did was genius. Give the cars to tech journos to review. They know nothing about cars so they will love it just because it's techy, and not notice that everything except the drivetrain is really shitty (the early model S was absolutely terrible) and based on those reviews every 12 year old boy on the planet will hype the shit out of it.

[@garthhagerman3294]

I'm a web developer, educating myself in ho best to use social media for my clients. Perfect! I learned everything I need to know in less than four minutes.

[@lavendergilly5843]

Garth Hagerman you better not have gotten a fucking idea you little shit...it will slow down the progress of the company.

[@kejiri3593]

Social media is shit. Learn programming instead and make games or programs which is more useful than a chit chat site... i mean your life But just saying.

[@BltchErica]

@@kejiri3593 that's web development, you make sites for clients, nobody forces you to make social media sites specifically

[@kejiri3593]

@@BltchErica Website making i can respect atleast.. Too bad social media or much now have the option of either WHITE OR BLACK. It wouldnt surprise me if those asses gets 1 million dollars and hours to make that crap :P Atleast Bandcamp website.. Which is better than Spotify garbage. But. Variable stuff there, supporting artists, and options to get it digital, cds or whatever. Bandcamp is spotify if spotify was actually good. But i bet design team are just self bloated self righteous untalented people to begin with

[@Holistic-Hallucinations]

@@kejiri3593 how are games more important than communication? Anyways just let people make money jfc 🤡

[@SethStuck]

Sadly, this is a pretty accurate parody of what many people think of Social Media pros.Sadder still, it's also a pretty accurate description of people who consider themselves social media pros...

[@hariofficial9602]

@@SpecialSalads you just replied to a 7 year old comment, that dude could be dead by now.

[@anorexicanarchist4712]

@@SpecialSalads I used to work at taco bell and they made all of us employees do fake reviews so the upper management could get their bonuses while the rest of us got jack shit

[@TheEyeball37]

The Onion should do a spoof series of Vice. That would be great.

[@ramsaybolton2839]

Crazy Horse have you seen Vice's parody twitter page ? twitter.com/vice_is_hip

[@TheEyeball37]

Ramsay Bolton I haven't. Are the tweets all titles that Vice might have come up with but a little exaggerated?

[@sabastionhides]

Crazy Horse They just did. The new series is called "EDGE". It is, quite frankly, fucking hilarious and dead-on-balls accurate.

[@TheEyeball37]

Brandon Jones Yay! Alright, I'll have to check it out. Thank you!

[@TheEyeball37]

Bill Hader and Fred Armissen did an episode of Documentary Now satirizing Vice.

[@johnwalsh6998]

"In the new social media economy, you'll just have to keep looking like you're doing work, and people will pay you for it." 9 years later it hasn't changed.

[@lovehand9531]

When he got a standing ovation at the end, I instinctively stood up and started clapping too. Such a beautiful moment.

[@mark9294]

Very inspiring, I even grabbed all my neighbours and made them clap at the screen too

[@CarnifaxMachine]

"Social media." *Standing ovation* Genius.

[@joshuare5768]

"IDEAS ARE AN INEFFICIENCY." I love this.

[@TheMegadethMonk]

This has more truth in it than satire. sadface.

[@johnwatson2281]

+Gee Doubleu What OP meant is it's not fucking funny anymore because it's so true. Satire usually involves exaggeration. But here, it's like the guy's just saying whatever goes on. That's sad.

[@lavendergilly5843]

John Watson dude yeah

[@skylarwalls3227]

I know people that have genuine careers and companies based on what he was talking about, big companies are actually that inept when it comes to social media and it's sad.

[@Sleepless4Life]

Uhh.. So satire?

[@ThatsWhatSheSaid-420]

No joke: I have actually liked Cheetos' Facebook.

[@zonesquestiloveunderworld]

I'm sure it felt good, so it was worth it :)

[@abdot604]

that's what she said

[@marihell4296]

LOL

[@mclaren3722]

You must be a bot.

[@killua287]

That's what she said.

[@TheRandomhobo123]

“Ideally real human users will leave social media all together. It will only be bots that we can advertise to” I unironically agree with this

[@QueenetBowie]

Was about to post the same quote, beautiful idea

[@harrymills2770]

As long as advertisers will pay...

[@ten1982]

dead internet theory only getting more and more real as time goes on

[@deez_nuts_77]

You had me at “what does that mean? Nobody knows”

[@shandude4064]

Bring back Onion Talks!!

[@stanmarsh912]

Dude. I can't. I died as soon as he said social media and the crowd went wild. That was genius.

[@mannylenz5288]

Ideas are inefficent. I'm going to steal that maxim and use it as my twitler tagline.

[@xl000]

The Onion could technically send someone to a Ted(X) talk. It's not really reviewed, the bar is lower. I just watched a talk from a woman revealing that smartphones are made of ... electronic components. For real.

