Max Nucci

We don’t live in the mainstream world the mainstream news outlets tell us we do. We live in an alternative universe.  And we don’t feel bad about rejecting the monolith.  After all, there’s barely anything there, not even any nougat on the inside.  Movies and Top Forty records are just a momentary, oftentimes unsatisfying concoction that we consume and discard.  Whereas we save and treasure our ticket stubs to live shows by our favorite bands, we’re addicted to TV shows on cable that few people watch, but mean everything to us.

For more context, visit this post from Bob.

I’ve been meaning to write about this campaign for a while now. Haven’t had the time since I’ve been working pretty hard on ClickOgy and related projects. I will be writing about those in the near future.

The Old Spice campaign is awesome. Watch this video to grasp the impact and reach that it is having on the brand and its sales:

Respect.

To me, the three main factors responsible for the success of this campaign are:

1. Isaiah Mustafa: The dude is brilliant. Obviously talented ex-NFL player, his career should take off from here.
2. The agency, Wieden+Kennedy put together a coordinated assault on the demographics that they were targeting. The campaign was almost inescapable if you were part of their target.
3. Hard Work. All involved worked their asses off. The logistics of their responses campaign baffles me. They pulled it off maintaining the branding, visuals and writing quality of the original spots.

Entertainment and marketing definitively collided here. As a result,

This Blog is Now Diamonds

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[UPDATE] Just found out that they won an Emmy.

Just another thought on (good) ideas…

Which brings us back again into the importance of execution.

For me, one of the most entertaining things to do while web surfing is reading the commentary on news stories, YouTube videos or anywhere where vile, mean, evil, snarky comments are permitted.

It is specially funny when these types of comments catch me off guard. For example:

The Georgia Woman that claims to be 130 years old

The article talks about this very old lady and her (questionable) tale of survival. Some interesting facts from this unbelievable story:

• Lives in a remote village and only speaks limited Mingrelian (a local language).
• She has a 70 year old son, which means she gave birth when she was (only) 60 years old back in 1940.
• She also has 10 grandchildren, 12 great grandchildren and six great, great grandchildren.
• Her birth certificate is lost.

Anyways, here are three examples that made me laugh:

Example 1: He has a point

The last paragraph of the article actually reads:

“To mark the centurion’s birthday, a string ensemble played folk music out on the lawn, while grandchildren offered traditional Mingrelian dishes like corn porridge and spiced chicken with herbs to all guests as the party.”

Which prompted this comment:

Example 2: Could this be an ad?

Of course referring to this product.

Example 3: This guy is clearly excited

I am reminded of this more often than I would like.

I am making a conscious effort to become a better executioner/executor/executive/whatever. Thought I’d put it in writing.

That’s all.

I’ve been excited about VaultPress ever since they announced the service and opened up sign ups. I thought I was high on the list of beta invites since I did sign up the day they announced the service. But no, I have no VaultPress Golden Ticket (yet).

I am curious about pricing and also about using their service on multiple blogs.

Blogging restart

Back in October 2009 I decided that I no longer wanted to use the hosting provider that used to host this site. I was (am) way happier with DreamHost and their service. So I used WordPress’ export tool and thought that I was good to go.

Wrong.

The export tool creates an XML file that contains posts, pages, comments, custom fields, categories, and tags. No Images and other important things that would make moving the site plug & play.

I had my images scattered between two computers and had to re-edit the theme and other bits and pieces to relauch the site. Long story short, I postponed it and stopped blogging here.

VaultPress is built and maintained by the folks over at automattic. These are the same developers behind WordPress.com so based on their experience and reputation, the service should be A+

Here’s their intro video:

I will share more info once I test drive VaultPress

Hopefully this post moves me further up the list so that I can test things out and share with you. Stay tuned.

Holy finger art! Check the time lapse video below of Kyle Lambert drawing Beyonce with one finger on the iPad with the iPad Brushes App ($7.99)

Talent.

The blogging will resume shortly

Photo Credit: JUAN BARRETO/AFP/Getty Images

Punchline Credit: VeeArrrSix from Jalopnik

From the Jimmy Kimmel show. Very funny.