Running My First 5K

Imagine that one goal, that one activity or thing that you have always wanted to achieve, but knew deep down in your heart would probably never come to be.  For one reason or another it just seemed impossible.  No matter which way you played the scenario out in your head it always had the same outcome....failure.  This week I conquered one of those activities - I ran a 5K.  I know, it's only 3.1 miles, and to most serious runners it is just a breezy warm-up.  But I'm not a serious runner. Up until a month ago I didn't even consider myself a runner at all.  Actually, I hated it.  Which is why running the Kelly's Grief Center 5K (http://kellysgriefcenter.org/) was a pretty big deal.

Just a few months ago, running for more than 10 minutes was my absolute max.  I mean, who wants to run anyways?  Running and I never got along.  Maybe it's because running was always used as a punishment in the sports I played growing up.  You mean...I screwed something up and you're going to make me run more laps around the field?  And then I'm suppose to run "for fun" later on in life?  I was pre-conditioned to hate this activity.  It's like trying to root for your team's bitter rival after your dad raises you to detest them. So yeah, that's not going to work out.

My friend Dave and I acting to look like 2 runners

Even in high school, when forced to run, I always tried to get out of it.  There were a few of my friends on the baseball team that shared this feeling.  During conditioning, we had to run around the school three times, which was roughly one mile.  When the coaches weren't watching, a group of us would run once around the school and then sneak into the cafeteria to steal chocolate eclair ice cream bars.  We would then slam the ice cream bars during a brisk walk around the school and then meet the coaches back in the gym.  So we ran a third of a mile and then walked a third of a mile while eating ice cream bars.  Hard to believe it based on our extreme training regimen, but our team was the utmost mediocre.  My wife also pulled this charade in high-school for her track team, as she would hide in a bush and pop out to run when the rest of the team approached the bush.  Reason #463 we were meant to be together. 

Running to me, was just another chore.  I did it for the health benefits and not for enjoyment.  No matter what distance I tried, I was instantly bored.  Whether it be the track or treadmill, every step was more boring than the next.  My feet hurt, my shins hurt, I wasn't having fun.  I guess that it also didn't help that I never thought once about what kind of shoes I was wearing.  I not only needed new running shoes, I needed the right running shoe, so I went to Second Sole in the Valley.  The owner of the store picked out the perfect shoe for my foot, which also happened to be the most grandpa-like in appearance. I trusted his judgement and bought them although I absolutely hated how they looked (a classic sign that I'm not a runner - not yet).  I went to the gym and ran the next week and a funny thing happened - my legs didn't hurt, my shins felt great, and I was starting to have fun.  These shoes must of been working some sort of magic because I'm not suppose to be enjoying this.

I never set out to run this particular 5K.  The week prior, my wife and many of our friends ran in a 5K supporting infertility at Copley High School.  I was playing in a poker tournament the night before that was planned a few months out, so I had to graciously decline the invitation to run.  It was a good move.  A few whiskeys, scotch, cigars, 6,000 calories (not a joke), Taco Bell and $100 later and running was the furthest thing from my mind.  Based on the Taco Bell alone, it would of been a cataclysmically bad decision to race the next morning at 9am.  I felt awful that I did not participate in the race, given the cause and the group running.  Luckily for me, two of my friends were running the Kelly's Grief Center 5K in Stow the next week, so I had a chance to redeem myself and test my recent training.


Kelly's Grief Center 5K team

 I set a goal for myself to finish the race in 27:00 even.  I was running on false hope since I have only ran 3 miles or more twice in my life, which happened to be the week of the race.  Once I arrived at the race, for reasons unknown, I was even more confident in this goal....until I overheard a conversation at the registration table.  It's never good to hear one experienced runner decked out in proper gear tell his friend, Mr. Short Shorts that this is "one of the area's toughest courses", especially if you have never run a race before.  Great.  Confidence was out the window.  My new goal for my first race was now to finish without stopping to walk.  If guys in serious racing attire are concerned, then the newbie wearing basketball shorts with pockets should be peeing his pants scared.

The course was indeed difficult (at least in my mind), with many hills throughout the run.  I finished the race in 27:16, for a 8:47 mile pace.  Only 16 seconds off of my goal - I can deal with that. I finished dead even with a lady who placed first in her age group.  That means that if I was a 50 year-old woman or older, I would of been a champion.  So I have that going for me.  In the end, I finished exactly 100th out of 236 runners, so not too bad for my first try at this.  I haven't been this proud of an athletic accomplishment since hitting the same batter three times in one game while pitching in high school. 