[@jacobmurley3695]

Jokes on you got watching it.

[@aaliyahkissick]

I need the name of the video so I can see it. Please 😂

[@nickman9639]

Sam Hyde did that

[@thecoleopterist]

Wow. That's pretty bad.

[@Radi0he4d1]

2070 paradigm shift

[@lollertoaster]

Am I the only one who finds this genuinely inspiring?

[@aarontheperson6867]

You're an idiot.

[@SuperSadist1]

I cried

[@kejiri3593]

Only of how much these scumbag hipster companies shouldnt exist. In that case. Yeah.

[@mikkovaan8636]

You find this inspiring? Hmmm... well I ain't gonna judge you, but gonna have to wonder how you can find this kinda thing inspiring.

[@georgebrantley776]

@@mikkovaan8636 Isn't it incredible how so many people manage to find a way to get paid for doing nothing of value? It gives hope to the masses!

[@NotCthulhu]

Satire straddles the gap between reality and humor. The Onion straddles the gap between satire and reality.

[@karlhilton6641]

holy shit, is this even satire?

[@constantinosschinas4503]

unfortunately, it is not.

[@Stridewise]

@@constantinosschinas4503 yes it is

[@nekozombie]

@@Stridewise I don't get why people think satire is exclusively reserved for something completely outlandish that kind of mirrors our reality.

[@kingcole55]

The best part of this video is where they give him a standing ovation for simply saying the word "social media"

[@bsmartr806]

I'm confused, I though The Onion was parody?

[@_imyourhuckleberry_9687]

I hate using this phase but “This has aged too well”

[@richardkent2014]

I'm unemployed and now searching for a job pretending I'm unemployed thanks to this

[@harrymills2770]

Wait 'til 2020. It's a thing.

[@ScumlordStudio]

This gets less and less oniony as the years go by

[@sethwilliams501]

Damn ahead of their time so hard

[@farhantalukder]

2023 this whole thing is true its not even funny anymore cause its literally how it actually works

[@johnpaulleslie1067]

Wait, this wasn't a real TED talk? It was so inspirational and I learned so much! :D

[@NightlifeSux]

From 2011 until about 3 months ago, I worked for one of those social media companies. We were approached by a big name in the food industry and they literally wrote us a blank check for ambiguous results. I made so much money I don't have to work again until 2015. I can't reveal their name due to legal reasons, but it rhymes with "Fringles."

[@rellko3900]

This man made people clap for a full 14 seconds by saying “Social Media”.

[@AdrianHertz]

this is not even satire! just 100% legit

[@dRevnik]

Social media eliminates the need to provide value to anyone.

[@NJGuy1973]

Is there a sentence that better sums up our era?

[@GabrielHasbun]

This is fabulous. Thanks for the laughs and the reality check.

[@mbregar]

Onions speak the truth.

[@mgmarvin1123]

"Social media" *standing ovation*

[@BikramAdhikari89]

This is genuinely inspiring

[@MaeLSTRoM1997]

I was almost convinced by the end. If this video was just two minutes longer I would have jumped into making a new social media advertisement startup. Damn it onion

[@ElysiumNZ]

Sadly this is not funny because it's so true.

[@noblel6244]

It's funny because it IS true

[@Ben-rz9cf]

Stay tuned for the updated version: Using butts on instagram to promote everything and confuse people about what you're actually selling

[@LovecraftianToenail]

chatGPT (everyone explodes with applause)

[@carbidejones5076]

Perfect description of the new dynamic

[@derekwatson8211]

This is one of the most insightful pieces of content I have ever watched

[@mason11198]

This will never become outdated lol

[@georgewang2947]

The way people talked about social media 11 years ago is how they talked about blockchain 5 years ago and how they talk about AI now

[@dolphinsays]

the only joke here was that they said everything out loud and without a buncha buzzwords. every bit of this is true.

[@borby4584]

And that’s the beauty of The Onion.

[@JimL2883]

That’s young Dwight Schrute before working in Scranton.

[@rawrztastic416]

I love that they imitate TEDtalks down to every aspect xD

[@PaulSchoonhoven]

De Engelse versie van De Speld met een video die meer waarheid bevat dan ons lief is. Maar het verklaart ook waarom bedrijven Google+ zo 'ingewikkeld' en onaantrekkelijk vinden. Mijn ervaring is dat je hier veel minder makkelijk weg komt met dat soort zaken. Engagement is bijna een vereiste.

[@constantinosschinas4503]

i thought it was comedy till he mentioned those bots.

[@SurajSinghTomarArya]

This perfectly described the tech bubble

[@brianfunt2619]

Nowadays instead of a standing ovation you would get booed off the stage for "social media"

[@DanieleGiorgino]

It's scary how accurate The Onion is sometimes.

