I’d love to offer a moral to go along with the picture, but more than anything, it’s a good illustration of just how badly things can go wrong when the real world intrudes on our neatly laid marketing plans:
(Found via Jalopnik, where you can see the “before” to go with the “after” above)
I first published this video in November, 2007, and because it’s more timely than ever, thought I’d run the video again.
Sure, Harlan Ellison is an abrasive pain in the ass, but he’s repeatedly put his money where his sizable mouth is when it came to protecting the rights of writers and content creators.
In a time [...]
Exactly how has the corporate marketing world so clearly overlooked this surefire marketing/branding tactic? Ladies, gentlemen and Undergrounders, we bring you The Corporate Drinking Song:
Yes, let’s all drink to Russian Gas giant Gazprom, which leverages powerful alcohol-related branding lyrics like:
Let’s drink to you, let’s drink to us, Let’s drink to all the Russian gas
Well said [...]
Any writer/copywriter who’s ever published a book, sold an article, or launched an ad/direct response campaign understands the post-campaign letdown.
You wait for the world to shower you with praise – proof that the universe finally “gets” your genius – and then… nothing happens.
No reviews. No letters to the editor. Or an “average” response rate.
You might [...]
I admit it. I’m terminally unhip – at least when it comes to the latest, hottest, hippest, social media-esque uses of the language. In fact, I still think “sick” and “phat” are sorta bad things, which suggests somebody should take my blogging keys away from me.
Fortunately, Web 2.0 offers help even to the sad wordsmiths [...]
The always-interesting McSweeney site (and publication) posted a doozie.
What if God had texted the Ten Commandments?
(Click here to visit the site and see all ten)
As self-employed gurus (everybody’s a guru nowadays), we’re supposed to embrace the concept of overwork like we do the idea of 24-hour connection.
“At least you’re not starving” is the uncharitable response from friends and colleagues when I mention it’s been busy, but these are the same people I taunt when taking a weekday off to [...]
Found via the always-interesting Daily Obsessional blog: George Orwell’s Rules for Writers:
In my 23 years of pitching, I’ve never never once been tempted to bare it all (doing both myself and civilization at large a favor), but in a copywriting market ravaged by a plummeting economy and the digital era, one recently laid-off copywriter flew the nearly-full Monty in pursuit of a new job.
We’d like to [...]
The only thing I’m willing to say for certain about social media is that it’s ripe for satire.
As if we needed proof, one wag posted a whole satirical course syllabus for “Writing for Nonreaders in the Postprint Era” – and the fun begins right in the course description:
ENG 371WR:
Writing for Nonreaders in the Postprint Era
M-W-F: [...]