2009’s Most Ridiculous Uses Of Photoshop

This has me wondering why it’s so difficult to get a job in graphic design…

So it looks like the Town of Brookline, MA decided to reuse our designs to advertise the 1st Light Festival. What an honor!

Thanks to Tessa for snapping the picture (she also worked on the Town of Brookline account last year!)

Looks like the little search engine that could, did:
Bing Cracks 10% Search Engine Market Share

What will this mean for those of us in SEO? Well for one thing, it might be time to start tweaking our natural search optimization techniques to include the growing presence of bing. Here’s a good guide for optimizing for bing.

It seems you can’t turn on the TV these days (or Hulu or whatever transmission method you prefer) without seeing a “maps” commercial by Verizon. The short of it is that Verizon claims to have 5x more 3G coverage than AT&T. Brilliant ad campaign. And if they did their homework correctly, there’d be no way for AT&T to rebut.

However, AT&T found a solution: they’re just going to sue Verizon. Not about the claim, because they’re not arguing that it’s false. They’re suing because they claim that the Verizon ad is misleading.

Wait, what?

Yes, AT&T thinks that Verizon is implying that people without 3G coverage can’t receive phone calls or surf the web at all. Oh, did I mention that this is even after Verizon had fine print that clearly stated that phone and internet service are still available in areas without 3G on the AT&T network?

So why did AT&T do this? My guess would be they felt the shot to their pride. Verizon hit them where it hurt and there was no way AT&T could retalliate. I’m not saying AT&T should have taken their ball and went home, but they could have handled this much better than with a flimsy lawsuit. As of right now, I can see this turning into a PR nightmare.

Consider the following:

-AT&T filed the lawsuit not because Verizon’s claim of 500% more 3G coverage was false. People who read about the suit may correctly infer that AT&T concedes victory on that point.

-Others may read between the lines and feel that AT&T doesn’t believe in their own marketing/advertising department to come up with a rebuttal. Or maybe they don’t even have faith in their network.

-And let’s face it. This lawsuit makes AT&T seem like a kid who wants to play dodgeball but then complains when he/she gets hit.

Note: I should have prefaced this post by saying that I have been an AT&T customer for about 6 years (through the whole Cingular phase).

That whole Balloon Boy saga was a huge blow to the credibility of news organizations everywhere. It really showed that nobody was above covering sensationalistic news. Perhaps, at a deeper level, it also explained why the Internet has eclipsed traditional media as the news channel of choice for so many people.

I don’t dislike traditional news as an industry. It’s strange to be part of the generation that gets to witness the transition of what was once nontraditional into the new norm. And to watch the aging dinosaurs buckle at the knees, one by one. Things like the Balloon Boy hoax showed how easy it was to exploit traditional media and how desperate those outlets were to break a story that people care about.

And that is why I totally support the criminal charges brought against Balloon Boy’s parents. The advent of the 24 hours news cycle has done wonders to undermine the integrity of TV news. Hopefully, with lessons learned from this hoax, the industry will regain some shred of dignity. If it’s not too late, that is.

But really, who would have thought that parents who named their kid Falcon could be desperate for attention?