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July 6, 2007

Bottled Water: It’s All About the Sex Appeal

In the week since my story about the business of bottled water was posted, I’ve gotten dozens of emails, and more than 250 blogs and websites have posted links and comments about the story.

In all that response, the most amusing and amazing item uncovered by readers is this video from YouTube, which appears to be a Perrier commercial for French TV from 1976.

Racy? Let’s just say that 31 years later, it wouldn’t make on U.S. TV.

Posted by Charles Fishman at 12:10 PM | 1 Comments

January 3, 2007

Got God?

Thanks to Digg.com, I stumbled upon the new online sitcom God, Inc. Best described as The Office in heaven, the comedy revolves around the various departments that work for God, like Population Control and Miracles. The show brings office politics to divine works and the big picture of life on earth. There are two episodes online and writer/director Francis Stokes promises more. Check it out: God, Inc.

Posted by Kevin Ohannessian at 1:50 PM | 2 Comments

June 23, 2006

Get Your Funny On

Today we launched the new Office Humor section here at Fastcompany.com. We are looking for people to share some of their favorite office jokes. Why don't you go read the jokes there and submit your own? At the very least, you can enjoy the video of Office Jokeman. Let us know what you think!

Posted by Kevin Ohannessian at 1:49 PM | 2 Comments

May 19, 2006

Poster Childishness

File under: Friday fun.

John Watson's Motivator Web app will help you make demotivational -- and other -- posters in the vein of Despair Inc.

Update: Thank to a reader email, I was reminded that the service can also help you create motivational posters all your own. I was attracted to the fun -- and potentially funny -- uses and failed to mention the positive and productive aspects of this DIY tool. Please, motivate, don't de-motivate.

Posted by Heath Row at 9:05 AM | Add Comment

May 15, 2006

Groundbreaking BS

"Welcome to the world's most dynamic e-business marketing, design and consulting agency. We provide distinct clients with groundbreaking business strategies and cutting-edge designs to aggressively and creatively compete in a changing economy."

If this sounds very familiar (and suspiciously empty) then this Website, for the fake consultancy "huh?," will be good for a laugh. Their motto: "We do stuff."

Posted by Lucas Conley at 12:40 PM | 4 Comments

April 25, 2006

How to Stay Awake in Boring Meetings

This just popped up in my inbox...
___

Do you keep falling asleep in meetings and seminars? What about those long and boring conference calls? Here's a way to change all of that.

1. Before (or during) the next meeting, seminar, or conference call, prepare yourself by drawing a square. I find that 5" x 5" is a good size. Divide the card into columns-five across and five down. That will give you 25 one-inch blocks.

2. Write one of the following words/phrases in each block:
Synergy, strategic fit, core competencies, best practice, bottom line, revisit, expeditious, to tell you the truth (or "the truth is), 24/7, out of the loop, benchmark, value-added, proactive, win-win, think outside the box, fast track, result-driven, knowledge base, at the end of the day, touch base, mindset, client focus(ed), paradigm, game plan, leverage.

3. Now check off the appropriate block when you hear one of those words/phrases.

4. When you get five blocks horizontally, vertically, or diagonally stand up and shout "BULLSHIT!"
___

"Real Testimonials" from satisfied players, after the jump...

Continue reading "How to Stay Awake in Boring Meetings"

Posted by Lucas Conley at 11:26 AM | 25 Comments

April 3, 2006

April Fool's Play

You might have missed it because Google introduced it over the weekend (I know I just got the 411 today), but the April Fool's Day announcement of its new service, Google Romance, was just that -- an April Fool's joke.

Google wasn't the only organization to hold up some holiday humor. Per the Washington Post's Rob Pegoraro, Slashdot, OpenOffice, and the Mac newsletter TidBits also joined in on the josh.

What do you think of such humorous announcements and Web pranks? Is it appropriate for esteemed enterprises -- perhaps even your own -- to try to pull one over your customers' and clients' eyes? How fast and loose do you play with the respect your partners have for you and your work?

Posted by Heath Row at 8:27 PM | 15 Comments

February 7, 2006

Put the PDA Down and Back Away Slowly...

