Month: April 2011

I remember about a month ago, one of my friends showed me a video of these guys who had created a sport liquid mountaineering, which put in simple terms is running on water. The video was about 3 minutes long (over 9 million hits on youtube), and it described the brief history of this group of friends who developed the sport. The video (posted below) contains many clips of them seemingly sprinting on water, in some instances getting upwards of 10 strides before they sink. Well, it turns out the whole video was a farce. The video was actualy made by some unknown shoe manufacturer, who’s waterproof shoe is used by the runners in the video, to gain some publicity. When I found out it was a farce, my heart broke. I was really looking forawrd to trying it for myself in the summer, as I’m sure a lot of people were. This may qualify as the dumbest/most unethical marketing tactic of all time. Not only did this company create this misleading video in hopes of increasing the sales of their shoe, but they initially denied allegations of being behind the creation of the video, which they were. They positioned their product for a use that is not actualy possible and on top of that, they outright lied to their consumers. Furthermore, they barely mentioned the use of their shoe in the video. I mean if you’re going to go about marketing in such a twisted sleezy way, you may as well do a good job of it. As you can see I was really looking forward to running on water, oh well. In the end, I doubt this company will last much longer as in this one video I’m pretty sure they destroyed whatever reputation their brand had.

I think the greatest lesson I’ve learned came from my 12th grade calculus teacher. He always encouraged me to maintain my positive attitude and keep a smile on. I’ve always been a pretty care free happy individual but I’ve found that through 2 years of university that my carefree temperment is often tested. I see a lot of people around me getting super stressed out over exams and getting worked up over marks and requirements, and it gets kind of depressing really. It is really easy to become so focused on school that you live and die by every exam and paper, especially when they actually may dictate where you go in school/life. But what I always try to do, is remain positive and just accept that whatever happens happens. I find that through doing this I get less stressed out and in general live a more enjoyable life. I always try to keep a smile on and lighten the mood because university can get to be really serious place, and honestly I don’t think it can be healthy to be constantly worried and stressed out. I acredit my calculus teacher as the reason I passed first year calculus but the most important thing I learned from him was to keep a smile on.