Ferrero Rocher, think of Ferrero Rocher. No don’t! Nooo. Too late.
The Princess Bride, Fishy Fishy, the Ivory Tower, O’Connaill’s chocolate, Pat Phelan, Sigur Ros, His Dark Materials, John Blackbourn, All About my Mother, Fight Club, blogging.
Those are just some of my favourite things. Er. Ignore the musical reference. I’m sure it’s not just me that loves something so much or the work of someone so much that I try and introduce other people to it/them. Movies, restaurants, chocolate, music, people, communications etc. There are just some products and people out there that you want others to enjoy too. For selfish reasons of course. You will always get a kick out of introducing someone to something or someone that causes a positive reaction or instantly gives them value where there was none before.
Shane mentions a prequel to His Dark Materials and I made a comment on how I give that trilogy as a present to someone every Christmas. It’s great to give such a wonderful creation to someone and they themselves get such a kick from it and maybe pass it on again to someone. My best friends and I are a bit obsessed about the Princess Bride and every now and again when someone mentions they haven’t seen it, we as a group all go “oooh” in unison and talk it up. Maybe this is the kick cult members get when they ensnare someone into their religion? But enough about members of Fine Gael.
Photo owned by Al- Fassam [ Online! 😀 ] (cc)
There are a good few other things that excite me enough to turn into an ambassador for them and no not the ugh Brand Ambassador type. What things excite you enough to get you gushing and all ambassadorial? (Imagine making products that do this?)
I like All About My Mother too. We have exquisite taste 🙂
I’ve made quite a few icons from the Princess Bride. He gets killed, she gets kidnapped but it all ends up ok. 🙂
“We are men of action, lies do not become us!”
Throughout college I persuaded most of my class to read Douglas Adams and have converted most of my friends into Tori Amos fans. Is that the same? Also, when anyone ever asks me for help with their computer – I usually end up installing Firefox for them, setting them up a gmail account and showing them B3TA.com
I’d definitely be a Brand Ambassador for each of them. Oh, and more recently I’ve been pimping Tina Fey too (30 Rock is amazing).
Damien, without answering your question as such, isn’t an “Ambassador” exactly the type of person that
1. You (One) as a blogger should be about the things you’re (one is) writing to make a difference about/draw attention to
2. Your customer service people should be about the product/brand you provide
3. Your site editors/writers/managers should be in order to convey this to customers
4. Your community managers (yet another ugh (mis)type) or forum moderators or blog responders or whatever should portray themselves as
In essence, anyone dealing with the members of the public should be this brand ambassador type person. I don’t mean guerilla/rabid “turning all the labels on the bottles the right way in Dunnes” type, but I do mean having pride in and passion for what it is you do, sometimes in a creative way to make the service that little bit remarkable.
You wrote before about dealing with CEOs on blogs, and yet bloggers too are CEOs of their blogspace, and in turn have to behave as such, and not in a Dilbert way. Comments should be moderated if necessary, commenters thanked, links working, mind opened to different views, the word sorry on the ready just in case, etc.
I’ve been an ambassador now for a few years. But I find a lot of the people I’m getting to know on- and offline are too. I’m passionate about charities (like, for example Rick is), I’m passionate about good service (like, for example Sabrina is), I’m passionate about communication (Bernie), I’m passionate about creativity (Ken Mc) and, well, you get the idea.
I suppose if I had to put it simply, I’m passionate about the Irish Interweb industry. Still trying to make a better contribution than saying “Hey, you’re cool, fair play” but for the moment that’ll do.
For TV: The West Wing, Firefly, Arrested Development. Books: His Dark Materials, Cryptonomicon. Foodwise: Green and Black’s, Jamie Oliver cookbooks, Fannie Farmer (oi! quit sniggering in the back), sushi. Activities: knitting, Macs, teaching people how to use the Intertubes.
Being an ambassador is fine. But there are some things that I feel uncomfortable teling other people about. I like to keep them for myself because they are more “special” if few people know about them. And in some cases I worry that they will be spoiled if everyone was at them.
As presents I buy Jonathan Strange and Mr. Norrell, Foucault’s Pendulum and the aforementioned Pullman trilogy. I get very excited when I talk to people who’ve read any of the above.
Moo.com and Blurb.com – I’m always handing out the mini-cards and stickers from Moo and showing off my wedding album that I made via Blurb. Quality products at reasonable prices.
@ SK I totally agree, there are just some things SO good that you want to keep them to yourself. I feel like this about a lot of the music I listen to because I really enjoy going to small venues to see the bands I love and hate the bigger venues.
Mountaineering is a particular one of mine. I am torn between sharing the wonder of mountains and wild spaces, and worrying that loads of people will spoil the very solitude I like.
Denim, without hesitation. I don’t know where I’d be without ripped jeans.
@Darragh Thanks for the pitch.
the wire. Can’t stop myself going on about it.
ah the wire:
http://stuffwhitepeoplelike.wordpress.com/2008/03/09/85-the-wire/
Twin Peaks
Mid-to-late 90s hip-hop
Harp Lager
First Blood
80s teen movies (Back to the Future, Teen Wolf, Karate Kid)
@Kirstie haha.
@Roosta Nobody gets how amazing First Blood is.
Damien – that site is amazing, I laughed my ass off for hours.