Here are some suggestions from satirical newspaper, the Onion, on what to do if litigation from this man causes a temporary Blackberry shutdown.

Posted by Joseph Manez at 5:11 PM | Add Comment

December 28, 2005

Hip to Be Cubed?

The cutest holiday gift I received this year--or the most depressing, depending on how you look at it--was a toy office set called The Cubes.

It's a biting commentary on cubicle culture that could come straight out of Dilbert or Office Space. Four different minature plastic Cubes, made by Accoutrements, are available from Archie McPhee, the Seattle-based kitsch emporium. Each comes with a suitably expressionless worker drone less than three inches tall and everything needed to build a characteristically dreary corporate cubicle: three and a half gray walls, a desk, chair, computer, file cabinet, phone, and in/out box. To add that personalized touch, the sets also include small-but-sappy motivational posters and typically tacky office signs (“Lack of planning on your part does not constitute an emergency on my part.”) Mix-and-match job-title stickers allow you to create a “convoluted and meaningless position for your employee,” like Senior Purchasing Specialist, for example, or Assistant Customer Service Processor.

You can also expand your mini-office by adding other interlocking cubes, or by bringing in a motivational speaker, sensitivity consultant, brown-clad package-delivery person, or corporate protester. A break room and a copy center are now available as well.

Dilbert never had it this good.

Posted by Yuval Rosenberg at 11:45 AM | 2 Comments

August 9, 2005

How Innovative Leadership Impacts Customer Experience: Part 2

This may sound like the beginning of a bad joke: What do you get when you combine:

• A nuclear engineer
• A rap artist
• An FBI agent
• An AOL / Time Warner executive
• A professional stand-up comedian

How about a church leadership team? As an experience architect, I've been exploring ways that innovative leadership is imprinted on customer experience. New Life Christian Church is a great case study. It's one of those unique places where the customer experience definitely reflects the drive and innovation of its leaders... and there's something to be learned for all.

Continue reading "How Innovative Leadership Impacts Customer Experience: Part 2"

Posted by Leigh from LivePath.net at 7:39 PM | Add Comment

May 6, 2005

That's What I Call Stagefright

Now that we've all skipped lunch and fought hunger (props to David), I feel less bad about pointing FC Now readers to this sickeningly funny video clip making the Internet rounds faster than Bernie Ebbers can say "not guilty." BIG WARNING: Not to ruin the climax of the piece, but if you have a weak stomach or have any aversion to seeing bodily functions play out over QuickTime, skip ahead to the next blog post. As far as business relevance, let's just chalk this one up to an indelible cautionary tale about the importance of good media training.

Posted by Ryan Underwood at 1:20 PM | 1 Comment

April 1, 2005

April Fool's Day Gags

Today of course is April 1. April Fool's Day. The workplace is a ripe venue for such gags. Last year, our factcheckers played a trick on some of the senior writers, telling them that certain key facts in just published stories were wrong and they were going to look stupid when the magazine came out. I once had a co-worker renowned for wearing three-piece suits who would come to work on April 1 in a t-shirt or sometimes a blue jean suit. Always good for a chuckle.

What's the best work-related April Fool's gag that you've ever pulled, been the victim of, or been witness to? Do tell.

Posted by David Lidsky at 4:21 PM | 1 Comment

March 30, 2005

The American Office: Better Than the Original

You heard me. The creators of the American version of The Office have done what's almost impossible in business: They've developed a copycat product that's better than the original. This usually doesn't happen because copycats tend to be lazy and only out for a quick buck. They're not interested in quantum improvement. But if last night's episode on NBC, the single funniest comedy I've seen on television since Seinfeld circa 1993, is any indication, The Office is not only a critical home run but it's viewer-friendly enough to be a hit eventually.

There are only two reasons why anyone's made such a fuss about Ricky Gervais' The Office here in America:

1) Anglophiles who are always going to think British stuff is better. To which I say, I think there's a Red Dwarf marathon going on. Why don't you go watch it?

2) Americans have been so starved for a good comedy about the workplace that even a British show that has all the comic timing of a dry martini is sought out and cherished because According to Jim isn't speaking to them to make them feel better about their miserable jobs.

