Fish are Jumping

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Yesterday afternoon and evening, huge schools of bluefish were just off shore near the Shoreham nuke plant, churning up the water with their feeding frenzy.  Craig, Dennis, Kayla and I were in Craig's boat when we first saw them, and we ended up following the school for a couple hours, pulling fish out of the water continuously.  Dennis had a great idea when he taught little Kayla how to steer the boat.  She got pretty good at following the fish at just above idle speed. This time, instead of throwing the fish back as we usually do, we filled up our wells and filleted a bunch of them back at the boat ramp.  Many folks think bluefish aren't that great for eating, but I find that if you marinate fillets in Italian dressing and grill them on tinfoil, they're delicious.  I put about two dozen fillets in the downstairs freezer, and I'll probably be eating them for dinner a few times this week.

The fish were biting on small Hopkins and Kastmaster-type spoons.  Basically, anything shiny that wasn't too big.  I swapped my big Hopkins out for a smaller one and started pulling fish in on nearly every cast.  At one point, the water was churning around the boat like we were in the middle of a summer rainstorm, but there was no rain.  Just the fish feeding off of spearing.

It was a great trip.

Gene Siskel Is Alive and Well, Battling Oprah, Roeper and Mancow

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This is just precious:

Gene Siskel is not dead. He is in stasis in a cryogenic chamber deep under city hall. Gene Siskel is the finest secret agent the world has ever seen, and he is needed again. The nefarious Oprah Winfrey, along with her cohorts Richard Roeper and Mancow, are planning to brainwash Chicago's Soccer Moms and take Daley Plaza by force. Once they have Chicago, the world is DOOMED!

This is actually a really funny show called "Siskel and Ebert Save Chicago," playing at the Factory Theater in Chicago. Among the cast is my bud Tucker and my other bud Abbie is stage managing. And get this... Roger Ebert showed up for opening night and gave it a thumbs up.

Of course, the Tribune and the Sun-Times have posted reviews, as well as a handful of other papers.

There's also a promo up on YouTube for your viewing pleasure.

Viral Marketing Is Plaguing Viral Marketing

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An article in this morning's Advertising Age asks "What's plaguing Viral Marketing?" The article points to a sociology professor's work that suggests influencers aren't as important as folks once thought they were.  Meanwhile, the elephant in the room is that advertising messages are at a huge disadvantage as compared to things that are, well, cool when you're talking about something "going viral."  Yet clients have no problem telling their agencies to "go create a viral video" and there is no shortage of agencies willing to take up the challenge, despite the notion that the overwhelming majority of them will fail and never deliver on the client's expectations.

Check out this list of well-known Internet phenomena, all of which have spread virally. How many of them are commercial in nature?  Just three of them, by my count.  The Blair Witch stuff was a hoax, and hordes of marketers tried to use the same tactics to replicate their "success" and failed.  The Snakes on a Plane stuff was grassroots until New Line decided to get involved and turn it into their new marketing campaign - and it didn't translate into butts in theater seats because New Line failed to realize the difference between laughing with and laughing at.  There's a local commercial on the list, but local commercials are funny.  (Again, there's a difference between laughing with and laughing at.)  Note the absence of campaigns from national advertisers, despite all the money and effort sunk into "going viral."

The fact that the square peg of commercial communications can't fit into the round hole of viral success doesn't stop marketers from trying.  They do it all the time, in defiance of the notion that they can't possibly be as cool as Numa Numa.  And they blame their agency when the effort fails.