

 Karl Rove's book vs. Rework - what the American People need to know - henning
http://37signals.com/svn/posts/2209-karl-roves-book-vs-rework-what-the-american-people-need-to-know

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mixmax
This is genius. 37signals is already a strong brand, but only in a relatively
narrow niche. This is an excellent way of marketing their new book to a much
broader segment that doesn't necessarily know that they're behind ROR, or read
their blog. There are several things worth noticing:

1) They create an "attack ad" on Karl Rove, thereby putting themselves on
level with a much much bigger player and leveraging themselves onto a pedestal
where they don't belong. They seem like big guys battling another big guy.
They've used this tactic before comparing their product to Microsoft and
Google as if they're equals.

2) They've picked one of the most unpopular people in America to attack. No-
one will feel sorry for Rove, and everyone will love 37signals.

3) As stated above, they are sure to have this video passed around much larger
circles than their normal reach allows them since it's funny, sarcastic and
not about programming or project management. Everyone understands it.

4) It'll probably be controversial. This is a favorite tactic of 37signals,
and if they're lucky they'll be on talkshows around the country getting free
publicity for their book while telling the American public that Karl Rove's
book is too long, written in a French font and thus isn't patriotic.

I don't care much for their products but their marketing is absolutely
amazing.

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patio11
While I don't doubt that hitting Karl Rove is effective (because you don't
have to push buttons which are emotional for everyone, you just have to push
buttons which are _really_ emotional for at least some folks who control
links), I just have a quick comment to make: be careful about attributing your
own views to the population at large.

(The overwhelming majority of Americans do not know who Rove is and a large
portion of the remainder will vaguely remember "Political something-or-other,
right? Helped get Obama elected?" Of those who actually know who he is, many
come from that weird niche market called "the other half of the country.")

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axod
Agreed. He's #5 on the Amazon best seller list for a reason.

Similarly, it'd probably be a bad idea to do an attack piece on religion,
however silly the idea of religion is to most of us here.

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byrneseyeview
The narrator needs to be an octave lower, and they could have some more pauses
between sentences. But this was a surprisingly good job. There aren't that
many attack ad tropes, but they really seem to work.

Although it's missing a picture of the 37signals guys outside, with their
golden retriever. I can't buy them as morally superior until I've seen that.

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sophacles
Can you expand on the moral superiority of a golden retriever vs a labrador or
possibly a dalmation?

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tomsaffell
It's not moral, it's chromatic.. <http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=1193657>

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pclark
Fantastic. I loved the Garamond = french font joke.

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kadavy
"When it came time to choose a font, Rove selected Garamond, a kind of type
developed in France, and NOT by hard-working Americans."

Shoulda gone with Goudy.

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run4yourlives
People: Learn how to market by watching these guys. This is what they do best.

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collision
I love their own use of Garamond in the ad.

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nkassis
Ok, I'm going to order this book just for the ad. I hope this doesn't make me
a political ad sheep. The sheer genius of the ad makes me think that the book
might have something good in it for me.

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aaronbrethorst
Neither the book or the ad contains demon sheep. That alone elevates it above
much of our country's political discourse [1] ... ;-)

[1] <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KRY7wBuCcBY>

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mhd
While I dislike self-help books almost as much as neocon apologetics, this ad
should be rewarded. Is the Kindle version readable (no DX), i.e. no special
layout or pictures get lost/scrambled?

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nwjsmith
The Kindle version is excellent, the pictures are crisp, no special layout.

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axomhacker
I just "picked up" the Kindle version and it looks excellent on my DX. However
the Amazon detail page says it's "Optimized for Larger Screens", which means:

"This title has complex layouts and has been optimized for reading on Kindle
DX's or Kindle for PC's larger screen, but can still be viewed on other
devices.

<http://www.amazon.com/Rework-ebook/dp/B002MUAJ2A>

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jayair
I liked it. Good job 37s. They constantly work to grow their brand and have
fun while doing it as well.

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pw0ncakes
On a scale of 1 to 10 I give that ad an Aleph_37. Well done.

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dejan
ok, I will respectfully disagree with most of you here, as there is nothing
"comical" about it.

This made me officially sick, although so far had high opinion of them. I
didn't get the joke of "french" font, and "hard working americans." I
feel...insulted, as this is a way how to promote stupidity and national
hatred. The guy wrote a book, and just because it is one position higher, he
is a subject of an attack like this. Did they even read his book? No, it was
easier to search the internet of a guy who didn't like it and quote it.

Maybe tomorrow it is >you< there, with your book, or your product. Or me?

Wasn't the content that mattered? I've seen excerpts from Rework and feel this
is a toilet book. Inarticulate and arrogant, I know it all style, but I don't
go making a video comparing their book with e.g. Re-Imagine by Tom Peters.

Tom has an attitude, but not an insulting one, but of a creative energy, an
innovative arrogance that he wishes to spread.

Again, it could be just me. I would never smack Americans with "All
European/Asian/African" labels. Nationality, religion and all other kinds of
divide are elements of mediocrity. Real hackers should know that.

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samdk
Karl Rove practically _invented_ the attack ad.

This is not an attack ad, it's a satire of an attack ad. Taken literally, yes,
it's pretty stupid--attack ads generally are. But that's missing the point.

~~~
anamax
> Karl Rove practically invented the attack ad.

No, he didn't.

Attack ads predate both TV and radio and were run on both almost immediately
after they became available.

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philwelch
Rove learned most, if not all, of his tricks from Lee Atwater, who was the
Karl Rove of the Reagan/Bush era.

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gruseom
There's a superb documentary called _Boogie Man_ about Atwater, who died
horribly and spent his last years seeking out everyone he had wronged with his
ads and asking for their forgiveness. He was an amazing, contradictory
character, a larger-than-life sort who holds far more interest than the
pusillanimous toady Rove. I watched that documentary late at night in a hotel
room during the 2008 campaign; I was on a consulting trip and had to get up
early the next morning, but I couldn't turn it off. It explains a great deal
about how all that dirt became commonplace.

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GmanFUNK
Yeah, it's an amazing hilarious movie and those guys did it totally
independent and then sold it to TV. Buy a DVD on their website (i Did) because
it has killer bonus features too and i'm into supporting the Little Guy.
www.BoogieManFilm.com

