The disappointment of the stork
In so many ways, this is a beautiful, affecting, and probably very effective television ad. Before I say more, take a look.
The story, visuals and music seduce the viewer, until the bittersweet ending delivers the payoff. The stork drops his head and the raindrop tears flow down the glass. How many of us watch and then wonder about ourselves and what we’re doing with our lives? Are we just disappointment and wasted potential? Might not any of us just for a moment consider how much more we’re worthy of?
It worked for me. I’ve been there—late nights, sometimes all night—yawning through the extra hours to get the job done, just grinding away at my computer, coding, testing, fixing. No-one there to appreciate the effort. Testing, coding, testing. There’s nothing at all glamorous about it. Sad, really.
But then I realize… I’ve created some of my best work and felt the greatest sense of accomplishment after those all-nighters. It’s what I do. When push comes to shove, I push on through to do the job right. I’m a Flash guy. I earn my pay and I’m proud of what I do.
Nothing wrong with that.
Whoa. Advertising Age also did a review of the Monster “Stork” ad—Yawning Production Flaw Keeps Ad Half a Second From Genius. I think perhaps they bent over backwards to find the fault they did.
A Twitter experiment — part 2
I started with 20 names—people whose books and sites had some influence on my own development as a Flash and website developer. Just over half of them were Flash people. Of the 20, how many would I find on Twitter?
The results surprised me:
- 13 of the 20 are currently on Twitter. Of these, only 1 has his updates “protected”, meaning that his updates are only accessible to his selected group.
- The 7 who are not on Twitter are all from the Flash side of the group.
- Of the 12 whose updates are publicly accessible, 11 had posted something on Twitter in the previous day. So almost all of the 13 are currently active.
What does it mean? If nothing else, it shows significant participation by people whom I’d describe as knowledgeable and influential in the world of website design and development. God knows there are many more options online than any of us have time for. A lot of folks might play with Twitter for a few days or weeks, but most of my test group who are on Twitter seem to be regular users.
I’d call it a pretty strong show of support from a group that knows the Internet intimately.
And, yes, I did sign up as a “follower” to the 12. A few of them are now following me. The experiment continues.
A Twitter experiment — part 1
Right. I was saying Twitter turned out to be surprisingly useful. Lately I’ve been following a few people who have a sincere interest and involvement in advertising and every day they come up with a few links or observations that I normally would have missed.
So I began to wonder about other people I might like to follow. Would it be as easy as thinking, “Ooh, [insert name of well-known person here], I bet s/he’s good on Twitter”? Face it—most people probably couldn’t be bothered. Then again, there are probably some interest groups with a much higher likelihood of taking part.
I’m into website development and standards, Internet usability, and Flash programming. I’ve been following some thought leaders in these areas for years. How many names can I list right off the top of my head? How likely is it they’d be on Twitter too?
Here’s the first set of names I came up with:
- Eric Meyer—CSS
- Colin Moock—Flash
- Jeffrey Zeldman—Web Standards
- Grant Skinner—Flash
- Simon Collison—Web Design/Development
- Joey Lott—Flash
- Andy Budd—Web Design/Development
- Keith Peters—Flash
- Lee Brimelow—Flash
- Dan Cederholm—Web Design/Development
- Douglas Bowman—Web Design/Development
- Guy Kawasaki—Entrepreneur/Evangelist
- Brendan Dawes—Flash
- Hillman Curtis—Flash and Video
- Joshua Davis—Flash
- Phillip Kerman—Flash
- Dave Shea—Web Design/Development
- Dunstan Orchard—Web Design/Development
- Branden Hall—Flash
- David Stiller—Flash
That’s 20. Seemed like enough to start with. And so far I’ve checked the first 10 on Twitter. How many did I find there? Are they active?
Tomorrow.
Hey, I just noticed. All 20 of the people listed up there are male. What’s up with that? I don’t think it’s me. Is it?
“Left Vs. Right” — how do you measure success?
Patrick’s behind the desk on the left with a blue background and Britt’s on the right with red. They’re waiting for me to ask a question or suggest a topic. Finally she starts flossing.
“Don’t do that here,” he says.
He looks straight out at me. “Please type something.”
It’s Left Vs. Right, a clever, good-looking Flash site promoting Microsoft’s Live Search. You can type in a topic and if it has any relevancy at all to the current political scene in the US, Patrick and Britt will have some witty dialogue in response. At the same time, you’re presented with a selection of more prosaic and useful search results in three categories—”Web”, “Images”, and “News”.
As a Flash developer myself, I have some idea of the amount of money, time and effort that goes into a site like this. All too often the result is not as usable nor as satisfying. Many, if not most, of these sites are little more than a parlour trick. You visit, you try it, and if it’s better than most, you pass on the URL to your friends and co-workers. Then you move on.
Left Vs. Right is good, but is it worth the investment? Beyond the design and technical development, there was considerable investment in copywriting, performance, filming, etc. I wouldn’t dare to guess, but they must have had one hell of a budget. Ultimately however, I don’t find myself terribly encouraged to use Live Search as a result.
On Left Vs. Right your topics have to be “political”. I entered “live search” and they obviously didn’t have anything prepared.
Britt takes the lead with, “If we told you that, we’d have to kill you.”
“And that’s not really our policy here on Left Vs. Right,” continues Patrick.
“Yet.”
“We could make some calls though.”