I was reading something recently about shock advertising – which explained some of the more bizarre ads I’ve seen recently although not why someone thinks it’s going to get me to buy their product.  Yes, they’re memorable but…  Anyway, it got me thinking about other memorable ads recently and how iconic the main characters have gotten and how much TV advertising has changed in recent years.

If you are female and were over 13 back in 1994 I’m guessing you remember this Diet Coke commercial, and I’m sure guys have their equivalent from that era.  Fun, but predictable and a long way from the Verizon Guy, although I have to say he’s been looking a lot more attractive since he stopped talking in the last year or so. And then there’s the Progressive Girl, Flo, who has a following to rival any actress that gets a full 30 minutes.  They are both more quirky than sex symbol/model caliber and yet they’ve got more buzz than the old fashioned spokesperson gets including their own Wikipedia pages ( Flo and Verizon Guy).  So are they really something different? Or are they so appealing because they are more realistic?  Not the crazed housewives of early Calgon commercials or the snow bunnies of beer ads but people with just a little too much mascara and enthusiasm?

Most people have encountered a short or long list of other people born on their birthday at some point in their life.  They’re so common they’ve gotten a bit boring and they never seem to get updated. Since I’ve recently been dealing with a death in the family and as a family we don’t tend to follow the traditional ways of marking these things, I did a little research and look, a directory of famous people’s death dates so you can see who died on the same day as a loved one. http://www.famouswhy.com/Passed_Away/

And as an aside, do you know who died on the day you were born?  Maybe it’s a past life…

Could this be why marriage is on the decline?  Maybe we are left to much to our own direction these days…

http://www.storycorps.org/listen/stories/bill-schifrin-and-his-son-in-law-herman-rotenberg

Googling Seth Godin

When you step into the world of blogging it’s nearly impossible to avoid tripping over Seth Godin’s name. There’s even a WordPress plugin entitled ‘What Would Seth Godin Do’, which incidentally has great reviews and has been downloaded almost 15,000 times.

Some very unscientific data analysis involving typing in his name in Google and then recording the number of returns shows 1,320,000 search results. That number is increasing by 10,000 a day (at least it did from Wednesday to Thursday.) To give this analysis more credibility, I created a pie chart (pie charts can make anything look more important than it actually is.)

After recently reading the interview he gave to the Archie McPhee blog last November I was shocked that his reproduction as the Marketing Guru action figure has gotten such a small slice of the pie. Particularly given the amount of returns involving his name plus ‘god’, ‘hero’, or ‘genius’.  It’s possible that people just aren’t as open about talking about their action figure collections online as they are about the real person. Archie McPhee reports that the Marketing Guru was one of the strong sellers among the action figures last year although still not coming close to Nancy Pearl as the Librarian. (To be fair, the librarian has much better accessories and even makes a shushing motion which may be giving her an unfair advantage.)

Even more startling in this study is the number of returns for ‘Seth Godin mismatched socks’, a key feature of the action figure and presumably Seth himself, since at least two of the only 422 returns were posted by him. Clearly he puts a greater emphasis on this than do his followers and even shares his sock source in the interview.  The pie chart indicates that he gives an awful lot of interviews, but I’m guessing this is one of the more esoteric  ones. I suspect that he might share the sentiments of the statement attributed to another guru, Carl Jung, “Thank God I’m Jung, and not a Jungian.”

You can get a virtual marketing  guru moment on Business Week where the action figure imparts random wisdom with Seth Godin’s voice. I’m not sure if rubbing the bald head of the action figure will bring more visitors to your blog or not, but it might be worth  a try…

Betty Jenkin’s retelling of her youthful adventure over the Andes in an unpressurized plane and a blow-up bra (literally as it turns out) certainly caught my attention and my delight. It’s a great story and she tells it well.  I’ve never met Mrs. Jenkins but after hearing her Storycorps episode on NPR, I would really love to.  Until recently I had no idea that not everyone was quite so enthused.  Turns out controversy has been brewing claiming that this was not factual but a  retelling of urban myth and the invention of a senior mind. Hmm. On the other side of the fence NPR defends Mrs. Jenkins with experts from MIT; bet they don’t get asked about the physics of bras too often!  Personally, I think she looks and sounds like a woman that’s led a fascinating life and doesn’t need to reach into fantasy for a great story.  I hope she’s working on an autobiography.