If you asked me if I would ever run a 5K at any point in my life, my response would of been a resounding 'No'.  Just a few days ago I told somebody that I would never run a half marathon, now I'm having second thoughts.  For those serious runners out there reading this, you will laugh at my time.  But a few months ago I could barely run a mile, let alone three.  Now I love running.  I look forward to going to the gym and trying to see how much further I can go.  Even as I finishing my first race, my competitive personality started to kick in the moment I crossed the finish line.  16 seconds off my goal...failure.  I was proud and kind of bummed at the same time.  Oh well, something to look forward to overcoming during my next race.  I don't know when or how it happened, but I'm a full fledged runner now...and I kind of like it.

Die Hard Cleveland Fan Upset with Hiring of Browns Head Coach Rob Chudzinski

The Cleveland Browns’ search for a new head coach commenced on Thursday night when the team announced the hiring of Rob Chudzinski.  Chudzinski, who has most recently served as the Carolina Panthers Offensive Coordinator under Ron Rivera in 2011 and 2012, will bring much needed innovation and a vertical offensive game plan to a sickly Cleveland Browns offense.  Team owner Jimmy Haslam said candidly that Chudzinski’s leadership style and candid decision making candidly made him the best fit for the job.  However, not all Browns fans agree with Haslam’s assessment of his new head coach.

Die hard Browns fan and Toledo native Rob Chudzinski is one of the many who disagree with Chudzinski’s hiring.  “When I was at home with my wife Sheila and saw my name scroll across the bottom of the ESPN ticker as new coach of the Cleveland Browns, I instantly disliked the hire”, Chudzinski stated this morning.  “This team has seen its fair share of heartbreak since 1999, and hiring yet another inexperienced head coach is unacceptable.  As a child in Toledo, I would pretend to be Brian Sipe and Ozzie Newsome in my backyard, so I know the glory days of Browns football and what this team means to its city.  I am passionate about this franchise and gambling on a guy like myself is concerning for not only the front office, but for the fan base and region as well”. 

The Browns set an NFL record, interviewing 53 candidates in 11 days for their head coaching vacancy after the firing of Pat Shurmur.  Frustrated at the media perception of the arduous process and overall negative fan response, sources say that Haslam came to the realization that he cannot please the fans and was overheard screaming at Banner, “F*** them, if the fans think that they are so good, let’s see one of them try to coach this team”.  Enter Rob Chudzinski.

When asked on his shot of ever becoming an NFL head coach, Chudzinski replied, “You know, when I interviewed with Jacksonville, Tampa Bay, and St. Louis last year and walked away without a gig, I pretty much gave up on my dream.  If you can’t land a job with Jacksonville, then you need to rethink your career choice, which weighed heavy on my mind.  Then, out of nowhere, Mr. Haslam contacted me this week and invited me to an interview after Chip Kelly left him at the alter alone with Kim Jong Banner.  I was pretty bummed that my favorite team had to settle on somebody less than Chip Kelly, but I guess I’m lucky that they settled on me.  I’m still not on board with this hire, but you know, I guess I’ll give me a chance before I call morning radio to complain about myself”. 

Why I Left Facebook

Is anybody here?  I recently deactivated my Facebook account for the 4^th time in the past two years.  As you probably can tell, the last three tries didn’t go as planned and I reactivated my account shortly afterwards.  Who knows how long I can last with this latest try – if I last a month it will be an astounding success.  It's sad to see such an innovative medium with so much potential die a relatively quick death right in front of your eyes.

I don’t believe that Facebook will be around in 3 years.  At its beginning, Facebook was a revolutionary way to socially connect with others.  For pure communication and sharing of ideas and images, it still is.  The easiest way for me to connect with my friends and family quickly and efficiently is the use of Facebook group messages.  It's even more of a positive for me when my heavy disdain for talking on the phone is taken into consideration.  Facebook is still a great way to connect.  However, I feel that these positives are far being outweighed by many negatives. 

Remember those late ‘90s chain letters sent in emails? “Forward this to 100 people in the next 5 minutes and you will fall madly in love within a week”.  Yeah those ones.  You never fell in love after emailing those 100 people, you just continued to forward similar emails while shoving Swiss Cake Rolls down your throat.  Those emails were almost always accompanied by a Trojan virus and opening them instantly took 2 years off your computer's life.  Now that every middle-aged housewife and grandma in America is on Facebook, these types of messages have seen a resurgence.  I could only take so many “I will donate $100,000 to the Battered Wives’ Club of Barberton if this post gets 10,000 likes”.  These posts were flooding my feed and made me want to bite my nose off my face.

