The journalist in the video asked where the paper's journalism was headed, and Zell said journalists needed to focus on what readers want, thus helping generate revenue to reinvest in the paper.
The journalist then followed up, saying readers want "puppy dogs" rather than real information. Zell took umbrage, delivering the eminently quotable line, "you're giving me the classic... journalistic arrogance of deciding that puppies don't count."
Zell dropped his F-bomb a few breaths later, at the very end of his answer.
The source added this tidbit:
The video was taken down for half the day Friday as the publisher, Kathy Waltz, debated on whether to edit out his little aside, but everyone in the newsroom had seen/heard about it by then. It went back up in its original, unedited form.
For the impatient, a 10 second "fuck you" shot from Zell:
The full 1:45 minute give-and-take between the journalist and Zell:
CareerBuilder's Follow Your Heart Ad
Three good things about this ad: It communicated a clear, positive message about the product; it takes you by surprise; and it makes you pay attention. But in the end, a heart leaping out of a woman's chest is too gross and disturbing and the punchline too obvious.
Bud Lite's Foreign Lortharios Ad
Have you heard? Apparently foreign accents and cultures are totally funny! Well, actually, they can be, but not like this. The South Asian guy says the girl has "the thighs of a Sherpa," the East Asian guy says "Hai" all aggressive and Japanesey; the African guy is carrying around a chicken; the leading Lothario is of course Latino. Not racist or xenophobic, just dumb and awkward.
SalesGenie.com's Two Salesmen Under the Gun ads
In the first ad, an Indian guy named Ramesh with seven kids (just one less than Apu on Simpsons!) uses SalesGenie.com to meet a deadline for his loudmouth boss. In case we miss the point that he has seven kids, we are hit over the head with it twice.
In the other ad, a Chinese couple named Ching Ching and Ling Ling, which are actually pandas, speak in broken English about how to save their business with a "sales miracle" and end up owning a superstore thanks to SalesGenie.
Racial, national and religious stereotypes can be employed in the service of humor; the Simpsons and, arguably, South Park and King of the Hill have used them to deliver some solid punchlines. But if they are pretty much all you got; and you're not obviously making fun of the stereotype itself; and your ad isn't actually funny then deploying accents and stereotype is just going to make you look desperate for attention.
Slightly less dumb
The E-Trade baby ads. They were fun enough as a visual gag, but the stock market fell steadily in January. With the market becoming less predictable by the day, do you really want to emphasize how unsophisticated your target customer is, or mount the implied claim that it's really easy to make money trading stocks right now?
Since he posted a few hours ago, Crocker's gotten over 100 responses, but only four are actually related and no outstanding suitors are among them, so you totes have a chance.
Bud Lite's Will Ferrell Ad
Though the humor is middling by Ferrell's high standards (see his vids at Funny or Die or even his Apple ads for recent examples), the ad is funny enough to positively shine in the Super Bowl landscape and manages to draw some chuckles.
Cars.com's Plan B Ad #1
Unlike Ferrell's Bud Lite ad, both of Cars.com's "Plan B" ads manage to both entertain and directly promote the product in question. Below is the better of the two; the other is here.
Fedex's Carrier Pigeons Ad
Ads that lean heavily on special effects are not usually this effective, but FedEx kept both the message and the joke very simple. Doesn't directly help promote the product over its competitors.
Probably worth watching if you're bored: T-Mobile's Charles Barkley ad and Vitamin Water's Shaq-as-horse-jockey ad.
The "Hannah Montana" rule of economics: If you charge more money for your tickets than Jessica Alba, you can make more money.
And she did.
The 3D concert movie "Hannah...
The pens may yet prove mightier than the discord, but on Saturday night, it was still the producers that reigned supreme.
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