Uh-Oh, SpaghettiOs (Obvious Pun)

I've covered a few instances of messages and advertisements from companies that were not thought out so well, but this has to be the most stunning. Recently, on December 7, the anniversary of Pearl Harbor was celebrated. As anyone with a basic knowledge of American history knows, the Pearl Harbor attack was a surprise attack on an American naval base by the Japanese, after which the United States declared war and entered officially into the Second World War.

Knowing that, it's hard to imagine why SpaghettiOs thought this was a good idea. The company tweeted an image of its cartoon logo holding the American flag. Their intentions might have been perfectly good, but the juxtaposition of a cartoon logo as goofy as theirs with an attack that killed literally thousands is obviously poor planning. Predictably, the response was a combination of outrage and amusement at the poor judgment of the brand.

SpaghettiOs deleted the tweet and apologized for it, which was probably the best thing they could do at this point. However, this effort was potentially undermined by a former director of digital marketing and social media, who appeared to lay the blame at the feet of those who attacked SpaghettiOs' tweet. Overall, the biggest question here is how anyone could have thought the original tweet was in any way a good idea.

Week 15

This week mostly consisted of receiving assignments or knowing that I had assignments due within the next few weeks, and yet choosing not to work on them for no justifiable reason. I have a portfolio of work due for Intro to Creative Writing. I have a paper due for English Studies. I have another paper due for Philosophy and Film. I have done pretty much nothing for all of these assignments.

On the positive side, I don't know that I have any actual finals. It seems that my classes have generally just assigned papers instead, which could mean exam week will be pretty relaxed. In the time leading up to exam week, on the other hand, I need to actually start working or I'll be in some serious trouble.

Instead of actually doing work this week, I ended up distracting myself with YouTube videos, talking to other people, and writing. I did actually get some writing done on projects I've been working on for a while, so that does count for something. Still, I probably need to actually get to work soon, or face serious consequences.

Measure What Matters: Chapter 13

Chapter 13 focuses on the importance of measuring in not-for-profit organizations. Although, unlike for-profit companies, not-for-profit organizations do not have customers, measurement is still important for them. They have to maintain a good relationship with their contributors, volunteers, and the like. According to the book, at times they need to behave more like for-profit companies in their use of measurement, for the sake of their own success.

The chapter lists six steps: defining objectives, identifying and prioritizing audiences, establishing a benchmark, choosing metrics, choosing a measurement tool, and of course analyzing the results and making changes accordingly. Objectives stem from the mission of the organization, but it's important to keep in mind every aspect of the mission when determining the objectives. For instance, as Habitat for Humanity uses volunteers to build its houses, it needs to keep in mind the importance of volunteers--rather than just money--in determining its objectives. It's also important to keep in mind that, unlike with for-profit corporations, cooperation between not-for-profit entities is quite common.

This chapter appealed to me more than a lot of others in the books just because it addressed a group of entities toward which I'm more sympathetic. While there are few (if any) for-profit corporations for which I have much admiration, there are definitely a number of not-for-profit organizations that appeal to me. I thought the book's insights were interesting as well. While the idea of not-for-profit organizations taking a page from the book of for-profit companies is not an appealing idea to me, it does seem appropriate here. It does make sense to me, as well, that not-for-profit organizations would benefit from cooperation much more than for-profit companies would, which is part of my preference for them.