2007 - What I've Learned

At the end of the year (or the beginning of a new one) people like to look back at the year that was and make lists. Lists about their favorite moment of the previous year, or best films etc.

Being the Smartest Man in the World, I pride myself on learning/mastering something every year. In 2005 I mastered lovemaking and in 2006 it was interpretive dance. 2007 was no different and since I am a fan of Esquire Magazine I decided to fill you in on my year by doing my very own installment of "What I've Learned". For those not familiar with "What I've Learned" it is a super cool feature where a Celebrity states in point form any wisdom they have picked up in their lifetime.

My list is going to be far from complete but will feature a few tidbits from my life in the last 12 months.

• -Never lobby to get a job for an old friend's husband because it can bite you in the ass
• -It isn't always good to be the smartest person in the room
• -After seeing films like Jesus Camp and The Kingdom I realized that there is no FUN in fundamentalism.
• -There is a bunch of money to be made by adding the FUN to fundamentalism
• -Moving sucks
• -Reality shows featuring Hulk Hogan and Scott Baio can't be interesting no matter how badly you are starved for something to watch.
• -Dick Clark is still alive
• -People will make a bunch of money in 2008 by saying they are a Web 2.0 expert
• -Some pretty fancy people read this blog
• -Most of the Nike's for sale on eBay are fakes and you end up wearing them as winter boots
• -Having two kids is 10 times the work as having one
• -I miss TV. Please settle the strike because I can't take any more bad reality shows
• -Being happy at work is pretty important and can effect your overall heath and well being
• -I am happy with my new job and predict big things for 2008
• -The immediate future of television is looking like more poker and tattoo shows
• -Water parks are great places to see bad boob tattoos and lots of inappropriate bathing suit choices
• -Seeing a woman with two black eyes is no indication of how well she listens
  

-saul

Celebrities can kill a brand.........

I had a interesting conversation last night at Ad Lounge about a company I used to consult for. A friend mentioned that this company is trying to build buzz by getting paparazzi pictures of celebs wearing their company t-shirts.

Disclosure: I love Celebrities and one of my guilty pleasures are Celebrity Gossip sites like TMZ so I am not poo pooing the idea of Celebrity endorsements just saying you need to think about who you use!

I am not going to out the company in question because they are good folks but I will comment about the idea of creating buzz in this way. In the case of this company they got Paris Hilton and you would think that is a BIG DEAL but (and I have written about this before) if you are going to go down the road of having a celebrity "speak" for your company you should choose a celeb that fits into your demo (I know that is probably not possible since Celbrities live in another world) or at least may seem like they would/could use your product.

The company that I am carefully blogging about is a company that boasts economic value and heavily promotes cost savings over their competitors.........this kinda screams "everyman/everywoman" and not a child of privilege that would probably be embarrassed to actually support such an initiative.

For a small to medium sized company, (and this company is) spokespeople should somehow resemble the target market if you are looking to create a feeling of community and acceptance. The thrill of a celebrity pretending to use your favorite product wears off pretty quick if it isn't authentic.

just my .02!

-saul

I couldn't do it!

I got a funny email from a friend alerting me to a blog posting about a company I used to work for getting raked over the coals for planting "fake" comments in blogs saying their product and or service is the greatest thing etc (he checked the ip address and as they say in horror movies "It was coming from inside the house" or in this case inside the office from the company domain network). The comments were in response to the blogger bringing to light a possible drawback to their product/service and instead of the company doing anything to correct this they just placed pro company comments to get people to forget the original post.

I was going to post the address and hold this up as an example of why you shouldn't mess with bloggers and how this is a lesson every company needs to learn but since I did work for the company I chickened out and am keeping it to myself.

-saul