Comments on: Poking the schoolyard bully in the eye

By: Don

Don — Sat, 14 Mar 2009 07:21:22 +0000

I've been reading your blog for about 9 months after a creative director friend sent me a link to your blog. A few months after, I saw an ad for this tv show. My immediate reaction was, "Man, that interactive studio does some crazy shit".

No, I'm just kidding. But I did notice the name being the same, and thought it was quite unfair. The theft of a creative name (just to make it into a ridiculously literal name for an awful tv show) just seemed ridiculous.

So, I was incredibly entertained when I clicked the "stumble" button one day to find your "smashlab sucks" website. Its hilarious, and its an incredibly creative way to turn a negative into a positive.

Anyway, keep up the good work on the entertaining blog as well. I laughed out loud about the engineers sending in applications. That's priceless.

By: James McWhorter

James McWhorter — Mon, 09 Mar 2009 18:12:25 +0000

Bend like reed instead of snapping like a branch... or something like that. Congrats!

By: Stuart Thursby

Stuart Thursby — Sat, 07 Mar 2009 23:53:01 +0000

Classic!

By: Ben Moorhouse

Ben Moorhouse — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 10:27:01 +0000

Awesome!
I hadn't seen/heard anything about this until this post, and it's genius!
I love it when people are open and brutally honest about what they're thinking, and this is a great example of it paying off!

Well done!

By: Travis Fleck

Travis Fleck — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 21:01:02 +0000

Well done.

By: Deb Budd

Deb Budd — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:09:59 +0000

We can relate. Our advertising association, The Second Wind Network, launched in 1988, just before the Internet made all things local suddenly global. Do you have any idea how many companies (and across how many industry categories) are named Second Wind? (Including a foot odor product and a senior citizen's newsletter.) We stopped counting. Kudos to you for tackling the ham-fisted interlopers directly (and humorously). And please keep posting insightful stories about your adventures in interactive design. Your 10 tips for disarming client requests should be part of every designer's formal training.

By: Maggie Hohle

Maggie Hohle — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 20:08:14 +0000

Glad the Discovery Channel was good about it. The whole honesty thing goes pretty far.

By: DoreenatDMS

DoreenatDMS — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 19:24:06 +0000

hey..don't sell your marketing strategy short; after all, you guys also had a Twitter component... ;-)

By: Josh

Josh — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 18:30:44 +0000

Well thats a triumph for you, in at least getting some of your good name back. Though my company is no where near as successful as yours, I think we've done a fairly good job with selecting a almost unique name, despite there being some unrelated fellows bearing the same name in other countries (including yours with an oddly pedestrian site).

Though I have been contemplating changing our name for no other reason than some of our original partners have moved on and I'm in the process of....do I let go of the minimal brand value I really have or retain the name and take over fully.

As for making millions of dollars, I met a fellow yesterday who basically flipped websites into directory type sites by purchasing their failed sites and he apparently makes good money on the side doing that. Just goes to show that actual creative value is not regarded as high as something that can be found with a generic keyword search and offers no tangible product. So I guess we are suckas.

And lastly, I haven't been confused yet, but there is a wedding gown shop that goes by our name in Seattle. I'm waiting for the day, when we will be confused and will laugh heartily upon the inquisition.

By: Lar Van Der Jagt

Lar Van Der Jagt — Wed, 04 Mar 2009 18:18:37 +0000

This story reminds me of the classic line from Office Space:

Michael Bolton: Why should I change my name? He's the one that sucks!