Solving mysteries at 104 degrees Fahrenheit (40 degrees Celsius).
February 5, 2016 Leave a comment
The Frinkiac is a thing of pure beauty. A combination search engine + meme creator that can dissect the entirety of the Simpsons catalog, frame by frame.
If you’ve lived most of your life quoting The Simpsons as I have, it’s nothing short of a miracle. This must be what it feels like when a deaf person finally gets those implants and can hear for the first time.
March 27, 2014 Leave a comment
Earlier today, after blogging about a company called HomeJoy‘s lack of understanding of how memes work (and an RT from my buddy Kevin), their communications director shot me a note saying “message received.” Nice to see them paying attention. But it’s a slow day here in the office so I figured I’d help them out a bit more.
Seeing as how their key RTB is “$38 for a clean home” and they like the idea of memes, I made them a few.
Attention Homejoy, if you use any these, I expect royalties or commissions, or a free t-shirt, or something.
February 25, 2014 4 Comments
Lünchausen syndrome is a psychiatric disorder wherein those affected know they are hungry, and that they must eat, but are paralyzed by the weight of deciding what or where to eat.
First coined by Wendy Englebardt in February 2014.
The only known treatment is finding a friend to choose for you. Skipping meals only makes the symptoms worse.
December 19, 2013 Leave a comment
I wish I could take credit for discovering this classic gem, but I found it on Reddit. Still, for those of you who don’t know a TL;DR from a TIL, behold the wonderful ignorance that was 1995.
Why the Web Won’t Be Nirvana (Newsweek, Feb. 26 1995)
Here are my favorite quotes:
“Do our computer pundits lack all common sense? The truth in no online database will replace your daily newspaper, no CD-ROM (I linked this term, in case you are too young to know what one is) can take the place of a competent teacher and no computer network will change the way government works.”
In response I give you NYTimes.com, Khan Academy, and Facebook.
“How about electronic publishing? Try reading a book on disc. At best, it’s an unpleasant chore: the myopic glow of a clunky computer replaces the friendly pages of a book. And you can’t tote that laptop to the beach.”
How many of you are reading this on a tablet, smartphone, or ultralight laptop? That’s a trick question, I know that no one is reading this (I have the data) but in theory you COULD be reading it at the beach on one of those devices.
“Lacking editors, reviewers or critics, the Internet has become a wasteland of unfiltered data. You don’t know what to ignore and what’s worth reading.”
“Then there’s cyberbusiness. We’re promised instant catalog shopping—just point and click for great deals. We’ll order airline tickets over the network, make restaurant reservations and negotiate sales contracts. Stores will become obselete. So how come my local mall does more business in an afternoon than the entire Internet handles in a month? Even if there were a trustworthy way to send money over the Internet—which there isn’t—the network is missing a most essential ingredient of capitalism: salespeople.”
The salespeople? That’s what we’re going to miss? Minimum wage retail jockeys? Are you kidding me (and I can say these things having spent A LOT of time working retail)?
The next time you’re tempted to poke fun at a new technology, just remember that your comments will be archived for nerds like me to make fun years in the future when you’re wrong.
Unless we’re talking about Snapchat. I’ll never understand that (outside of sexting).
April 17, 2012 Leave a comment
I’m coming to the part a little late (okay, 20+ million views late), but after watching this video for the launch of TNT in Belgium I am once again reminded that some of the best experiential marketing happens in other countries.
Why can’t companies do things like this in America? Can you imagine what would happen if they did? In our “post-9/11” world the SWAT team would have descended on this square within minutes of the button being deployed. The square would have looked like a scene from the Hurt Locker.
Yup, something like that.
We’re just too afraid. And sometimes we have good reason to be, but look what it’s costing us. As consumers it’s robbing us of exciting experiences like this. Think of the story everyone in the square that day will be telling their friends for years to come. Think of how excited they were as it was happening. The rush of adrenaline, the laugh after the reveal, the “what the fuck are we seeing?” feeling shared by everyone there.
Instead we get awkward flash mobs.
–
Can you honestly say that lame stunt is as good as the TNT stunt above? As marketers we are robbed of the ability to create incredibly memorable, shareable experiences that drive home the brand message in way that almost forces people to tell their friends.
I know that in this country we can’t have people staging fake gun fights in the street, but there’s a part of me that really wishes we could.
January 23, 2012 4 Comments
Here’s a video recap of my trip to CES 2012. Enjoy!
And for more from my trip check out these other posts:
September 29, 2011 Leave a comment
It’s funny because it’s true.
April 5, 2011 Leave a comment
Yup. TASER. GRENADE.
This takes less-than-lethal stopping power to a new level.
And we all know how much I love a good tasing.
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September 7, 2010 1 Comment
In the long list of ideas that I had that I never did anything about and were stolen, this was a fairly recent one. As soon as I received my first Google Voice transcription I knew that they were destined for hilarity. How great would a blog be where people could submit their hilarious mis-transcribed Google Voice voicemails.
I'm me?
Hot Tub Crime Machine 