Status King: The Funniest, Most Clever Facebook Statuses become an App

When I think of the holidays, the basics come to mind. You know…family, snow, food, games, football, candy, movies, more candy…and facebook apps. Actually, that last one just got added. Feeling like we had waaaay to much time on our hands (to be read with a heavily facetious tone), my family—my parents, siblings and their spouses—decided to create a Facebook app…just for fun. Well, as more of a business venture, to be honest. It’s called Status King.

Essentially what we’ve done is create a King of the Hill competition for whoever comes up with the most clever Facebook statuses. The winner gets a custom Facebook T-shirt with their status and photo printed right on it. The ranking is all based on user votes. You can vote funny statuses up or down, or submit one of your own.  And win or loose, you can still create and order a T-shirt using your own status—or somebody else’s that you happen to find more fashionable.

The majority of the concepting for Status King came from a brainstorming session I wasn’t even involved in. They just called me up after they’d already got the ball rolling and roped me in for design and copy help. Now, less than a month later, we have a living, breathing Facebook app. Crazy, eh? I guess that’s the power of collective creative energy. (It also doesn’t hurt to have a php Ninja for a brother spitting out code faster then I can inhale red and green Peanut M&M’s.)

My Solution for Ad Inflation

I normally don’t read magazines in print. I mostly snack-read online, sampling bits and pieces of articles from Google News and Drudge that tantalize me. But occasionally, I’ll glance through Reader’s Digest (when I’m stuck in the bathroom with absolutely nothing else) or a copy of Wired.

During these rare interactions with the paper-and-ink format, one thing always stands out to me: excessive ads. Often, more than half their content is sponsored (ads or advertorials). The editors just don’t know when to quit. And this seems to be the case with almost every major publication. I imagine this ad-happy trend has to do with audience fragmentation, which leads to dwindling readership, which results in lower prices for ad space, which means a lower bottom line. The easiest and most obvious fix? Crank up the number of ads to make up the difference. Brilliant! Business model saved, right?

But hold on a sec. Once you start down that road, you risk damaging your magazine’s brand, because you look like a sellout. You give the impression that you care more about your advertisers than your readers. Not a good move. Readers get you advertisers; not the other way around.

On top of that, your brand holds less luster for advertisers because they’re now competing against more ads for the reader’s attention. That clutter can also drive down the value of your ad space. So, what you get is a vicious cycle of ever-increasing ads, ever-dwindling readership and ever-declining profits. Let’s just call it ad inflation (I don’t know if someone already coined this phrase, but I’ll just take credit for now). It’s an unsustainable practice that the magazine industry (and TV and newspaper industries, for that matter) seems to be embracing—with no immediate sign of recovery.

The solution to clutter isn’t more clutter.

You see, ad inflation is similar to monetary inflation: it responds to the laws of economics. When you increase the supply of dollars—either by printing more or creating credit from thin air—you don’t magically create wealth, you just lower the value of all dollars by the amount you printed/credited. Likewise, when you increase the ad supply, it makes the value of ads, overall, decline.

Call me crazy, but I think there’s a sweet business opportunity here for some smart company looking to carve out a niche in the market. Why not make a magazine (or newspaper, TV network or whatever) that makes a written commitment to its audience (perhaps on the cover, just under the masthead) to limit the ads to…say, 10 per issue? Unrealistic? Absurd? Maybe. But I think it would be a win for readers, advertisers and publication owners. Here’s why:

1. You would maintain a level of trust with your readers that no one in the industry has (yes, loading up your mag with tons of crappy ads destroys your readers’ trust—even if you are their favorite publication).
2. It would be a coveted placement for smart advertisers because they wouldn’t get lost in the shuffle. Their ad would be much more likely to be warmly received and vividly remembered.
3. Advertisers would have a feeling of exclusivity and prestige just for getting into your publication, adding even more value to your sponsored space.
4. No one else would dare do it. As Marty Neumeier would say, when everyone else zigs, you ZAG. It’s a smart, unique strategy that would create a high-performance brand (assuming you have great editorial content in the first place).
5. Sustainability. For both the environment and your bottom line. With less ads, you’d use less paper and ink, and save on postage costs, too.

So, that’s my simple solution for ad inflation. I may be dreaming, but I hear it’s good to do that every once in a while.

P.S. All you entrepreneurs out there, feel free to run with this idea—free of all charges, licensing fees and royalties. This one’s on me. Just hook me up with a free subscription of your 10-ad-only magazine and a dinner for me and my wife at some fancy-schmancy restaurant…when you make your first million.

Money Bomb for BJ Lawson Thanks to Ron Paul

This is a bit late. But better than never. Let’s make it happen!

