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November 23, 2006
Tagging O.J.
In the category of "Things that make you go [vomit noise]", O.J. Simpson was planning to release a book called "If I Did It", in which he gave a theoretical confession to killing his wife and Ron Goldman. In an unexpected gesture of common sense the book was cancelled, but for a while it was being pre-sold on Amazon.Amazon now lets people tag books. So what were the tags for "If I Did It"? I checked a few days before it was cancelled and the tags with more than vote were (in order, number in parentheses): shameful (11), boycott (7), disgusting (7), murderer (5), pathetic (4), repulsive (4), controversial (2), domestic violence (2), guilty (2), narcissistic personality disorder (2), scum (2), sick (2), and tasteless (2).
Not too much dispute there...after it got cancelled, the two-or-more tag list was: boycott (35), disgusting (28), shameful (19), murderer (12), pathetic (11), repulsive (9), guilty (8), sick (8), scum (7), boycott regan books (6), evil (6), blood money (5), liar (5), shame on amazon (5), killer (4), sociopath (4), controversial (3), domestic violence (3), horrible (3), narcissistic personality disorder (3), no conscience (3), wife killer (3), boycott amazon (2), butcher (2), delusions of grandeur (2), dont hate the playa (2), hang him (2), revolting (2), shameless (2), and tasteless (2). Also, the following tags all had one vote: "amazon dont sell this", "amazon is sick to sell", "amazon should be ashamed", "amazon should be embarrased", "amazon shouldnt sell", and "amazon shouldnt sell this book".
That was a few days ago. I just checked and the listing is still there, although the cover image is gone. For some unknown reason, it is replaced with an image of the word "rock star". Oh, I see, that was a "customer image" which they evidently decided to show since there was nothing better. In the tagging department, "boycott" is still in first place, having extended its lead over "disgusting" to 50 to 31.
Meanwhile over on eBay, 4 people are selling copies of the book (it was sent to some bookstores before being recalled), ranging in price (right now) from $3550 to $21,100. One of the sellers was clever enough to paint in the word "I Did" on O.J.'s forehead in the book cover image. There are also a couple of people squatting on the term in unrelated auctions, like the "MINT Dell DJ 20 GB MP3 Like Ipod Nano, if i did it" and the cleverly-worded "Neil Diamond '92 Shirt,if you did buy it,I 'd miss it!" (that seller also has several other auctions whose titles contain the word "if", "I", "did" and "it").
Well, I thought it was interesting. Too lazy to post links to all this stuff however. The book is toast, so that's something to be thankful for on this day.
Posted by AdamBa at November 23, 2006 10:37 PM
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