The small stickers on her face were unexpected, but she was also wearing two different socks, crocs decorated with chunks of tiny things, while engulfed in a secret audio world thanks to her enormous headphones.
I’m finally at the age where youth perplexes me, so observing different looks and actions that are different from my generation are a new hobby. I saw the crocs accessories coming. The mismatched mid-calf high socks have been a growing trend for years. The headphone ear muffs also trendy, thank you Beats. But what’s with the face stickers?
Well, I found out and my head is still cocked in confusion. You make the call. Here’s the flip: camouflage has been outed. The newest acceptable way to deal with a pimple is to point to it. Make it known. Show it off. A rare strategy that mocks embarrassment and celebrates imperfection. Uncommon, to say the least. But hey, when you can’t fight ’em, join ’em.
We’ve seen this in practice before… the fat kid who makes fun of his large size… the amputee who uses his fake leg to freak people out… the politician who doubles down on denial of proven facts. When it comes to dealing with negative attention, the human response is fascinating. Some hide. Some seek the stage.
So when you see folks sporting colorful little stickers of stars, hearts, or moons on their faces, no need to stare. Now you know. Pimples are in.
Do you ever hear a word that you pronounce differently than others? Do you make note? Ask? Give a rat’s patooty? Another hobby of mine is to bring the offensive pronunciation into the ring. I love this kind of battle, where common word pronunciations are positioned against each other.
The following stories are all true. The names and places have not been changed to protect the truth.
Eat Your Fruits + Vegetables
A good friend of mine likes to say tow-MAH-toes, poh-TAH-toes, and even BAH-zil. Since this word debate actually has a battle song, they seem to be the most socially acceptable pronunciation discrepancies in American English. Despite the way we say it, we both agree, surprisingly, that tomatoes are fruits and potatoes are vegetables. <Ding> Round Two…
You Mean, Annoy
I was in my late twenties and vacationing in the oh-so-creative Cancun. Hey, it was the 90’s. I never could have guessed that this trip would haunt me for life. For Life.
Put yourself in a fine hotel retail store, the one that sells 2-3 overpriced yacht outfits , suitcases for some reason, and other bawdy accessories we know today that we never really needed. So, it’s the mid 90’s and I’m in the store because I unfortunately also had the decade’s mentality of more sun means beautiful tan. I burned like butter in pan. I knew I needed relief and I knew what I needed to do to get it. I asked the now-I-can-say snotty woman behind the counter, “Do you have any aloe?” I pronounced it correctly. Let the court make note of that solid memory backed up by diary entries, Exhibit D.
The saleswoman replied, “You mean, “ah-LOY”? It was fate that my travel buddies entered the store at this exact moment heard the woman’s response. Knowing me well, they removed me from the potential verbal crime scene quickly. I never did get that ah-LOH lotion. The “Ah-LOY” experience never leaves me. I mean, come ON. Look at that sha-LOY stream? What’s in the ha-LOY log? Did you have any mah-LOY-mars? I need to find that woman.
Howda Hell
My BAH-zil friend was over and she had brought gouda cheese, a favorite of both of ours. As she pulled it out, she called it “GOW-da”. Now… I can be overly confident and wrong, but c’mon, gouda? It’s GOO-da and everyone knows it, so I felt good about challenging her to the dictionary pronunciation and smiled as I typed in gouda (not just a cheese, also a town).
On the gouda reference page there is one little speaker icon, revealing the proper way to say what I knew was goo-da. I tap the little icon and we both lean in, and the damn voice comes back, “GOO-da…. or sometimes HOW-da”. I think I heard the man’s recorded voice even spit a little when he said it. WTH? While my word war is still 0:0, as my friend was close-but-no-cigar with GOW-da I have to admit my friend not only was closer, she knew it wasn’t just GOO-da. Pass the poh-TAH-toes, BAH-zil.
Not Pot
Ahh, another joyous workplace experience with words.
[Scene] The company meeting and the issue had been that storm waters had made the city provided water unpotable. I said “un-POH-ta-bul” and an elderly woman in the meeting corrected me and declared it was “un-POT-uh-bul”. Get those Oxford folks on the horn.
And the answer for how to pronounce unpotable <insert winning drum roll> is “un-POH-ta-bul”. Score! Let the games continue.
With what words have you disagreed on pronunciation?
Some people like golf, I like finding marketing mistakes. I read cereal boxes, Ikea instructions, the fine print on the 12-pack of Bounty paper towels. If I see words, I’m moving in.
Like the committed and determined members of medical detector clubs, I enjoy finding spelling errors & other mistakes in massive print runs. It’s a sick hobby, I know, but the pure joy of “it wasn’t me” is a high like no other.
What keeps this odd obsession going? Because Big Foot exists. Mistakes are made. My favorite category are the marketing errors of omission.
Here are some truly odd advertising from popular brands. I’m not sure which of these two brings me more joy. Have you seen others?
Bag Lifting That’s 50% Easier
This beauty came from a Rubbermade trashcan purchased from Ace Hardware in Bonita Springs, FL in 2017. The cardboard wrap over the lid very clearly wanted to explain that lifting out bags from their newly vented version was “50% Easier”. I read the small print only to find what I assume is the same message in other languages.
At first glance, “50% Easier” sounds impressive, but how is the new & improved version 50% easier? And 50% easier than what? They mention the reason is the venting channels. I had no idea such statistical problems were being managed and measured at Rubbermaid, which IMHO is the real story, but I digress. I can’t shake the thought that someone approved this. Once adorned on the trash cans in retail establishments across the country, few customers will question the claim. I shall continue my quest like Marketing Robin Hood, merrily revealing the confusing to the masses.
