Something Missing?

Yup; never fails, right?

I mean, you go to all the trouble to formulate your message. In fact, you spent quite a lot of time working with your leadership team, wordsmithing, wordcrafting, honing, polishing –

Afterwards, you even thought to try it out on a few folks; to sortof “kick the tires” and get gut reactions. It was some effort, lemme tell ya!

Once you had it down to where it was absolutely the best it could possibly get, you made plans to get the message out there. Hey, what’s the point of having a message if you don’t tell folks, right?

You researched the best locations, formulated the right delivery, and finally, the day came when your message was supposed to be out there for all to see...

Except... someone forgot something, didn’t they? Let’s hope this doesn’t represent YOUR marketing efforts!

*sigh*
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Photo: Something Missing, by Robert Hruzek
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When Good Words Go Bad

“Say what you mean; mean what you say.”

We’ve all heard some variation on that one, I bet. Probably used it yourself once or twice, even. Seems pretty straightforward, don’cha think?

Well, here’s a couple of little tidbits I read the other day from American Demographics magazine:

• When Pepsi started marketing its products in China a few years back, they translated their slogan, "Pepsi Brings You Back to Life" pretty literally. The slogan in Chinese really meant, "Pepsi Brings Your Ancestors Back from the Grave."
• A hair products company, Clairol, introduced the "Mist Stick", a curling iron, in Germany only to find out that mist is slang for manure. Not too many people had use for the “manure stick”.
• When Gerber first started selling baby food in Africa, they used the same packaging as here in the USA - with the cute baby on the label. Later they found out companies in Africa routinely put pictures on the label of what's inside the box – since most people can't read.
  

Hey, that could never happen to me, you’re probably saying to yourself about now. Well… maybe. But sometimes you have no control over just what point of view a person brings to your, uh, message.

The Farts Store

The other day I was parking the car when we happened to notice the auto dealership across the street. I didn’t think anything of it – hey, it was just your run of the mill car business, but Mrs. MZM said, “You gotta see this from where I sit!”

I looked again, but all I saw was an ordinary building, y’know? Over on one end was the word “Service”, but right in front of us was the word, “Parts”. Still no big deal, as far as I can tell. But – color me intrigued.

So I scooched over in the seat and looked again, and lo and behold (which I believe is an olde English expression that means hey, looky thar!), an amazing transformation took place, right before my eyes. Up there, big as life, the building sign now proudly proclaimed in no uncertain terms: “FARTS”!

Now, if you’re anything like me (and sincere condolences if that happens to be the case), you’re gonna have to stop and think about that one a mite.

Oh, I know, I know; obviously the place doesn’t sell, y’know, liver-and-garlic sausage (or something equally disastrous, if you get my meanin’). It’s just that an ordinary light pole, when one’s point of view was juuuust right – caused a somewhat, um, regrettable alteration in one particular letter. Unfortunately, it was enough to completely discombobulate the message.

Hey, I realize it’s simply a matter of bein’ in exactly the right spot. Still, it was not only a funny thing to see, but the – can we call it an ‘incident’? – made me wonder how many other signs I could find that, well, don’t necessarily say what the proprietors of these shops think they say. Or maybe they do?

So here’s a few signs for your contemplation, from one of my favorite spots on the Internet, the FAIL Blog:




Hey, have you ever run across any similar images? Share the URLs in the comment box and let us all enjoy 'em!

The Benfits of Bulk Packaging

Buy Big, Live Large

Have you noticed that packaging containers are getting bigger and bigger? A box of cereal hardly fits in the trunk of your car anymore. And who needs to lift weights? Just carry a box of detergent around for half an hour.

Bulk packaging carries a number of economic and environmental benefits, which explains why the popularity of the bulk buy is exploding. I recently jumped on the bandwagon with this purchase -



After calculating my projected hair loss and life expectancy, I determined that this container of shampoo should be a lifetime supply. Come to think of it, I may have overshot the mark, but no worries. I have three daughters who will use it up in short order. Let's just hope they don't do the same with whatever money they might be lucky enough to inherit.

The problem now is getting the shampoo upstairs into my shower. The bulk container weights about 400 pounds and so far I haven't figured out how to maneuver it through the door from our garage into the house. People have suggested running a hose, but I'm not sure about drilling holes through the ceiling. It could hurt the resale value of our property, which has dropped about 75% in the last twelve months already.

I am saving a ton of money on shampoo, however. This 55 gallon drum cost me only $125 (plus $150 shipping). An equivalent amount of shampoo would have run four or five times as much, and that's not even taking inflation into account. Buy big, live large.