There are so many things that seemed like a stupid idea to me:
- Seinfeld: Who is this guy, really?
- Frasier: Come on, a spinoff? (So, I didn't realize spinoffs were a thing)
- Twitter: Haiku and vanity plates for the Internet.
- Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream: Salty Caramel, you've got to be kidding me. I don't want salty ice cream.
- Arrested Development: Wait, Jason Bateman. He was so bland on The Hogan Family.
- There's Something About Mary: Their promo seemed ripped off the Zelda commercials, or that's how I felt.
- Blogging (Well, Live Journal): Do I really care what other people are doing?
- Scrubs: I don't know, I just didn't like the idea.
- Freaks and Geeks: How dare they try to explain what it was like to be adolescent me?
- McGriddles: Sausage, syrup and pancakes?
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Slow animals doing karate makes no sense.
The only common thread I can find in these things is me. I have no idea why I had negative, visceral reactions to these things. It's gotten to the point where I try to pay special attention when an idea causes me to have this reaction.
Salted caramel has always been and will always be awesome.
Another deceptively awesome dessert is chocolate with pepper in it. Sounds weird, but its actually one of the original ways that cocoa was enjoyed.
What kills me about ice cream is the immense popularity of all of the stupid "Ben and Jerry's" style knock-offs that use a 10:1 candy:ice cream ratio. When I want to eat ice cream, it doesn't mean that I really want a candy bar.
It sure is. Jeni's Ice Cream also does some crazy stuff with pepper (Queen City Cayenne). I know she didn't invent the concept, but she does a heckuva job in the execution.
Totally agree on the "Ben and Jerry's" comment. I want really good ice cream first and foremost. If you can add a touch of something delightful to enhance the flavor, perfect. I feel the same way about cheese cake.
I don't know, most of those initial reactions make sense to me.
I think it's as simple as others are saying: in a market full of humans, making sense is not a dependency of success. and many of us justify the things that succeed after the fact.
If we're dismissing things for good reasons, I don't think we should try to inhibit our reasoning in order to just be less discriminating. Instead, the magic (or at least seemingly magic to engineers such as myself, when it works) of marketing is to account for and scrutinize based on the irrational.
- Seinfeld: Who is this guy, really?
- Frasier: Come on, a spinoff? (So, I didn't realize spinoffs were a thing)
- Twitter: Haiku and vanity plates for the Internet.
- Jeni's Splendid Ice Cream: Salty Caramel, you've got to be kidding me. I don't want salty ice cream.
- Arrested Development: Wait, Jason Bateman. He was so bland on The Hogan Family.
- There's Something About Mary: Their promo seemed ripped off the Zelda commercials, or that's how I felt.
- Blogging (Well, Live Journal): Do I really care what other people are doing?
- Scrubs: I don't know, I just didn't like the idea.
- Freaks and Geeks: How dare they try to explain what it was like to be adolescent me?
- McGriddles: Sausage, syrup and pancakes?
- Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Slow animals doing karate makes no sense.
The only common thread I can find in these things is me. I have no idea why I had negative, visceral reactions to these things. It's gotten to the point where I try to pay special attention when an idea causes me to have this reaction.