I don’t know how many of you listen to NPR but I do on my way both to and from work, it is a nice break from the over-stimulation I get everywhere else…but I digress.

What I wanted to bring to everyone’s attention is a feature they had today on strange interview questions and how they are becoming more and more prevalent in interviews these days. Someone called in and said they were in charge of hiring at their business and they always ask “which superhero would you be and WHY?”

My response was immediate, I have known which superhero I would be since my youthful eyes first fell upon the pages of his AMAZING adventures. If you are unaware of my superhero of choice you can see who I am talking about here. But I was interested in the rest of the office and who they would be and why….

Have at it!

Posted in robert's rants | 12 Comments »

Reading the headline, most people would think this would be a post about how much paying $4/gallon for gas hurts or that there must to be a way to bring the price down. While emptying my pockets just to fill my tank is admittedly painful, especially with a long commute in a vehicle that gets 15 MPG, I’ve come to change my opinion on the subject.

$4/gallon gas is AWESOME! It’s causing regular people like you and me to re-evaluate our attitudes on fuel, oil and conservation. It’s changed our driving habits and our attitudes about cars. It’s motivating businesses to make big changes in the way they produce and ship goods.

What I first saw as a temporary nuisance and then as a threat to our economy, I now view as motivation for positive change. If America is truly addicted to oil, then we must break the addiction. And, ask anyone who has ever had to confront an addiction and he or she will tell you it’s not an easy thing to do. Just like a heroin user faces a painful detox, our economy and American lifestyle, built on cheap oil, must undergo some suffering while we kick the habit.

We’re already in the initial stages of innovating our way out of this mess. However, one significant threat stands in our way–falling oil prices. That’s why we need $4/gallon gas. Without it, it’s business as usual.

Even though it may feel like a bad thing, $4 gas is the stepping stone to a much better, and healthier, global environment. It’s the motivation behind alternative fuel vehicles and future energy independence. So, the next time you stop to fill up, think about who profits from that $140 barrel of oil and what it’s done to our environment. Then, think about how much better things would be with a roof full of photovoltaic power and an electric vehicle in the garage.

Now, just don’t let it get to $5/gallon. That would be ridiculous.

Posted in Rappin' with B-Rad | 3 Comments »

Have you seen the latest Cheetos campaign? This is the coolest thing I’ve seen from them in a while. Our favorite cat, Chester Cheetah is the leader of an underground following, Orange Underground. (Note, this is not the fluffy, bouncing Chester.) Oh, and watch the video more than once.

What make this campaign cool is the marketing tactics they use to draw attention to their underground following and thus drive traffic to their Web site, where you’ll find a whole nation of Orange Underground followers. Not only are these followers now part of an exclusive group, but they are inspired to a call of action and videotape their RAoCs. So not only do you now create an exclusive following, but now you have a group that interacts with each other to further promote a brand.

And while this did not get such stellar ratings and praise from Advertising Age, I think Cheetos hit the nail right on the head with the audience they are trying to reach. It’s great to see that this company is taking the time to really evaluate their audience and find out what appeals to them. So who cares if Mom doesn’t care for the ad, she’s not the target audience. This reminds me of “old school” Facebook, before all the advertising links and the university’s dean wanted to “Add you as a Friend.” Make things simple and mainstream and you will get many people who might like your product, but make things exclusive and edgy and you will draw a crowd that will be loyal ambassadors of your brand.

Posted in Zsavonne, enough said! | 1 Comment »

there are a few things that bind designers together and self deprecating humor is one of the marks of a true designer. recently i found one example of this and would like to share it with you. It is a webcast of a television show called “You Suck at Photoshop” it outlines a bunch of tips and tricks that are fairly standard, but it does it in a very condescending sort of way. And the “host” of the webcast is very down on his luck with a failing marriage, (another thing that we designers joke about is our lack of social lives and inability to keep relationships due to our “affairs” with out computers….). So if you would like an insight into the humor that we

Click here to see how much “You Suck at Photoshop”

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I can’t believe it! There are more out there, i got an email from Google after setting an alert for the words “space” and “whales” and earlier this morning it came into my inbox!!! This one was even more exciting because it has an entire pod of space whales. I really think someone should be looking into this! If there are whales out there who knows what else there might be.

Now i know there might be some of you out there who are disbelievers, but you probably also don’t believe in Bigfoot, or the Loch Ness Monster, Area 51 or anything else that takes a little bit of faith…So i propose a challenge, set a Google alert for “space” and “whales” and see what comes up.

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seeing as it is a holiday weekend coming up, and since the last holiday that came up i stood on my soap box about the origin of the holiday and i am pretty sure everyone knows why we are having this holiday, i figured i would post something that was a little more light-hearted. (man that was a run on sentence)

so i figured most of us would be celebrating, having fun at barbeques, seeing people we so rarely get to see in our busy lives, and yes, imbibing a bit (maybe a lot for some of us) of alcohol. after that i am sure we will have some amazing stories to tell, or gaps in memory to try and recover, but i am sure that NONE OF US, will do anything nearly as cool as this…and this guy was totally sober.

Posted in robert's rants | 1 Comment »

This week’s White Board question was asked partially in Spanish. We’re calling it our “Latin Version.” You know, for a group of people who live and breathe strategy, we can’t seem to stay on topic. Some of us answered the question, but most of us went off on tangents.

This is the usually the part of the blog post where I upload the White Board photo, however tragically, due to an overzealous co-worker (who shall remain nameless), I regret to inform you that this week’s White Board no longer exists. I guess that’s the trouble with the convenience of dry erase boards. We were going to start transcribing the White Boards for ease of reading anyway, so might as well start today! Please click through for this week’s “Would you Rather,” the Latin Version…

(more…)

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ok, now i know you guys aren’t going to believe this, i didn’t when i first saw it, but i got this image from the NASA website. they took it down shortly after i downloaded it, so i wanted to share it with you guys. This is truly unbelieveable.

LOOK! in the lower right hand corner! LOOK!!!! it s a SPACE WHALE!!!!

Posted in robert's rants | 3 Comments »