Even worse than chain posts?  Any meme ever posted on Facebook.  Like I said, the glory days of Facebook revolutionized the way that people communicated with each other.  Truly innovative.  Today’s Facebook revolutionizes the 100 different ways to say “Happy Friday” and “Oh No, Not Another Monday”.  Throw in a cute kitten for Friday posts and an angry baby for Monday posts and you have a winner – that is, if your description of a winner is something that makes me gouge my eyes out.

Perhaps the most egregious of them all is the monetization of the platform and how this affects user experience.  Almost every new and innovative program eventually falls victim.  I am holding out hope for Spotify, but I know that the quest for maximizing profitability will ultimately lead to its demise.  Privacy policies go by the wayside once advertisers demand more information for deeper market segmentation.  What was once easier to read than a Little Golden Book, Facebook’s privacy policy is now as ambiguous as Congress’ Affordable Care Act.  The focus is no longer on offering an engaging online experience, but monetizing every aspect of the platform.

I ultimately gave up when sponsored posts started to appear in my news feed.  Companies can now pay to promote posts within an individual’s feed, further blurring the line of how far advertisers will go to reach their audience.  As a Marketing guy, I know I may sound like a hypocrite here.  However, nobody wants promotions and offers shouted in their face.  If I was selling a product or service at a seminar or trade show, I would not interrupt conversation to shout “Hey - this product/service will change your life – you need to buy this now!” and then walk out of the room.  No, I would get to know my prospect/client and start to create a relationship built on trust that may ultimately lead to not only a purchase, but greater customer loyalty.  I see these sponsored posts as the shouting method.  I drew the line when in between Sandy Hook Elementary posts on the afternoon of December 14th, there were sponsored posts for HBO’s The Wire and monogrammed golf balls.  The whole point of Facebook was to give users a place to talk about what they are passionate about and communicate with friends and family.  Now, it has turned into yet another medium to try to turn a profit.

So I am trying to quit for good.  This will be hard for me, and especially for this blog, as the majority of everybody who reads this access it from Facebook.  I will still promote this blog through Twitter and Instagram, but my audience has been cut drastically.  So is anybody here?  If a blog post is written and not shared on Facebook, is it a blog post at all?  I will soon find out.  If you do like this post, please share with your friends on Facebook, as no matter how much I say I don’t care who reads this, you know I really don’t mean it.  If you do not share, that’s okay too.  But please don’t post anything today about Happy Friday.  Thanks.

The Greatest Album Review Of All Time - Ballroom Boxer

What do you get when you drop the Great Gatsby, Johnnie Walker, & fireworks in a blender?  The answer is a need for a new blender, as that combo will probably ruin the motor pretty quickly.  Good news is that you can find plenty of them at Bed, Bath & Beyond this holiday season, which is my preferred castle for everything home.  Oh yeah, you also get Ballroom Boxer, a staple in the Chicago music scene and my favorite Spotify obsession.  Over the years, the critically acclaimed rockers have opened for national acts such as Velvet Revolver, Buckcherry, and The Gaslight Anthem; but their finest achievement to date is this album review that you are reading at this very moment. 

The group, formed by brothers Mike and Dave Altier, Jared Cummans, and Tom Wood, came together from different areas of the country, including Chicago, Tennessee, and Akron, Ohio.  When asked about how the band emerged from these distinctly different regions, lead singer Mike Altier stated that each area’s awful football teams and really shitty quarterbacks were the inspiration. Might As Well Be a Bullseye, the pounding closing track on their debut EP Summer Mixes & Backseat Dreams, was written about Bears quarterback Jay Cutler and the less than stellar play of his left tackle.  Altier has a knack for drawing inspiration out of the deepest of despair.  The track is just one of the heart-pounding, soul-shaking moments on the band’s well-built debut.

Jukebox Romeo

 The band’s inventive sound really shines on its strongest track, Lost in Someday, an energized song soaked with whiskey and Ecto Cooler.  A gritty tone with a pop-like feel, Altier’s vocals reminisce of vintage souls such as Springsteen, Petty, and Zach Morris from that one episode where Zach Attack takes over The Max and shreds on their #1 smash, Friends Forever.  Ballroom Boxer, or any band for that matter, cannot top this heartfelt tune about friends, but I’ll be damned if they don’t try their hardest.  Hearts Are Wild, the band’s most poppy effort, grooves on in the middle of the EP and is a great summer song for males to bop around the beach in short jeans shorts to.  There is nothing that the band holds back. Last Cig, with its raunchy guitar and pounding drums is probably a good song; I haven’t listened to it yet.  I would definitely recommend it though, I think.  

