Embed The Pitch

The Muppet Show Pitch and the MyChipotle.com Experience

2009-11-23T16:20:00.000-06:00

Here's a perfect example of entertainment with an embedded sales pitch. It's a video that the creators of The Muppet Show made to try to get CBS to buy the show and run it during prime time.

Essentially, it's an element of an ad campaign touting the profit potential of The Muppet Show, aimed at CBS executives.

I think that the entertainment of the video is the pitch and the pitch is the entertainment. Here are two reasons why I think that:

They fused The Muppet Show concept (which is a spectacle in itself) with a spectacular call to action ("It will be loved and adored by every Nielson home in the country...when this show hits, the careers of the men who put this show on the air will skyrocket.")
They found the inner gem of The Muppet Show brand...its unique soul...and created an experience around it. This engaged their target audience with a sense of excitement

Think of the brand you manage. How can you create an experience around its unique soul to engage your customers? How can you fuse your brand personality with a call to action?

It's a technique applicable to many industries. Take Chipotle, for example, who launched MyChipotle.com in an effort to increase awareness of menu variety, while harnessing dedicated fans who are passionate about customizing and personalizing their Chipotle meals.

The Muppet Show was a song-and-dance variety show that promised absurd comedy and hilarious parody - and that's exactly what viewers of this pitch were treated to. Similarly, The MyChipotle.com site experience delivers the customization and personalization experience that turns customers into evangelists.

In both cases, the marketing efforts are entertainment experiences with embedded sales pitches.

Very Funny Thanksgiving Statistical Data

2009-11-16T23:42:00.007-06:00

Listen to this hilarious snippet from this past weekend's broadcast of my favorite radio show A Prairie Home Companion. Turn on your speakers, enjoy, and have a happy upcoming Thanksgiving! :)

An Abundance of Sweet Creamy Liquid Stimulants

2009-11-13T13:09:00.000-06:00

I recently came across a blog dedicated to using simple lines and dots and words to making sense of stuff. It's a blog called Indexed, published by Jessica Hagy. I found this index card particularly insightful.

This diagram says that in a commodity market, artistry is useless. In a specialty market, artistry is profitable.

Here's why I think it's insightful.

Hagy titled this card "Ordinary is Abundant," which I take to mean the forces of commoditization are stronger than ever. In other words, it is hard to sustain brand differentiation when there is an abundance of competition.

Easy to understand. Like Starbucks and other premium coffee shops having trouble carrying a premium price on their specialty coffee drinks when Dunkin' Donuts has their own and McDonald's launched McCafe, with extremely similar products at a lower price.

Sweet Creamy Liquid Stimulants

McCafe serves some pretty tasty lattes, cappuccinos and other frothy drinks. The hazelnut iced coffee is a favorite of mine during the summer. McDonald's probably saw that the Starbucks business was a specialty market but the perception of the coffee product was moving more towards commodity.

After all, the real product they're selling is sweet, creamy liquid stimulants. The "specialty" for Starbucks is environment and place. If they're going to survive, they need to leverage that better, or find another point of differentiation.

The Wikipedia entry on Commodity is really insightful. Here are the main points:

A commodity is some good for which there is demand, but which is supplied without qualitative differentiation across a market. It is a product that is the same no matter who produces it.
The price of a commodity good is determined as a function of its market as a whole.
Commoditization occurs as a goods or services market loses differentiation across its supply base, often by the diffusion of the intellectual capital necessary to acquire or produce it efficiently. As such, goods that formerly carried premium margins for market participants have become commodities, such as generic pharmaceuticals and silicon chips.

Buy a PC Because it is Cheaper than a Mac

2009-11-11T22:09:00.000-06:00

I thought this (not so recent anymore) ad was pretty effective for a number of reasons other than being entertaining and informative:

It drives home one of the biggest reasons why you need to buy a PC (a computer with Windows operating system) versus a Mac: the price. After all, most consumers really only use a web browser, music software, a picture viewer, and a word processor, right? So why pay a premium price for a Mac?

I have used both Macs and PCs in my career. Both crash and have occasional problems. But that's not the perception in the marketplace. The perception is that Mac is simple and cool and PCs are bothersome. With the launch of the critically acclaimed new Windows 7 operating system, PCs are fun and useful again. But, if anyone ever asks me what the difference between a Mac and a PC is, I'll tell them: for 99% of the population, it's price.

It doesn't just drive home the price point; many of the underlying messages in this ad are strategically sound and creatively produced:

If you have some rational needs (who doesn't?) like speed, comfort and screen size, then a PC is a good solution.
Lauren walks fast, looks happy, is productive, speaks articulately and makes logical decisions. Those are all symbolic traits of smart shoppers.
Lauren says she's "not cool enough to be a Mac person." This helps reinforce the point of differentiation that PCs are for using - not showing off.
Lauren mentions that the look of one computer is drawing her to buy it. Everyone can relate to that. We can also relate to the joy of making the final buying decision. It's good to have those emotions in the ad...it makes us want to feel the same emotions.
For $700 cash, you can get an awesome computer with everything you want.

