Faster than a Speeding Bullet
Josh Cohen has an interesting post on his blog, Multiple Mentality, about the speed with which greeting cards featuring Vice President Dick Cheney in hunter gear have arrived on product shelves. And in a "Target" store, no less.
Today, I went to Target to buy a birthday gift, three birthday cards, paper towels, and a new pillow for my bed. (I go through pillows distressingly fast, but that’s beside the point.)Sitting right there in the greeting card rack was a card that had a picture of Dick Cheney’s face Photoshopped onto a stylized hunter with a smoking shotgun pointing at the reader. The inside: It’s your birthday! Have a BLAST!
I almost — almost — laughed.
Think about the work that had to go into that. Coming up with the joke wasn’t difficult, but then the card company had to: (1) Figure out the proper size, font, and background for the card (2) Decide how many of these cards would be necessary... (3) Print the cards (4) Decide which markets they should go to and (5) Decide which stores in those markets will be most amenable to carrying the cards without having customers get pissed off and complain. That could lead to the card company losing business.
Commentary
Josh's observation underscores something that I frequently tell my classes - beyond the initial innovation (in this case the joke) comes a great deal of perspiration or hard work. A million people have heard that joke or something close to it. Only a small fraction had the idea to commercialize it. Fewer possess the resources and capabilities to move ahead with the idea this quickly. And fewer still will show a return for their efforts.
I agree with Josh that the humor about accidentally shooting someone is in poor taste. Still, I think we both would agree that we are all better off with a system that allows entrepreneurs to simultaneously shoot for the stars, to shoot the works, and to quite possibly shoot themselves in the foot.