I watched last night's show on NBC twice and then I watched the BBC pilot. Want to why the American Office is so great and better than the British version? Keep reading.

Continue reading "The American Office: Better Than the Original"

Posted by David Lidsky at 8:42 AM | 86 Comments

March 28, 2005

Humor? Hardly Know Her

A Company of Friends member in Philadelphia recently shared this with other area readers:

James Thorson, a professor at the University of Nebraska-Omaha, has devised a Multidimensional Sense of Humor Scale, which has been used by both researchers and clinicians to measure individuals' level of mirth. The test asks things like whether you use humor to cope and whether your friends consider you a wit. Thorson's research has found that "those who score high on a multidimensional sense of humor scale have lower levels of depression and higher levels of purpose than those who score low in humor.

The self-assessment might be worth taking a look at. How do you use humor at work?

Posted by Heath Row at 2:49 PM | 0 Comments

February 25, 2005

More Gawker Love

Just sat down to eat my salad (at the desk, again) and treat myself to my daily dose of Gawker, the snarky, sarcastic New York media gossip blog with which I've become hopelessly infatuated.

This entry from today is just hilarious. Can you imagine getting an email like that? Office Handbook, anyone?

Posted by Jena McGregor at 2:35 PM | 1 Comment

November 11, 2004

Phraseology

Leslie Lee's Web Economy BS Generator is a fun little Java app that can help you create phrases to drop into workaday conversation, project proposals, team meetings, and other experiences at work. With it, you'll be able to orchestrate integrated e-commerce, productize open-source users, and iterate real-time bandwidth. And with some hard work, you might even be able to brand world-class users, extend collaborative applications, and reintermediate compelling infomediaries.

[Thanks, John!]

Posted by Heath Row at 4:09 PM | 6 Comments

August 13, 2004

Top Ten List

Last year, Fast Company offered 10 make-or-break questions to gauge whether your company is up to speed. As a birthday present to FC Now, I have here in my left hand tonight's Top 10 list -- a humorous counterpoint you can also use to evaluate your organization's performance.

Tonight's Top 10 list: Top 10 Ways to Tell if Your Company is Not "Fast." Heeeeere we go...

Continue reading "Top Ten List"

Posted by David Paull at 11:27 AM | 1 Comment

May 20, 2004

UPN: Unbelievably Paltry Newness

UPN, which I like to think of America's Sixth Favorite Network, announced its new fall schedule today, introducing three new series.

Were any humans harmed in the production of these shows? None, I suspect, but the test audiences. I am not sure if UPN even used any humans when coming up with these shows. Their new lineup is a multi-cliche pileup; it looks as if they took every sitcom and drama script from the last 50 years and fed them into the Bat computer, had the shows spit out on punch cards, and then typed them up.

In Kevin Hill (Wednesdays at 9), Taye Diggs plays a young turk entertainment lawyer, a playa, whose "life is turned upside down" when he has to take care of a six-month old baby girl when his cousin, the baby's parent, passes away. The swinging bachelor who has to learn responsibility when a baby comes into his life? Yeah, that's not a writer's construct. In Veronica Mars (Tuesdays at 9), Veronica, a "typical teenager" by day, helps her father, a struggling private eye, solve crimes at night. I am sure one of the programming execs asked, "Is that it? It's a little too Encyclopedia Brown. Could she be avenging something too?"

Continue reading "UPN: Unbelievably Paltry Newness"

Posted by David Lidsky at 5:31 PM | 1 Comment

David, How Could You...

I've been enjoying my colleague David Lidsky's hilarious rants about this week's "Upfront" presentations by the beleaguered television networks, but this bit just kills me:

The hardy band of souls who aren't sick of Carey and his rat pack of improv sycophants annoying us on ABC for the last decade will tune in to see Carey and crew. And I guess those eight people are enough to get a better rating in that time slot than whatever WB had in there before.

That's what David wrote about the WB's new Drew Carey vehicle that will run on Wednesday nights at 9:30, right after what looks to be a terrible Jeff Foxworthy show at 9 pm.

