Today, you probably noticed the bright green chalk-graffiti all over Usdan and the Rabb steps. “Wiggio.com,” it announces. Here are pictures:
Wiggio is a private, for-profit company, who produce a social networking website dedicated to the formation of groups. I think we should all be a little curious about why a company is painting its website all over our campus (hideously and obtrusively, I might add). Is Wiggio paying students to graffiti its logo? Are they paying Brandeis to let them use the campus as a billboard? Or are they just sneaking here in the night themselves with chalk and stencils (and, if so, why didn’t the Brandeis maintanence staff instantly remove these eyesores?)
I emailed Wiggio with these questions, but have received no response as of yet. Tomorrow, assuming the ads are still there, I’m going to press the administration for answers. I sure do hope the University isn’t selling advertising space on the Rabb steps, but who knows what desperate measures a financially-strapped college will resort to? Whatever the story, I think it’s despicable of Wiggio to market itself in this way. Social networks generally catch on through word of mouth (or through social networks), not by forcing themselves upon us on our way to class.
By the way, please don’t visit Wiggio to see what it’s like. It’s not very interesting, and you’d be rewarding predatory marketing tactics. I realize that I am playing into these tactics through writing about the site (making even more people think “I wonder what all this hubbub about Wiggio.com is,” playing right into their hands). Which is why I have deliberately avoided linking to the site, and appended this warning to PLEASE NEVER GO THERE.