The 24-year battle between Mac and PC is like an anthem of my life; one of the defining competitions of the culture and technology that my friends and I have embraced through not only our working lives, but our personal lives. Bill Gates and Steve Jobs are the business inspirations and guiding lights of my generation.

So it matters to me. I want both companies to succeed, but I can't stand to see Windows perceived wrongly.

Do You Need a Magic Pocket?

2009-11-10T11:31:00.010-06:00

DropBox just came out with a video explaining what it is. It's like a "magic pocket."

Now that DropBox has an iPhone app and syncs all your stuff seamlessly between your work computer, home computer and your mobile phone, it seems like it truly is a magic pocket that you can always reach into.

Here's the video:

It looks like DropBox made the video to better explain its features and simplify how one starts using it. They relate it to a "magic pocket," which I think is a brilliant metaphor. A few years ago I wanted my "Google calendar in my pocket," and now that I have a smartphone that does that, I feel like all my info is always within reach...like a magic pocket.

The DropBox team hired a video production company named Common Craft to make the video. Smart move. They've made videos to explain many of today's complex Web 2.0 apps, ideas and processes.

Kudos to the DropBox team for not only having a great web application but for effectively explaining what could be too complex for some, in a simple way using a creative metaphor.

Not to get too off-track, but we live in a world where simplicity makes economic sense:

Dating services used to me a huge expense and a long process. Now, a "picture and a paragraph" is really all we care about.
Startup companies are using simple, plain-English "pitch decks" to express a big idea to venture capitalists rather than a full-fledged business plan.
Redbox respects the spontaneity of a movie craving.

The economics of simplicity is what makes CommonCraft so powerful and useful. Here are some other hard-to-explain concepts that CommonCraft explains in plain English:

Have you struggled to explain Twitter to your parents? Try this:

Are you confused when somebody tells you they're a "social media expert?" Well this is what they do:

Worried about surviving a zombie attack? Follow these instructions to stay safe:

For more information about Common Craft, check out their blog.

Like Movies?

2009-11-06T11:11:00.002-06:00

I just started reading this manual. If you also find it of interest, let me know!
MakeUseOf.com - Internet Guide for the Movie Addict

Flash of Genius and the Future of Food

2009-11-05T13:01:00.005-06:00

You know how sometimes a movie looks like it's about one thing on the surface but it turns out to be about something much bigger?

That's what happened when I watched the movie Flash of Genius on DVD recently. It stars Greg Kinnear as Robert Kearnes, the inventor of the intermittent windshield wiper. Aside from an examination of the big business of auto accessories and the challenge of genius, it's about intellectual property.

At the end of the movie, it said, "based on the article 'The Flash of Genius' in New Yorker magazine, 1993." I just read that fascinating article, and I posted it here.

The Flash of Genius -

So, that was the year shortly after Robert Kearnes finally won the settlement from Ford, and was around the time the settlements from Chrysler were about to come his way. Kearnes just died in 2005.

My point is that this New Yorker article comes out about this fascinating story of an inventor suing one of the biggest companies in the world, and winning, in 1993. But it wasn't about a lawsuit, nor was the story really about David versus Goliath.

It was about the future of patents and intellectual property. That's what the lesson was for corporate America.

But today, it's a much more complex issue and it's not a war the little guy can win anymore.

Patents are a billion dollar business. I just watched "The Future of Food" recently and learned some startling facts.

Genetic food research is done through patenting of genes. And the level of corporate control over our agricultural system is worrisome. Corporations own genes in corn and wheat!

And it's not just agriculture anymore. One of the genes for breast cancer is patented. And researchers working on a cure were no longer allowed to use that gene in their research because a company patented it and charged very high fees to use it. Big pharmaceutical companies have gone into research labs and sued researchers using the genes they own.

This is a disturbing economic trend, and a problem we can't let get out of control.

Experience the Talent

2009-10-23T17:28:00.007-05:00

Did you know that in my previous jobs...

I helped launch marketing campaigns for the 19th most admired company in the U.S.
Using my PowerPoint presentation skills, I helped land new accounts, including some for Fortune 500 companies, by developing engaging and effective proposals and capabilities presentations
I helped gain new business by editing and publishing a daily blog and pitching stories to the Wall Street Journal, Advertising Age
I used my unique blend of strategic and creative thinking to analyze and interpret customer satisfaction research data and presented my insights to senior management
I wrote, produced, directed and edited a short film
I became an expert presenter and communicator, having been trained by the National Speaker's Association and Toastmasters

And as a college student...

I won a prestigious internship at one of the most respected ad agencies in the country
My team won 3rd place in the country in the 2002 National Student Advertising Competition and I presented the campaign and branding strategy to Bank of America executives

These are just some of my most memorable professional experiences and accomplishments. To experience the talent, contact me for my resume! I can be reached by email at jonnyringo100 (at) gmail.com or 612.21.RINGO.

