I knew that I Can Has Cheezburger was a shamefully fun time waster. What I didn’t know until a Time magazine article earlier this month was just how many people also enjoy something as simplistic as unusual photos of cats with funny captions - the meme known as “LOLCATs”. Technorati ranks the site as #20 on its list of most popular blogs - 12 spots above Robert Scoble and 20 above mommy blogger superstar Dooce.

Why do so many people link to a blog that is about nothing more than cute cats and funny sayings? Why do 200 - 500 people a day submit their own LOLCATs using the LOLCAT builder over at The Cheezburger Factory? Evidently, this plays into our basic need for mind candy and work escapism without the lasciviousness of a celebrity blog or intellectual ramblings of a business guru.
When discussing “what goes viral”, we usually think about topics that appeal to the least common denominator in human nature - sexually risque content & potty humor topping that list. The wild success of the LOLCAT meme shows that “cute” is another powerful cultural unifier and the carrier for your message doesn’t have to be NSFW to travel.

Last week Walt Disney Co. took a fairly bold step, Disney will ban cigarettes in its family films, and discourage it in others” like the adult film divisions: Touchstone and Miramax.

Actors and actresses have been puffing away in movies and in television since the 50’s. I can see this being a real hard sell for Disney with the Miramax writers and directors. It’s cool to see a character smoke, it’s artistic and it says things about a character that chewing a piece of gum can’t.

I do find myself asking many times why did they put smoking in that scene. I did so last night watching Entourage. And I still remember a ‘King of Queens’ episode when Carrie went outside and smoked a cigarette, it was just random.

One thing I do know from first hand experience working with Rage Against The Haze and the whole smoking in the movies issue. Teens are very aware of smoking in the movies and they have used this as a point to argue with RAGEers many times. Teenagers use many things rational or not to validate their behaviors. And seeing a cool character smoke, makes it a little easier to walk right out of that theater and light up.

The latest Dartmouth study found that 38 out of 100 who tried smoking do so because of exposure to smoking in movies. I don’t think we will ever see smoking removed from all movies but I do think smoking in certain roles should be questioned. Did the aliens in Men In Black need to be seen packing cigarettes as they were leaving earth? I don’t think so.

On July 2, Spike wrote about some of the fictional brands from the Simpsons showing up in specially outfitted 7-11s (now Kwik-E-Mart’s). There has been so much additional Simpsons marketing this week, I had to post an update with some of my favorites.

• C. Montgomery Burns has taken over the blog of JetBlue’s David Neeleman. As you might imagine, they have dramatically different views about the importance of customer service. Definitely not the flashiest part of the campaign, but especially funny for those of us who really do read corporate blogs.

• Burger King has launched a huge group of TV ads that lead to their Simpsonize Me microsite that allows you to upload your own image and transform yourself into a Springfield resident (disclaimer - I had some technical problems with this this morning). Depending on how far you click, you will enter virtual Springfield. Good times.

• Appealing to a completely different target market, Simpsons characters hit the Paris fashion shows and were “snapped” for the pages of Harper’s Bazaar.

And my favorite, though simple, touch? Last night, the superimposed FOX logo in the bottom right of the screen during such hit shows as “So you think you can Dance?” (not that I will admit to watching that, mind you) replaced the “O” of their logo with the pink Simpson-world donut also featured in the movie logo I’ve inserted here. Subtle and fun. Now, we’ll get to see how this elaborate marketing web pays off (or doesn’t) in this weekend’s opening numbers.

I was listening to the radio on my drive to work this morning, and I heard a commercial that just seemed mean spirited. The commercial was, of all things, for Carowinds - an amusement park on the North Carolina/South Carolina border. Among other things, the voiceover sang, “Little league, law school, first job, move to Chicago! Move to Chicago? See you at Thanksgiving!” The “Cat’s in the Cradle” concept was that life goes by so fast, that you’d better take your kids to Carowinds now before they have kids of their own.

Okay, I will give them that time goes by quickly. I will give them the “gather ye rosebuds while ye may” idea. But, for all the truth to what they said, it just seemed a cruel way to say it. If the song had been more along the overly-cheesed (wait… will the TSA still allow me to use the word ‘cheese‘ in my posts?) “Real Men of Genius” of Bud Light fame, I don’t think it would have bothered me so much. But it felt a lot more like they were exploiting the pain of the truth rather than poking fun at the truth… making us guilty rather than letting us in on the joke.

I’m not a big amusement park person, and I’ve never been to Carowinds. But I have to say, I rarely fall for ad tactics that are less about benefit and more about fear (and I’m not talking that good, old fashioned roller coaster fear). By all means, be honest in your messaging to your audience, but maybe don’t brandish it like a weapon, eh?

Now I think I have to go call my mom.

I was, for an Austin resident, relatively late to the Netflix phenomenon. We’ve been loyal subscribers for the last 3-4 years and even bought a second subscription for my parents. I originally thought Netflix would be inconvenient, but after hearing raves from so many other folks, we gave it a shot and never looked back. This was about the time brick & mortar video stores started disappearing and feeling the pain of online services and entertainment fragmentation.

How did Blockbuster respond? On Jan 1, 2005, they fought back by announcing “no more late fees”. Huh? This message played in store and in ads to deaf ears as it only addressed a fraction of the complaints that customers had with the $4 in-store rental model. Meanwhile, quietly, Blockbuster was in the midst of a complete overhaul of their back office operations to allow them to combine the advantages of all-you-can-eat online services with the convenience and instant gratification of their 8,000 stores. They fought back by addressing dissatisfactions with Netflix and exploiting their pre-existing assets. If a Blockbuster online disc arrives scratched, you can just send someone to the store to switch it out instead of waiting days for Netflix to receive it and mail a new one. Or, you can be fickle and change your mind about what you want to see. The launch and subsequent promotion of their true “Bricks & Clicks” program has begun to slow Netflix in its tracks. While Netflix had a profitable quarter thanks to a cash pay off from Blockbuster for patent infringement, they are having a difficult time acquiring customers now that they have to compete with the hybrid model.
So, what’s Netflix’ next move? They are cutting prices to match Blockbuster, but like “no more late fees”, I don’t think anyone cares.  They have a great selection. They continue to update their recommendation software - last October they ran a $1Million contest to the customer who could create the biggest innovation to their recommendation engine. Downloadable movies? Not sure what % of homes would be ready for that. How does the innovator stay ahead when the sleeping incumbent giant has awakened?