Wondering if turning your Twitter photo green or adding Hussein as your Facebook middle name actually does anything?

>> Rob Walker’s foreword to Ad Nauseam: A Survivor’s Guide to American Consumer Culture pokes fun at marketers’ and consumers’ overhyped love for “interactive” social media:

Thanks to interactive-ness, you can, for instance, respond directly to an online opinion you disagree with: Type “Your an idiot” into the comments field, and you have just participated; you have interacted; you have been not-passive.

In the realm of consumer culture it means, say, complaining via Twitter that you have lately received a very poor latte from a famous coffee chain. If that coffee chain has employed someone to monitor brand-specific tweets, then perhaps you’ll be contacted, and score a compensatory coupon. (And maybe you’ll tweet about that, thereby completing the transformation of your interactivity into word-of-mouth marketing.)

Or maybe you don’t have a complaint, you have an idea for a whole new style of caffeinated beverage you wish this coffee chain would sell. No problem. Stop by the new Web site the chain has set up where you can log on and share your profitable idea. Big ups: you’ve interacted with a brand.

Above: One of my not-passive tweets. Not everyone agrees with Rob’s view of social media engagement, however. In fact –

>> Greenpeace supporters made and gave out mock copies of the International Herald Tribune, featuring an article about Exxon’s decision to go all renewable energy and a recall warning — for all cars. (via grist). In it, Greenpeace gives a big thumbs up to social media engagement in an article headlined “Mass activism just clicks for more people than ever“:

“It got to the point where I started doing my government business at a wi-fi café,” said Sir Nicholas Winterton, a Conservative MP. “But then someone would spot me, they’d ‘Twitter’ or whatever, and soon I’d be surrounded by a horde of activists telling me about icebergs and refugees. They were fairly polite, but I got precious little work done.”

Earlier: The Yes Men’s version of the New York Times.

>> Still convinced of the power of eco-tweetups? Join the live Twitter chat with Food, Inc. director Robert Kenner on Fri., June 19, from 10 -11 am.

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