The Meme: The original video was posted back in January but received trivial views compared to what it’s at now (1.5 mil. +). If you go through the logs the progression went something like this: June 2nd: All kinds of Tweets and Facebook posts, June 3rd: appeared on Reddit, June 4th: featured in The Huffington Post which led WAY more people to tweet it and post it to Facebook. This is a pretty typical meme evolution at this point.

It has since been Auto-Tuned by the guys who do Auto-Tune the News

I first heard about it on Videogum (which kicks ass); the writer of which stated, “I will keep posting everything Double Rainbow-related until it stops being the best. So, never and/or 2012, whichever comes first.”

The Goods:

Original:

Auto-tuned:

UPDATE: 7/20/2010

The guys over at Know Your Meme did an awesome wrap-up of the meme, check it out!

UP THERE from The Ritual Project on Vimeo.

6th St. from the balcony at Buffalo Billiards

For those who don’t know, Austin is home to the largest college in America and serves as a laid back arts-infused oasis right in the heart of Texas. With the capital building a stone’s throw from 6th St, the main bar/club/gluttony center, the borderline hippie-esque feel is right on the front lawn of the state’s business; so much so in fact that George W refused to live in the city while serving as Governor from 1995 to 2000.

Ideally I would have sized up the city while there wasn’t a music festival happening but I try to avoid the shoulda’ coulda’s, also I hear its almost that crazy all the time Overall, Austin treated me well and I would go back in heart beat. I don’t consider myself any kind of foodie but Austin showed me, by far the best BBQ of my life.

The moral of the story? Go there, eat the food, drink the Shiner, ride the bull, and don’t get caught staring; after all, “Austin is where the girls are too pretty and the dope is too cheap” – Steve Earle …although I can’t attest to the dope

I met these sweet dudes outside the hotel…

I saw this van and I just had to talk to them... it had sick bass

and this was just plain awesome

Star Trek Pinball!

A more sxsw specific post to come…

And with that, I present The Official Be Stupid Philosophy by Diesel

And if you wanted to read it through (or you’re a Google bot), I transcribed it…

Like balloons, we are filled with hope and dreams

But over time a single sentence creeps into our lives…

Don’t be stupid

It’s the crusher of possibility

It’s the world’s greatest deflator

The world is full of smart people

Doing all sorts of smart things

That’s smart

Well, we’re with stupid

Stupid is the relentless pursuit of a regret free life

Smart may have the brains but stupid has the balls

Smart recognizes things for how they are

Stupid sees things for how they could be

Smart critiques

Stupid creates

The fact is, if we don’t have stupid thoughts

We have no interesting thoughts at all

Smart may have the plans…

But stupid has the stories.

Smart may have the authority

But stupid has one hell of a hangover

It’s not smart to take risks, It’s stupid

To be stupid is to be brave

Stupid isn’t afraid to fail.

Stupid knows there are worse things than failure…

Like not even trying

Smart had one good idea

And that idea was stupid

You can’t outsmart stupid

So don’t even try

Remember only stupid can be truly brilliant

So, be stupid!

]]> http://www.adamfullerton.com/?feed=rss2&p=692 0 http://www.adamfullerton.com/?p=683 http://www.adamfullerton.com/?p=683#comments Sun, 10 Jan 2010 12:23:33 +0000 Adam http://www.adamfullerton.com/?p=683 There are few advertising creatives that have truly invoked an emotional response in me like the Jameson ad  below… in fact, I can’t think of any. As an avid whiskey drinker, ocean boy, and Anglo-Saxon descendant, this 30-second spot almost brings me to tears to see a man so truly proud of his whiskey.

I also love the beautiful shot of the Irie shore, the gratuitous absurdity of the octopus, and the idea that all of Ireland turned out for John Jameson’s funeral.

Hours later I received a totally awesome response; just what I was looking for…

As I had little interest is shelling out a few hundred bucks for the actual Winter Classic game, I went to the $10 Legends game with some friends and got the once in a lifetime opportunity to watch a hockey game played at Fenway Park.

