It's Steve (now in blog form)

I’m a big fan of vintage travel posters, sci-fi, and space travel.  Steve Thomas has brilliantly combined all of the above into something I know I’m going to end up ordering.  Check out his collection.  I think I’m going to get the Shanghai poster first.

I really can’t believe it. Yesterday I was on the receiving end of a marketing ploy on Twitter that was well conceived. I know, it sort of freaked me out too. Most marketeers don’t understand the social space. I don’t want your brand to randomly hassle me. I don’t want a generic friend request from your crispy fried chicken/fancy new car/extreme type soda. If I seek out a brand that’s one thing, but intrusive outreach makes me want to flame them.

Anyway, this is my Twitter. I updated my status to “can’t help but wonder why Wow Wow Wubbzy is so great.” If you haven’t seen Wow Wow Wubbzy I would strongly recommend it. It’s sort of like Japanimation and Rainbow Bright had a kid who takes a tremendous amount of ecstasy. Ben loves it. There’s a good chance I’d watch it after a couple of cocktails even if I didn’t have a kid. Then next morning I had some one new following me on Twitter: WubbzyJen.

The first thing you always do when someone follows you is to check them out. Her bio:

Bio Hi, my name is Jennifer! I work with Wubbzy and would love to talk. Feel free to tweet me with any questions or comments about anything Wubbzy.

Her Twitter profile also had a link to the official Wubbzy blog. Somebody at Nick Jr. in the illustrious Wubbzy division gets how to do this stuff. Some important rules were followed:

1. Social marketing requires laser beams, not shotguns – I got hit up because I’d mentioned Wubbzy already. They pre-qualified that I might be receptive before the targeted me.
2. Take the light touch approach – The wrong thing to do in this scenario would have been to shoot a direct message over with something like “Hey! YOU LIKE WUBBZY! YOU SHOULD FOLLOW US ON TWITTER BECAUSE WE’RE MARKETING AND IT WILL BE COOL AND EXTREME AND [insert additional buzz words here]!!” They only followed me which is as light as it gets on Twitter
3. Use people – The Twitter account was for some staffer named Jen, not for the show itself. That makes me way less likely to get pissed off since people connection is the model that we generally adhere to in the Twitter format.
4. Engage with me, don’t market at me – Clearly they wanted me to end up on the Wubbzy blog. But they resisted the temptation to have every Tweet be a demand to visit. They stuck with the common practice of linking to it only from the home page and focusing the Tweets on actual communication with fans.

So there you go. Marketing on a social platform that doesn’t suck. Now here’s some Wubbzy to soothe your brain.

Wiley and I have undertaken an attempt to catalog the useless web junk that makes us giggle like Japanese school girls.  This would be an excellent time for you to get in on the ground floor of this thing (we only have three readers at this point and are unsure whether it’s counting us).

www.pleasewashhands.com

The web is full of rabbit holes and this is one of the weirder ones I’ve come across in a while.  Here’s the process.  Try it at home!

1) Go google.com
2) Type in “Why is” but don’t hit the search button.  This will generate a set of suggested searches based on popularity of searching on google. This is where things get crazy.  The third most popular search term is “Why is my poop green”.  Seriously.  Here’s a screen shot.

3) So I had to check out what sort of magnificence waited behind the “why is my poop green” search. 

4) PoopReport.com?!?! Your one stop source for stories of unbelievable poops and, something new to me, “poop terrorism”. Behold the glory of their logo.

Thank you google for broadening horizons.

I’m in Paris between events and have a few more minutes to myself.  No time like the present to complete the Barcelona recap.  The food was good, but what makes Barcelona really special is it’s ability to brilliantly combine the incredibly cool with the incredibly stupid.  Don’t worry.  I have examples!

Happy Pills are cool- This is a great store front.  Had it been a pharmacy it would have been very very clever.  As it was only a candy shop, I’ll give it only one very.  Very clever.

Rhinoceroses in denim gas masks are stupid- Clearly, there is no way that denim will act as an effective barrier to most toxic gasses.  That doesn’t make any sense at all.

Barcelona epilepsy puppets are cool- Remember the Japanese cartoons that kept giving kids seizures?  These are their wooden puppet equivalents.

Original Video

Mr. Christmas Log is kind of stupid (but I still like him)- I have no idea what this guy is about.  The holiday market in Barcelona was chock full of Mr. Christmas Log.  He is, obviously, a piece of wood with legs, a face, and a hat.  I suppose I could look up his origins, but it’s almost more fun not to know.

The Gothic Quarter is really cool- The Gothic Quarter is my favorite part of Barcelona.  It’s a maze of narrow streets winding through the old city.  I basically head over there and get lost.  It’s great.  I really like when you happen to glimpse open spaces down narrow corridors.  It’s like stumbling on hidden worlds.  It makes you wonder how much of the world you’re really not seeing everyday.

The Sagrada Familia Church is amazing- This thing is unreal.  Gaudi started construction of the church in 1894 (I think that’s right), and it isn’t slated for completion until 2023.  For a few extra euros you can go to the top of the spire and walk down.  The view is unreal and the architecture is just incredible.

I can’t recommend Barcelona highly enough.  If you ever get the chance absolutely give it a visit.  Ok, I’ve got to crash.

I may have been overly critical of McDonalds in my earlier post.  In retrospect, they could have developed campaigns that were far more offensive or obviously out of touch.  In fact, some of you were good enough to point some of them out.  So, without further ado, I give you… DAH DAH DAH!…MORE MCDONALDS MARKETING DISASTERS! (Thanks go to all of you that contributed).

I’d totally have sex with that cheeseburger- McDonalds needs to hire someone who is under 30 to proof read their copy.  Having BET on your cable box does not qualify you to use “slang”.

Did no one think to check out the etymology of “I’d hit it”? For your reference from urbandictionary.com: Vernacular commonly used by males, meaning, «I would NOT MIND having sexual relations with that woman.»

My McNuggets are trapped in the closet- It’s best if you just watch it before I say anything.

First off, she’s a jerk for not sharing.  Second, who is letting R. Kelly direct commercials?!? (I love that part where she’s cheating with the midget)

MyInspirAsian.com indeed- This one just gives me the giggles.  Turns out that McDonalds has set up MyInspirAsian.com and i-am-asian.com to help Asian Americans reach their dreams with fried foods.  Cool!  The flash game is totally worth waiting for.  You and the computer take turns eating McNuggets, but you always win by denying your significant other the last nugget!  HA HA! Those Asians must be Nuggnuts!  I would like to suggest some additional domains they might be interested in: i-am-peruvian.com, white-fried.com, and mcgriddles.com (the last one would just be a good domain for them to own).