Yo ho ho and a bottle of Jamieson

Okay, I’m a little late on this one.

Jamieson Ad: Ho White – Anything but sweet

And I gotta admit, I’m of two minds. The proper business person side of me says, “OMG, you can’t do that! Disney will sue you into non-existence!”

But the part of me that revels in those taking a risk for breakthrough marketing says, “OMG! YOU ROCK!”

And while the image makes you gasp and giggle, the absolute brilliance is that they had placed it online. So people shared the image before Disney could do anything and then brought it down. Some may claim that the ad is a good PR stunt – but I say, “Who’s the target? Seems like it’s a good ad to me!”

Oh, Jamieson, you stole my heart. I may not know exactly what you were thinking at the time, but I’m glad you thought it.

All you hoarders – CUT IT OUT!

Okay, today’s post isn’t your typical OMG post.

No, we’re going for a more of a general WAKE UP CALL!!!

And it’s directed at all of you businesses out there who are too scared to make a decision to actually do business.

Everyone is running scared right now – OMG, the economy is bad. AIEEE!!!! Well, guess what? A scaredy-cat, hoard all your resources attitude isn’t going to help your business to succeed. Your inability or unwillingness to take a chance and move forward is what’s keeping us from rebounding from the downturn.

Here’s a little graphic illustration of how it works. Sure, it’s simplified, but it’s still pretty accurate:

Each of the little resource providers is dependent upon the small-to-medium sized business to pay them for the resources and/or services they provide. I’ve indicated the resources with the primary colors. Without these resources, the businesses cease being able to function properly. And if they can’t function properly, then they can’t sell their products or services to their customers, and then they can’t purchase from their vendors OR provide their products.

That small resource that you’re thinking of cutting off may not affect you – but if you cut your budget to them, and they go under, it affects the supply chain for someone else you may do business with.

Yes. This is GREATLY simplified. But the premise is still true.

And everyone knows that if you don’t spend money, you’ll never make money.

So piss or get off the pot, people. WTFAYT? Your hoarding is what’s keeping us in this recession. Have some friggin’ courage and help your vendors. If you have to cut your budget, cut it. But don’t cut it off.

For the love of capitalism, buy something!

Manapotions, WWYT? Of your target – obviously

Today, I opened my weekly Friday Gaming Update from MicroCenter.

Right smack in the middle of offers on games, consoles, and controllers, was this particular ad:

Do my eyes deceive me?

What is this bottle that looks just like the “health restoring” potion that heals your character in almost every single fantasy-based RPG game in existance? An energy drink?

I couldn’t help but click on the link to learn more – which took me to the MicroCenter site, where they’re advertising the drink.

Okay. Harcos, Inc. I have never heard of you before. What the heck.

So, a google search and I’m taken to http://www.manapotions.com

This… this… Could there be a more perfectly niche product? And marketed through MicroCenter? BRILLIANT.

The website, clearly designed for gamers, promoting a product clearly designed for gamers. OMG! I never see planning this well done.

The site’s frame is used for navigation – at the bottom, where a console gamer is used to seeing it, not at the top like for a typical website. No words for the navigation until you mouse over the icons – there’s a scroll for “about”, a bottle for “buy”, a spyglass for “locate, a… well, I don’t know what it is for “Fun”, and a sealed letter for “contact.”

According to the About page, the products are sugar free energy shots. For gamers. You can buy them from their site (or through the locate page) find retailers locally.

The biggest coup of the site, though, is the fact that the fun page is the most populated page of the site. Six big icons of fun:

• The Mana Elite: if you’re THAT good at gaming, you could win that status)
• How-To & Video: How to build stuff that any nerd would rejoice in. (So saith this nerd.)
• Sponsorships: Believe it or not, you can have them sponsor your team, party, or event. Cool.
• Our Friends:  Okay, this is just links, people. But they’re to sites that most gamers will actually find fun.
• Downloads: Imagery of the product, worthy of being a game screen capture.
• The Mana Chronicles Official Blog: Well done. Good content. Frequently updated.

Now, I’m not a HUGE gamer, although I do enjoy a nice bit of Baldur’s Gate every now and then.  And I’ve never even tried an “energy shot.” Yet, somehow, after visiting this site, I kinda want to.

Hm… I may just need to make a pilgrimage to MicroCenter.

Yeah. That’s marketing that’s working!

Bnet – WTF?

My thanks to @kkreft for bringing this one to my attention.

Okay, first off, let’s talk about the language here. As @kkreft pointed out in her tweet, the last two sentences in this article are VASTLY inappropriate for a professional business publication: 

Put the two trend stories together and here’s the logical takeaway: Being poor, wearing a giant muu-muu and not wiping your butt makes you super horny.

Who knew?

As is the title. We all know sex sells. And this article did make me laugh. But is that what you really want from a business publication? To get your readers to laugh? Or do you want them to trust you for advice? I’m not going to go to a comedian for business advice as a general rule.

Next, and this is what really sticks in my craw, who the hell gave them the right to use a Jiffy Lube(R) logo here? This offends my sense of brand.

Does Jiffy Lube really want to be associated with personal lubrication? I don’t think so. They’re a respected automotive service. If I were the Jiffy Lube brand manager, I would be SUING B-net right about now. That little circle-R means that logo is protected property. It shouldn’t be used this way.

Everyone likes a laugh. But there is a point when you have to protect your brand. I think this is one of those times.

B-net, where is your journalistic integrity, and WTFWYT?

KFC: fckp

Kentucky Fried Chicken. Oh, the greasy goodness. Remember the days of fighting your sibling(s) for the last drumstick in the bucket?