Reasons why this was cool

1. I got to see Cam Neely (and other hockey greats) play at the same venue as Ted Williams
2. I threw a snowball at Fenway Park
3. It was only 10 bucks
4. You could pick any section of the park to sit in as the laid back nature of the event made it acceptable to relocate to empty seats closer to the action
5. The announcers were pretty entertaining
6. My beer stayed nice and cold

Check out some footage I got of the park and some shots of the game

For a play by play check out the NESN blog

Jim Koch

Company: Boston Beer Company (Samuel Adams)

Founding Location: Jamaica Plain, Boston, Massachusetts

Years in Business: 25

Jim started Boston Beer Company back in 1984 with nothing more than a family recipe and a “stupid idea”, or so claimed his father. After opening his Jamaica Plain brewery, Jim had some trouble selling to retailers as the state of Massachusetts has a law that a wholesaler could not sell directly to a retailer, a distributor must act as a middle man. Fortunately for Jim, the commonwealth also has a loophole which allows one to become his own distributor. Weeks later, Jim hit the streets with a box truck and a suit pedaling his wear and the rest was history. One quote that Jim had, that really spoke to the early entrepreneur mentality was, “I figured if we do well I will have about 6 months and then I will hire an accountant. And it all worked out.”

Jim’s main business & marketing advice was to first arm yourself with a product that is better or cheaper, if not both, than the competition. Without this initial incentive your market is virtually impossible to reach in any scalable manner. In the case of Samuel Adams, his product was better and within a relatively short time span Jim brought prideful beer back to the United States and single-handedly started the American micro-brew industry.

Scott Griffith

Company: Zipcar

Years in Business: 9

Founding Location: Cambridge, Massachusetts

Scott had some great things to say about what it takes to run a successful business in a niche market and the past and future of Zipcar. Scott explained the initial one-liner of the business plan, bring a better thing to the car market than car ownership, and to “Sell car ownership one hour at a time”. This concept was very city-dweller friendly and the company thought they could ultimately service the close to 50% of the world’s population who lived in cities, as 14 million people live within a 10 minute walk of a Zipcar, Scott cited.  Throughout the life of the company marketing has never been a major investment for them as a concept like this is unique and radical enough to spread organically through word-of-mouth, the best marketing you can’t buy. Scott said he is confident this is part of the reason Zipcar has been able to maintain over 350k members.

In recent years, the company’s financials began to weaken and with the sharp downturn in the domestic economy last year, Zipcar had to make some tough decisions. One such decision was to hold off on expansion into new cities in 2009, leaving many of the nations metropolises vulnerable to competitors entering the short-term car rental business. This paid off however, and Zipcar is gaining financial strength by the day as they gear up to enter the European market in 2010, In fact, Scott baffled much of the audience by claiming Zipcar will ONLY expand into European cities in 2010, leaving the US market free of expansion for at least 2 years,  no doubt a bold move.

Mike Dreese

Company: Newbury Comics

Founding Location: Boston, Massachusetts

Years in Business: 31

"Thank God I didn't go to Harvard. Instead, I went to the trade school down the river." Dreese referring to his time at MIT

With a relaxed posture and a microphone, Mike was definitely the most outspoken in the group. Mike did a fantastic job of outlining the founding principals, basic marketing strategy, and investment mentality that has not only kept Newb’s open, but has allowed it to expand to 26 stores while staying profitable and investing in other businesses while not taking on a single bank loan. One main point he made was that top leadership needs to be transparent, stating, “no company is immune to the trust factor”. Without ensuring that you can be trusted, your market will bail on you the second it gets the chance and this can make or break a business in economic slumps. This is a major part of the strategy that allowed the chain to survive the double-digit-percentage sales drop they encountered in Q4 of 2008. By cutting top management salary by 20% and line workers salary by 2%, Newbury Comics was able to get through the worst sales period in the company’s history without laying off a single employee. They have since been able to recoup losses and raise wages back to their pre-slump rate.

