Pet Peeve

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It's The Little Things

Great ad, if you ask me. Simple headline, bold yet elegant art direction. The copy acknowledges the current economic situation. "You got laid off and you are going out on interviews. Wear a tie that says, 'I'm a serious candidate.'" I would've given the area below the knot a more symmetrical fold, thus adding the vague innuendo of....something. But still, that's a little thing.

I hate ties and will avoid wearing them unless they are absolutely required. There's just something about being choked that doesn't appeal to me. There is no function to a tie. It is a holdover from the days of frilly shirts, stockings and powdered wigs. It is merely a statement, an accessory, a custom that I hoped would be dead by now. I unfortunately own a few, none of which are as sharp as this Countess Mara tie.

The ad says, "available at Macy's." So go to the Macy's website and you will not find a single Countess Mara tie. Go to the Countess Mara store locator site (called Save The Gentleman) and enter my zip code and be met with, "Sorry, there were no stores found within 50 miles of that zip code." They don't even give me the option to increase the search radius, never mind the fact that there are at least three Macy's stores within 50 miles of my home.

Then, a visit to the Countess Mara website shows more examples of how Countess Mara is letting the little things slip. There's this confidence-instilling paragraph (emphasis mine):

THE COUNTESS MARA BRAND HAS SUCESSFULLY ESTABLISHED ITSELF AS THE SPECIAL OCCASION SOLUTION FOR MEN OF DISTICTION. COUNTESS MARA’S VISION OF EUROPEAN STYLE AND CONDUCT HAS HELPED DEFINE THE MODERN AMERICAN GENTLEMAN.

A simple spellcheck, Countess.

How about this?

IT IS THE LITTLE THINGS THAT TRANSFORM THE MAN INTO THE GENTLEMAN. THE ORDINARY INTO THE DIGNIFIED.

True, I suppose. And just as true when it comes to your web presence (and that of your suppliers) and how it integrates with your print campaigns. It's the little things. You are selling what are likely high-end ties, more expensive than most, and you are choking on the littlest of things. And you just might be going out on interviews soon.

How They Do Customer Service in Mexico

A job at work required that one of our artists try as best as possible to duplicate the font on the Mexican 100 peso note. After much searching, we were coming up empty. So I emailed Banco de Mexico and asked them what font they used. In less than 24 hours, this courteous reply was received (in English).Dear Sir,

Thank you very much for your interest in Banco de Mexico's web site. Regarding your request, we may inform you that the font used on the 100 pesos banknote was designed by our team in 1987 for Mexican banknotes and has been used in our banknotes since then. It was designed, deliberately looking for no resemblance with the commercial fonts available at that time, when Word Processors and personal computers were not as common as today. We do not know if now there is a commercial font similar to it. The new series with new design, which is starting to circulate, has a new font.

Hoping the information to be useful, we remain at your service.

Sincerely yours,
Banco de México

Our artist had already found a font that would work by the time this reply came in, but think about that. From a random query on their "contact us" page, they gathered the information from their art department and have me a courteous, comprehensive answer in very short order. Smart business.

Officially Overdone:

The use of the silhouetted crowd, whose reflections are all cast upon a freshly waxed floor. The use of this graphic is supposed to convey “We’re down with the young demo. See skeptical dude far left? And had-enough-of-your-BS hottie next to him? Everyone in this group is hard to reach. They’re your audience, and we know how to reach them.”

I will refrain from launching into my invective-filled anti-new media rant.

Also way beyond overdone: the half-reflection thing. It was cool for a little while – and then everyone put it under everything.

Stop With Your Stupid Target = "Blank"

If I'm clicking on a link that leaves your website, then it's perfectly fine for you to want to keep the page I was on displayed in a separate browser instance. I may not have finished what I was reading on your site and following a link that exits your website may mean that I never make it back to your site.



But if you're linking me to other pages of your website, I don't need a separate browser instance for each click. That's not only dumb, it's rude and annoying. Almost as bad as those jerks who won't let you hit the back button on your browser after you land on their homepage. "Haha! We got you now! You're staying on our site!" Wrong, I'm hitting the home button and making sure to avoid your site from now on.