Bad Billboard Ad or Great One?

2009-10-10T21:33:00.001-05:00

Studying effective advertising headlines helps me be a better writer.

Unlike slogans, like "It's Miller Time" or "Drivers Wanted," advertising headlines, like in a magazine or newspaper ad, are meant to get you to read the body copy, which ultimately has some sort of call to action.

It's really important to know your target market.

It's not going to seem like it at first, but this is an example of understanding your target market. First, mad props to Joshua Steimle for creating the Bad Billboard Project, a forum to complain about bad billboards. Thanks Joshua.

This "bad billboard" is featured on Joshua's site.

Joshua says that...

Billboards are like big print ads. There needs to be a headline that resonates with the target market. But there isn't a clear headline here. Would you be able to digest 30 words, a phone number and a URL (yeah, that little thing in the bottom-right) in 3.5 seconds without rear-ending the car in front of you?

You don't have to be a genius to know that ads, especially highway billboards, need to have a one big idea and a call to action.

Whoa, wait a second!

Is your name Judge Blockman? The guy whose name is on the billboard:

It turns out that the strategy for this campaign was to get some press coverage and to get Judge Blockman to see the message on the billboard. If your name was up there, you'd notice. Turned out the billboard did it's trick.

This is a lesson in keeping in mind your target market...always. If a message doesn't resonate with you, it probably wasn't meant for you.

Smart Viral Marketing: The MSI X-Slim Notebook is So Slim it Can Fit in Your Butt Crack

2009-08-13T10:07:00.010-05:00

Today, I read about a fascinating marketing campaign on Mashable, which is a blog reporting on Web 2.0 and social media and offers breaking news, resources and reviews of web sites and web services.

Ben Parr of Mashable reported on a viral effort from computer manufacturer MSI. MSI is promoting a series of notebooks called the X-Slim. The biggest selling point of the laptop is it's slim size: 3 pounds and less than an inch thick, similar to Apple's ultra-thin and ultra-portable MacBook Air.

To enter the highly competitive market, MSI wisely chose the X-Slim's most differentiated feature, its thickness, to focus its campaign on. And the creative concept will undoubtedly work to stick in consumers' minds.

While Apple compared the MacBook Air's thickness to an intra-office envelope, MSI is comparing the X-Slim's thickness to your butt crack. (You could say it's "so slim it can fit in a butt crack.")

MSI is positioning the X-Slim against the MacBook Air as the ultra-thin laptop that everybody can relate to...especially cost-conscious prospective customers. One commenter on Mashable's blog post, catchmikey, says it best: "Slim enough for any tight-ass."

Of course, the "free prize inside" is that the X-Slim is indeed a heckuva lot cheaper than a MacBook Air.

Smart campaign! And popular, too: the video view count on YouTube alone is quickly approaching a million views after just 4 days.

Revision3 Advertiser Integration - Part 2 of 2

2009-04-08T18:34:00.016-05:00

Wait! Check out part 1 of this 2-part blog post here.

Consider This…

What if match.com sponsored an episode of The Tyra Banks show and all of Tyra’s viewers were single and lonely? And what if Tyra was also single and lonely, used match.com herself, and highly recommended it? And what if Tyra's viewers could instantly browse to match.com from their television? And finally, what if Warner Bros. could measure the viewers who subsequently did go to match.com?

Well, that would be a solid marriage of advertiser, programming, product and viewer.

And that's the unique position Revision3 (an Internet television network) is in, albeit with different sponsors, more targeted programming and a homogenous population of hosts and viewers. For a quick glance at what Revision3 is all about, check out their website or their Wikipedia entry. Their marketing partnerships are called "advertiser integrations"

I'm really impressed; as both a fan of their programs and as a marketing professional.

This is part 2 of 2 about Revision3’s advertiser integration strategy, and how it results in an enhanced brand experience for viewers, with very few “wasted eyeballs” for their marketing partners.

In my previous post, I discussed how television advertising has adapted and improved over the years in response to changing demands and markets. Brand experience placement, and other intersections of advertising in entertainment, actually adds value to the programming and for the viewer. Internet television can take brand experience further.

Internet Television Shortens the Transaction Waiting Period

Television and video is connected to the Web now. Whereas most traditional television ad messages are meant to be recalled at the time and place of transaction, brands that advertise on hulu.com, abc.com and others have an advantage – consumers can connect instantly. There is no wait time. They can interact with the brand right now, within the browser, and the programming itself can underscore the brand message.

Unlike the network sites and hulu.com, Revision3 Internet television is an actual TV network for the Web, with a highly targeted viewer base, broadcast-quality shows and original content. But, we all know that without a profitable advertising model, the fun won't last long. And Revision3's advertiser integrations are the perfect solution.

