The Life of Brian

Well, we started this at Thanksgiving and weren't really sure if we'd still have the site up past Christmas, but the response has been incredible. We've had coverage on CNN, TheStreet.com, Springwise.com and a whole bunch of cooler blogs from all over the world. Google returns 1.6 million search results. We've even had an inquiry from the SEC.  But what's really cool is the 400,000 or so people who have pledged $5, $10, $15 towards this cause. So where do we go from here? Michael and I are trying to find time to sit down with a case of PBR's and figure it out. Stay tuned.

Michael Migliozzi (of Forza Migliozzi) and I were talking about how we thought crowdsourcing produced crappy work.  But we thought there must be a way to put it to good use. So we decided to try and croudsource the $300,000,000 the Pabst Brewing Company was asking for. And so buyabeercompany.com was born. As of this morning we've had over $100,300,000 pledged – over a thrid of the way there. It's not over yet, folks.  We're thirsty for beer and evidently, we're not alone.

http://buyabeercompany.com/

Last week I was one of TweetFreak's "Five to Follow" and did a cool Twitter Q&A with Brian Morrissey of Adweek as the "Twit of the week." I'm not sure it's good to be a "twit," but it's gotta beat being a twat.

I got lots of calls yesterday and this morning about what I think about Amazon buying Zappos. First off, it's great for Zappos and people who love Zappos. It's pretty simple from where I sit. Before Amazon came along Zappos had investors that were looking to get a return on their investment sooner rather than later. That's the business they're in.  Amazon can see the greater value of Zappos over the long haul and will give them the money and resources to accomplish their long term goals as opposed to insisting they get more profitable, more quickly. Congratulations, Zappos.

In his blog Ignited executive creative director Mike Wolfsohn lamented that Zappos didn't spend enough time looking at his RFP. This set off a shit storm of comments from the typically anonymous commenters on Adweek, AdAge and others – including Ad Contrarian where in case you missed it Aaron Magness had an incredibly articulate response.

I'm the last person that wanted to see Zappos go into review. Do I wish the process was a little more under control? Of course. But Zappos was, and always has been, upfront with us and all the other agencies who made the decision to participate in the review. No one was forced into it.

But with that said, this post is really meant to point out that as an industry we love to whine and feel sorry for ourselves. And I'm including myself in this because I've certainly been guilty of it.

Well, I'm here to say get over it folks. Express your opinion. Do it constructively so people will take you seriously. Stop posting anonymous rants that make you and the advertising community as a whole look like whiney babies.

That's my whiney rant for the day and I'm all whined out now.