The chain has also taken to social media as a way to utilize open communication and serve as a marketing vehicle while embracing the transparent attitude the company holds dear. Dreese explained a recent “flash sale” they put on featuring buy-one, get-one used cd’s at the chain’s flagship location on Newbury Street. After a single tweet was sent announcing the deal, sales rose over 850% for the four hour sale period and skewed the daily sales for the entire chain 17% for the day!

David Murray

Author: Borrowing Brilliance: The Six Steps to Business Innovation by Building on the Ideas of Others

David was a refreshing addition to the panel as he was able to speak from more of a big picture context as he was not just discussing his business. David could speak intelligently to many strategies he found while consulting and researching for his own book. One concept that really stuck out in my mind was the notion that Ideas are solutions to problems and if you study ideas and how they evolve you will inevitably solve your problem. David pointed out that there are two ways to approach a market; you can start from the bottom up and find people with a problem with which you have the solution (product or service) or you can identify a problem and create a solution. This, along with many of his macro concepts really helped me understand the creative aspects of business that many are quick to forget and others never learn. This reaffirmed my enthusiasm for having taken the Creativity in Business class that Champlain College requires every 4th year business student take.

To be honest I thought David’s presentation was overshadowed at times by the wealth of great anecdotes and advice the other panelists had, but overall, David really added value in many contextual areas.  He’s currently promoting his new book, noted above the picture, I’ll let you know if I read it.

Coda

This presentation was excellent. Not only did I get to meet Jim Koch, a personal hero of mine, I also got free breakfast, did some pre-coffee networking (not the easiest thing, mind you) and got enough advice, stories, and inspiration to write five blog posts and motivate my own entrepreneurial spirit. If you live in the Boston area I highly recommend attending these events that WBZ hosts, I think they happen every 6 months or so.

A continuous theme of Tufte’s course was about how the majority of us get thwarted into selling ourselves and our audience short by utilizing the most over-used and under-scrutinized tool in presentation history, Power Point. Tufte would use this context to drive his point from a variety of subjects.

Don’t be afraid to show a lot of data

Edward had a great point in that so many Americans (80 million) read/absorb/understand the sports page on the way to work, usually in under 15 minutes; yet, when it comes time to showcase a data set we tend to limit ourselves to only a handful of numbers. “People don’t turn stupid once they get to work”, he said a few times

“There is no such thing as ‘information overload’ only poor presentation.” What may seem overwhelming or too detailed can often grab your audience by the belt and leave them hanging on your every word. Tufte took this point to discuss the need to “respect your audience”. Chances are if people are listening to you give a presentation they share enough commonality with you to understand and appreciate what most consider “information overload”. Again, if people can take in a sports page no problem, they can probably swallow your quarterly sales breakdown.

Presentation Basics

We all got the basics in high school or college presentation classes but Edward’s main points are much more relevant for todays’s world. Some main points I took from this part of the course were…

• Find good examples and copy them: “Talent immitates, genuis steals” – T.S. Elliot. Tufte used this as a mantra for guidence when presenting data. Chances are there is some stunning visualization technique that someone else has created, why not use it? Would you rather succeed in presenting all your data in a relevant and consumable fashion with a copied graphical format or fail with a uselsess graph after trying to reinvent the wheel?
• Credibility: Using detail and giving specific context will establish you as an authority instead of being written off by a dime-a-dozen “fluff” artist.
• Use a “super-graphic”: This was a term he used to describe a “high-resolution” image at the beginning of your presentation (perhaps in a handout) as a way to engage your audience, as these images are highly interactive. Here’s an example, feel free to click through.

Napoleon's March on Russia

Cool Quotes & Sidenotes

• During the presentation he showed us two books. One, a first edition book by Gelileo, which contains the only place where Galileo comes out and says the Earth rotates, the other a first edition of the english translation of Euclid’s geometry text printed on 1570.
• At one point he said, “Only a monopoly could blame their customers” when describing Microsoft’s stance that Power Point is not the problem, but the people using power Point.

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