Mountain Dew Debacle, CNN Reality Shows, Visible Measures’ $21.5 M

The Content Strategist picks the day’s most relevant and interesting stories about the world of content from around the web. Here’s what you should be reading today:

When Crowdsourcing Goes Wrong: The Mountain Dew Naming Contest

Devious internet pranksters have taken control of a Mountain Dew naming campaign called “Dub the Dew,” forcing the company to remove the website and all content related to it.

AdWeek reports that the contest, which was geared towards a new green-apple-flavored drink, was overpowered by people who sent in suggestions like “Diabeetus,” “Fapple,” and “Gushing Granny.”

CNN Hoping to Reach the Younger Crowd with Reality TV

In an effort to position itself as a cable superpower, CNN is taking on new reality and unscripted shows to appeal to appeal to younger viewers.

The channel is already set to air a new Anthony Bourdain travel show, and will start producing episodes of a “late night talk show akin to ‘The View,'” according to AdAge.com.

Visible Measures Raises $21.5 Million for Digital Video Efforts

In a recent funding campaign, Visible Measures, which oversees networks on video ads and analyzes them, has come up with $21.5 million in revenue. The company, which has been around for seven years, supplies video analytics and ads to advertisers and publishers.

A newer initiative that the business has been working on is “an ad network of sorts that helps advertisers distribute so-called ‘branded video content’ and video ads to publishers’ websites,” explains AdAge’s Jason Del Rey. “Advertisers pay Visible Measures when a user clicks on one of these pieces of branded video; Visible Measures then shares the revenue with publishers.”

Jonah Sachs’ “Story Wars” and the Advice for Marketers

In his new book “Story Wars,” Jonah Sachs, CEO and cofounder of Free Range Studios, says that these days, a good story is what will make a brand stand out.

Like the old times, it’s all about passing along stories these days, except it’s done on the internet as opposed to word of mouth. Check out the full review and highlights from the book on Forbes.com.

Content Creation Made Easy Thanks to Quake Labs

Quake Labs, led by ex-Apple engineer Andy Grignon, will make creating content on PCs and mobile devices simple for the average consumer.

He told Business Insider, “I want to enable someone with zero programming ability to build something amazingly cool that would be difficult today even with an experienced staff of designers and engineers.”

The app, which will be available on the iPad towards the end of 2012, will allow users to produce original content that expands beyond the world of words and photos.

Google’s Taking Steps to Deter Copyright Search Results

Google, a content producer itself, is backing up media companies and other content providers to flag copyright violators online.

Marketing Pilgrim’s Cynthia Boris reports that these sites will come up lower in search rankings because of Google’s new algorithm against them. The drop is based upon how many copyright removal notices the sites have received, and Google is keeping a list of offenders on its transparency website.