Ballroom Boxer combines tight drums, driving guitar, catchy hooks, and acute alcoholism into one thrilling package that I cannot get enough of.  Overall, the band has crafted the perfect feel-good summer splashed EP that leaves you yearning for a follow-up, which they are currently recording in studio.  For more heartache, redemption, and wild times, check Ballroom Boxer out at their blog page, http://ballroomboxer.tumblr.com/, Twitter @ballroomboxer, or facebook.com/ballroomboxer.  

The Key to Geniune Messaging - Be Yourself

When I started this blog, I thought that it would be a great outlet to become a better writer. I have found out that the best way to accomplish this is to write, keep writing, and when you finally think you are done and sick of writing, write some more. The main reason for this blog is to help me in my professional life. I have a pretty decent creative mind and have a certain knack for identifying issues and finding simplistic, yet impactful creative solutions. I am always trying to stay on top of the latest trends in photography, music, social, and creative design. I find this essential to becoming a well-rounded marketer. My biggest weakness is in my creative writing ability. Anybody reading this out there that is a copywriter - God bless you. Many people overlook the importance of this role, but it is one of the most essential in the creative process. And I suck at it.

As I have been writing these posts, what I have found is that it is really easy to write about myself. Some of my favorite posts (and easiest ones to write) include stories of personal experience, opinion and self-deprecation. I shine in the latter, as you will soon find out in a future post. The reason these come to me so effortlessly is because I am being myself and writing about what I know. I am my own audience. I use this space primarily to improve a known weakness and hope to make people like me laugh along the way (which is highly debatable). It is a really simple process because I am just being me.

This made me think about my professional life and my struggles with writing, as well as other companies that offer lackluster content. As a company, the message that you convey to your core-audience should be a reflection of who you are and what you stand for. Being genuine and real counts. Many corporations and small businesses feel like they need to be everything to everyone. I say that if you’re not alienating some portion of the population that you’re doing it wrong. Would you rather have a core base of crazy fanatics of your brand, while isolating some groups, or have a homogenous fan base that will switch brand allegiance unhesitatingly? I’d rather have the former, even at the expense of potential market share and other blah blah business talk that investors and people in suits worry about.

This is why companies that are real have an easier time engaging their customers. Be yourself. Just like it is easier for me to write about my life, the same holds true in business. Companies that aren't afraid to be who they are come across more genuine to their audience. It's really noticeable when you try to fake it. Listing customer service as a company pillar on the "About Us" section on your website means absolutely nothing. They are empty words if not truly embodied every single day. But having a passion and caring for genuine customer service is instantly noticeable. You don't even have to list it on your website. People don't need websites to tell them how to think or feel about a company. In an unofficial survey that I just made up in my head and have absolutely no research to back up, 98% of customers appreciate genuine customer service. The other 2% are jerks that complain about everything. The key to becoming a better writer and getting people to notice you or your company as genuine? Be yourself. 

All Nostalgic and Stuff

Yesterday was a big day at work – a landmark day if you will.  No, Jo-Ann Fabrics did not eclipse record sales numbers, I didn’t get promoted, nor did I succeed in anything of particular importance.  Yesterday, the Marketing department got new color copier/printers.  Long gone are the days of walking down a narrow hallway to fetch 11x17 copies, I now can walk 30 feet to my printer.  I know…groundbreaking stuff.  What is of real importance in this non-story was the nostalgia I experienced while walking up to that printer for the first time.  It had that “new electronics” smell, which instantly brought me back to my childhood.  I can’t quite explain the smell in words, but it is the same smell that is present whenever you open up a new video game console.  Being a self-described geek, this smell instantly kick started my morning, along with the 64 oz. of coffee that I routinely chug without coming up for air.  That video game console smell got me thinking about my youth.