Say what you will about Foxworthy and Carey, David, but I beg you not to slander the WB's Wednesday 9 pm timeslot! I'm still in mourning over the demise of Angel, which aired its last episode last night in that very slot. And don't forget: before Angel -- a series I'll miss dearly next year -- and before it was tragically shunted over to UPN for its final seasons, Wednesday at 9 pm was home to Buffy the Vampire Slayer -- perhaps the smartest, most hilarious, best-written television show ever. Yes, that's right: Ever.

Posted by Alison Overholt at 1:10 PM | 1 Comment

May 19, 2004

CBS: CSI Balloons -- Sheesh!

So my colleague, Michael Prospero, seems to have gotten in on the act here with my fall TV preview obsession. That's fine. Hell has already been paid here at FC Now headquarters in, yes, New York, crime show capital of the world. Let's see if Mike has anything cogent to say about the rest of CBS' new fall lineup! Let's see if I do.

My friend Josh won't forgive me if I don't start with Listen Up, Mondays at 8:30. Based on the life and times of Tony Kornheiser, the Washington Post sports columnist and unlikely ESPN personality, Jason Alexander of George Constanza fame plays a popular sports columnist who doesn't get any respect from his family. So has Tony Kornheiser based his life on Everybody Loves Raymond? Or did Ray Romano base his sitcom on Tony Kornheiser's life?

Continue reading "CBS: CSI Balloons -- Sheesh!"

Posted by David Lidsky at 6:14 PM | Add Comment

Murder Capital of TV World?

It used to be that Cabot Cove, home of Jessica Fletcher and Murder She Wrote used to be the most violent place to live in TV land--after all there was a murder committed there each week. Now, it seems, despite the record-low crime rate, the honor has been passed to New York. Looking at the networks' fall lineups, I've noticed that one thing stands out: By 2005, there will be at least seven cop shows based in New York. NBC leads the pack with five: Law & Order, Law & Order: Criminal Intent, Law & Order: SVU, Third Watch, and in January, Law & Order: Trial by Jury.

(If you ever go to a Broadway show, here's a little game you can play. Look in the Playbill, and see how many cast members were at one time on Law & Order. I guarantee there will be at least one.)

Going up against that is CBS's new series CSI: New York, which itself is a spinoff of CSI and CSI: Miami. Then of course, is ABC's venerable NYPD Blue, which may make next season its last.

Is it just me, or does it seem like there are more people playing cops on TV than there are in the streets?

Posted by Michael Prospero at 3:42 PM | 1 Comment

The WB: What Bunk

I will turn 35 years old this fall, which means that by the time these new shows on the WB air, I will officially be too old for the WB, which is, you know, one of those youth-obsessed networks, to be interested in whether I watch or not. But I am still 34, so I can sneak in under the wire and critique these new fall shows.

The most buzzed-about new show is Jack and Bobby, airing Sundays at 9 p.m. Now let's stop right there. Take one moment and think about what you think a show called Jack and Bobby might be about. Are you fixed on it? Good. Now what if I told you that it was about two brothers. You're on it, right? Now what if I told you that one of the brothers is destined to become President of the U.S. Uncanny how good your first instincts were.

Well, according to the WB, you're wrong. This show has nothing, I repeat, nothing to do with the Kennedys. It's always inspiring when a network respects its audience's intelligence.

Continue reading "The WB: What Bunk"

Posted by David Lidsky at 6:49 AM | 1 Comment

May 18, 2004

ABC: Another Bevy of Crap

Remember when people you knew watched ABC? Yeah, me neither. If there's any doubt as to why the network is in trouble, has dragged down Disney for much of the last seven years and emperiled Michael Eisner's job, just take a look at its new lineup of shows for this fall.

Monday nights at 8 p.m. this fall brings us The Benefactor, perhaps the most craven ripoff of a hit show in recent memory. Let me know when this starts to sound familiar: A billionaire businessman will give away $1 million to one of 16 competing contestants. Any similarities between The Benefactor and The Apprentice are purely intentional. Hey, come on, it's a totally different show! The Benefactor gives away the money; you don't have to work for it. And The Benefactor has Mark Cuban as its attention-starved billionaire jerk. He made his fortune. Well, he got lucky and sold a pretty thin premise of a web site, Broadcast.com, to Yahoo for billions and then cashed out at the right time, but it's still better than getting a leg up in the New York real estate market from your dad.