[@alicetheegreet]

If he replaced social media consultant with *influencer,* this would be pretty accurate.

[@AlexNiedt]

The standing ovation for the phrase "social media" at the beginning is priceless.

[@daveny1979]

Genius. Work with and am surrounded by social media people all the time, and this totally nails the emptiness and vacuousness of what 95% of them do. There ARE some original creative thinkers in the field, but by and large it's meaningless huckerism barely a step above investment banking, ethically!

[@bobtheawasome]

this is brilliant

[@sturmmanng4785]

This is way more true than should be allowed.

[@henrycarlson1353]

Legend says the audience is still giving a standing ovation for Social Media to this day.

[@brebytheway]

This is perfect.

[@UCannotDefeatMyShmeat]

“Now, robots don’t yet buy products, but that’s not *our* concern”

[@sreenathjuttu]

Great beginning to the video! "Social Media!" LoL! :)

[@traaaaaaavis]

11 years old and still relevant

[@peterg76yt]

Social media requires the absolute minimum of effort, and it may yet bring down Western civilization.

[@monkeyb1820]

Excellent talk, but I wish he'd have delved into paradigms of the new social media marketing economies.

[@harrymills2770]

You mean where they cater to everybody except the people who actually buy their products?

[@togglebott7748]

“These people ‘liked’ Cheetos, even though they had no reason to, as we gave them no incentive” was really funny to me idk why

[@Feenposhleen]

You had me at "social media *everyone claps*".

[@arina86]

I second that! I'm working in smm now. I paint grass green everyday and the company pays me money. Pretty scary.

[@gwordAa1999]

The onion predicted the future like if they wrote it

[@gthreek]

This person is like 75% of the marketing department where I work

[@christopherk4166]

This talk was years ahead of its time!

[@dannyU2g]

sad that this is actually practice today

[@iknowthings7367]

+1Deer

[@TenCoJeCool]

+1 Deer

[@arthurroth2630]

+1deer

[@rotac1249]

+1Deer

[@shannon4768]

I love the enthusiastic standing ovation for the first two words, "Social Media" 😂

[@CoryTyler]

This guys delivery is priceless! And whoever was coaching the audience for their reactions was ON it! Hilarious!

[@Incrediblefatslug]

Capitalism breeds innovation.

[@JAnthonyGell]

A classic video - the "total loser hiding behind the great presentation scenario"...boy have I seen this from time to time.

[@Spectrescup]

Anthony Gell Oh, Anthony

[@Cybernaut551]

This is peak stand-up comedy!

[@DeathnoteBB]

Clicked to see the whole title, clicked off thinking it was real but then saw it was The Onion before it loaded and clicked back to watch lol

[@Lindax]

eventually, people liked it...

[@hamiltonjsh]

welcome to the "Unicorn Economy" ladies and gentlemen.

[@evenmorebetter]

After listening to about 30-40 TED Talks, I don't know that I would be able to tell the difference between this and the 80% under-inspiring, self-aggrandizing real ones if it came on my podcast manager in my car. Also, thank you for the powerful visuals.

[@kaloyanradkov8962]

pure Genius!

[@PauloNideck]

Agreed. In a way, that's what comedy is about. So true. So blunt, amazing.

[@EdgyFuckwad]

Originality is bullshit. Everything is already out there. What matters is relevance and wisdom. We need to get to the mostly old ideas that work and that are valuable, not the watered down and irrelevant trash ideas that typically plague us.

[@unenombre5840]

That is completely untrue. There's people out there all the time thinking of new things.

[@dalanium98]

Hey that's an onion talk

[@PatGunn]

This sums up years of discussions I've had in coffeeshops with people who work in that field. Truth can be an amusing recipe for comedy.

[@Adamfuntime]

God, this entire lecture summarized my entire time as an MBA student. WHY COULDN'T I HAVE SEEN THIS FIRST?!

[@agi0]

I attended a talk on "maintaining your social media presence" and it was almost a substance-free as this one. Really, not that far off the mark. As usual, Onion kills it.

[@JoelRipke]

What an inspiration! I'm going to listen to these words and continue giving no effort!!

[@MsFunnyStuffz]

"Social Media" *Everyone stands up and starts clapping for no reason*

[@YourWebDepartment]

This was very well done but all I could think was, are these people reading my blog posts? I've covered all these points, especially the concluding remark. Nicely executed.

[@saltisyummy3171]

When they said *clap* I felt that

[@Sarcasmitron]

I like how the video satirizing robot advertisers has a comment section full of robot advertisers.

[@tfcolligan]

You are the perfect audience for this video. Bask in the warmth of it.

[@Trepur349]

This is probably the best Onion Talk so far.

[@Joseph-cu8lg]

I had my own print media co in the 90s. Wasn't much different, bc I was young they thought I was they thought my product more original than was so