The Patriot Act 2: This Time It’s Your Money

Over the past few days, I’ve been talking everyone’s ear off about how I feel like we’re reliving 9/11. Except this time it’s not a terrorist attack; it’s a financial crisis. But, as was the case seven years ago, America is panicking and lawmakers are willing to do anything just to do something.

I’m afraid that the desire for national security—in this case, national financial security—is once again going to drive our lawmakers to pass another piece of ill-conceived, unconstitutional power-grab legislation that we will all shortly regret. Does the Patriot Act ring a bell, anyone? In our haste to expel terrorism, we “gutted” (as Jesse Ventura so eloquently put it) the Fourth Amendment. Wire tapping. Reading private email. Cell-phone record surveillance. These were not acts becoming of a free country. But the bill still breezed through the House and Senate. And at the end of the day, the extreme measures they authorized did more to terrorize liberty than they did to defend liberty from terror. In a vain attempt to establish security, we actually forfeited it; not to a terrorist or foreign power, but to the Federal Government and Homeland Security (such an ironic name).

Now, less than a decade later, we’re once again facing a seismic dilemma. Will we pass the Patriot Act 2? Will we forfeit economic liberty for so-called financial security? I answer emphatically, NO! As Benjamin Franklin would say: ”He who sacrifices freedom for security deserves neither.”

Apparently, I’m not the only one with déjà vu. My brother Neal found this telling article in the International Herald Tribune.

Bottom line: bailing out giant corporations with tax dollars is immoral. I wrote this post on Karmel Larson’s blog back when the Fannie-Freddie bailout went down:

Although the government takeover of the two mortgage giants no doubt spells opportunity for some investors, I think it’s still worth mentioning that this deal needs to be recognized for what it is at its core: socialism—an unconstitutional bailout of two giant corporations at the expense of you and I, the taxpayers. Now I understand the arguments for attempting to stabilize the housing market and stem the recent tide of economic downturn. But it’s all for short term gain, long-term loss.

I think our politicians have good intentions for our country in taking this drastic measure. However, that doesn’t change the fact that the principle at work here is still redistribution of the wealth. Except, in this case, it’s the whole Robin-Hood-and-his-Merry-Men thing flipped on its head: stealing from the poor to give to the rich.

A few articles that help clarify this:

“Bailout cure worse than disease”
http://www.atimes.com/atimes/Global_Economy/JG29Dj07.html

“Senator Bunning Says Paulson Acts Like Socialist, Should Resign”
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=newsarchive&sid=alpUsTv3.upI

“Government as the Big Lender”
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/07/14/washington/14guarantee.html?_r=1&hp&oref=slogin

Please click here to contact your local representatives and tell them to vote “no” on the bailout.

Nissan Altima Print Ad: Chickens Crossing (Digging under) the Road

This is oldest joke in the book. But when done right, it’s still one of the best.

The copy reads: “The 280-hp Nissan Altima SE-R. Make way.” A similar ad with completely different art direction (it was illustrated) was featured in Communication Arts a year or two ago for some kind of chicken meat (the idea was “smart chicken”). But I think Nissan’s twist on the concept works better.

By the way, have you ever tried to corral a chicken on the loose? Now just imagine that volatile animal wielding a razor-sharp spade. Scary.

BJ Lawson at the Rally for the Republic

While at the Rally for the Republic, I got the chance to meet BJ Lawson, the republican nominee for North Carolina’s 4th District. I’ve followed his campaign online for sometime now. I’ve written about him previously here, here and here. Face to face, BJ is just like he is cyberspace: down to earth, bright and personable. But more importantly, he understands the challenges our country is facing, and bases his political principles on the Constitution. I admire his unflinching verve in taking on the 22-year democratic incumbent, David Price, in a mostly democratic state. However, BJ isn’t running a partisan campaign, which is drawing him significant support from both sides. In fact, I think he actually has a pretty good shot at winning. David Price represents the status quo, while BJ challenges it at its core—something the majority of Americans are hungry for during these unsettling times.

His supporters are organizing a money bomb for BJ on Sep 17th at LawsonLibertyFund.com. They’re asking for patriotically inspired pledges of $17.76. So for the price of a DVD, you can make a stand for liberty (and forgo having to peel off those annoying, impossible-to-remove, sticky, plastic security seals that hold the dang DVD case shut).

