Author Archives: Ron Bieber

The Bobs of Advertising

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baby_bob_homeThere are some advertising campaigns that just grab you and you really enjoy watching. I was pretty impressed the the campaigns that Geico had going for a while, but Quiznos has taken the cake with their spokesperson, Baby Bob.

I don’t know what it is about this little guy, but I love watching these commercials. Its so refreshing to see advertising with a little creativity and fun baked in!

Aside from Baby Bob, the other set of commercials that I really enjoy watching for some reason are the Smilin’ Bob commercials from Enzyte.

Smilin’ Bob cracks me up.

I think the thing I like most about all three companies mentioned here is that they don’t seem to take themselves too seriously. This is the most irritating thing I find about business is the idea that there is some “proper” way to represent yourself and that you have to appear stodgy and serious or you aren’t professional.

In my opinion, there is a really fine line between professional and boring. More than that, the more concerned companies are with their “professional image” the more I am inclined to feel they’re fake and want to take my business elsewhere. I’d rather deal with humans than robots with no sense of humor.

Well, there you have it. Some random observations after watching a Quiznos commercial. Now, back to your regularly scheduled programming.

Extremely Busy This Week

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I realized as I was sitting here working this morning after getting up at around 4:30a that its already Wednesday and I haven’t really posted anything since Sunday.

I’ve been extremely busy with work this week. Additionally, I picked up a book called The Search: How Google and Its Rivals Rewrote the Rules of Business and Transformed Our Culture on the recommendation of a friend and have spent all available free time reading it. Its a facinating book. While I’m only half way through it, I feel very comfortable recommending it right now. The best way to explain it is the Hard Drive : Bill Gates and the Making of the Microsoft Empire of the search industry.

As I get some time this week, I also want to write up something on another book I read last week called The E-Myth Revisited: Why Most Small Businesses Don’t Work and What to Do About It, in which the author explains what they call the Franchise Prototype and the factors involved in creating a small business. Additionally, he explains why most small businesses started by ‘Technicians’ fail. Its a really great read. Pick it up if you get a chance.

Ok, enough writing, back to the office. I’ve got my iPod loaded and a posting on the web site. Time to get some work done!

Frank Zappa Catalog Available on iTunes

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I hit Dahl.com this morning and saw an ad on the site about the Zappa catalog being available on iTunes.

I hit Google News to see if I could find some announcements on this, but came up empty. I then did a Google search and found tons of references to it, mostly on web logs.

My Google search did, however hit something else as well. Over on Zappa.com, I found this proposal, written by Frank himself, for a service for making available back catalog items via digital download (over cable).

I found this really interesting. Just another example, I guess, of how far ahead of his time this guy was.