Hiring the Internet

Reviews are in for entertainer-turned-Silicon Valley figurehead Ashton Kutcher’s latest pet project, BlahGirls.com, the new social-networking site targeting teen girls.

David Hauslaib’s Jossip said, “Further proving the theory that most people successful in traditional media are like monkeys faced with calculus when it comes to the Internet, Ashton Kutcher, actor and reality show producer, and his production company, Katalyst Media, give us Blah Girls.”

On the other hand, according to NewTeeVee writer Liz Gannes, influential investor Ron Conway – who’s famous for helping fund the startup stages of Google, Ask Jeeves and PayPal – thinks the site “has good intellectual property.”

In this pre-post MySpace world of ours, who’s right and who’s wrong?

Our assessment is neither – and both.

Hauslaib’s snappy site is correct when it suggests that Kutcher missed the mark on content-versus-demographic. If BlahGirls is truly meant for female teenyboppers, the animated videos – of which there are currently three, with promises of fresh webisodes every Monday and Thursday – will need to tone down their borderline-offensive and sometimes inappropriate ‘humor.’ One Twittering parent – whose comments appeared in a Google search for a review of the site – wrote, “I do not think BlahGirls.com is going to fly. I would not want my teenage daughter, son, etc. going to this site. Would you?”

Parents’ perceptions (and acceptance) aside, while Jossip.com and several other gossip blogs – which include The Blemish, RyanAGraves.com, and YouTube Reviewed – have offered little to no praise for BlahGirls, do these properties have any reason to wax rhapsodic? BlahGirls represents more competition in their marketplace. And we can’t help but suspect that they’re feeling pangs of jealousy over the advertising deal Kutcher was able to secure with vitaminwater before BlahGirls launched. Such a lucrative endorsement straight out the gate must hurt.

As for angel investor Ron Conway, he’s onto something when he says that BlahGirls “has good intellectual property.” From a marketer’s perspective, the site gives teen girls things they want – snarky celebrity gossip; animated characters with 21st-century, only-in-America profiles; access to trendy products; and, arguably the most important ingredient, the disapproval of their parents. Not to mention that the site itself is the brainchild of former Tiger Beat pinup Ashton Kutcher – let’s not overlook that much-buzzed-about strategy. Because as poorly as Mr. Demi Moore’s movies have performed, it’s key to remember that he’s the proprietor of once-relevant reality fare such as Punk’d and Beauty and the Geek – whose target demographic was the same as BlahGirls’ is now.

What Conway is underestimating, however, is the potential backlash the site stands to receive from organizations like the American Family Association, which, if history is any indication, will not idly allow a celeb-backed Web site to inundate impressionable young adults with cartoons featuring an elderly woman being flattened by a car, chatter about the illegal habits of popular actresses, and strategic bleeps that block the BlahGirls’ rampant expletives.

Considering such obstacles, we can’t fathom how these not-so girls next door made their Web debut at all.

We’re even more surprised that sponsor vitaminwater proudly stands by while it all goes down.

But maybe that’s a blessing in disguise.

Perhaps the H2O hawker can help when the fire starts.

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