The Connection between Programming, Hosts and Advertiser

The video below illustrates exactly how well the advertising is integrated into the content, and it hopefully shows how well the show knows its audience. This Revision3 show is called Scam School and is about playing tricks on people to win a drink, or win a couple bucks from somebody at the bar. They created a fun trick called domain smacking, which is when you buy a funny domain and redirect it to another site in order to get some laughs. Watch how seamlessly the host of the show pitches the sponsors' messages. The domain smacking segment starts at 5:57 and is strategically sponsored by Go Daddy, a company that sells cheap domains and offers redirecting for free!

This other Scam School show is sponsored by Neflix...telling us to rent Matchstick Men, which is a movie that is about a con man, much like the host of Scam School, and somebody that the viewers probably want to be like. It’s genius! It starts at 6:07

Revision3 Advertiser Integration - Part 1 of 2

2009-04-02T22:49:00.034-05:00

UPDATE: Read part 2 of 2 here.

In this two-part post on advertiser integration as a solution to enhance brand experience without wasting eyeballs, I will discuss what advertiser integration is and then how Revision3 gets it brilliantly right.

Background of Television Advertising

It's been a long road. We've gone from advertising being generally accepted as part of programming to advertising being annoying and then to advertising adding value to programming.

While my parents watched variety and game shows in their day, the producers would pause programming to remind us who made the show possible. Usually, one of the female assistants would hold up a product, like a brand of coffee or laundry detergent, to the camera while an announcer delivers an advertising message.

Truman's wife did something like this in the movie The Truman Show. Also in that era, The Flintstones would cut to a spot for Winston cigarettes, with Barney Rubble and Fred Flintstone delivering the ad.

These are examples of including a commercial message within programming, instead of during a break.

When commercial breaks were introduced, advertisers chose programs they figured their target market would tune into. And it works for mass advertising, but there is a lot of "wasted eyeballs," for lack of a better term. So, the need for more targeted media planning arose...just in time for the rise of cable and targeted programming. Beer and power tool ads would run on channels with male-oriented programming, and so on.

Then, as a result of DVRs, advertisers thought of new ways to incorporate commercial messages into programming to avoid wasted eyeballs. The upside was the discovery of more effective ways to connect a brand message with its intended audience. There are a lot of great solutions born from the modern intersection of advertising and entertainment. For example:

Product placement
Sponsorship
Branded entertainment
Celebrity endorsements
Viral entertainment
Content deals
Consumer-generated media and user-generated content
Etc.

I often think about which marketing strategies work and which are most entertaining when I see them in action:

Joey on Friends drinking a Red Bull in order to stay up late enough to rehearse for an audition delivers the "Red Bull gives you wings" message in a creative way
Mountain Dew sponsoring extreme sports events like the Dew Action Sports Tour
Creating a web adventure like the producers of Lost did to garner loyalty among devoted fans

Advertisers have fewer wasted eyeballs and timely, informative and relevant messages. They are connecting consumers not just to a mass commercial message, but to a brand experience.

"Brand Experience Placement"

If I was a fan of The Tyra Banks Show, and I skipped all the commercials, Warner Bros. Entertainment would not value me highly, since the company wouldn't earn money by selling my eyeballs to their advertisers.

But let's say Tyra had an episode about Internet dating and the producers integrated an advertiser, like match.com into the show. Tyra mentioned success stories. The "guests" shared their experiences. And maybe they even had their "Chief Matchmaking Officer," or whatever, on the show.

Warner Bros.' advertisers are paying for the viewers and rating, so they're happy; Tyra's producers are happy; and if I'm part of the demographic that values seeing how match.com works, then I'm happy, too! It's the convergence of entertainment and marketing in an entertaining way. That's what I call "brand experience placement."

Advertiser Integration

How could the partnership between The Tyra Banks Show and match.com get any better?

What if everyone who watched Tyra was single and lonely?
What if Tyra was single and lonely, uses match.com herself, and highly recommends it?
What if Tyra's viewers could instantly browse to match.com from their television?
What if Warner Bros. could measure the viewers who subsequently went to match.com?

WELL, THAT WOULD BE AWESOME!

It would be a solid marriage of advertiser, programming, product and viewer. And that's the position Internet television network Revision3 is in...because they are uniquely positioned to make it happen.

Next in this two-part blog post I'll explain what Revision3 is, discuss how Revision3 uses Advertiser Integration and why I think it's such an effective tool to enhance brand experience.

UPDATE: Read part 2 of 2 here.

Best Worst Movie Hailed by The Totally Rad Show

2009-03-27T16:08:00.005-05:00

I've never seen some of the most talked about "cult" movies:

Xanadu
Plan 9 from Outer Space
The Rocky Horror Picture Show
Troll 2

Troll 2 is on that list because it's been hailed by numerous critics and film buffs as the Worst Movie Ever...and because of that has somehow achieved cult status.