Mr. Webster, in all of his wisdom, defines nostalgia as, a wistful or excessively sentimental yearning for return to or of some past period or irrecoverable condition.  It’s never a good sign when there is a word in a definition that you don’t know the definition of.  In this case, I also had to look up the word wistful, a word that I’ve certainly heard before, but have never used.  To make things simpler, I have defined nostalgia as, awesome crap that I may or may not have remembered from the past.  Much easier to remember, and no other words need to be defined.  Perfect.  Nostalgia hits people both consciously and subconsciously. The song I’m So Excited by The Pointer Sisters recalls a memory that I am very aware of.  Of course, I’m talking about Jessie Spano’s addition to caffeine pills.  You did not want to be near Miss Spano when she was off of her highly addictive caffeine pills.  Man, what a bitch.  I will always remember the line, “I’m so excited, I’m so excited, I’m so scared”.  Ahhh, nostalgia.  It is a one-to-one relationship.  When I hear the song, it’s all I think about.  However, instantly associating the smell of a new copier/printer to the feeling of un-boxing a new video game console is a little different and unexpected.  That feeling really got me thinking of my youth.  I spent the day taking a look back and reminiscing on the simpler times.



There's no time - there's never any time!

 The majority of my youthful memories fall between the ages of 9 and 14.  In a previous post, I dubbed this portion of my life, The DJ From Roseanne Years.  Yes, I bore a striking resemblance to DJ Conner when I was young and haven’t really had a celebrity look-alike since.  Some people have cool celebrity look-alikes, I have some young asshole from a 90s sitcom.  Sexy.  Oh well, I guess it could be worse, I could look like Rachel Maddow.  I have plenty of other memories outside of this age range, but the hard-core nostalgic stuff always falls back into this timeframe.  Eventually high school and college stuff will start to creep in, but I think that at least 15-20 years need to pass by before full-fledged nostalgia starts to kick in. 



What a little jerk.



My youth was dominated, (in no particular order) by; Nintendo, The Bad News Bears, The Sandlot, WWF Wrestling, trading cards, sports, Saved By The Bell, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles, and Ghostbusters.  In the summer months, give me a basketball and a hoop and I could entertain myself for hours.  Every day, I was Mark Price and the Cavs, while at the same time playing as Michael Jordan and the Bulls.  I tried a little harder to make the shots when Mark Price was at the helm and purposefully tripped over myself, throwing the ball out of bounds while I was Michael Jordan.  Any on-looker watching me play basketball by myself would think I was schizophrenic.  Oh nothing to see here, just a 10 year-old kid screaming at himself, trying to psych himself out during the last 10 seconds of a fake basketball game.  Of course, the Cavs almost always won, except for the times when I would purposefully try to miss the game winning shot as Jordan, and the ball would inexplicably carom off the backboard, around the rim, and through the net.  Those were the worst moments ever.  Just a little kid ashamed of himself for having the Bulls defeat the Cavs.  Without a reset button to hit in my driveway, I was relegated to defeat.

The same went with wrestling.  Do you know how many times Hulk Hogan (umm…me, duh), would defeat Randy Macho Man Savage (the old pillow)?  That answer would be a lot, and always during the winter months and rainy days, when I couldn’t be outside staging a full 16-team NBA playoff bracket by myself.  Whereas the basketball would sometimes go through the hoop by accident on an opposing team’s last shot, there is no real explanation as to why I sometimes let a pillow pin me for the WWF Championship belt. I guess it’s because I would never have had the chance to win the belt.  Any fake pillow wrestler worth his weight in gold knows that it’s better to win the championship belt, rather than to constantly defend it.  I wanted a little realism and didn’t want to win every time.  Unlike DJ from Roseanne, I didn’t want to be a little jerk to my pillow opponents.

I would of killed to have one of these - I had to be imaginative and use a plain old pillow

After thinking hard for 15 straight minutes, I cannot come up with a single other memory of my youth that didn’t involve those topics listed above.  Music didn’t enter my life until high school.  Same with the Cleveland Browns thanks to Dead Art Modell.  My guitars and foolish blind love and support for the Browns are my other real loves that I hold from my past.  I guess the reason those two don’t make me as nostalgic is because I am still obsessed about them. As you grow older, you have to let go of some of your youth from the past, or you start to become a weirdo.  Would I love to still have an awesome baseball card collection?  Yeah, but the older you get, it’s just strange to have that interest.  Any hobby that a 9 year-old kid and 40 year-old man share is just creepy.  Same goes for watching wrestling on a weekly basis.  I would be willing to be that great majorities of the card collecting creeps are de facto wrestling fans – I just have that hunch.

