Comments for Dirty French Novel

Comment on Tibet, the Super Bowl, and Groupon’s voice by James

James — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 22:29:44 +0000

Totally agree. While I believe their motives were pure, the end result is still a terrible, tone-deaf ad plunked into the middle of the Super Bowl. Oops.

Comment on Tibet, the Super Bowl, and Groupon’s voice by well

well — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 22:29:04 +0000

Here’s another possibility:

The fact that Google offered them so much money has obviously just contributed to the arrogance over at Groupon. They believe in their hearts they are the cleverest kids in town. That makes them ripe for the picking when the ad guys show up and tell them how they can have an edgy, uber ironic commercial at the superbowl, cause a fuss, and then point how that they are really the good guys.

Except it they forgot a few fundamental things. Everyone KNOWS they are really a for-profit company that wants more customers. Everyone KNOWS how much a commercial costs at the superbowl. Everyone SAW a commercial that blatantly tried to direct traffic and new customers to Groupon using the plight of Tibetans. Everyone can FIGURE OUT that if they really cared about Tibet they would have given that $6 million for two 30 second superbowl ads to Tibet and instead of giving it to Fox and the NFL. Everyone is NOT as amused by the inherent irony of the situation.

Not amused at all. Rather disgusted really.

Comment on Tibet, the Super Bowl, and Groupon’s voice by Michael McWatters

Michael McWatters — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 22:21:56 +0000

Replace “Tibetan” as an oppressed people with “African American” or another group closer to home, and you can see why the ad is getting such a negative reaction.

There’s nothing wrong with flip, even controversial humor in advertising…but, as you point out, it’s about context.

Comment on Panel Discussion: Ask the Content Strategist [video] by Content Strategy for Multiple Channels « Meaning and Measure

Content Strategy for Multiple Channels « Meaning and Measure — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 22:10:05 +0000

[...] I better understand what Content Strategist Ariel van Spronsen (@arielvansprons) meant at the Ask a Content Strategist workshop when she says you are lucky when you get to work on a content strategy across a company’s [...]

Comment on Good microcopy in the wild: Picnik by Tiffani Jones Brown

Tiffani Jones Brown — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 20:52:48 +0000

Yes, James. Agree. Fantastic. And I also like ‘sweet spot’ better as two words, not one.

Comment on Good microcopy in the wild: Picnik by Link: Good microcopy in the wild: Picnik, Dirty French Novel | .ben*

Link: Good microcopy in the wild: Picnik, Dirty French Novel | .ben* — Thu, 16 Sep 2010 09:18:53 +0000

[...] Read the article here: Good microcopy in the wild: Picnik [...]

Comment on Good microcopy in the wild: Picnik by Leisa LaDell

Leisa LaDell — Mon, 13 Sep 2010 23:08:12 +0000

Hi James – Great post. I love the microcopy term. And, you are right – it makes such a difference as to whether or not I want to use software.

Comment on Notes on BarCamp. (Apologies to Susan Sontag.) by Bruce P. Henry

Bruce P. Henry — Tue, 24 Aug 2010 00:09:10 +0000

Thanks for the props on the presentation! I’ve been doing that talk for a while and am getting it honed for a more general audience. So I really appreciate the feedback from folks at an event like Bar Camp.

I thought that the Content Lessons from Comics talk was a great concept. Keep plugging away and giving the talk every chance you get. A good talk is like a performance, you need to rehearse a lot before your first performance and even then it just gets better as you get more performances under your belt.

Keep polishing, see what the audience responds to, and bring more of that into the talk.

Oh yeah, pictures help. =-)

Comment on Content Lessons from Comics by Tweets that mention Content Lessons from Comics | Dirty French Novel -- Topsy.com

Thu, 19 Aug 2010 09:20:58 +0000

[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by barcampseattle, James Callan. James Callan said: My presentation at @barcampseattle: Content Lessons from Comics. Warts and all: http://bit.ly/c6hbOQ #contentstrategy #nextstopinfocamp [...]