It turns out there is a new documentary about the rise in cult status of Troll 2. The documentary is called Best Worst Movie, and it premiered as the 2009 SXSW Film Festival. It's not about the making of Troll 2, but the making of its cult status.

Dan Trachtenberg, Alex Albrecht and Jeff Cannata, of the Totally Rad Show, recently reviewed this documentary during their live show at SXSW 2009, and they all agreed it was one of the best movies ever.

Not best documentaries...best MOVIES ever.

So, I'm renting Troll and Troll 2 soon, and then I'm going to watch Best Worst Movie!

For more information and updates about where you can see the documentary, check out the website for the documentary.

Witty Caption Contest #4

2009-03-25T19:53:00.003-05:00

Think you can come up with the wittiest caption for the image below? Submit your caption by leaving a comment!

Thoughts on Guys, Failure and Data Visualization

2009-03-20T16:46:00.008-05:00

Guys Being Guys - Hilarious clip from an old episode of the Totally Rad Show that captures the essence of a beer-fueled fit of laughter among good good friends. TRS is my favorite show on Internet television network Revision3. Check it out for more good times with these guys.

Failure by Honda - Like Michael Jordon's famous failure commercial for Nike, this bit of inspirational wisdom is about the the opportunity of failing. Specifically, about Honda's culture that allows drivers, designers and engineers to draw upon failure to motivate them to succeed.

Doug Meacham, a rockstar from Richmond, had some interesting thoughts about the short film. He says that, too often, failure doesn't support the short term, high performance expectations of the average publicly traded company. And that failure is necessary for success for above average organizations. Reminds me of this interesting discussion between Best Buy's Robert Stephens, Steve Bendt and Gary Koelling.

So Many a Second - A visualizer that shows world statistics on a human scale. Depicting the ongoing stream of events, this application tries to get the user in touch with the emotional actuality of these objective data. For example, every second 4.2 babies are born and 1.7 people die, making the population growth 2.5 people per second. This helps visualize that idea.

Data visualization is a pretty popular subject right now. It really helps to understand the meaning of complex issues through the graphic interpretation of the data. Presentation Zen is also a great resource to learn more about making presentations more effective, for example this impressive presentation.

Vail 2009 Picture Show

2009-03-18T15:23:00.002-05:00

Here's a little musical slide show of pics from my recent ski trip to Vail.

Here are 7 things that made the trip especially memorable for me:

Flying directly into Eagle County airport - very convenient and makes renting a car unnecessary
Staying at a condo right in Lionshead Village, and VRBO to help find it - the central location is ideal for proximity to the lifts, rental shop, village, bus service and Subway!
The drive to the Ritz-Carlton in Bachelor Gulch for dinner and drinks - Hummers of Vail is a great service
The fresh powder of the Blue Sky Basin
Playing 5-person Chinese Checkers while waiting for pizza delivery at 2AM
The usefulness of a Camelbak hydration system while on the mountain
The greatest friends in the world to share the experience with

Witty Caption Contest #3

2009-03-18T13:31:00.006-05:00

Think you can come up with the wittiest caption for the image below? Submit your caption by leaving a comment!

And the winner of Witty Caption Contest #2 goes to...Boogsy! Congratulations, Boogsy, you win a 6-month supply of Duct Tape for submitting the wittiest caption:

"Duct tape use #2,714: Wall-mount high-chair."

Obama's Words, Twitter Traffic and Busted by Facebook

2009-03-13T20:57:00.007-05:00

VCR Hack - This creative video is incredibly well scripted and edited. At what point did you realize that it was...?

Wordle - This is fascinating. Compared to all other inaugural speeches, Obama's use of the words "crisis," "jobs" and "generation" was unique. The words "government" and "great" were unusually absent.

Jonathan Feinberg created this fascinating collaborative toy for generating “word clouds” from text that you provide. It's called wordle. The clouds give greater prominence to words that appear more frequently in the source text.

Following Obama's inauguration, Feinberg saw several blog posts and newspaper stories featuring Wordles of the inaugural address. So he compared it to all others to see what makes one person's words distinctive.

Secrets on Post Cards - PostSecret is not new to me, but it might be new to you. One of the most popular blogs ever created, it is an ongoing community art project where people mail in their secrets anonymously on one side of a postcard.

Here is a collection of some really cool postcards sent in to PostSecret.

Value of Twitter - It's one thing to figure out what Twitter is. It's another to be part of the conversation about how to figure out what it's worth. That's a discussion Michael Arrington is starting. And in the spirit of transparency and full disclosure, he shows TechCrunch traffic driven from Twitter. Interesting stuff. Read this blog post and the already hundreds of comments that follow.

Busted by Facebook - Here is why people think Facebook is so Junior High. It's not because of the time wasting or the cyber stalking or whatever else the media says.

According to this site, it's because of:

...what happens when you live in the awkward part of the venn diagram where “facebook friends” and “real friends” don’t overlap.