Continue reading "ABC: Another Bevy of Crap"

Posted by David Lidsky at 7:35 PM | 1 Comment

NBC: Not Broadcasting Comedy

It's my favorite time of year, folks: Upfront week. This is when the TV networks display their new wares for the fall season and get advertisers to commit to paying for all of it. $9 billion is expected to change hands in the coming weeks.

I love this time of year because all that we, the unwashed TV viewer, get to hear of the new fall season at this point is one- or two-line descriptions. And I like to pass judgment on shows based on those small nuggets of info.

NBC was first out of the chute yesterday afternoon with its new lineup. The network is preaching "stability," announcing just five new shows for fall. Of course, in television, "stability" is code for "we didn't have any better ideas."

The Friends spinoff, Joey, is getting the big push and will anchor the Thursday lineup at 8 p.m. With critics already chanting "AfterMASH" (and I have a feeling AfterMASH probably plays like the Mary Tyler Moore Show when compared with Joey), skittery NBC execs showed the full pilot instead of just a clip to ad execs (notice how critics didn't get to see the pilot yet).

Two other new shows seem to be getting the love from NBC honchos.

Continue reading "NBC: Not Broadcasting Comedy"

Posted by David Lidsky at 11:04 AM | 2 Comments

April 19, 2004

Only Seth Godin Nose for Sure

Seth Godin's May column (available online soon) is about the four traits of clownhood and how they apply to the work world.

While Fast Company editors decided not to change Seth's contributor photo for the column, Seth has made the lost photo available in his blog. You know what? I think we made the right call.

Posted by Heath Row at 1:09 PM | Add Comment

April 1, 2004

April Fool's Fun

E-Commerce News offers the best business sendup I've come across today with several scathingly silly stories worked in among its other "real" content today. Check out the home page to see how things are worked in, but the stories you want to scan are Piping Hot Dogs Rises from Dot-Com Graveyard, Memo: Bill Gates to Challenge Linux Using "Time-Travel" Machine, and Gates Points to 2006 Longhorn Release.

Other sites got into the action, as well. MarketingWonk reports that DM News' article on Jupiter's local search expectations is a goof, and BeliefNet reports that Oprah Winfrey has been named the fourth person in the Trinity. Huh. The Brand Called Yahweh?

Posted by Heath Row at 2:54 PM | Add Comment

March 25, 2004

Liquid Purple Cows

Went out to a barbeque restaurant last night with some FC colleagues and when the dessert menu came, how could I not, as Seth Godin's editor, have been intrigued by the purple cow float? I honestly had never heard of such a dessert but of course had heard of Seth's book, Purple Cow, which is about remarkable products.

Continue reading "Liquid Purple Cows"

Posted by David Lidsky at 7:29 AM | Add Comment

November 7, 2003

Striving for Suc(k)cess

You're probably familiar with Mac Anderson's Successories line of motivational posters and performance rewards.

Personally, I prefer Despair Inc.'s demotivational products. Featuring posters and other items addressing ambition, nepotism, success, meetings, and risks. The objets d'art -- available in a variety of formats -- feature soft-tinged wistful images like the kitten hanging from a tree branch we've all come to know and love ("Hang in there!") but with a bitter twist.

Case in point: "Motivation: If a pretty poster and a cute saying are all it takes to motivate you, you probably have a very easy job. The kind robots will be doing soon."

Harf!

Posted by Heath Row at 7:41 PM | Add Comment

September 12, 2003

TGIF!

While you're considering such weighty issues as whether you work for a bad company, whether men really work harder than women, or whether you agree with the 66% of managers who told Accenture they want to take a hike from their current jobs, take a moment to consider this:

15 million Internet users have become fans of the Star Wars Kid, a Canadian teenager who filmed himself doing a lightsaber routine on his high school sound stage...then had the misfortune of having his friends upload the video to Kazaa and file-share it with the rest of the world. Mortifying? Perhaps. Hilarious? Most definitely.