So these were the thoughts that were running through my head all day after printing out marketing plans for Martha Stewart paper crafting supplies.  It all started with that smell (Ooooo that smellllll).  Sorry, my music obsessive-ness coming through once more.  You never know where nostalgia will bring you.  I’ve since watched YouTube videos on Zack Attack, Don West QVC trading card infomercials, old Ninja Turtle clips and of course, mid-90s WWF footage.  These bring me back to a simpler time of no marketing strategy meetings, no mortgages, no real stresses other than being concerned with how fake Craig Ehlo could go through a scoring drought at the worst possible time in fake NBA games.  It’s great to look back, but even better to look forward to the days where I will get the chance to push all of this on to my kid one day.  Oh God help me if I have a girl.

Stone Cold E.T. and White Castle Cheeseburgers

What do E.T., White Castle cheeseburgers and Stone Cold Steve Austin have in common?  Absolutely nothing, and that's what makes Stone Cold E.T. the perfect viral video.  It makes no sense and shouldn’t be funny, but throw all three together with a video camera and you get comedy gold.  I’ll admit that you need to know a little wrestling to really get the nuances in this video; but even for those who have no wrestling interest, the ridiculousness of the combo is what makes it so hilarious.

Stone Cold E.T. instantly catapulted itself into my top 3 favorite YouTube videos of all-time and joins the likes of Crying Wrestling Fan and GI Joe Pork Chop Sandwiches.  As of the writing of this post, Stone Cold ET has 471,000 views on YouTube, which blows my mind.  This thing deserves to be in the millions - it really is the bees knees.  I gauge the success of a viral video on how quickly I want to share it with everybody I know.  Within one minute of seeing Stone Cold E.T., I was forwarding the link on to all of my social contacts online.  Over the past week, anybody that enters my home must first watch the video before even saying hi.  You might be coming over to share that you got that huge promotion or that you and your wife are expecting your first child, but before sharing the big news you will be sat down and forced to see Stone Cold E.T. order a couple of White Castles to go…and maybe a drink. 

Every company wants to get their content to go viral and some even try to manufacture buzz on their own.  What most companies don't understand is that you cannot set out and just create a viral video.  Unfortunately, the Internet decides what is going to go viral, not the companies themselves.  You cannot simply create buzz, otherwise there would be a ton of Viral Video Specialists and experts out there.  Oh wait, what was that?  There are people that claim to be viral video experts?  If anybody guarantees that they can make your video viral, please run as far as you can in the opposite direction in a Usain Bolt-like fashion.  These are the same people that love QR codes and push full-page newspaper ads even though newspaper readership is at an all-time low.  The best of the best sell a full page ROP with QR codes included, these people are what I like to call, out of touch.  The best viral content starts conversations, for both the good and the bad, and as a company, you must be ready to take part in this conversation.

Stone Cold E.T. likes whoopin' ass

White Castle is clearly the winner here due to the exposure that Stone Cold E.T. brings.  In a video like this, it is rare that the company being pranked is not cast in a negative light.  The drive thru staff showed extreme patience throughout the entire video and offered no reason to dislike White Castle. So far, 471,000 people have been exposed to the White Castle brand (which apparently stands for excellent service and crappy hamburgers). The company has a real opportunity to build upon this buzz.  If I ran White Castle’s social media team, I would link this video to Facebook and Twitter to try to gain momentum.  Obviously, current licensing agreements with Universal Pictures and WWE would instantly prohibit White Castle from officially promoting use of these characters in advertisements, but a couple of retweets and Facebook links should be within the realm of possibility.  There is a chance to stand out and be special and acknowledge that as a company, you can be real.  Of course this video is flying around White Castle coporate, it should be flying around their social media channels as well.

The good companies monitor what is being said about their brand, both good and bad.  Sometimes a little nugget like Stone Cold E.T. makes its way into pop culture and could catapult a brand into cult status.  Will this happen with White Castle?  Probably not. Their sliders taste like dog food on a tiny bun.  I haven’t had White Castle in over 10 years, but I might have to give them a curious chance, something I never would of done before this video. I’ve talked about this video and have showed it to everybody I know, exposing my small group to their brand.  This is what a good viral video can do for a company, even if they did not originate the content.  On the flip side, a viral video can be at the detriment of some companies, as was the case with United Airlines when their baggage carriers damaged a $1,200 guitar.  United Breaks Guitars has now been viewed over 12.5 million times. The next natural phase of this video is the sure-fire follow-up, which won’t be half as funny as the original (because you can’t manufacture viral).  If nothing else, Stone Cold E.T. has firmly cemented itself as a personal first-ballot YouTube hall-of-fame candidate, a video that I will view for years to come.  White Castle has a chance to build on this – all they have to do now is make an edible burger.