Case in point:

Odd Todd Laid Off - I watched my first Odd Todd cartoon several years ago and my life has never been the same since. This is his first cartoon. It's what started it all. Since then he's created an empire. If you have some time, go visit his site and watch his cartoons!

Witty Caption Contest #2

2009-03-11T11:23:00.006-05:00

Think you can come up with the wittiest caption for the image below? Submit your caption by leaving a comment!

And the winner of Witty Caption Contest #1 goes to...Tdawg! Congratulations, Tdawg, you win a $10 gift certificate to Rajivny's Restaurant for submitting the wittiest caption...

"Are you the Russian Joe Camel? Cuz I'm looking for an extra wide menthol."

Adam Lambert Will Win American Idol 2009

2009-03-11T10:59:00.001-05:00

On February 26th, I made some Idol predictions for this season. I was right about Anoop Desai coming back, and I still think Adam is our next American Idol, but Danny and Lil will probably last longer than Allison and Alexis. So, based on last night's first "big stage" performances of the Top 13, here are my predictions for the Top 5:

Adam Lambert
Danny Gokey
Lil Rounds
Allison Iraheta
Alexis Grace

And I think Jasmine and Jorge are going home tonight.

Joy is 189.7

2009-03-09T16:52:00.002-05:00

I just witnessed the dog literally fall over from the force of his own tail wagging. He was pretty happy to see me.

"Dude, you're funny," I said to the dog.

This reminded me of a sermon I heard about finding and appreciating the joy in your life. And so I thought about it.

"What brings me joy?" I thought to myself.

"Well, that dog sure makes me smile a lot," I replied, to myself, awkwardly.

"OK, this is crazy...I need to write a blog post about joy," I concluded.

So, I went to go sit at the computer, chuckling about how the existentialism was so obviously a bi-product of my current "economic downturn," asking the question again:

"What brings me joy?"

But just then, as I walked down the hallway, I saw the answer right in front of me.

Joy is seeing a friend for the first time in over a year.

My Fascination with Vince Offer's Nuts

2009-03-06T10:49:00.006-06:00

About a month ago, I posted a YouTube video of this hilarious new infomercial for the Slap Chop. The guy in the infomercial is named Vince Offer. He's also the guy behind the ShamWow.

One of funniest lines during Vince's product demonstration for the Slap Chop was when he says, nonchalantly, "you're gonna love my nuts" and then proceeds to show how the Slap Chop can chop up nuts for the kids' sundaes.

OK, it's not just his nuts that I'm fascinated with.

It's his technique; his attitude; how he's actually quite entertaining, all the while making the point that if we don't buy a Slap Chop, we're stupid and will have a boring life. Millions of Slap Chops and ShamWows later, Vince is laughing all the way to the bank. And not only that, he's winning awards for doing so.

What especially fueled my interest was: How does this guy do it? How are real connections made between a persuasive message and its intended audience? And how is value created in that? How is it entertaining and win-win? I decided I'm going to write an in-depth blog post on the subject, and will provide the link here soon.

Is the Chicken McNugget Lady's 911 Call a Fake News Story?

2009-03-04T15:11:00.008-06:00

Hey, have you heard the one about the woman who called 911 three times because she didn't get her chicken nuggets?

It is, in fact, real news. In fact, after the story broke yesterday, it's all over the Internet and even on the homepage of CNN.com. She did commit the crime of misusing 911, that it wasn't a real emergency. But I mean, seriously, how absurd (but perhaps devilishly witty) is it for the reporter to include these riveting details?

Customers at the McDonald's where the incident occurred had mixed feelings about the McNugget meltdown. Daniel Slaton said he typically orders McNuggets when he goes to McDonald's, saying simply, "I just like them better than anywhere else."

So, at first, I thought it might be a joke. It is indeed pretty funny. I thought perhaps the news story was somehow related to The Onion, a "fake news" organization.

And (in perhaps a subconscious effort to try to erase the story and its reflection on some people's seemingly misguided and irrational tendencies to see injustice instead of normal interpersonal conflict from my memory) it made me think about how great it would be if it was a fake story.

Seriously, what a great fake news headline! "Woman Calls 911 After McDonald's Runs Out Of Nuggets"

At first, it reminded me of a time when I walked into Arby's and they told me I couldn't order a roast beef sandwich because they were out of roast beef. I just laughed and went to Chipotle.

Then, it reminded me of my respect and admiration for the work that goes into producing news satire and parodies, specifically for The Onion News Network, an amazing process that actually starts with the writing, and meticulous editing, of great fake news headlines.

If you're not familiar with The Onion, you've got to check it out. The best way I can describe it is that it's like those fake commercials on Saturday Night Live, but instead of product parody, The Onion produces news satire and parody. But the irreverence and often over-the-line, look at current events is all so frighteningly similar...and maybe even insightful.

For example, fake SNL commercials reflect American consumers' propensity to buy the brand of cereal with the most fiber, or to go to any length to control their dog's "bladder challenges." Whereas The Onion's fake news reflects American's love-hate relationship with conventional journalism.

