David Car5on Gets His A55 Kicked

David Carson, one of the high priests of the design world's cult of personality, rose to fame at a time when you could get away with being a prima-donna (the pre-Internet 90s).

Comes now this tasty bit of irony from Be a Design Group that represents an object lesson both for people in the business and for marketers who aren't clear how times have changed: even though Carson helped spur a design revolution that inspired both print and interactive artists, and even though he's hitched his wagon to new media, it's a revoluton in new media that may knock the icon off his pedestal: the pitfalls of social media, or Web 2.0.

[Art by Nate Voss for Be A Design Group, March, 2007 ]

I thought this was brilliant. Of course the comic pretty much speaks for itself. Yes,there are two sides to every story; I'm less interested in Carson's POV than I am what this comic represents: the shift of power from the fat cats to us peons. Check out the post by artist Nate Voss, which gives him -- and me -- cathartic bit of vindication. The comments are hilarious.

Thanks to Nate for persmission posting his comic.

Social Video 101

We've tagged social video as "one of the important drivers for the next major growth in brand advertising." But where's the magic? Why are so many carefully targeted, big-money entries in the genre DOA, while shiny bits of DIY genius signifying not much of anything barge into our social consciousness and take up residence?

LA-based Feed Company answers these and other troubling questions of our time in Social Video 101, A Primer. A must-read for viral aspirants with paychecks.