McDonald's: A Cautionary Social Tale

In light of the recent Twitter hashtag backlash that fastfood giant McDonald's has dealt with in the past week, it sheds some light on to just how carefully a brand, business or individual must tread on the eggshells that is social media.

McDonald's backpedaling isn't the first (and certainly won't be the last) time a major brand name had to put their foot in their mouths. Everyone is sure to remember Kenneth Cole's distasteful words about Cairo's revolt. And who could forget Netflix and their many many missteps last year regarding their prices and naming restructuring ideas. The fact is these companies are huge, and they're going to mess up whether of their own accord or otherwise.

It shouldn't come as a surprise, with as many followers as McDonald's has, 290k, misfires are bound to happen. In this modern age of instant gratification, people need to keep a watchful eye on their social campaigns. Granted, the #McDStories hashtag fiasco wasn't directly their fault. They had the best intentions that unfortunately went awry. In fact they handled it in spectacular fashion by pulling the trending tweet within a couple hours. But taking into consideration the majority of Twitter users (read: teenagers and young adults), negative and unnecessary comments were almost certain to rear their ugly heads all over the internet.

 If we can take a lesson from these examples, it's time: watch what you say, how you say it, and when you say it. You never know how's watching and how they'll react.

Be well,

Let's Hear it for 2012!

In the words of underground art-rock band Dredg "Look another year went by; They keep passing by." 2012 is upon us and most people in the industry (digital, printing, marketing, etc.) have greeted it with nothing but sheer optimism, Printed Specialties being no exception. Looking back on the whole, 2011 had a general bleak outlook on it - what with oil spills, job losses, political scandals, war. This time around the main view for the new year is that of hope and (real) change for once.

Let's do this, New Year.

 Printed Specialties has big plans coming up. Implementation of our Digital Press, scoring more record months in sales and production, optimizing workflows, and perhaps a newly revamped and updated website to boot in the near future. 2012 is looking mighty promising for the crew here, and can't wait to make big things happen.

 I hope everyone's year is off to a great start, and wish the best of luck in all you do.

 Be well,



P.S. Call it naivety, but I consider it a great start to the year when Van Halen gets back together and plays a show that rocks everyone's socks off. 








Image: dream designs / FreeDigitalPhotos.net

So Far Outside the Box, You Can't Even See It Anymore

Yesterday, the prepress department at Printed Specialties was all abuzz discussing the wrapping paper below.

Image courtesy of Gift Couture

Look at it. Seriously, look. Drink it in. Let it's concept wash over you. Let the simplistic genius overtake you. We did; we talked about it for 30 minutes. We picked apart the concept and what made it work so well. We writhed in envy as to why we didn't think of it previously. We even tried to come up with our own wrapping paper ideas (to no avail).

Imagine seeing a stack of presents like this under your family's Christmas tree. You can't help but smile. It's beyond brilliant. One of the reasons that makes this work so well is that the concept is so far removed from Christmas (no one remotely automatically thinks "Christmas" when you see a cheeseburger). Think of the new Kia commercials that have giant Guinea Pigs or Hamsters driving around town. Those commercials stick in your head because the general thought is so absurd, your mind can't help but to remember it. The same idea works here with the cheeseburger wrapping paper.

Another reason why this works rather well is due to it's overly simplistic nature. Simplicity and minimalism is the name of the game in the design world today, and this is no different. Meat, cheese, lettuce, tomato, and two buns. Not too busy of a pattern for the eyes to take in. Instantly recognizable as to what it's supposed to be portraying. A common food item most people are familiar with (a sandwich might've worked, but not as well). In the famous words of Steve Jobs - "It just works."

The point here being that sometimes the phrase "Think Outside the Box" is just the start. You have to think yourself out of the box as a start, but it's not enough. Leave the room, walk out of the building, and drive far away from the box. Good ideas and great ideas are what separates the memorable from the hardly notable.

Be well,