We laugh at what we buy and we can't get enough of our own stupid news. It's all my kind of humor.

Here are my three favorite The Onion headlines:

"Sean Penn Demands To Know What A**hole Took SeanPenn@gmail.com"
"Kevin Bacon Linked To Al-Qaeda"
"Nation's Dog Owners Demand To Know Who's A Good Boy"

Here are my three favorite Onion News Network stories:

My List of 10 Most Amazing Things

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To compile this list, I thought about anything that has ever made an impression on me in one way or another, and then I wrote down the first 10 things that came to mind. Some are more serious than the rest, but they’re all things that made me stop and think or inspired creative ideas of my own.

It’s been a fun exercise. You should try it! To make it more meaningful, think about why something impressed you and what you learned from it. If you want to share your most amazing things, please leave a comment below!

Most Amazing No Limit Texas Hold'em Player

In No Limit Texas Hold'em poker, it's undoubtedly more important to "play the player" than it is to play the board (the cards). Sitting at a table playing this game to win takes some pretty intense concentration. To become a champion it takes an amazing ability to read the other players. Daniel Negreanu is one of my favorite players because of his skill at reading people.

Some quick history if you're thinking, "who is this guy?": Negreanu is one of the best all around players, was the youngest World Series of Poker winner in history, is a two-time World Poker Tour winner, has three World Series bracelets, has authored a poker strategy book and has been named player of the year twice.

Negreanu has said that the most important skill he employs is observing what hands his opponents play and how capable they are of playing them. Here are some examples of him doing exactly that...and the reason why he is my Most Amazing No Limit Texas Hold'em poker player.

Many times he actually calls out what the other players have before seeing their hands. Here he calls a set of threes in Doyle Brunson’s hand during a cash game:

If you want to see more amazing reads, here's Negreanu against Matt Traudt in a World Series game, playing Traudt’s tendencies well. And here he calls Ryan McClean's pocket aces.

Most Amazing Golf Shot

Playing the game of golf can be one of the most enjoyable or frustrating experiences; I know from experience. The effort involved in choosing just the right club with just the right amount of power and technique, and doing that consistently over time, while maintaining a level of concentration whereby nothing distracts you, is something that nobody has mastered better than Tiger Woods.

The game takes a lot of skill and practice, but to reach the top, you need to have the technique of a champion and a little luck every once in awhile. And that's what happened on the 16th green during the 2005 Masters at Augusta. It was one moment worth the $20 million a year Nike pays Tiger Woods, and a moment that makes it my Most Amazing Golf Shot.

Most Amazing iPhone App

Ocarina is certainly one of the most innovative iPhone apps. It’s a musical instrument created for the iPhone. Ocarina is sensitive to your breath, touch and movements. And it's a social application. Tap on the globe icon and you will see and hear other Ocarina players throughout the world. It enables beautiful music to be created, appreciated and shared…utilizing the iPhone technology. And I think that's really neat, which is why it’s my Most Amazing iPhone App. This particular video is showing the Ocarina being played to the tune of the infamous Nintendo game Zelda.

Most Amazing Film

This is an experience that I'll never forget. The Greatest Places is a large-format film that takes you on an educational journey to seven of the most geographically dynamic locations on Earth. It’s a 45-minute film I saw when I was a kid at the Science Museum of Minnesota. The screen size is almost 7,200 square feet. The film takes you on a journey through these Greatest Places:

The Chang Tang plateau, in Tibet, with an average height of 15,000 feet
Madagascar, which is home to a rich diversity of wildlife, including lemurs, chameleons, spiny globefish, and up to 10,000 species of flora, 80 percent of which are found nowhere else on Earth!
The Okavango Delta in Botswana, which is a 6,000-square-mile maze of lagoons, channels, and islands
The Namib Desert, which stretches 1,200 miles in length, but averaging a width of only 70 miles, and is home to the highest sand dunes in the world
Greenland, the world's largest island, where sled dogs are the major mode of transportation
Iguazu Falls, a crescent-shaped cliff about 2.5 miles long, in between Brazil and Argentina, with 275 individual cascades and waterfalls that plummet up to 269 feet into the gorge below
The Amazon River, which forms a network of water channels that permeates nearly half of South America

The inspiring nature of this film makes your imagination go wild. It showed me for the first time how diverse the Earth is and how exciting these places are. It also taught me that the forces of geography and nature on Earth’s ecosystem can be a way to better understand forces in other ecosystems, like our society and world economy.

Geography gives us a framework to understand the world. Seeing this film, for me, had a profound impact on the way I look at everyday problems and that every little element of life is connected to a vastly greater force and system. And that’s why it is my Most Amazing Film.

If you're a parent or teacher, teach your kids about geography. Here's a good place to start.

Most Amazing Book about Advertising

According to the American Association of Advertising Agencies, the average American is exposed to over 500 commercial messages in a day. Most of that is just noise. So how does great advertising cut through the clutter?

