DISQUS

Maggie · 1 year ago

The Honeyshed site look as though Publicis as been bankrolling it - glossy, shiny, and lacking in substance. While I really like the concept and I think they can appeal to the digital generation, they've got major kinks. Don't they know the digital generation doesn't mean you have to be 19? The cheerleading "lets play dumb" female hosts are alienating to me. The music could be better. The design is shaky. Conclusion? The novelty of the site will keep it going for a minute, but the long term is questionable.

super spy · 1 year ago

Who else? Any takers?

understanddigital · 1 year ago

who could even get on it today to post a review? it's slow as hell.

JDSour · 1 year ago

"It's not opera"
"It's not poetry"


but all power to them for giving it a crack and getting a big network to pay for it.

MasterClass · 1 year ago

HoneyShed is a bold endeavor, but is not yet there. Will this content and format build a critical mass of returning viewers? Doubtful. Branded entertainment gets old - just ask BudTV or Firebrand. As David Armano said long ago, it still "feels like traditional advertising served up over the Internet."

TheFounder · 1 year ago

This site is the reason we exist as a company. It's a piece of trash that really need help from a digital standpoint.

The site shows up as a blank page in Google's text cache:

http://64.233.169.104/search?q=cache:http://hon...

The site has no metas... literally no metas.

<meta id="HeadKeywords" name="keywords" content="" />
<meta id="HeadDescription" name="description" content="" />

I don't even know where to start with that... like there is no excuse for coding like this.

The site violates the first rule of Google Guidelines:

http://www.google.com/support/webmasters/bin/an...

"Make a site with a clear hierarchy and text links. Every page should be reachable from at least one static text link."

and it gets worse from there:

"Use a text browser such as Lynx to examine your site, because most search engine spiders see your site much as Lynx would. If fancy features such as JavaScript, cookies, session IDs, frames, DHTML, or Flash keep you from seeing all of your site in a text browser, then search engine spiders may have trouble crawling your site."

In other words, Droga has not read or implemented Google's Guidelines, and will subsequently rank according to the effort they did in compliance. ... IE: Garbage in.. Garbage out.

I would be ashamed to have pushed this out from my company... Your post noted that Droga is a digital shop? Like people pay them?

Bill Brasky · 1 year ago

Honeyshed does a pretty fair job of presenting the products, but it's clearly meant for a younger, probably male audience. I'd be interested to see the demographics of who buys what. I mean, don't women need to try stuff on before they buy it? And how do they feel about staring at (admittedly) hot women who maybe don't know anything about fashion? Do they know anything? From a micro-cosmic perspective, I want people who know what their shit presenting these products, not a group of post pubecent coeds.

And remote controleld Bentley? Who cares? Makes them look like they tried to get the real thing but couldn't - so they went with the next best thing. What grown male buys a crappy R/C car? Guys that are into that kind of thing buy the real deal - the ones that go 0-60 in 3 seconds and cost $300. Leave the novelties to the children.

chris · 1 year ago

It's an interesting idea, but that's about it. It's too forward in its approach. Too self-aware to be cool. The problem of course is that Droga has created for themselves an entire production circle to fulfill: They have to find cool products, find cool hosts, write cool skits, and make cool edits to the footage. It's too much.

Here's a better idea:

Instead of creating all that content, why not just create a well-designed youtube mashup that pulls in videos and let's third-party online retailers tag frames of video. So when I go to the site, watch a clip of two blondes discussing the Large Hadron Collider on The Hills, I can, in a few short clicks on the actual footage, purchase whatever handbag they're sporting.

I'm much more interesting in what people are actually wearing, than what people are trying to tell me to wear.

super spy · 1 year ago

These last two make some pretty darn good points. Anyone else want to throw their hat in the ring? You have till Friday 2:oo pm.

cdc · 1 year ago

If I want product I'll go to ebay.
If I want porn I'll go to...well, lots of places.
Actually, if it was a front-end for ebay with seller generated video-porn, I might think it broke some ground.
Hey, would someone please do that?

eburrante · 1 year ago

As the Honeyshed logo glow-animates across my computer monitor, my TV is tuned to a CNN report about the presently desolate state of economic affairs in this country. Soon the Honeyshed "Intro" starts, and I'm immediately tempted to click the "skip it" button. Instead, but only since I know I'm about to write this review, I allow myself to be eye-raped by the three spokesmodels that in turns try to seduce, denigrate, and threaten me into "knowing that I want it". "You know you want it," incidentally, strikes me as a tagline that Paris Hilton might have used in junior high school for about a month. What is it I'm supposed to know that I want? I don't even know what this site is about yet! And seriously, that brunette on the end looks like she wants to decapitate me with her borderline sociopathic sassitude... I know I don't want that to happen to me. What follows is a blur of what might be described as hip-hop Laugh In, Stoner Hee-Haw and a less tasteful version of Benny Hill.

