If you were given a last meal, what would you wash it down with? Would you choose Coke, Pepsi, or something completely different?
Obviously, it’s difficult to do a study of this nature as killing people in the course of research would be slightly unethical, and you’d have a tough time disposing of bodies (trust me - it’s not easy to make bodies disappear).
However, the state of Texas, in all its wisdom, posted on their state site the last meals of all the people executed from 1982 to 2003. This information is no longer available from their site, but it has been copied and can be found here.
The results?
Of the 301 inmates listed, 52 declined the last meal. Of the 249, 37 chose Coke as their final drink (14.8%). Only 3 chose Pepsi (1.2%). I’m impressed Coke has so much market pull, and a smart marketer would take advantage of this - either side can spin it favorable.
Coke: More people choose Coke as their final drink than Pepsi!
Pepsi: Death row killers are 10x more likely to drink Coke than Pepsi!
Of course, the entire ad would have to have sort of a parodied feel to it - something like this:
Quick photoshop job, but something along these lines would catch people’s attention. Incidentally, Dr. Pepper was served 13 of the 249 last meals (5.2 %), beating out Pepsi, despite a much smaller market share. Dr. Pepper is made by DPSU, Inc (Dr. Pepper / Seven Up). They can easily grab a share of this marketing and can go in either direction - especially if either one of these companies picked it up.
What’s the lesson? Coke has fantastic branding, and branding is powerful enough that it will even be on people’s minds in their last moments. Brand on!
April 6th, 2007
posted in Humor, Top, Marketing |
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AlexKnibb posted a list of tricks to improve the number of friends and reviews you have on StumbleUpon. Here’s a few, and these will work on almost any social networking site.
Part I - Setting up your profile
1. You are female. Even if you’re not, you are now.
2. Your age should be higher than 15, but lower than 30.
3. Find a picture either of yourself (if you’re female) or of someone else (if you’re not, and remember you are now) which meets the following criteria:
–a. It’s slightly ambiguous (i.e. not just a standard head shot, unless you do happen to be devastatingly attractive)
–b. It’s slightly flirtatious (looking up into the camera helps)
–c. Hotpants help (see putain.stumbleupon.com)
Check out the rest of Alex’s tips here!
April 5th, 2007
posted in Humor, StumbleUpon, Social Search, Top |
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Playing around with Google Maps (yes, because I do things like playing with Google Maps), I tried to see what would happen if I asked Google how to get from Providence, RI (where I am now), to get some good italian food in best place to get it: Rome, Italy.
Surprisingly, it gave me an answer! And it would only take me 29 days, 17 hours to do, traveling a total 4,524 miles! Google assumes that I can swim about 6.25 mph - personally, I’d rather take a rowboat. Spending that much time in the water would make me all pruney. Click to see the full image.
It’s a nice little easter egg. What I’m more impressed by, is that if I’m going from a European countery, it gives me kilometers instead. I have to give Google points for paying attention to other countries customs and making sure that they’re following them. It’s a much better usage policy than assuming everyone knows how to use miles, feet, etc., (none of which makes any sense anyway).
Can Google get sued for this? I’ll bet someone will try, when a family member drowns trying to get to Paris.
April 3rd, 2007
posted in Google Maps, Humor, Top |
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Ask.com recently poked at Google for the failure of its schwag pen in the middle of ‘crucial notetaking‘.
So Google responded by sending them an advanced pen whose architecture is based on “redundant arrays of inexpensive drafting stuff.” Included was a letter, shown below (click to view in full size).
So my question is, where can I get one of these sweet, light-up pens? Matt?
February 27th, 2007
posted in Ask.com, Humor, Top, Google |
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