Author: Brian Lee

Go Samsung!

Posted on by Brian Lee

I love the Samsung Galaxy S III commercials in how they make fun of Apple and Apple fans. For example, Apple is screwing over consumers by changing the size of the dock connector because the iPhone 5 can’t connect to devices such as speakers or car stereos without an adapter, which Apple conveniently sells for about $40 (Apple also acknowledges some devices won’t even work with an adapter).

But as the video points out, Apple fans always overlook being screwed, as evident in one person saying “Yeah, but they [Apple] make the coolest adapters.”

I also like how some guy’s (uncool) parents are eager to buy the iPhone, and that Apple is finally providing features other phones already have, like a big screen and 4G capability.

Speaking of big screens, Apple’s new commercial that trumpets its big screen inadvertently is saying the previous incarnations of the iPhone are basically poorly designed for not having a big screen.

Here’s the Samsung commercial:

Talk about overreaction…

Posted on by Brian Lee

Disclaimer: this is not an attack on anyone’s faith, just on people’s overreactions.

Recently, Dr. Pepper created an ad titled the Evolution of Flavor. It takes the traditional scientific progression from ape to man and throws Dr. Pepper in the mix, hinting that with Dr. Pepper, humans evolved. Fairly basic, and in my opinion, only moderately creative.

However, since they posted the picture to Facebook, it has become a controversy. Several commenters believe that this is insulting to their religious beliefs and state in many of their not-so-eloquently worded comments that they are refusing to buy Dr. Pepper any longer.

To me this seems a bit ridiculous. Is one tiny ad, which disagrees with your opinions, really worth this extreme of a reaction?

To me, an ad is an ad. I look at it and I understand that it is meant to target certain people and elicit a certain response … to get people to buy the product. That doesn’t mean that the ad is attacking my personal beliefs or my religion.

There are definitely certain ads that are intended to make political and social statements.  However, this is not one of them, and I wish that people weren’t as prone to jump to an overreaction. If you don’t like the ad, don’t pay attention to it. Can’t we all just take a deep breath and move on?

Food blogging

Posted on by Brian Lee

In addition to heading Revelation, I also run a dining guide called EatDrinkMadison.com. Today, the local daily newspaper ran a long feature story on the prevalence of food bloggers in town–yours truly included–called “Eat Drink Blog” (I’m hoping that my guide’s name influenced the title of the article).

What’s not printed here that I discussed in my 30-minute interview with the reporter is why bloggers are starting to be taken more seriously:

  • Content has improved over time. We’ve gotten away from the weblog (or journal) and moved more toward reviews and op-ed type blog posts.
  • Bloggers have been better at using multimedia such as photos, videos and even audio to enrich their posts.
  • The advent of social media has changed consumers to producers of the news. That, coupled with shrinking newsrooms of the traditional media, has made blogs and blogging more popular.
  • Blogs reach the hyperniche market. Targeting blogs for earned or unearned media opportunities can be cost effective when you know the 40 or 50 readers are all super fans of whatever the topic of the blog is.

To me, it’s not surprising how many food bloggers are out there. Some do it as a hobby, some for money … I added a blog to EatDrinkMadison.com (and started a Twitter account) to connect more with both residents and visitors of the area.