My eyes defocus for a few minutes and when I come back, the intro still isn't over, but that's ok. I'm starting to get an idea of what's going on here... this literally is a home shopping website. See, it's the home shopping channel for the "digital generation". Yeah, they went there. There's an entire generation on this planet that is digital. And do you know what digital means? It means post-modern and ironic. What what? The digital generation doesn't want a hard sell--it wants satire. This is the home shopping channel that makes fun of your mom's home shopping channel--so it's YOUR home shopping channel! They're actually trying to sell a Volvo C30 (which I think my Mom actually owns) with clown cops in hot pants, a zombie child, and a super hero mafioso emcee. I watched it for 3 minutes before they made any mention of any features (dual exhaust... shouldn't there be some clever twist in the delivery though? Hel-lo... fart joke? Strangely no). Ok, moving on... from a 22k car to a $125 pimped out baseball cap. Who wants one of these hats? I can see people wearing them... but it seems like kind of a niche market of LA Dodgers fans that go clubbing and are highly patriotic.

Flick Picks isn't bad. It's like a movie review show where the hosts try to explain the movie to people that have never even remotely heard of the movie they're reviewing or the stars of the movie. It's a tough concept to pull off, but they do it kinda ok. The actors are a bit more likable here because there are fewer layers of nauseating self-consciousness here. But teenagers are nauseatingly self-conscious, and I assume that they're the digital generation. It takes me back to when MTV launched in the 80s, and they had all of these avant garde shorts playing all the time. That shit was cutting-edge artsy-fartsy. This is like MTV for the Target generation... but would an average 15 year old buy a $125 hat? Would they even WANT to buy a Volvo?

Here's the thing about this site: There's a lot of non-sequitar skits. Remember when MTV started transitioning from playing music to original programming? That was annoying because you didn't know what to expect. I think they went all-rap for a couple years in the 90s, too, which was a little disorienting. Well, that's what's going on here... it's annoying.

The site is best focused when dealing with girl stuff. The Girl Fashion section shows American Apparel-type models talking about clothes. That's like having the girls from TV's The Hills sit around talking about their feelings. In other words, that's what girls do and probably what they want to see. Like the opposite of The View, ie, attractive people who get along well. I'd be willing to guess that everything other than the Beauty and Fashion sections of Honeyshed gets the boot in short order.

This launch is a nice start. But the economy has taken a non-ironic nosedive and frivolity is not in the consumer lexicon at the moment. So cut the skits, the weird, dead-end attempts at humor, and just sell our teenage girls their clothes and beauty products. And thanks for taking me back to a surreal version of the 80s!

david · 1 year ago

pretty disappointing. Expect more from Droga. Sorry I bailed pretty soon.

steve · 1 year ago

shit sandwich

TimeToShow · 1 year ago

Ecko: Partially paid for by Droga.

Tap Project: Paid for by Droga.

Honeyshed: Paid for by Droga. After languishing in abject failure for years.

The Million Program: Paid for by Droga.

They exist on scam ads. While Droga's BS is about ten million times better for the world than most scam ads, they're still BS self-productions.

It'll be nice to see what they do for an actual paying client. Hey agency spy: let's save the BJ's untill then, huh?

Thanks,

The Hard Working Creatives Who Actually Work Off Of Briefs For Paying Clients

TimeToShow · 1 year ago

PS--When the guy or gal at Droga called to tell you that Honeyshed is back up, did your panties get a little wet? DId you rush right to your computer and hack up the first thing that came to mind to justify posting "GO TO HONEYSHED. CHECK IT OUT. TOOL AROUND."?

I bet you did.

Tell you what. Next time your no-no hole gets greasy because someone from a Buzzy shop calls you up (direct! OMG, he's got your number!) just hang up and rub one out. I know I think better after rubbing one out.

Then remember you're ostensibly a sort-of journalist.

Then remember people get pissed off when you suck BuzzShop cock. Because it reminds us how PR makes careers in advertising. Instead of real talent.

Then call them out in a post instead of sucking them off with your eyes open.

