Tag > WIN

Interesting Marketing Decision 6/1/2009

I noticed in this somewhat creepy NYT piece about recent branding changes that the company formerly known as Blackwater USA is now (since February) known as: Xe Services LLC. How forgettable a name is that?

Spokeswoman Anne Tyrrell said there was no meaning in the new name, which the company spent over a year to arrive at in an internal search. [WaPo]

No mention of Blackwater on their new website, not even on About Us. BlackwaterSecurity.com is not working, BlackwaterUSA.com is now USTraining.com.

Anyway, marketing WIN. The word (Xe) is like memory kryptonite. I can't even remember it and I'm still writing the post about it. I guess sometimes losing mindshare is the goal. Also see: Altria.

The Different Kinds 5/25/2009

From The Different Kinds of People that There Are—which is funny because it's so true.

People Who Care About "Tweet" Being the Verb Form of "Twitter" and Have Opinions About Its Usage

This includes people who think you should say "tweet" when you talk about the activity associated with Twitter and people who think you should just use the word "Twitter." These opinions are equally uninteresting. If you must use the Twitter, or not use the Twitter, just do it (or don't). Let's not bring grammar and logic and giving a shit into this.

People Who Claim to Be Afraid of Clowns

These people (and they are numerous) are attempting to cultivate a cute quirk, but they are really just aping a cute quirk cultivated by thousands of cute-quirk-cultivators before them in a giant, gross, boring feedback loop. Yes, clowns can be mildly creepy. But come on. Among the many things that are scarier than clowns: fire, earthquakes, a guy with a knife, riding the bus, colon cancer, falling down the stairs (it could happen at any time!), rapists, people who just kind of look a little rapey and are standing too close to you in line at 7-Eleven, Marlo from The Wire, influenza, and scissors.