The Rally for the Republic: A Mixed Bag of Patriots

On Tuesday, I schlepped to Minneapolis to attend Ron Paul’s Rally for the Republic. Wow! What a shindig! The Target Center was bursting with the energy of over 10,000 passionate patriots. And these people weren’t straight-down-the-line republicans. Anything but, in fact. I’ve never seen such an eclectic mix of politically active people gathered under one roof to support a common cause. You literally had everybody: down-to-earth farmers and spiffy, self-made entrepreneurs; the hardcore religious right and liberal, anti-war hippies; craggy, old seniors and young, counter-culture students; well-educated intellectuals and no-nonsense rural folk; bearded, tattoo-covered bikers and body-pierced bohemians; hunters, homemakers, republicans, democrats, independents, libertarians, whites, blacks, Asians, Arabs, Indians, Latinos—and everything in between. If I hadn’t already been familiar with the “revolution” culture, I would’ve never guessed that everyone was there to support the same guy, a simple doctor and congressman that embodies a singular principle: liberty. For me, seeing the diversity of supporters reinforced Paul’s oft-repeated explanation of his following: freedom is popular and it brings people together.

Of course, everyone subscribes to Paul’s strict constitutional philosophy in varying degrees. But he doesn’t care that you don’t believe 100% in some 30-point program. He just says it as he sees it and lets you buy into whatever you want. And precisely because of that, these people see him as a principled political leader, a maverick fighting for the freedom that America now largely takes for granted.

Now, I have to mention one little experience that I think says a lot about the phenomenon of the revolution movement. During Paul’s speech, a young college girl, sporting a stud the size of a small marble pierced in between her chin and bottom lip, came and stood in the row in front of me. As Paul, a 73-year-old, baggy-eyed, white-haired man, humbly elaborated on things like the vices of the Patriot Act and the virtues of sound money, this slightly rebellious-looking girl was screaming at the top of her lungs “I love you, Ron Paul!” Crazy, eh? Just one more sign that this movement is for real. It’s not going away. The appeal of liberty is too broad and its momentum is too great. And this is just the beginning.

Oktapodi: Animated Short Film about an Octopus

I love animation. Computer generated, hand-drawn, 3D, 2D, stop-motion—makes no difference to me; as long the movement is dynamic and the story is engaging, I’m all for it. Especially if it’s a short film. They’re just the right length for my tiny attention span.

This short film about an octopus won overwhelming critical acclaim at a horde of foreign film festivals. And it’s easy to see why: the artistry is bright and fun, the pace is brisk and the action is delightfully slapstick.

If you’re interested, there’s also a making-of video about the movie here.

I.O.U.S.A.—A Documentary Film

As we slog through the current economic slump, our national dept—one of the nation’s most vexing problems—has been weighing on my mind a lot lately.  I can’t understand how our elected leaders can continue to plunge us deeper into the red, as if they had no clue what a balance sheet was (in all honesty, a lot of them probably don’t). And the higher the deficit climbs, the more checks the bureaucrats seem bent on writing. When it comes to the Federal Government handling our money, it often seems there’s little accountability, no logic and even less restraint.

A new documentary film that opened this weekend, I.O.U.S.A, looks like it will expose some of the all-too-ignored realities of this dilemma.

Here’s the I.O.U.S.A. trailer.

How to deal with this crisis is a conversation that desperately needs to be hashed out. I don’t care what your political background is; this much is certain: if our government continues to spend with reckless abandon it will result in national financial suicide. As a democrat friend of mine put it,

“It’s high time we stopped passing the buck, both figuratively and literally. And who pays? In the short term, it’s people like you and me. But, I feel the long term may not be so far away. We need pragmatists in Washington, yesterday.”

I couldn’t agree more. One such “pragmatist” is BJ Lawson, a congressional candidate in North Carolina’s 4th district. Wisely, Lawson sponsored the premier of I.O.U.S.A. in his neck of the woods to help spark a healthy discussion on the topic among his constituents.

Lawson’s positions on financial issures are impressive. And he brings a wealth of experience from the business and medical sectors, too.

Mormon TV Commercials (“Truth Restored”)

These ads for my church, The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (known as the Mormon Church), aired last year in specific markets.

“Eternal family”…”softened my heart”

“Welcome home”

“Return to be with God”…”was I with God before?”

“Families should be eternal”

“How could it be cut off by death?”

The high-contrast black-and-white footage, stark white background and gentle soundtrack do a great job of standing out from the business-as-usual ad clutter. The most emotionally stirring thing about these ads is the “performance” of the actors; but that’s because they weren’t actors. Truth be told, none of them even had a script. They simply retold their real conversion stories while sitting in front of a camera. There’s no pretense, no sales pitch, nothing superficial. Just real people with real questions and trials, all longing for truth. I’m familiar with the background on these ads because I was lucky enough to get a little behind-the-scenes info from my former professors, Kevin Kelly, Adrian Pulfer and Steve Wonderli, while they were working on the campaign.

At the end of each ad, the viewer is introduced to mormon.org, where one can learn about our basic beliefs. The tagline “Truth Restored” refers to the restoration of the same Church Jesus Christ established during his ministry in Jerusalem. Hence, the name The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

Any thoughts on these?