ASABAILEY Ogilvy stunt jumps the shark twice over

Adgrunt extraordinaire Caffeinegodess has like so many other ad bloggers, gotten a self promotional email from ASABAILEY.COM.

They are flogging their prank the Ogilvy hijack yet again, this time because they managed to get an interview in PR Week. It looks like they're milking this stunt for ten times more than it's worth.
Seems ASABAILEY can't tell their arse from their elbow though, even online which should be their forté as Caffeinegoddess noted that they brag in the interview about their superior online placing skills saying "How did we get the Ogilvy & Mather out? We got someone independent to do it for us. They sent it to Ad Rants and blablabla.

Right. It's plain to see that Cup of Java , TextURL , Researcher and a bunch more ad obsessed blogs with ad obsessed readers covered it on November 6, Adrants covered it Sunday the 7th.

Brandon at TextURL understands how things work around here (anyone can stand on the soapbox and share some news) noted that the bigger cajones lies in their way of being the first to write about it here. Seems they forget that they did, how independent!

"by posting meta-commentary on their own stunt, ASA was able to control the initial seed and all further commentary on their stunt. To frame the reactions, and in so doing, remove some of the WTF-factor and potential backlash. Some may see this as perhaps more 'underhanded' than the stunt."

lpc24 who posted the prior articles here, is a freelance writer who helps write for ASABAILEY.

When NetImperative (google cache of article) wrote

"...do small agencies really have to start taking pops at large agencies with stunts like this? What does it say about an agency's work if its best advert is pointing the finger at someone else, let alone a global player in the media and communications businesses?"

ASABAILEY responded by using their l33t domain buying skillz again, and swooping up the netimperitive.co.uk domain name, announcing their second prank here to the bored yawns of adgrunts who had moved on to looking at shiny objects elsewhere.
Funny as it was the first time it didn't need an encore, like fart bags it's just not as funny the second time, and it just seems mean. Screenpages said it best:

By and large, web users navigate by search engine, not domain (for years, 'hotmail.com' has been one of the top 100 search queries).
Further, grabbing a similar domain name actually makes any attempt to usurp the original more vulnerable if it contains a trademarked name (as the company has the right and the means to simply go about taking it from you).

So, funny ogilvymather.co.uk may be, but clever it is not. In fact, the main beneficiaries of this latest online tussle appear to be providers of domain names.

Oh how right they were as Jack Cheng swooped up Viraladvertisingagency.co.uk and it all started to get a bit silly.

So let's see, what have ASABAILEY acheived?

They have probably pissed off what was a likely client in 'napping the Ogilvy name.
Check.
Annoyed the ad bloggers that posted about the stunt first by forgetting they did and spamming them to post more about it. Check.
Become famous with a stunt that was, as MarketingVox pointed out, a gag that had been done before and better when Rob Manuel of b3ta.com nicked Price Waterhouse Cooper new name.
Check!

Looks like ASA will have to stick to announcing their gags on the paid-for-pages viral and ad blogs in the future, hot tip guys I hear Fark accepts paid-for-placements too.
The cherry on top would be if ASABAILEY awarded themselves a Viral Award for the whole shebang, their Principal Partner Creative Director Ben Wheatley is on the jury - so why not, right? Who bets me a pint that this will happen?