@Damien : Easily the best dialogue in a film ever.
Mainly I try to get people to pay attention to the works of Joss Wheadon (he is indeed my master now) Particularly Firefly, although Buffy remains my favourite.
I’ve always banged on about anti-folk music, particularly Jeffrey Lewis and Kimya Dawson (although the film ‘Juno’ has now taken away the need to talk about Dawson)
I also encourage people to read the books of Steven Erikson, although you have to be careful who you recommend them to, as he can be an acquired taste
all I can say is, you are still paying for the airbook
my ambassadors
O Connells Fish, english market
O Flynns Butchers
Taste of Thailand
anyone who has the balls to do a start-up
Jawbone
Nokia
Alexia
[…] has a “hmm that’s an interesting thought” type post […]
lol.. This comment thread is turning into a love fest * side steps * 🙂
Being an ambassador for a product, service or person is all about evangelising things we love. All back the to the basic power of word of mouth. A very human instinct when we love something.
From the POV of the producer of evangelised products, it’s got to be very motivating and tinged with a little pressure. Building cool products that people live and breathe is satisfying and let’s be honest, probably profitable.
Things I like to evangelise include bloggers exercising their right to free speech, cool gadgets, T3, startups solving problems with new ideas, Pat Phelan (we outnumber you!) and snappy software.
I spent many months browbeating my worthless brother into sending me a copy from the US in the early 80s. Huge trepidation in 87, but for once, the movie did not disappoint. And never has since. My 8 year old can now pretty much recite it. And, for some reason, she thinks her mother’s nickname was a teenager was Buttercup …
Evangelised / Ambassadored? Converted a few friends to The Cure over the years. Firefly/Serenity and general Whedonism for a select few. Bill Hicks – whom I SAW in the Tivoli. Blogging for more than a few. Jaffa cakes naturally. Teddy’s ice cream for very lucky clients who suffered deprived upbringings.
The Princess Bride is certainly one of the greatest things ever. I’ve gotten lots of people to watch that.
Time Bandits would be another one, of a similar ilk I think.
And The Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy. It’s a lot better than just a silly comedy sci-fi book, particularly for anyone interested in technology and/or the Internet.
(I’ve also been known to bestow the virtues of The Beatles and Star Trek TOS/TNG upon people… but there aren’t too many people left who haven’t already made up their minds on those two).
@Damien saying: Darragh Thanks for the pitch.
Eeek, apologies, didn’t mean it to come across that way. I hadn’t read the other comments in context before pressing submit and it was published. I’m not pitching anything though, it’s actually true.
@Alexia – nicely put.
[…] If you’re new here, you may want to subscribe to my site using a feedreader or email. Thanks for visiting – Damien.The feedback has been fantastic but please to list what you think you’ve been an ambassador for. […]
I didn’t know any boys had ever watched or really enjoyed “The Princess Bride” – that’s excellent news. I watched it so often when I was little, and just this week I saw that my local video shop was selling most of their VHS tapes, and there was “The Princess Bride” sitting forlornly between “Super Size Me” and “How to Windsurf”, and I just had to rescue it and bring it home with me, especially as its the only copy in the shop. “The Princess Bride “ is one of the few films I had hesitated to watch again because after not viewing it in years, I didn’t want to discover my childhood enjoyment for it had diminished. I watched half of it last night, and was surprised by automatically remembering the dialogue and by how much I continue to enjoy the performances and story. I’m so glad to see it mentioned here on your blog.
Rogue Solicitors…lecturers, etc.
Good topic. And possible a good source for my moviestar list.
Film: Shane meadows is my current hero, specially when teamed up with Paddy Considine.
Books: Iain Banks. Always trying to get people to read Wasp Factory.
Nightlife: Camden pool hall. Upstairs. NOT to be confused with the downstairs.
TV: League of Gentlemen.
Technology: I’m always telling people about feedreaders. More ‘lay’ people need to know how useful they are. And I’m always trying to push any labour saving software. In general I find a lot of people don’t realise that computers are there to make your work easier. So I’m always pushing stuff like Macros and automation, and find and replace etc. My parting gift from last job was a “Macro Man” superhero t-shirt! God I didn’t realise I was such a nerd. One line each on books and movies etc and a load of waffle on technology.
I used to be an ambassador for Threadless, but then every fucker in Ireland decided to buy the shirts, so I’m not any more. I don’t really go there for shirts any more either, because everybody has them.
I also used to be an ambassador for Nintendo, when they were always in third place in the “console race” despite making the BEST GAMES EVER. Now they’re in first place, outselling the other two put together, and I’m still an ambassador, because they still make the BEST GAMES EVER.
I can’t be an ambassador for Apple, because I am SO their bitch.
If you like Princess Bride, if you like Pullman, what about Gaiman and his Stardust?
[…] Damien asked us what we were ambassadors for. I’ve done some thinking and have come up with the following: […]
[…] on from Mulley’s post and Anthony’s follow up, I wondered what I am an ambassador for. I’m not sure if […]
[…] something that could gather people around to enjoy their time together. Whether it be to act as ambassadors or just community […]
[…] me to digress a moment. Mulley, a long while back, asked people what they were ambassadors for (another Meme, btw) and I realised that in my reply I neglected to mention my love of, my […]