Now there are dozens of "Clone" videos on the site, in which geeks from around the world have added special effects to turn the SWK into everything from a Matrix star to the latest incarnation of the Terminator. (My favorite: the "Original Re-Mix." I cannot stop laughing!)

Watch them all at: http://www.jedimaster.net/. And go ahead. Join the SWK Fan Club. Make a donation to his PayPal fund...after all, while I'm worrying whether I don't work as hard as my male peers, while you wonder whether you should quit your job, while we all wonder whether our companies are up to no good, the SWK is making us all laugh and say, "Thank God it's Friday!"

Posted by Alison Overholt at 1:45 PM | 1 Comment

August 27, 2003

No Smiling, Eh?

The late humorist Erma Bombeck once titled a book When You look Like Your Passport Photo, It's Time to Go Home. If this holds true, Canadians won't need to go home until they achieve a "neutral expression."

The Canadian Passport Office released new guidelines yesterday as to what constitutes an acceptable passport photo, including helpful example pictures.

Among the more interesting guidelines:

• The face must be square to the camera with a neutral expression and with the mouth closed.
• False hairpieces or other cosmetic devices are acceptable if they do not disguise the natural appearance of the bearer and are worn habitually.
• Photos must be taken against a plain white to 18% grey background without shadows. An 18% grey background is recommended for persons having white hair and/or wearing white clothing

Apparently smiling mouth-breathers with white toupees have to stay in Canada, which might not be that bad of an idea.

Posted by Kevin O'Donovan at 2:50 PM | Add Comment

August 20, 2003

Nonprofits vs. Know-it-All Consultants

In May 2003, writing in the Harvard Business Review (the report is available for a fee, but an abstract can be found on McKinsey & Co.'s site), former NBA star, U.S. Senator, and sometime presidential candidate Bill Bradley, along with McKinsey's Paul Jansen and Les Silverman collaborated on an article titled "The Non-Profit Sector's $100 Billion Opportunity." In this, they write:

...nonprofits could save roughly $25 billion a year by changing the way they raise funds. By distributing funds more quickly, they could contribute an extra $30 billion to social causes. Organizations could generate more than $60 billion a year by streamlining and restructuring the way in which they provide services and by reducing administrative costs. And they could free up even more money – an amount impossible to estimate – by better allocating funds among service providers.

The paper, understandably, rankled those who toil in the non-profit sector.

Now, "Phil Anthrop," writing in The Nonprofit quarterly fires back with a searing parody of this "helpful" paper, suggesting that all nonprofits be merged and transmogrified into "five theme-based meta organizations for each state and the District of Columbia," including Arts-Mart, Health-Mart, Human-Mart, Work-Mart, and Misc-Mart, which would be a "regional repository for the rich variety of all other environmental, religious, education, international, community improvement or hopeless-cause nonprofit."

Nonprofits 1, Know-it-All Consultants 0

McKinsey may have the sure hands and quick on-court footwork of Bill Bradley, but the nonprofits apparently have Jonathan Swift.

Posted by Kevin O'Donovan at 4:51 PM | 3 Comments

August 19, 2003

Any Fool Thing

Satirist Scott Ott has an amusing take on the FCC's decision to repeal its ban on AOL incorporating video into its Instant Messenger product and "any other fool thing AOL wants to try."

Posted by Kevin O'Donovan at 4:15 PM | Add Comment

August 13, 2003

Is it a Schooner?

For fun this Wednesday morning, how about a little twenty questions? It guessed stapler in 18 questions. That's pretty good. Your results may vary, but I'd love to hear about them.

Posted by Kevin O'Donovan at 9:48 AM | 2 Comments

August 12, 2003

Cost-Cutting Cut Ups

I promise not to post too many jokes in FC Now, but this quick quip in this week's 48 Days newsletter made me grin thinly:

Faced with hard times, the company offered a bonus of $1,000 to any employee who could come up with a way of saving money.

The bonus went to a young woman in accounting who suggested limiting future bonuses to $10.

How does your company reward innovation in trying times?

Posted by Heath Row at 10:27 AM | Add Comment