I am going to pretend for a moment that this post is about viral marketing, and the power of shameless self-promotion. And it does to some degree. Entertaining people goes a long way in the web marketing arena - it worked for Ze Frank, and many many countless others who share that sense of cynicism meets a dadaist sensibility that we, as postmoderns, find priceless.
However, I’m not really posting this video because I had a burning itch to say something intelligent about viral marketing or postmodern cynicism - I’m just a Tom Waits fan and my friend Adam sent me a link. I thought it was worth sharing with you, so I stuck it on my blog.
I’m juvenile. The reason I say this is not because I want you to think less of me, but to warn you that while you may be able to extract an ounce of serious commentary from the content in this post, the side of me that still giggles at potty language is at the forefront of my motivation.
While browsing around various design sites, I came across a rather positive review on The DieLine of the latest packaging design from the San Francisco cleaning product company, Method.
Le Scrub and Lil’ Bowl Blu mark the company’s entrance into “deep cleaning” products and round out their line of bathroom products.
While I agree that there is a sleek and modern loveliness to these bathroom cleaning products, I at once had to snicker at the bare naked fact that the two depicted in the image above look very referential to a butt and an indeterminate colorectal organ shape.
The Tub Scrub product is probably the most hysterical as all I can see when I look at it is what appears to be an abstraction of a set of ass cheeks clenching a sponge. I can’t possibly be alone in this sentiment. And while the toilet bowl cleaner is more of a traditional shape for this sort of cleaning product, it’s smooth gentle curves are less “Clorox toilet bowl cleaner” and more digestive organ.
Of course, asses and bathrooms kind of go together, so maybe Method’s packaging design was deliberate…but probably not. I can’t picture a bunch of ad and design guys sitting around deciding to make their clients’ products look this anal…but what do I know? I’m a web designer, so my expertise seldom crosses into dealing with consumer products.
Of course this happens in web and print design as well. We’ve all designed something that was phallic, or contained a prominent undesirable shape of some sort. If you’re lucky someone catches it before you submit it to the client, or worse, release it into the world for all to giggle at….
Thanksgiving is not my favorite holiday. Actually, I’m kind of ambivalent about it. I don’t cook and my family lives nowhere near San Francisco, so I’m not expected to trek home. I don’t really mind this since a day of sitting around with food I don’t really like that much (give me a 7/11 slurpy over a turkey dinner any day) and trying to make G rated conversation that isn’t awkward or downright boring is not exactly my idea of a good time.
My father knows I am not a “Thanksgiving” kind of person - at least in regards to the holiday ritual of stuffing myself and watching football. However, the idea of my not having some part of that joy is something he can just not accept. And so, every year, he sends me a dry ice packed box of Gourmet Bistro dinners.
Included in my Thanksgiving Day care kit are several little packs of frozen thanksgiving dinners for one. Basically, they are plastic bagged dinners that you stick in a pot of boiling water for 12 minutes, unwrap, and arrange on a plate. All of the garnishes are there. No skill required. And because there are several, I can either have one every night for a week, or have a few friends over for boiled bag turkey dinners. They are not particularly edible, but the thought is sweet and very in line with my father’s finely tuned sense of humor.
For Thanksgiving this year (and for the last 3 years in a row), I am thankful to share my father’s sense of humor.
While researching culinary and recipe sites for an upcoming project, I happened to stumble on this recipe for kitty litter cake. No joke - this recipe is all over the internet. I’ve seen some weird acts of culinary art in my day, but this has to be one of the strangest food preparations I’ve come across yet.
Word on the street is it’s a good cake. I have trouble salivating when I look at the above picture, but what do I know? Read the rest of this entry »
You may have noticed that my blog has been a bit inactive lately. I think it’s been over 2 weeks since my last post. While this is inexcusable, I’m back to posting again, I have to share with you that there is a very good reason for my departure - I got a Squiggy:
A 6 month old rescue pup from Big Dog Rescue up in Penngrove, CA. He’s 5.5# of Chihuahua and Terrier (though he’s quite a bit more Chihuahua both in looks and personality). As far as pets go, he’s got quite a personality Read the rest of this entry »
