Wednesday, August 03, 2005

Can't we all just...

Big Jonny just brought this to my attention: http://just-riding-along.typepad.com/just_riding_along/2005/08/voodoo_starts_a.html

Admittedly, linking DC is a bit risque but then so is our ad in the August issue of Bike Magazine. Haven't received one email about the voodoo doll in that ad yet... anyone with a brain knows that drunkcyclist.com is not really a porn site. He 'links' to porn sites. Those links pay for that website. Not a lot of money in having a website with just a bunch of words on it. I also agree with Big Jonny that linking to Starbuck's is repulsive. But its cool to someone.

Don't sweat the small stuff. This is about riding bikes and stating opinions. We are off to a great start! Thanks for the comments on both sites! - John

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Glad to hear your response to my post. In my opinion, the images on Big Jonny's site are a bit different than a Voodoo doll. I know he only links to porn, but there are some pretty raunchy images in his sidebars, not to mention his splash page. Again I'm not thinking about guys like you and me (I happen to like his splash page ;-)), I'm thinking about the random prospective Voodoo buyer who stumbles upon the site and isn't too keen on the imagery.

I also realize that I'm sounding like a total prude or some right-wing, moral-majority freak. Nothing could be further from the truth...just sharing my opinion and enjoying the open dialogue.

Look forward to staying in touch with your blog (I've added your feed to my reader). I agree, you're off to a great start and I hope to see you chiming in at JRA from time to time.

Anonymous said...

Maybe someone needs to fill me in on this whole Starbucks thing that I'm totally missing....

Tim Jackson said...

Don't you just love open and free flowing communication/ dialog? I sure do...

Ultimately, this is a cool thing. Blogging will help us build a bigger community of cycling enthusiasts and supporters. I get comments and emails all the time from people who don't even ride but they enjoy reading the blog. More people are paying attention to what is happening and what is being said. Even our silly little back and forth conversations end up getting the attention of people.

To quote our lovely common vernacular; "It's all good!"

Tim Jackson
Brand Manager
Masi Bicycles

Anonymous said...

It's all about brand building. Whether deliberate or not, companies find themselves aligned with other companies/brands and this alignment either reinforces the strength of that brand image in somebody's eyes or it detracts.

I buy my coffee from Hill and Valley because they have a bit of alignment with Singletrack magazine and I discovered them through a sidebar ad. I appreciate both brands and this informal connection between two brands that I already like, only strengthens this appreciation. In other word both companies win.

In the VooDoo/DC case however, it works the other way for me. I don't like porn and I don't like the promotion of porn. DC doesn't lose in this case as I was never in that target audience, but VooDoo does. I'm not saying I'd never buy a VooDoo bike because of this but they've dropped a few point on my 'coolometer'.

Hopefully, VooDoo realize this was going to happen and are happy that they'll win over more porn fans as customers than they'll lose.....

HQ said...

To me this is a similar of people judging a book by its cover. DC is a personal blog site that provides a lot of social commentary regarding politics, bike racing, Big Jonny's pycho dog, and a lot of talkiing shit to his friends. It just so happens he likes porn and links to it for fun (and to pay for massive bandwidth requirements). A person does not have to like porn to like his website. But it helps. :}

Thanks for not writing us off completely. Being in the bike community ultimately means we all love riding bikes. And that we all do our best to 'liveWRONG' just a little (or a lot for some) every day.