Burger King has a tv commercial where they tell real Burger King customers the Whopper (a hamburger) is no longer available. The commercials show their customers getting mad, being totally distraught and flabbergasted. I've seen this tv commercial several times, they didn't strike me as outstanding. At the end of their tv spot they display an url, last night I went to it. There I found the full length video of the "setups" its so much better than the actual tv commercial.

So why is the commercial not-so-great and the full length video is funny?
Is it a case of bad editing?
Over-editing? I think the concept of the marketing is brilliant, but perhaps its a case of bad execution.



whopperfreakout.com

I also love Beer TV Commercials because they use humor, what's your favorite marketing campaign?

If you think your boss is stupid, remember: you wouldn't have a job if he was any smarter.
John Gotti

In the business world, the rearview mirror is always clearer than the windshield.
Warren Buffett

Far and away the best prize that life offers is the chance to work hard at work worth doing.
Theodore Roosevelt

Even if you're on the right track, you'll get run over if you just sit there.
Will Rogers

If you pay peanuts, you get monkeys.
James Goldsmith

Besides Twitter's concept, why is Twitter successful?
Simply put, the barrier to entry and reentry is painless. Initially I can setup my account, import my email contacts and start twittering in a minute or two. Each time I twitter the thought process is quick, its not a blog post, its not an essay, its a twitter. It’s a quick thought. The barrier to entry, the steps to completion, are fast and simple. Having the ability to twitter via instant messenger is just icing on the cake. With IM I don’t need to log into twitter.com and navigate to the correct page. I just type my message into the Twitter IM Buddy and move on.

What sucks about signing up for a gym membership? The two-hour signup process! What’s awesome about Burger King? The food, ha no, the quick drive-thru.

What steps can you remove from your registration process/user interactivity to make the barrier to (re)entry less painful for your potential users?

(Twitter Name = LessAllan)

I hate emails notifications from sites like this.

New message from someone on Grooveshark! You must log in to check it out:
http://beta.grooveshark.com/messaging.php?view=inbox

I understand you want me to click around your site but show me the message or at least who its from!

I dislike sites that take themselves too seriously and their copywriting is lame and boring because of it. A warm/friendly or funny tone can make your readers feel like they know you. Some sites can't have a fun tone (example: hospitals), but if you have the chance to be casual, do it. Standout, be different, make an impression on someone.

Some of my favorite casual copywriting links

"So far there have been 406275 clicks. The energy it took to click 406275 times raised the earth's temperature by .0000000000000000059358360 degrees, contributing to the melting of the polar ice caps. Way to go, asshole."
commandshift3.com

"If you'd like to work with Tim, the chances are very good that he'd like to work with you, too."
timlahan.com

"Don't love me already? No problem, check out my CV above for more info!"
pixeldub.com

"Mubashar Iqbal, but you can call me Mubs everyone else does."
mubashariqbal.com

Sorry, we're horrible at golf and we have no sporting event tickets to give away. And if you think the larger the firm the better, we're the worst design company you will ever consider.
SpeedyMediaGroup.com (my old company)

I visit a site called FreelanceSwitch.com a couple times a week. Its a multi-author blog about business and promotions. They also have a job board with a unique twist. Most job boards make the job poster/employer pay for the job listing. On their site its the other way around. Creating job postings is free, but to apply its $7 per month. Yes, you read that correctly, its $7 per month to apply to the jobs on their site. Thats a different approach to a job board. However if you are looking for work do you really want to fork out money to apply to get a job? I do however applaud their creativity.

What’s happened so far:

1. Yesterday, a member of the open source project MooTools, Olmo Maldonado, posted an inflamatory video criticizing jQuery and Prototype, on the MooTools blog.
2. Soon after, John Resig, the creator of jQuery, posted a response (response contains the video).
3. People on the interweb (including me) have been fueling the flame war all day long.
4. The creator of MooTools, Valerio Proietti, just took down Olmo’s post and blogged a very nice apology that will hopefully put the fire out.

Here is the really good part:

(Quotes from Valerio’s post):

“Olmo’s lack of maturity, even for his age, always was notable…”

“Olmo is no longer a part of the Mootools development team. We wish him well, but frankly we can’t tolerate his immaturity any longer.”

Olmo was fired from an open source project!!

Now I don’t mean to hurt the guy, I feel for anyone who has been fired. But just think about this: Letting you commit now costs the project more than your contribution is worth. Even though your contribution didn’t cost anything. I’ve known people who are “negative productivity.” They not only produce nothing, but the also take up other people’s time in the efforts to produce, but I’ve never heard of this.

I don’t blame Valerio, I’m sure he did what he thought was right and just, and I am in no position to say he did the wrong thing. I don’t know all parts of this story and can’t see into his heart, so I mean no malice or judgment towards him.

As a resident loud-mouth/instigator/f-bomb advocate I am just shocked and surprised….

I won't name names but if you...
run an app
host a conference
own a business or
manage clients....
...return emails quickly. Even if you don't know the answer to the question asked, return the email with "I will have your answer shortly". Its a simple gesture that makes the receipent feel wanted, loved and appreciated.

The First Internet Marketing Conference, San Francisco, 1994

I love simple clean design that is memorable to the user. I often do critiques for other designers, sometimes when I am in a bad mood I think of myself as the Simon Cowell of design.

Here is a recent help session.
Here is the design he sent


What I said....

• Less text, if you can explain the concept in 2 sentences its not written well or the concept is too confusing.
• Less data, don't waste the user's time by showing irrelevant data (why show the user "other locations", I don't care about people in NYC can order).
• Less confusion, can your Mom navigate the site?
• Less visual elements, you want people to go into ordering their meal, not read text and get distracted.
• This isn't a social network, so why have newest users?
• Less blah, don't be bland, don't call bland, simple. They are very different.

Here is the design we came up with in 10 minutes of talking, its rough but its a better start.


Think about the process of what you are trying to accomplish. What does the user need to do next? On this app the user needs to select a city first to be able to see the available menus in their area. Why show them anything else besides "pick your city"?

If you need an outside opinion on your design hit me up. I love to chat about design issues and help push someone towards a solution.