You got it in you! I know it!

xo

Beatrice_Hogg · 1 year ago

Maybe it's the expectations from Droga, or the internet, or of expecting things to be good and interesting and worthwhile, but it doesn't turn the idea of home-shopping on its ear. It is a nice idea, it really is, or anyway it could be, but it doesn't do anything to make this anything less than a younger version of QVC. Those three girls are Quacker Factory ladies for a different annoying age-set. As it is, it's nothing that it wants to be. If it wants to make me laugh, it should be funny. If it wants to be cool, it shouldn't have people reading words off of a cue card. If it wants to be sexy, it should pull its fucking cock out. This is the internet. Be vulgar. Shit, y'all: be interesting. It needs a voice, and those three girls aren't it. I think the voice is on the site (and I wouldn't have found out if I hadn't been forced by the requirements of this exercise to keep going), and it's buried under 'Fun Shit.' Ignore the awful (re: awful) interludes between the main programming and look at the first four things in 'Fun Shit.' They're kind of weird. That good kind of weird that those three girls are desperately aiming for. Stick those Japanese girls saying 'click on things' between the programming instead of having that fucking long fucking introduction. I don't give a shit about putting it on my facebook or my youtube because I don't care about you yet. I wish the site would just fucking throw me into the thick of things and let me figure it out. That's the definition of cool, right? Not explaining things? Take a look at this site: http://www.neave.com/television/

I watched that shit for twenty minutes, and I had no fucking idea what was going on. I don't care what comes next in Honeyshed. That's a, uh, problem, I guess. It should be like flipping channels. You have to go there with the intent of being involved in it. Optimally, I'd want to be able to go to Honeyshed like I'd go to facebook or my blogger reading list: go there once an hour or so to see if anyone's posted anything new, if anything's been updated, look at it, leave, come back later. Honeyshed is actually *too* involved. It demands too much of me. I just want to be able to go, look at something interesting for a second, maybe something funny or something I'll wanna buy, make a quick decision and get the fuck out. That's not too much to ask. Also, and I swear this is the last thing -- the Flick Picks guys are the best people on the site because, between saying 'phenomenal' and 'awesome' and 'amazing,' they don't seem to be reading a script and hey, this is new, reacting to what each other is saying. Don't tell me a fucking jacket is as comfortable in the club as it is in the gym. I will stab you in the eye. Be human beings with honest opinions. Well, anyway.

fan · 1 year ago

TIME TO SHOW.

you sad jealous little idiot.

Big big fan of d5 and have friends that work there.

is your life that sad you have to shit on those doing good?

and where do you get off, just making up shit?

Tap is the only Pro bono they have done. and thank good they did it.

and honeyShed you moron is a separate company funded by Publicis.

spg · 1 year ago

This might work. there are things i'd buy, interesting product benefits (volvo flies you and a friend to europe if you splurge for the customization and you can drive around europe a bit. i think it was volvo. i'm not really buying a vehicle right now, but i pondered it for a minute). and an interesting twist to the vicarious antic fun you got from music video networks in 1985.
i didn't explore too deep. i didn't buy anything either. but my one thought. if they really want to build this (i know they must be interested in my input, heck, it might already be something they do), for a couple of hours a week they should do this live.

the live on camera connection, build a sort of realtime connection feel with people, and the tune-in wouldn't feel quite so dislocated.

the event would add a bit of something.

also, get some sordid stories of back stage romance and rivalries into trashy magazines.

i realize i've missed out on other obvious influences. teletubbies/in the night garden. sesame street. power rangers & HeadOn.

It seems like something that would be really interesting to work on. But just for a week. Honeyshed might take on a life of its own & turn 10 someday, but I don't quite see it. Good luck.

CopyVet · 1 year ago

I just want to add to some of the comments made about the intro video with the spokesmodels: it's amazing to me that such an amateurish production would lead such a huge effort. There's no excuse for not hiring three women with talent and experience. Everything about the video is poor, from the way it's lit and shot to the acting and line readings (not to mention the copywriting). Obviously, a staff inexperienced in video production was behind this. Which is kind of embarrassing, because it doesn't have to be that way — there's plenty of professionals out there who could have been enlisted help out.

jackjack · 1 year ago

I have to say, beneath all the fluff, bad acting and overt flesh there is a very very good idea buried.
Yes Droga could get better scripts and Smuggler produce better clips but I dont think that's the point. in fact, I think they are almost irrelevant. the future or genius of Honeyshed is the one channel of UGC. real people with real stores. if they drop the other stuff and focus on that i think they have a winner. If not, they will kill themselves trying to stay hip and fail big time.

Greg Verdino · 1 year ago

Oy - not a lot of fans, huh? Oops. I blogged about the launch (neutral cuz I kinda know some of the guys involved with the site and I'm not *that* big a bastard) and asked some of my favorite members of the 'digital generation' to chime in. You want reviews, you can't get much more pointed than the comments they left.

