In grade school, I'd eagerly await the arrival of every issue of Boys Life magazine, with its stories of loyal dogs rescuing lost kids, its wholesome cartoons ("Pedro!"), its how-to tips for constructing a tipi in your backyard, and, yes, its back page ads promising many exotic thrills...

At the top of my list of thrills were the many novelty or prank items that I could afford on my meager allowance. "X-ray glasses" that almost made you think you could see the bones in your hand, packs of gum that snapped the finger of anyone who withdrew a piece, and much more. I loved it all, but now it's vanished from our cultural scene, leaving us to ponder a very fundamental question:

"Why are kids no longer entertained by fake blisters that squirt water at unsuspecting friends?"

Read this Creative Pro article for a few theories and travel in time through novelty catalogs from a much simpler era. True, juvenile sadism was always lurking behind many of these pranks, but somehow it never seemed to produce the deep trauma or large-scale massacres of our modern age... gosh, am I starting to sound like a geezer, or what?!! Read More...

Renowned copywriter Bob Bly knows the importance of answering that question for his readers. Here's an excerpt:

Are You Like Me?

"One of the easiest — and most effective — copywriting techniques for bonding with the reader is to show that you are like him.

"For instance, you can simply begin the letter: “Are you like me?” And then list the things you believe you have in common.

"Another method: have the person signing the letter be in the same group as the person reading the letter, e.g., when writing to doctors, have an M.D. sign the letter.

"Why does this work?

"Because people like, feel comfortable with, and respond to people who are like them.

"Conversely, they don’t like, and want to avoid dealing with, people they think are fundamentally different.

"You know this to be true..."

Read the full post here. Read More...

I use Comcast for my high-speed Internet access, so I wasn't pleased to learn that Comcast was selling its customers' online browsing history ("clickstream") to anyone willing to pay for that info. Here are some excerpts from a transcript of a roundtable discussion at last month's OpenData 2007 Conference, in New York City:

"Seth: So for 40 cents, Comcast is selling what of mine? They are selling... my entire clickstream?
"David: Your entire clickstream, and some user info that identifies you. So if 123 is your user ID per the time that you're a Comcast customer, and your entire clickstream.
"Audience member: So that's essentially the same [as the] AOL data [sale issue] that there was a lot of furor over.
"David: It's beyond that.
"Audience member: It's way beyond that...

[later]
"David: When I see some of the information that our client have on users, it seems a lot more scary to me than what you can gain from clickstream information. It might just be me, I might be numb to the clickstream information. But some of the credit card information that we know some people are capturing is a lot more scary...than some of the exhaust on the clickstream side...

[later]
"David: We get clickstream information, basically like the history looks like in your browser. We don't get the underlying information like what kind of videos have been played or [other] rich elements. Although...it is available."

Great news, huh? Has anyone seen this reflected in Comcast's Privacy Policy? I sure haven't... Read More...

 
Google just announced another great service -- Gmail Paper, an innovative option that allows users of its free email service to also send paper copies of their correspondence via the U.S. Postal Service. And the amazing thing is this service is FREE - the cost of postage is paid for by ads that Google prints on the outside of your envelope.

This screenshot shows the extra button that's added to your Gmail menu bar (click the screenshot for a larger view), and here's more information on Gmail Paper as a whole.

"Revolutionary" is not too strong a word for Gmail Paper. True, some people only use email (digital) communications, but the rest of us -- the silent majority, I'd say -- still find comfort in the tangible presence of printed (analog) communications... letters, memos, paper receipts and whatnot. It may pile up on our desks at times, but we feel somehow safer knowing it's there (except, possibly, in the event of a building fire).

For the time being, Gmail Paper is beta, but count on the fact that it's here to stay. I predict that by the end of 2007, virtually every postal mailbox in America will be a little fuller, thanks to the reassuring (albeit slightly retro) presence of Gmail Paper...

Remember -- You heard it here first! Read More...