When celebrities use their Internet powers for evil, it makes Holly and me very sad. We both love it when celebs use their online following to raise awareness or raise money for causes that are important to them. But when it turns to bullying and shame, we wonder: What good does that really do?

Here’s what came up as we talked about what happens when clout goes wrong.

• Homestar Runner (and Strong Bad e-mail)
• MC Frontalot‘s quest to oust a domain name squatter, and his specific request that his fans not harass the squatter
• Customer service and the Penny Arcade/Ocean Marketing dust-up involving the Avenger game controller
• The Rob Granito plagiarism scandal
• A reluctant discussion of the Regretsy/PayPal kerfuffle, and the You Look Nice Today/H&M originality dispute
• Allegations that Urban Outfitters had stolen art, and Regretsy’s response
• The PayPal/violin ugliness
• Air travel! It brings out the hounds. Kevin Smith’s removal from a Southwest flight, Leisha Hailey’s removal from another Southwest flight (and Southwest’s GLBT outreach policy) and United Breaks Guitars
• Gary Freidrich and the Marvel case with Ghost Rider
• Oprah’s impact on the beef industry during the mad cow outbreak in the ’80s and ’90s
• Our takeaway: Working for change is good! Coming out en masse to shame and harass is not.
• Listener mail! It’s from Christina on our Intro to Studio Ghibli
• 10 Big Cases of Revenge

My research not linked in the notes above:

• Brand Bullying

Holly’s research:

• H&M Comes Up With Charitable Settlement Over Stolen Design
• Oprah accused of whipping up antibeef lynch mob
• THE CHANGING NATURE OF CELEBRITY FROM ENTERTAINER TO ENTREPRENEUR OPRAH WINFREY AS TASTEMAKER
• The Role of Media Figures in Adolescent Development: Relations Between Autonomy, Attachment, and Interest in Celebrities
• Ocean Marketing & Avenger N-Control Debacle
• Celebrity and power: fame in contemporary culture By P. David Marshall
• Toward a New Definition of Celebrity
• The Influence of Celebrity Endorsements on Young Adults’ Political Opinions
• Rob Granito: The man who got drummed out of comics
• Friedrich Ordered To Pay Marvel $17K Over “Ghost Rider”
• Donate to Gary Friedrich

Episode link: Release the Hounds!

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