Check it: http://tinyurl.com/honeyshed

Greg

Elizabeth at HoneyShed · 1 year ago

Elizabeth from HoneyShed over here. The whole 'Shed is a'buzzin with this contest and all the great comments and criticisms you are offering up. I just wanted to extend a high-five and many thanks for your feedback, both positive and negative. I'm passing them along up the chain so please, keep em coming.

Can't wait to see who wins,
HoneyShed

2600Hz · 1 year ago

Wow - 90% of you guys are a bunk a sad pathetic jerks. Sure must be fun to be sitting in your basements pretending that someone actually cares what you have to say. As Shakespeare said, "Though dost protest too much." As an observer of media, I find Honeyshed to be a refreshing change from the product placement and "branded entertainment" that Hollywood is offering up. I'm not sure who Droga is, but reading this chain, I get the feeling that he's the former employer of most of the respondents here who were fired for incompetence.

Nixie · 1 year ago

Honestly, this site confuses me. As the self-proclaimed "home shopping for the digital generation" site, it lacks some very basic hallmarks of good digital design. Long load time and sketchy navigation almost had me jumping ship before I got to a single product. Now, full disclosure: I am not the target here. The content and tone points to young, urban (or urban-wannabe) men. But something about the consumer-centric voice seems off in these tough economic times. It feels very much like the last gasp of commercialism in a day when DIY dominates the web (see Etsy and others of its ilk). The production strives to be slick, but the user experience is clunky and I ultimately felt like I'd been had by some sort of bling-conspiracy. And, in a time when user-generated commentary is what pushes many consumers to click "BUY", the site feels more like traditional TV yelling down at folks to CONSUME NOW.

Don't even get me started on the misogyny. You'd have to stick your feet in those models' twats and wear them as slippers to make it any more degrading.

Matty · 1 year ago

Honeyshed is the beginning of a great idea. But it falls short in one big way—it feels a bit like a middle school friend’s dad who threw down for a Killers CD and a pair of Seven jeans to prove he was “with it.” As if the bald spot, impressive potbelly, and Dodge Stratus wouldn’t betray him.

Honeyshed tried to cater to the digital generation, but ended up pandering instead. T-shirts that come with a free condom? Bad actresses poorly scripted to sound stupid? “You know you want it?” I’m not sure I could find anyone at any age that wouldn’t find this a bit…tired.

This generation craves authenticity. So scripted lines like “at Honeyshed we’re dedicated to bringing you the greatest products” reads more like the misguided mission statement from a lame 9 to 5 than a place they’d like to spend time shopping.

Oh, they don’t enjoy a brand talking AT them, either. Will.I.Am selling a keyboard is a good departure from this. He’s an expert. He’s real. He has independent thoughts. He’s also not the voice of the brand, piped through an ambiguous actor. Like, whatever.

There’s a good idea here. And a tweak or two could right the ship, so to speak. The sharing features are awesome. Bring them to the forefront. Strip out the “talent.” Use the users themselves to sell the products—all of them. The digital generation has shown no shyness for the spotlight. So, set the stage, and step out of the way.

The commenter who mentioned tagging YouTube clips with product links is on to something genius, too. Honeyshed could serve as the link between entertainment and attainment of the products that happen to appear throughout. Countless people search for the clothes they see on TV. The mere existence of the E! Network and their Oscar coverage is proof.

So. Kudos to Droga for playing in the right sandbox. It’s a step in the right direction. Let the digital generation use it more, and watch it less, and you may just “kill it” as the kids say. (Right?)

thoughts · 1 year ago

re: tagging youtube and clip sites with product links- already being done. check out overlay.tv. they're adding new partners from brands to broadcasters.

re: honeyshed - the piles of advance hype proclaiming it as the thing that will reinvent advertising did it no favors. as for how much the architects are complicit in that, open for debate. but there probably is a solid, sustainable idea in there. problem is that like most media that tries to connect with that demographic (which doesn't come directly from that demographic), it's too smug by half.

tree lover · 1 year ago

Who needs a review.. I think the overtly offended rebuttals say it all. Nothing like being told you're just a bunch of losers in your parents basement that no one cares about to let you know you struck a direct hit on a nerve. Sarah Palin style.

Truth is, the sites a piece of overpriced garbage that is completely out of touch with what people are looking for in their internut experience. It fails on every angle, porn not as pornorific as the million of other sites, humor that's not even funny, and shopping that's confusing and laborious. Nice job shed! The trifekta of fail!

I wish fuckheads like this would give me 1/20th of the budget to tell them that production for the internet was a proven failure 10 years ago. Even their failure is out of touch with the times..

Sad, sad stuff. And no, I'm actually in my house I own, paid for by ad agency money because I actually know what I'm doing. So if anyone who is funding the 'shed wants to give me a call, I'll explain in real terms why this is a colossal waste of funds.