eCommerce Marketing: How We Misread the Internet Audience

By now the Internet has chewed up and masticated the infamous Peloton exercise bike ad. For you people in the future visiting to soberly learn the lessons from the Ghosts of Christmas Ads Past, here’s what that was all about:

The Internet reaction to this ad is a textbook case of unexpected backlash

Everybody mocked it. And lest you be tempted to think “there’s no such thing as bad publicity,” Peloton’s stock actually fell 10% due to bad press from the ad.

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New at 123ish: The Mediterranean Diet, and why It’s the opposite of American eating

Big whoopie, I’m a food blogger now! Well, OK, we’ve gotta fill categories somehow, so it’s been food a couple times. I am far from the only blogger online to rave about the Mediterranean Diet, but it’s the only sensible diet there is to find with real research to back it up.

Naturally, sticking to the Mediterranean Diet is just about the most anti-American thing you can do. Walk home from the store with a bottle of actual olive oil (easier said than done) and a bag of kale and pick-ups like these:

will follow you down the street yelling “FAGGIT!” So I go into how American food culture is one big conspiracy to keep you tubby as a hippo. This brings us to a very topical subject…

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New at 123ish: My top kitchen gadget tips

Wait, what? After all the blogging for all these years about science fiction, horror, paranormal, Linux, all this geeky freaky stuff, I’m going to write… KITCHEN TIPS???

Yeah, just once. See, Mrs. Penguin and I raised four kids, who are now experiencing adultness in various degrees. So that’s some 20-something years feeding a household of six (not counting live-in chums, visiting relatives, couch critters, and the occasional cat) on a freelancer’s budget. And nobody complained! At least, not to my face. I must have done something right.

It’s so shockingly out of character for me, I might just try it again some time.