Russ Page
Exploring the Art & Science of Marketing
Brokeback Dilemma
Jan 10th
Example:
BrokeBack Mountain (as describe by Kids-In-Film)
23 F-words, 3 sexual references, 9 scatological terms, 9 anatomical terms, 27 mild obscenities, 2 derogatory terms for homosexuals, name-calling (stupid), 11 religious profanities, 2 religious exclamations.
Note I didn’t link directly to the film because the description is even of an adult nature.
Hostel: Isn’t up yet.
Wolf Creek (another gory movie)
28 F-words, 1 obscene hand gesture, 9 sexual references, 21 scatological terms, 4 anatomical terms, 12 mild obscenities, 1 derogatory terms for homosexuals, name-calling (moron, loser), 6 religious exclamations.
Again, the description of this movie of too much.
My point in all of this is that if Larry H. Miller is going to pull Brokeback Mountain, there are a slew of other films that should also be pulled. There is way to much gore and sex in movies, and while I think his intent was good, I think it’s also a little two-faced that Hostel was making him so much money at the same time.
UPDATE:
Gayle Ruzicka, President, Utah Eagle Forum: “It’s about adultery, it’s about deceiving and lying to your wife and your children. And I guess Larry decided he was sick of it and didn’t want to promote it.”
via [ KSL.com ]
If I were his pr consultant, I would have advised otherwise.
CES, DRM, and Portable Video
Jan 9th
I wrote earlier that I think DRM is the reason that content companies won’t jump aboard and it is the reason the will jump aboard.
Bill Gates gives hint to this here as well.
Well, we’ve always believed in an open platform so that you can have choice of device, choice of where you buy music, what music subscription you go to, and yet you know that those connect up and the user interface is quite reasonable. Doing that, and still making it very simple to use so you have the best of both worlds, the variety, and the simplicity, that’s always a challenge as we tackle these new scenarios.
While I was at CES, I got the sense from listening to content companies like Comcast, Cablevision, ESPN and others that they don’t like how Apple is so closed. DRM is one thing, but Apple takes it too fair with only allowing compatibility on its players. Apple has shown that protected content is what the big boys want, but it seems as though Apple has become a little arrogant about it in the process. Thoughts?
CES, i’m here
Jan 6th
I’ll have to snap a few photos while I am here at CES and post them up. I have been on booth duty for a client, and things have gone fairly well so far. We have met with a lot of press and a lot of content companies.
Here’s what I think is going to happen.
Apple is going to lose out on more content deals than they will win. Why? Because of DRM. Many other portable media device makers are going to win out on content deals because of DRM. Make sense? Let me explain. Apple has it’s fairplay DRM, but only Apple can use it. So, it works, but only Apple uses it, which means content companies are going to not go after Apple because it is so stingy with it’s DRM. Microsoft has a DRM solution that many other companies can implement into their players. So, content companies are going to go with Microsoft because it gives consumers more choices when it comes to portable media players.
UPDATE:
More on why I say all of this when I get back. I spoke with or was in on many conversations during CES that lead me to believe what I have written above. I am a mac user, and I think Apple is a great company, but I get the feeling they are going to face some opposition from companies in the future because of the way they operate.
Other CES Posts
CES Update
Guy Kawasaki blog
Jan 3rd
Guy Kawasaki, managing director of Garage Technology ventures and long-time Apple man has started a blog.
Interesting. With all the fame and Bay Area connection, Garage still picked a Utah web design firm to do it’s web site.
Godin Grows on ya
Dec 30th
It takes a big man (or a big moo) to fess up to some thinking that people disagree with.
Godin Doesn’t Get it
Dec 29th
We live in a neighborhood where all the firehouses are run by volunteers. I don’t know how we’d get by without them… they do brave work, with little credit.
One thing you’ll notice is how clean the trucks are. “Why are the trucks so clean,†a friend asked? After all, a clean firetruck isn’t a lot better at putting out fires than a smudged one.
The answer: Because when there isn’t a fire, the firemen wait for the siren to ring. And while they’re waiting, they clean the truck.
This makes fireman sound like a bunch of bafoons that do nothing but put out fires and sit around. Sorry, but that isn’t all they do. Who do you think makes sure buildings are up to fire code? Dogcatchers? Maybe part of their desire to keep the trucks in good condition comes from the fact that a firetruck costs something like $250,000 of taxpayer money? They better take care of them. Don’t just post to post. Put some thought into it.
Winterize Your Scooter
Dec 28th
As a scooter enthusiast, I like to hear about scooter tuning tips, and one that is especially helpful teaches how to winterize a scooter? Since most classic scooter owners take pride in their scooters, they will really want to read below. (My Stella Scooter just looks like a classic scooter, but I still have the scooter pride).
It’s a snippet about how to winterize your scooter from one of my favorite scooter shops and scooter dealers on the planet.
Step One: Protect from the elements.
Step Two: Stabilize the fuel.
Step Three: Properly store the battery.
Full details about steps one through three are online so scooter tuning doesn’t become a constant ritual. Protect from the elements. You drive a stella scooter? Winterize your Stella to.
Motorcycle winter storage
PR Firm
Dec 28th
Have you ever taken the time to look at some of the search keywords related to your industry? What are people searching for.
In my case, a big one is PR Firm. From what I can tell, 7500 people looked up the term PR Firm during the month of November. I just happen to work for a pr company in Utah, and we haven’t spent a ton of time working on keyword traffic, but I think we should.
There a ton of terms out there related to what we do, including pr writing, pr writer, pr firm and pr company. Gold mine. What are you’re key words?
I did an experiement a few weeks ago where I put up a page about my favorite mode of transportation. The Stella Scooter. I littered the page with keywords and linked back to my favorite scooter shop. 20,000 people looked up the term stella scooter last month, and my site and my favorite place for scooter sales have now popped into the top 10.
