Innovative fan marketing

I recently purchased a LASKO fan for a family camping trip. On the flap of the box are these selling points:

Why Buy a Fan?

• Create a Wind Chill
• Circulate Air Conditioning
• Bring Fresh Air In
• Dispel Stale Air & Odors
• Use for Only Pennies a Day
• Get Comfortable!

WHAT? If you’re buying a fan and you’re thinking to yourself Hmmm, I’m not convinced yet and you ask yourself why you should buy a fan – chances are you probably don’t need a fan.

Dog + pig

Yet another comic that I created over at stripgenerator.com. I like dog + pig. I think I’ll work up some more cartoons with these two characters. They look like ‘ol pals. Dog has a smug look on his face and pig just looks slightly surprised and overwhelmed. [Click the image for a larger version]

If you like this strip, click on the “bookmark” button below and Digg it or add to StumbleUpon.

Band practice

Here’s another cartoon that I created over stripgenerator.com. I haven’t visited the site in awhile and thought I should check back in. Stripgenerator.com makes it very easy to create your own comic strip with their pre-built cast of characters and bubbles. Click the image to see a larger version.

Also see:
Strip generator is addictive
Why the long face?

The weirdest travel stories of 2007

After spending five and a half hours on the tarmac in Austin Texas late last year, It was interesting to read that 2007 was one of the worst travel years on record.

Here are a few of my favorites from a USAtoday article:

• A passenger in first class on a British Airways Delhi-London flight in March awoke to discover that a corpse, upgraded from coach, had been propped in a seat in his row.”She kept slipping under the seat belt and moving about with the motion of the plane,” Paul Trinder told Britain’s Sunday Times. “When I asked what was going on, I was shocked to hear she was dead.”
• A 64-year-old man was hospitalized earlier this month after chugging a liter of vodka rather than surrendering it at a checkpoint in Germany’s Nuremberg airport.
• SkyWest airlines apologized to a passenger who said he was forced to urinate in an airsickness bag during a short flight in March because the only restroom was closed due to a malfunctioning light. The man told the Salt Lake Tribune he’d had two “really big beers. It was like I had no choice.” The pilot called police upon landing in Salt Lake, but the airline later gave the passenger a travel voucher in addition to the apology.
• In July, a flight from St. Petersburg, Russia, to Turkey turned back after the crew was unable to break up a fight involving three inebriated men. It started, said the Russian News and Information Agency, when one of the men was “given the cold shoulder” by a woman he was chatting up and hit her in the face.
• Toilets overflowed on an Amsterdam-Newark flight on Continental Airlines in June, causing passenger Collin Brock to tell a Seattle television station King 5 News, “I was forced to sit next to human excrement for seven hours.”
• Passengers weren’t the only ones guilty of bad behavior in 2007. In April, a Northwest Airlines pilot locked himself in an airline restroom, where he had a loud, obscenity-laced conversation on his cellphone as passengers boarded his flight in Las Vegas. When confronted by a passenger, the pilot cussed at him. The flight was canceled as a result of “inappropriate language by a crewmember,” the airline said.
• A stowaway squirrel on an American Airlines flight from Tokyo to Dallas in February caused the plane to land in Honolulu. An airline spokesman told the Associated Press the pilots were worried the “varmint” might damage the plane’s wiring.
• Nepal Airlines personnel sacrificed two goats on the runway in front of a malfunctioning Boeing 757 to appease the “Hindu god of sky protection,” Reuters wire service reported in September. After the goat sacrifice, the plane took off for Hong Kong.
• Not even Vatican-backed Mistral Air was willing to appeal to a higher power when authorities confiscated holy water from pilgrims returning from the Roman Catholic shrine at Lourdes, France. The airline’s president cited rules that ban carry-on containers holding more than 3 ounces of liquid, telling the Associated Press, “These (regulations) have to be respected.”

[Thanks JC]

We’re all going to die – Merry Christmas!

Nothing funnier than a drunk Malcolm Middleton dressed up as a drunk Santa in and around London town. This must be a fairly normal event as most of the people in the video hardly notice or have any reaction to him at all.

In this video, indy rocker Malcolm Middleton puts a holiday spin on his upbeat “We’re all going to die” number. Just add bells, a children’s choir and BANG, you’ve got yourself a holiday classic. He’s pining for the number one Christmas slot on BBC radio one. See the official song site here.

We’re all going to die
We’re all going to die and what if there’s nothing
We’ll all have to face this alone
There’s a when not an if inside everybody
Mortal thoughts like this can make you feel so alone

You’re gonna die, you’re gonna die, you’re gonna die alone
You’re gonna die, you’re gonna die, you’re gonna die alone
All alone.

And what if I don’t become famous posthumously
Maybe my story’s no good
If I can take one possession then it’ll have to be my duvet
When oblivion comes calling it’ll be so cold

You’re gonna die, you’re gonna die, you’re gonna die alone
You’re gonna die, you’re gonna die, you’re gonna die alone
All alone.

When you can’t sleep at night and there’s no one to hold you
Remember I’m going through the same
You’ve got to laugh into the dark
We’re all one in a million
We’re alive, we existed, we took part, in the game.

We’re gonna die, we’re gonna die, we’re gonna die alone
We’re gonna die, we’re gonna die, we’re gonna die alone
We’re gonna die, we’re gonna die, we’re gonna die alone
All alone.

Also see:
www.myspace.com/malcolmmiddleton

Funny Honda Element Commercials

The Honda Element Commercials are well done, funny, and simple. Honda reaches out to their key demographic with a BIG “What up?” On the other hand, the Honda Odyssey commercials also reach out to their target demo but without the pizazz.

Check out the mini site:elementandfriends.com Here you’ll be able to play the companion game driving either the EX or SC model. The game is fun to play and addictive. The basic premise is you drive around an island, in an Element of course, looking for the animals from the commercials. When you see one, a talk bubble pops up. You can either speak with them [initiate dialog between the Element and the animal] or play a game. The animals are an interesting bunch.

So, which commercial do you like the best?

Also see:
Forget the Honda Odyssey Viking spot

What about Global Warming?

A very funny rant on non-profits and global warming. Zefrank is funny and quite original. Why don’t they give this guy complete complete control over Saturday Night Live and fire the other writers. Better yet, cancel Saturday Night Live and start “Zefrank Show.”

C’mon Lorne Michaels, it’s time to give someone else a shot!

via zefrank.com

Holiday Gift Idea:
Sweet Sassy Luggage Tags

Here’s a funny gift that says “Hey, I know you travel quite a bit and are tired of other people grabbing your luggage.” Nice gift and it’s only $10 bucks.

Identify your luggage from afar with these vivid luggage tags. Featuring refreshing colors, fluorescent plastic zip ties, name and address fields and messages like “careful: my shoes are inside,” these disposable tags are just the cure for jetlag and frequently confused luggage. Sold as a set of six.

Link

A kid’s show you won’t see anytime soon

After sitting through hours of children’s programing, you almost expect something like this might happen. Let’s face it, a gator can be pretty mean. Dealing with all those singing muppets eventually pushes Gali to the edge.

Gali the Aligator
Here comes Gali the Alligator
He’s a puppet decimator
Little birdies chewed to death
You can smell blood on his breath

Cuddly bunnies live in fear
And he’ll pull off their fluffy ears
Better stay off of his path
You want to escape his wrath

Watch out Barney – you’re next!