A Jar of Sweet + Small
One of my all time favorites is this jar of Peter Piper’s Sweet Midgets. These were purchased in 2015 at a local grocery store in the US Virgin Islands, where neither the FDA nor the FTC must not have any offices. This jar does not have the word pickle or cucumber anywhere. No ingredients list. Kudos for including nutritional information, weight & size, and a star-worthy “new sweeter taste”, but yet the buyer still can not be confident what the food actually is in the container except that the label says “Sweet Midgets”.
A quick search on Google reveals only one place (Harter House) sold a jar that looked similar, but today the “page is not found”. Is it possible a pickle producer was dumping their remaining supply of poorly marked Peter Piper’s pickles in paradise?
Wouldn’t be the first time. Year’s ago, bottles of Joy dish detergent for sale in Coral Bay read “Not Your First Choice” proudly on the front. Disgruntled employee? Office dare? Dang, I love this stuff. Years early I witnessed an entire end cap at Walgreens displaying large boxes clearly named “Potable Speakers.” I had to ask another customer to confirm I was reading it correctly, in other words, wrongly. Another notch! “Is there a job for people to do this full time,” I dream.
So back to the sweet midgets. I did finally get up the nerve to fish one of the tiny green turds out of the mystery container. I took a brave bite and I’m pretty sure it was a pickle. Pretty sure.
Does anyone else out there look for marketing mistakes?
While I listen to Bill Withers singing””Lean on Me”, the human need to connect and feel love sinks in. We live in a world of kinetic chaos that could squash the human spirit, but yet somehow, we find the good. The media offers up these happy bits and we cling to them like life savers. It is my pleasure to throw you one of my favorites.
Austin’s Altruism
Austin is a superhero and it’s not just because he dons a cape. He helps feed the homeless in Birmingham, Alabama. The fact that Austin has been on this earth just 4 years is almost irrelevant. He’s single handedly making a difference. Using his allowance and lunch money, he politely provides and reminds all to “don’t forget to show love”. How did this happen?
Austin’s dad seems just as perplexed, but equally supportive and proud. My favorite part of Austin’s story is that his superhero name is President Austin, as he believes this is what a President does. May we be so fortunate. You have my vote, Austin!
When Covid 19 hit the US with a punch in the Spring of 2020, how did it affect you? How did it affect your family? Your work? Well, if you are a sports caster and there is suddenly no sports to discuss, you, like many, turn your time and talents inward and start taking a long hard look at your home surroundings.
Andrew Cotter transitioned his sports broadcasting skills to his favorite companions: his dogs. Not what you might be expecting, we encourage you to take just a few minutes to enjoy Andrew’s two favorite players. Welcome, Olive and Mabel…
More people have cell phones than toilets, revealing a true shift in priorities and a serious need to get areas in South Asia and Sub-Saharan Africa plumbed.
Go Chiefs! And go Usher! Super Bowl 58 did not disappoint.
Perhaps you pondered where all the electricity for the whole endeavor was coming from. 621,000 solar panels, to be exact. And that’s a number Las Vegas can take to the bank. With over 300 sunny days per year, the area is prime for receiving and storing solar energy.
Do you have notes everywhere? Sticky notes? Napkin scribbles? Thoughts to remember? It’s OK. Really.
If you’re one of those people who writes notes by hand, technology is here to help. You can continue to jot down ideas that are then digitized into typed, searchable form.
Moleskin & Neo Smartpen use their own special pen and paper to digitize your handwritten notes.
Wacom Smartpad and Bamboo Slate digitize your writing and doodles using a highly sensitive tablet on which any kind of paper or pen can be used.
Livescribe uses a special pen to digitize both your vocalized and handwritten notes.
Evernote and One Note are platforms that can convert written words inside to text, which covers everything from written notes to typed documents to wine labels – whatever printed items you want to easily recall at a future time.
As a researcher, I conduct a lot of interviews. Some are one-on-one, or “individual” and others are in groups. Some interviews use video, some use audio, and others are group text chats with or without a visual component. Regardless of the means of communication, all human research has the same challenge: recruiting.
Filtering, validating, and setting expectations for the right people is THE most important part of any research study. That’s true whether you’re seeing them in-person or working with them online.
The final chapter to recruiting is go time – the reason you paid a recruiter in the first place. Your participants need to show up!
So what will help make that happen? As a marketing researcher who has been working online since 1996, I’ve relied on these tips that have stood the test of time:
A thoughtful + clear agenda with time commitments everyone sticks to
Manageable objectives, only bite what team members can chew.
Short meeting time commitments. Keep it simple + such.
CNBC reported that researchers at YouCanBook.Me revealed the best time and day to have a meeting, and the results are sort of surprising. It’s obviously not Monday or Friday, I can tell you that from personal experience.
A respected and beloved colleague in marketing research, Jeff Walkowski, recently published a book, Mr. Online’s Playbook, full of suggestions for better interviewing when you’re not in-person. Available on Amazon, a great buy. Happy new year to you, you deserve it.
I opened my cherished copy and randomly flipped to page 99. Not surprisingly, I found myself agreeing wholeheartedly with Tip E-30, where Jeff explains how to encourage participants to respond more in a bulletin board (asynchronous) environment. His tip, and I’m paraphrasing, is to specifically request the amount of response you’re seeking by literally asking for X# of reasons detailed, or Y# ideas explained, rather than “Why did you like or not like it” or “What else can you think of”. As a moderator of bulletin boards, I can assure you, probing is painfully required in order to get participants talking, so this tip is ahead of the game right out of the gate. Love it.
What tips for interviewing, online or in-person, do you find most useful?
