Smart Ass Marketing
Published on Monday, March 2, 2009 – 10:04 pm
When I was going through submissions for the Logo Of The Day website, the Design Encyclopedia logo was suggested and when I went to check out their website, I read the top three lines of their website and was pleasantly surprised that I could stay updated to their website “through their rss ass”. See the screenshot above or visit the website yourself.
Although this got a laugh out of me, I didn’t really think anything of it until I read that they were a division of Under Consideration and seeing though they know a thing or three about marketing I wondered if this little number was purely a mistake or a smart marketing move by the guys over at Under Consideration. Personally, I think it is a marketing ploy, and a clever one at that.
What makes me think so? The fact that there is a huge RSS watermark behind the text and the fact that the header hasn’t changed since 2006, however, I should note that on close inspection it does say RSS not ASS.
Update: Armin from Under Consideration had this to say:
I never noticed the ASS text until someone pointed it out literally after 30 minutes from when I uploaded that header image. Since then, every two or three months I get an e-mail from someone telling us about it. It takes five minutes to change the header but for some reason I now enjoy it being there. It’s like the arrow in the FedEx logo. Sort of.
Anyway, thought I would share this one with you and hey I guess the marketing ploy worked… I’ve written a blog post that has gone out to to 12 500+ subscribers and I’ve sent out a Twitter message to 6500+ followers which then got retweeted many, many times - Not bad, eh?
What’s your take? Smart? Dumb? Honest mistake? Vent your spleen.
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- Mar 12, 2009: Logo Of The Day | 2009-03-12 | Design Encyclopedia
kat neville on Mar 2, 2009 said:
hahaha that’ funny! It probably does say “rss” but because the font size is so small, well, we get a good laugh from it.
Conor on Mar 2, 2009 said:
haha it is pretty clever! lol
I do wonder though did it happen by accident before they realised it could work to their benefit…
Andrew on Mar 2, 2009 said:
The character, while optically resembling an “A” is clearly an “R”.
I seriously doubt this was a conscious decision by UC, but good eye.
dreh menezes on Mar 2, 2009 said:
haha funny but it wasn´t any marketing skills, just a typography problem on small size.
If you pay close attention to the A and R all over the text you can see its really written “RSS” but the small font size make look like “ASS”.
Check out the real A on the word WAY and the R on OUR.
cya and keep up the good work on the blog =)
Robin Johansen on Mar 2, 2009 said:
I too think this is on purpose and it’s very smart. But as Conor said, did it happen by accident at first? I actually don’t think so, they just had to have spotted that.
But funny, nevertheless:)
Jacob Cass (@justcreative) on Mar 2, 2009 said:
Conor, Robin,
They may have noticed it the first time when they wrote ‘RSS’ but I think that they rephrased the lines to become funnier, just my opinion though. Would like to know the true story
Wade Jackman on Mar 3, 2009 said:
yeah, it’s definitely a “R” but at first glance you wouldn’t think so. however, they may be on to something…
Gareth Coxon - Dot Design on Mar 3, 2009 said:
You should have called this post “Smart Ass Marketing” instead!
Got to be an honest mistake as suggested the font isn’t very clear when it comes to some characters!
Jacob Cass (@justcreative) on Mar 3, 2009 said:
Haha nice one Gareth, updated the post title just now!
Abbas (@designsheffield) on Mar 3, 2009 said:
It’s definitely an R, but I like to think that the guys at UC are having a bit of fun also.
Samuel Jesse on Mar 3, 2009 said:
Hehe yeah I’m gonna go Abbas - a very suggestive R…
Jeremy Davis (@jeremydavis) on Mar 3, 2009 said:
I’m gonna say just poor choices on the typeface and the font size.
Belinda on Mar 3, 2009 said:
Just a bad font choice. It is definately an R, as the A looks quite different.
Nate on Mar 3, 2009 said:
I think the most ironic part of this whole situation is that while this whole argument is based around a potential spelling/type mistake, Jacob…you spelled the word ‘encyclopedia’ wrong. While not as damaging of a mistake as the ass one, it’s still pretty funny.
Please forgive me for enjoying a chance to poke at you although I mean it in the most light-hearted and friendly way.
Keep up on the good posts…always a subscriber.
Oh, and feel free to delete my comment for saving face! ; )
Jé Maverick on Mar 3, 2009 said:
Unintentional, but quite funny. It is clearly an R once you enlarge it.
Jon (@JonLiebold) on Mar 3, 2009 said:
I think it is just one of those happy accidents that was totally innocuous at the time but turned out to be funny.
Jacob Cass (@justcreative) on Mar 3, 2009 said:
Thanks for that Nate, and yes quite ironic, thanks for pointing it out! Sometimes no matter how many times you proof read it just never comes to your attention.
Euan on Mar 3, 2009 said:
haha nice.
anything to get people talking about your business, eh?
B. Moore on Mar 3, 2009 said:
i bet if there is enough buzz about it they might really change it to ass. we shall see…..
Armin on Mar 3, 2009 said:
I never noticed the ASS text until someone pointed it out literally after 30 minutes from when I uploaded that header image. Since then, every two or three months I get an e-mail from someone telling us about it. It takes five minutes to change the header but for some reason I now enjoy it being there. It’s like the arrow in the FedEx logo. Sort of.
Craig Scott on Mar 3, 2009 said:
Depends how you look at it - they may be getting alot of hits as a result but not everyone may think it’s a joke! If they don’t pay attention to details like this on their own site then potential clients may expect similar ‘mistakes’ from them on the clients’ site.
Marc (@retrograffica) on Mar 3, 2009 said:
I’ve always thought the FedEx logo was a happy accident as well.
Alex on Mar 4, 2009 said:
I’d say that since it’s given so much space on a pretty cramped and info-packed design, it’s definitely intentional. My guess is it wasn’t at first, but the fact that it’s still live and in such a prominent position, it’s a not-so-inside-anymore joke.
Samantha on Mar 4, 2009 said:
I have found the use of the word “Ass” to be pretty effective (my URL contains it)… though it gets me a lot of really weird search results….and sometimes people just think my URL is spam automatically. So, good or bad, who really knows… I wish them luck with their ASS and/or RSS feed
Timothy on Mar 6, 2009 said:
Hilarious
Conor on Mar 6, 2009 said:
Good point Jacob, I’d say they probably did rephrase it after they realised it. I love pixel fonts though, apart from the fact that old people can’t see em
WeLC on Mar 13, 2009 said:
Very Creative! I am thinking that it wasn’t an honest mistake…it says marketing ploy all over it!
Marc (@retrograffica) on Mar 13, 2009 said:
Shouldn’t your blog post read ‘Smart RSS Marketing’ ?
I guess that’s only funny if you say ARSE (as we british do)
Paul Morales on Mar 23, 2009 said:
Haha one of the first things I noticed was the ASS. I was like did he really write that.
Dennis on Apr 25, 2009 said:
well…not so funny if like me you own smartassmarketing.com and my biz is smart ass maarketing…really..it’s OK …I don’t care..with a name like that, do you think we would?
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