Thoroughly frustrated with one of my clients today. Big client. Big, big, big client. I dare say that if you stopped a Torghut on his way across the Ala-shan plateau in the Gobi desert and asked him if he was familiar with this company, he would be. Then he would kill you and he and his falcon would have a nice dinner. I digress. Had a meeting with one of the mindless middle managers to discuss a YouTube ad we’d be doing for her group within this company.
Me: And that’s our concept for the ad. We’ll have to start production next week to meet the April run date.
Mindless Middle Manager: YouTube? Isn’t that where kids watch pornography on the internets?
Me: Ummm..well…actually the demographics are a little different. Your competitors have been using YouTube for over a year to reach your customers and are experiencing high interaction rates. Whether or not you personally like YouTube, it stands to reason XXX Corporation needs to have a presence there. Besides, it’s not a stand-alone initiative. It’s part of a larger campaign.
MMM: I honestly think all this video on the web is a passing fancy. No one in my circle watches video on our computers. It’s a kid thing. So we’re going to pass. I’m going to divert the funds to direct mail.
Me: Direct mail? So the campaign will have TV, a microsite, banner ads, event marketing and postcards? Your media team already booked the space, too.
MMM: It’s proven. The internets are not proven.
Me: I’m not going to argue with you. This whole internet thing might end tomorrow. You’re right.
Agency Tart 
Actually, Ms. Tart, your client is quite correct about the Internets. You can’t just go shoving a video onto the YouTube. You might clog up the tubes that go in and out the tube at YouTube and then the tubes that lead to people’s houses will become plugged up as well – the only thing that has been proven about the system is that it isn’t a big truck.
Might I suggest either shortwave radio or sandwich boards?
Bwahahahahaha. Those are the days you want to bang your head against the table.
Haha, oh dear, at least it’s making people laugh!
I think the corporate drone is right, look at what the youth of today is becoming, mindlessly drooling over pornography videos on the tube, it’s disgusting – certainly not MyTube!
All this internets stuff doesn’t make sense, I think it’ll pass quickly and everyone will come to realise we should go back to proper advertising like they did in the olden days, with smoke signals, banging rocks together, and painting animal shaped logos with charcoal and ochre!
Please tell me he really referred to it as “the internets”.
Yes, he referred to it as “the internets”. That was the first sign I wanted to stab him in the eye with my flash drive.
I swear – if I get reincarnated, I want to come back absolutely ignorant.
Where does this guy live? Does he think it is 1997?
I bet he doesn’t even know what a flash drive is. If you said FOB key, he would really look at you like you spoke a different language.
Honestly, you can’t make this stuff up. I’ve dealt with people like this. I had clients who thought the Web was “The Big E” because they used Internet Explorer to browse the Web. “The Big E” – that’s a state fair in Massachusetts.
That “internets” is here to stay. So is web video marketing is. Deal with it.
That’s hilarious. But it’s even funnier when it comes not from a client, but from someone within your own industry. Actually, that’s kinda sad.
Internets? Everyone knows it’s called the intertubes.
Duh.