But we’re all pretending we want to eat healthier now. So, KFC – rather than sticking to what they do best – decided to throw their hat into the “no, it’s healthy. Really!” ring, by coming out with Kentucky Grilled Chicken.

What the heck, right? It’s only one letter off, and it’s even the next letter in the alphabet. KFC becomes KGC. 

Except, could they have run the promotion more poorly?

This article from ad age says it all, although it says it much more nicely than I would. What dumbass decided to run downloadable coupons and didn’t figure that people would photocopy them? Seriously! Have you MET people? EVER?

What corporate genius agreed that it was okay to run a free food promotion without getting full cooperation from the franchisees first?

And I know Oprah is insanely popular, but didn’t anyone consider the ramifications of the product they were asking her to push and how it might be perceived as a WEE bit counterproductive?

Worse yet, what marketing maven decided that a good backup for the promotion – once they decided to yoink it due to too many people making off with free chicken – was to make people fill out a form for a coupon for a free pepsi?  OOOOOH. Free pepsi. That equates to a free 2-piece meal. That will make everything all better!

You really have to love the marketing thinking that says it’s okay to piss off your regular customers because you’ve gotten some new ones. 

Let me clarify something: 

It’s never okay to piss off your regular customers folks. These are the ones that keep you in business.

All I have to say is, KFC WTFWYT?!

WTF Logo

I have to agree with The Daily Dish.

This is the worst logo ever.

For the Catholic Church’s Archdiocesan Youth Commission.

OMG. WTFWYT.

 

No words.

Now Accepting Entries For The 1st Ann’l WTF Spammies!

SPAM.

 

Photo by Grumbler %-| courtesy of Flickr

It’s nutritious and delicious, my grandfather would say. Then again, he lived through the great depression.

 

For the rest of us, that word brings to mind the countless hours we spend sorting through junk mail in our email box.

But, come on. Be honest. Every now and then, you’ll see a piece and you just HAVE to read it. Or at least read the subject line out loud.

So, here at WTFWYT, we’re going to have the first annual WTF Spammy awards.
Prizes include:
a can of spam
a day of honor through tweets by WTFWYT
and possibly even a link to your blog from here. I haven’t decided yet.

How do you enter?
Just email me, omgwtfwyt at gmail dot com, forwarding your spam entry and why you think it should be honored here. (Yes, I know. I’m requesting spam to my email. Don’t make me regret this, people!)

Here’s the first candidate.
Subject: Literally become a monster snake in  my pants

LinkedIn “Expert” Fail

If you’re going to claim to be an expert on  something, the end-all-know-all resource for a very specific tool, you probably shouldn’t flaunt the fact that said tool deleted your account.

Lewis Howes, self-proclaimed LinkedIn expert, just posted this video saying his LinkedIn profile had been SUSPENDED and urging his devoted fans to petition LinkedIn on his behalf.

Now, I have never met Lewis Howes, nor have I read his book, and I’m not personally a LinkedIn expert. But… I sure as hell would not call him or buy his book after seeing that his “best practices” got his account shut down.

Lewis, you should have privately resolved this matter rather than posting a video on YouTube and tweets on Twitter publicly declaring that you have, in fact, no idea WTF you’re talking about.

While many of his worshippers are in an upheaval over this:
@jdoughtry @LewisHowes LinkedIn’s Angel of Death Kills Its First-Born on Passover. Incredible!
@iannarino @LewisHowes What’s going on with LinkedIn, bro? You are their biggest promoter.
(and a few dozen retweets of “I need your help… @LinkedIn kicked me off without warning. Check out this 2 min video why: http://budurl.com/jhfj”)

Sane people everywhere are turning against the beloved leader:

@phil_franks Question of the day…What happens to social media experts when they get suspended from their social accounts? Life=Over?
@NickSeguin: Karma is a bitch #LinkedInJustice
@phil_franks RT @NickSeguin Karma is a bitch #LinkedInJustice, Terms of Service=WIN
@RexDixon @rabeidoh @LewisHowes needs to read the TOS – he clearly violated it, that’s why they yanked his account!
@repmekevets hahahahaha RT @LewisHowes I need your help… @LinkedIn kicked me off without warning. Check out this 2 min video why:
@repmekevets sorry @lewishowes, looks like you didn’t read the terms of service.. at all.
Fail.

MMmmm. Tastes like Spring.

Not so often that I get to post something about marketing done right.

But Rita’s. This is one marketing promotion that works for me. And apparently, it’s been going on FOR 16 YEARS!

Okay, first off, I’d never even heard of Rita’s before. And as someone who pretty much never says no to ice cream, I really think I should have. “Ice. Custard. Happiness.” What a great tagline.

So when I heard – Free Italian Ice at Rita’s today, I didn’t question it.  Sign me up!

And then… The flavors. So many choices. Made with real fruit.

But the topper?

First Day of Spring in a Cup

Rita’s even got the packaging down. What does this say to me? We are committed to making your first day of spring a happy one. We are committed to winning you over. One free taste of our product, and you’ll be back.

Oh, Rita. How right you are.

I’ll be back for more of your mangoey goodness. (You’ll notice that I couldn’t hold off on eating it to take a picture. Oh, no. It’s about half-way gone in the photo above.)

So kudos to Rita for a job well done – although I would have liked to see more publicity on this. Maybe they just need some Social marketing guru to lead them into the twittersphere.

Hmmm… wonder if they’d pay in Italian ice?

Why have I not seen this before?

Short post today.

Great site. LOL funny (and I almost never use LOL).

Http://failblog.org

 

Condom truck tips, spills load

Extreme Tattoo - spelling Fail

 

Package Design Fail

have fun!