Twitter is partnered with Apple, so maybe the microblogging service can get some advice from Steve Jobs on effective advertising. Or maybe it has; Twitter's new earthquake ad looks like nothing so much as a cry for help.

" I'll give you 10 ideas better than this one, cheap," the New York ad veteran behind Copyranter wrote. "We expect that some will find the video insensitive," said Mashable. Or maybe they'll find it sensitive to an unpleasant extreme. The idea that a Twitter user would be too self absorbed in his own world of reading and iPhoning and microblogging to seek earthquake shelter is a little too on the nose.