Oops, I wonder if I subconsciously committed idea theft again 

Doc mentions my mentioning his pet roll. He shows his car roll made a few months before I thought I had this great original idea. I don't recall seeing it, but you never know. Ever do that?

Of course it all evens out in karma. I got semi upset in May of last year when Rogers Cadenhead said he had a brainstorm about an asynchonous podcasting choir. I emailed him about it and he said he figured he probably had seen my remark, invited me to join in the Dixie jam, and credited me with the idea, which I thought was nice.

Related track: Dave and me asynchronousinging the Green Acres theme song that same month last year.

I was thinking about the layered voices thing just yesterday, wondering if it's something you could do live, maybe in Second Life or Ventrilo. Could play instruments too. Might be a fun thing to do for One Web World Day, or whatever it's called. Kinda like Hands Across America. I was living in L.A. working in PR at the time -- when was that, about '86 or so? -- and ended up playing host to some people from Hawaii who won a contest to hold hands with the mainland in a choice spot on Hollywood Boulevard.

Mom's a tease 

Now our network is back, we're able to do all kinds of forgotten things. Little guy has been broadcasting music from my laptop to his WOW guild's Ventrilo server. He warned me before he went to work to shut down Ventrilo if I wanted to play any music or audio from the computer. I said OK, except I had planned to introduce his little warrior pals to Yeast Radio. He blanched in horror.

I wonder if Ventrilo would be a good way to do podcast panel interviews.

At the ready 

Viagra rings.

Wow, I just had an unbelievably positive customer experience 

I drink a lot of coffee, really a lot, the amount would shock you. While I appreciate good coffee I don't have to have it, and usually stock up with the biggest house brand can when I shop for groceries. In between, I get a pound can wherever I can. Sometimes that has been a nearby BP gas station/convenience store, but about 2-3 weeks ago they made some inventory changes, emphasizing more snacks over grocery items and eliminating coffee. I told the manager my visits would shrink by 90%. He said he happened to have two cans in the office and I bought one.

Just a little while ago out on a run for milk I asked him if he still had the other can in his office. Yes, he said, plus he told me he'd instructed the assistant who does ordering to replace it each time I bought one. Guess where I'll be buying my gas now?

Run for the mute button 

The Comcast OnDemand promo channel sets my nerves to jangling. The way the promos are presented by the cable company's timeshifting service is a great example of old-fashioned, in-your-face marketing. I hadn't realized how much I had internalized a desire to hear people just talk to me. It also makes me realize how horribly out of touch big media seems to be about our need to hear the sound of authentic human voices, as described in The Cluetrain Manifesto.

Like most people, I've learned to filter out commercials, but the delivery style of channel 001 is so actively annoying that I'll run to the remote, if it isn't near me, to stop the agony. What makes it so awful?

It's loud. Or maybe it just seems louder than other programming because of its frentetic style.

It's thrust upon you. If an OnDemand program ends, or you stop one or pause one too long, the promos come after you.

The clips are produced for maximum attention grabbing. Comcast doesn't just put up the studio movie trailers. They must make their own, because the movie promos have the same look and sound as those made for the TV shows. The style features loud music even over the interviews and dialog in the clips, and amplified stage sounds and additional loud sound effects. The style aims to say to you "HEY! HEY YOU! LOOK OVER HERE. HEY MONKEY! SEE THIS!" So disrespectful.

The announce style is canned and mechanical. The young woman who hosts the promos on camera has a nice voice, and she's pretty. Nothing wrong with that. The delivery style isn't her idea, I'm sure. They've had hosts including some guys who use the same sing-song trade broadcast school intonation formula.

One clip doesn't get the point across, because it's the same tune for every piece of copy, and the repetition is what gets annoying, fast. Listen for the little lilting broken chord up the scale, and the anchoring descent to punctuate a section of copy.

I'm absolutely certain the decision makers think this woman's delivery is hip and non-traditional and informal because they let her say "yer" for "your," and allow the hint of Southern. (Texas, maybe? The way she says "OnDemay-und" sounds a little like Dan Rather saying his first name, "Day-un.") So, it's not Movie Guy, but it's not real! BTW, I'd be willing to bet Earthlink's agency had a similar delusion with regard to a certain informality in style when it chose the voice talent and directed the read on the Podshow spots.

The fast paced excitement designed to energize and motivate me. Right. The insistent joyousness exhausts me. It might be the thing that contributes most to the lack of humanity and genuineness in this marketing effort. It's the audio equivilent of putting exclamation points all over print copy in hopes that a reader is going to get all excited by the enthusiasm and run out and act.

It must be expensive, and there is a definite formula and strategy, which makes it all even more disheartening. This is not incompetence. It's what they really seem to believe is the way to win my heart to get my eyes to watch the programs. Or what might be happening is that, as a middleman, Comcast does its mongering in a way they think the makers of the shows will like. I've seen this happen before in business. Companies forget who the end-customer is, and strive to please their own direct customers.

What do you think? What are other good examples of yesterday's strategies falling on annoyed ears? And why don't most marketers see it?

I think I like this kid 

Discovered Ethan Kaplan via Rex Hammock. Kaplan works for Warner Bros Records and talked at Gnonedex.

Proposing Uncle Charlie as the new poster child for tech bewilderment 

Question re Kaplan's mention of the GUF. I didn't hear the talk in which this was mentioned but I'm assuming it's a variation of "explain it so my mom can understand." Couldn't it be Grandpa? Or Uncle Charlie? Or a 4-year-old, like Denzel Washington's character said in Philadelphia? Just to artificially nudge along the memeradication? I keep bringing this up. I'm going to keep bringing it up.

Memeradication device 

When I call people on the mom or grandma thing, I'm going to start using this little gif.

You can use it if you want.

<img src="http://hosting.opml.org/amyloo/blog/decorations/unclecharlie.gif">

Oh for heaven's sake 

Don't let it happen. Don't let "socialnetwork" become a verb.

From the Pligg site:

"...giving them the chance to social network."