“Hey Whipple, Squeeze This” is a reference to one of the most memorable ad campaigns of all time. It’s also the title of Luke Sullivan’s masterpiece guide to creating great advertising. It’s honestly one of the few books I’ve read word for word from front to back, and then again.

I can’t possible explain how enjoyable and resourceful this book is in just a few sentences. One reviewer on Amazon.com sums it up nicely: “It's intelligent, witty, thought-provoking, and informative, but without being preachy. It's not a text book. No. It's better than that: it's a goldmine.”

Most Amazing Invention to Help Save Lives

I first heard about the Play Pump on Guy Kawasaki’s blog, How to Change the World. I think I remember his post simply saying it was one of the most ingenious and revolutionary ideas he’d ever come across. And that’s coming from a successful venture capitalist who invests in ideas. Check this thing out:

Most Amazing Spanish Town

When I studied abroad in Spain during college, I decided to travel a bit by myself so I left a couple weeks early, before classes started. After a stop in Madrid for a few days, I took a couple trains and a bus south to the Costa del Sol and wound up staying right off the beach in a city named Marbella (“beautiful sea” in Spanish).

Like many European cities that also happen to be favorite tourist destinations, there are new developments and hotels and there’s and old part of the town. I stayed exclusively in the old town of Marbella. It was one of the most memorable travel experiences I’ve had. It was just a few blocks from the beach, a five minute walk from my hostel through the narrow streets and sidewalk cafes and the people there were very hospitable. I discovered some amazing restaurants and quaint parts of the city and wound up taking about 10 of my classmates back a month later.

Most Amazing Classic Radio Comedy

In 1938, Abbott and Costello began performing the Who’s On First comedy routine on a radio program. The bit is one of the funniest I’ve ever heard. Although some of their performances of the routine were filmed, and subsequently uploaded to YouTube, the best way to enjoy it is to listen to the audio only, just like the original radio experience. If you're using Internet Explorer, download it here. If using Firefox, just click the play button below. Enjoy.

Most Amazing Way to Download Free Music

Here's something I just discovered over the weekend. Follow these simple steps to download songs for free, without the use of file sharing applications, which are not healthy for your computer. The process is so quick and easy once you’re set up (just make sure whatever you download is a “backup” mp3 of a song you’ve already purchased.)

Step 1: Make sure you have the Firefox web browser, and you’re using it.

Step 2: Get DownloadHelper, a free Firefox extension for downloading media from websites. Install it and re-open your Firefox browser. Don't worry, it's clean.

Step 3: Visit Seeqpod, a website that allows you to search for and listen to music for free that it finds across the Internet. Search for a song that you like. I'm going to search for Coldplay's Viva la Vida in this example.

Step 4: When you start to see a list of songs that match, click on the arrow to move it over to the "play" area.

Step 5: Wait until the song loads and you hear your song playing.

Step 6: Using the DownloadHelper extension in your Firefox browser, download the song from the Seeqpod site by clicking on that down arrow and selecting the file. It will download it in mpeg format, not mp3 format, so you’ll need to convert the file. It will most likely download to your desktop.

Step 7: To convert the mpeg into an mp3, download a free media converter called QuickMediaConverter. Don't worry, it's clean. You’ll have to unzip the file and then double-click the Install.EXE file. Now that you've installed this program, open it.

Step 8: Using QuickMediaConverter, convert the mpeg you downloaded to an mp3 file and you’re done. It's a confusing interface, so make sure you look closely. You can simply drag the file to be converted into the center of the QuickMediaConverter screen and then select mp3. Then click the Convert icon at the bottom.

You'll notice it has been converted to a file on your desktop in .mp3 format. I suggest re-naming to either the artist or name of the song.

That's it. You're done downloading a "backup" copy of a song you have already purchased either online or on CD. :) Amazing, isn't it?!

Most Amazing Presentation

Randy Pausch (Oct. 23, 1960 - July 25, 2008) was a professor at Carnegie Mellon University, where he was invited to give a presentation as part of their “Last Lecture” series. This series was supposed to be about what you’d lecture on if you knew you were going to die and only had one speech to deliver. For Randy Pausch, it was real. He was dying of cancer and gave his last lecture at the university on September 18, 2007. In his presentation, "Really Achieving Your Childhood Dreams," Pausch talked about his lessons learned and gave advice to students on how to achieve their own career and personal goals.

The presentation was so moving that Oprah Winfrey asked him to reprise his presentation (and shorten it from over an hour to just around 10 minutes. It was truly one of the Most Amazing Presentations I’ve ever seen:

What Amazing Thing would you add? Please leave a comment and tell me about it! It could be an amazing city, moment, food, actor, story, product, song, book…anything you can think of!

Witty Caption Contest #1

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This is the first of many Caption Contests I'll be having on this blog. Think you can come up with the wittiest caption for the image below? Submit your caption by leaving a comment!