Author Archive

If the world were a village of 100 people, how many of the 100 would be white? How many would speak Spanish? How many would have a college education? Satisfy your curiosity by checking out “The World of 100,” a series of poster-infographics designed by Tony Ng.

It’s kind of amazing how much easier it is to process this info on the scale of 100 than on the scale of 6 billion, even though the proportions are identical. (Thanks to Andrew L for the link.)

This ad for Red House, a furniture store in High Point, NC, pitches racial reconciliation through couches and bedroom sets. The spot’s creators said they were inspired when the Red House staff “pointed out the fact that their employees and customer base were like the ‘Rainbow Coalition,’ and we thought something with a comical racial reconciliation theme would be fun, as well as a conversation starter.”

I suspect there was a lot of controversy about this — you’re walking on thin ice any time you start throwing around sensitive phrases like, ahem, “white people” and “black people.” But I think the spot is clever and clearly tongue-in-cheek. Just goes to show you that an unexpected idea will get noticed — this little homegrown regional TV ad now has a half-million views on Youtube.

(Thanks to Sean for the link.)

I’ve received notes about this from several people, and boy, you were right.

This video features Susan Boyle, a contestant on the show Britain’s Got Talent. It’s as sticky as a story gets.

In the book, we talk about “Challenge Plots” — stories in which a protagonist overcomes a formidable challenge and succeeds. David and Goliath is the classic Challenge Plot. Well, Susan Boyle is an up-to-the-minute, emotional, inspirational, Challenge Plot protagonist — and you can get the whole story in 7.5 minutes.

This is a brilliant promotion from TripAdvisor. Got it via email and it was the one promo email, out of the last 500, that I’ve clicked thru to see. How can you not?  Its strength is its unexpectedness — most companies would be too chicken to try something like this.

From a review of the #1 hotel on the list: “It makes a crack house look like a Hilton. There are mice, roaches, bedbugs,and crack heads all living at this Hell Hole! The hotel itself smells and is filthy from the disgusting bedspread to the filthy bathroom.”

Endless fun and great marketing.

(For you Houstonians out there — this reminds me of the irresistible appeal of dearly departed Marvin Zindler‘s TV reports. “There was SLIIIIIME IN THE ICE MACHINE!”)

Via the naming firm Eat My Words, the worst name of 2008 was a new “financial literacy” site for children called — wait for it — Shyrk. (I guess Pilfr wasn’t available.)

But then, before the trophy could even be engraved, there was an update:

We were tipped off that Shyrk renamed themselves with an even worse name: iThryv. Whaaaaaat? Did one of their software engineers say, “Hey, we need a name with vowels so let’s get drunk and play Scrabble again”? (Why not iShryk?) The website explains it all by saying “Shyrk changed the name of the corporation to iThryv in an effort to dispel any confusion related to the name of the company versus the name of the product. Now, when someone mentions iThryv — you know they are talking about financial literacy.” HELLO! What about regular literacy?!