Copywriter Commentary: Playtex Sport Tampons

My work, (CityMax Website Builder) recently bought a ton of new supplies for its storeroom meant for use by its employees. Besides all the Kool-aid, single-serving soups, wasabi peas and other tasty treats, a box of Playtex Sport tampons was added for those of us who get “caught” without any on hand.

Yes, we have more women with us than the average high-tech company.

Now being a professional copywriter, I tend to laugh at the kind of copy that makes it onto product packaging. Anyway, the back of the tampon box touts the product for its revolutionary “Precise Placement™” system. I can’t help but wonder: "Why exactly does a tampon need ‘precise placement’? Where the heck else is it gonna go?" I began to theorize about this until I was told by my wonderfully tolerant workmates, “Please don’t go there, Lori…”

Yes, I admit, I’m a bit of a geek with words. :P

A Web Forum for Losers: Loosr.com

Shit happens. Not just shit... vomit, sex, pee, condoms, girlfriends, cars, shoes and a variety of other topics in the tag cloud on Loosr.

Loosr is a fun little site on which anyone can share their embarrassing stories publicly on the Web. Like on other online communities, visitors can leave their comments and click to vote for which stories they think are most embarrassing.

Most of the people leaving comments seem to be under 24, which isn't a surprise when I think about it. The most embarrassing times I can remember were all back then. Anyway, it's a bit of fun so check it out.

World of Warcraft Videos - Now THIS is Geeky...

The World of Warcraft has risen to phenomenal new heights of geeky obsession. Many people are creating videos using WOW graphics. Some of these are pretty detailed and impressive. Here is my favourite using the audio skit by Four on the Floor:



There are also lots of people making music videos like this one for the song "Here Without You."



What's really scary is there are a bunch of entirely different videos for this same song.

Pandora Goes Global

Yes, it's true. Pandora's box is not only open to Americans now, it's open to the entire world. Hooray!

For those of you who don't know, Pandora is an online radio station of music that is organized using the Music Genome Project. The Music Genome Project analyzes and organizes music by a number of traits (i.e. melody, harmony, rhythm, instrumentation, etc.). Pandora Radio allows listeners to identify a song or an artist they like and, in turn, Pandora searches its database and pulls up songs it that are similar in nature.

Before, Pandora was available to the world at Pandora.com. But last year, due to licensing constraints, Pandora had to cut itself off from the world outside the States. But now, with GlobalPandora.com, those of us who live in the rest of the world can now enjoy Pandora's box and all her splendours once again. :)

Best New Facebook Feature: Friend Lists

I'll admit it. I'm addicted to Facebook (or 'Facecrack' as it's called by my friends). And as much as I liked that fact that you no longer have to use the word 'is' in status updates, as well as the new email notification system that contains the actual text of the emails, the most important new feature is the new 'Friends Lists.'

This new feature allows you to organize your friends into logical lists, making it easier to send mass emails to relevant recipients. But more importantly, once completed, this feature will give you more control over the information you allow your different friend lists to see.

No longer will we have to worry about co-workers or family members seeing various "unmentionables." Yay, Facebook!

Corporate Culture in Computerland

Developers are in demand. All the companies in Computerland are all afluster, competing to get the most skilled, creative and dynamic developers in the field. In this high stakes game of headhunting, compensation and benefits packages alone are no longer enough to attract the best players to a company's development team. People don't just want to company to work for, they want a company that they can work for and have fun too.

This is one of the reasons why companies like Google are winning over the best developers in the industry. Check out this list of the top 10 reasons to work for Google. In addition to great compensation and benefits packages, they provide free lunches and snacks, foozeball, yoga, massage, gym and lots more, all with the sole purpose of attracting the most innovative minds in the industry. Google doesn't need to seek people. People want to be part of Google, nay, compete to be.

Compare Google's job page to Microsoft's job page. Google shows real employees having fun and doing their thing. Microsoft shows us a plastic stock photo representation of the yes men and women that work there. What kind of employees do you think Microsoft attracts? Is it any wonder that Microsoft is rapidly gaining a reputation as a stagnating company that struggles to keep up with its competitors?

Endangered Word of the Day: "Addictive"

Has anyone noticed that everyone is now using the word "addicting" in place of the word "addictive"? This is a language travesty that has come about in recent years that has become too prominent to ignore.

I'd like to start by pointing out that yes, "addicting" is in fact a word, but no, it is not interchangeable with addictive. To say that "Cigarettes are addicting," implies that cigarettes are currently causing addiction to those who smoke them. For this statement to be both grammatically correct and meaningful, those whom are being addicted should be specified in the sentence.

If you want to describe an activity as having qualities that cause addiction, the use of the word "addictive" (an adjective) is the grammatically correct choice.

So everyone, please use the English language responsibly and help prevent endangered words like "addictive" from falling into extinction.