Archive for the ‘Marketing Tricks’ Category

Now In Print: Everything You’ve Heard About Uncle Remus Is Wrong

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I’ve wanted the Wren’s Nest to put out a newspaper for a few years now.

Joel Chandler Harris cut his teeth as a printer’s devil for a newspaper before making a name for himself at the Savannah Morning News and the Atlanta Constitution. Newsprint seemed like an appropriate marketing gimmick, but that was about as far as we got.

When Huey + Partners surprised us with these awesome print advertisements, it was clear we had to use them somehow.

While we sat on our hands, Noisy Decent Graphics and McSweeney’s created their own delightful, short-run newspapers.

Then earlier this year Lauren over at Lampe-Farley read “Everything You’ve Heard About Uncle Remus Is Wrong” and was all like, “Hey idiot! This is your newspaper right here.” And you know what? She was right, for a few of reasons.

• Amelia‘s mom had already said the same thing.
• Some folks have no idea who Uncle Remus is.
• Some folks are uncomfortable talking about Uncle Remus.
• Some folks think Uncle Remus is NOT OK.
• The essay’s been popular online, but many readers drop out after Part 1.

It seemed like a great way to marry marketing and mission, so we put Lauren to work. A few weeks later, our newspaper was born:

Thanks to Greg at Lampe-Farley for the video.

The whole paper looks great, but I’m especially happy that Zach from Crafty Mice let us use his Brer Rabbit poster to serve as the centerfold. This photograph doesn’t do it justice, but I’m gonna show it to you anyway.

We had our newspapers printed just in time for the Decatur Book Festival. Naturally, we’re bringing in a scrappy team of newsies to distribute the thing.

If you can’t make it to the festival, send your address to lain@wrensnestonline.com, and I’ll mail you a copy.

What do y’all think? Will people pick this up? Or will I be making a lot of hats and boats all winter?

Purge ATL Features the Wren’s Nest

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Your gallant Wren’s Nest staff has been busy modeling all this past week, and boy are we tired of smiling.

The fiesty startup magazine Purge ATL stopped by the other day to take in storytelling, ask a few questions, and snap some photos.  Then they put the whole story together real nice — just for you!  (Hey, thanks y’all!)  Read up, and tell ‘em what you think.

(h/t Deisha at Bang! Arts)

Brer Rabbit’s Modern Recipes for Modern Living

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Because I am a woman, I wanted to write about Brer Rabbit’s Modern Recipes for Modern Living, even though it was Lain’s discerning eye that found it.

Aside from the recipes, most of which are dessert, and more specifically, gingerbread-based (“The All-American Dessert”), there are some excellent pieces of advice to be found throughout the book.

For example, did you know Brer Rabbit Molasses Aids Meatless Meals?  ”Meat and liver are valuable sources of iron.  So when meat is missing from your menu — or reduced in quantity — help keep the family’s iron intake up to par by serving plenty of Brer Rabbit Molasses.”  Delicious logic.

Oh, you didn’t think of molasses as a meat alternative?  Well, “Scientific tests have shown Brer Rabbit Molasses is second only to liver as a rich food source of iron the body can use.”  So there.

Plus, “authorities tell us a surprising number of people need to get more iron.”  Time is clearly of the essence, especially since “plenty of iron in the diet is more important than ever now — when national good health is vital to America’s future.”  Thank goodness we’ve jumped that hurdle.

And if you’re worried about your food tasting a little too heavily of a syrup that’s 60% natural sugar, rest assured: “Not much molasses is necessary … but what a tremendous difference just a little makes.  Meats take on a new flavor … rich and zippy.  Vegetables step out of the humble, plain tasting class.”  I hate that class of vegetables.

If you see any recipes that strike your fancy in the index above, let me know and I’ll send you the text.  Brer Rabbit molasses is still defeating anemia from coast to coast, making lard the only elusive ingredient in these bad boys.  Yum!

Nonprofit Technology Conference 2010 — Free Admission to the Wren’s Nest and a Beer

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This weekend the Nonprofit Technology Conference has descended upon our fair city. It sounds like something our valiant staff should attend:

"The Nonprofit Technology Network and the Georgia

Center for Nonprofits will come together to provide

an unparalleled meeting ground for drawing on the

expertise and commitment of the nonprofit community."

After all, we use “computers” and “the internet,” and we’re definitely a nonprofit.  Unfortunately, This Nation’s Most Exciting House Museum doesn’t just run itself, and especially not this week.  Bummer.

So, I’m writing to the good people of the #10NTC with a proposal: if you want to play hooky from the conference today or tomorrow, we’ll offer you free admission to the Wren’s Nest + a beer with our staff while we make you fill us in on what we missed.

I think we have Sweetwater and Red Stripe in the fridge. Oh, and our museum is pretty neat too. We have storytelling performances today at 12 and tomorrow at 1 pm.

Just bring your conference ID. We’ll stick around until 5:00 today and 2:30 tomorrow.

Arthur Miller’s 1941 Radio Play — “Joel Chandler Harris”

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In 1941 Arthur Miller wrote a radio play for Cavalcade of America called “Joel Chandler Harris.” Karl Swenson, he of Little House on the Prairie fame, plays the lead role.

The play runs about 26 minutes and is sort of an “aw shucks!” biography. Still, the writing is well done. The accents, however, are questionable.

“Joel Chandler Harris” by Arthur Miller

The play is based in fact but it isn’t entirely factual. For example, there’s a scene where Harris meets Teddy Roosevelt and Mark Twain at the White House.  In reality the incident in question did occur, but with only Mark Twain and in New Orleans.

Compared with many of the historical inaccuracies we usually deal with, however, this feels like a case of tomato/tomato.

Related: More episodes of Cavalcade of America (presented by DuPont!), Disney’s 1956 “aw shucks!” biography of young Joel Chandler Harris

Trix Cereal’s Branding Evolution — From Brer Rabbit to Trix Rabbit

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In 1954, General Mills debuted Trix Cereal.  The copy of one of the original advertisements is delightfully hyperbolic:

“Trix… world’s first breakfast cereal with wholesome fruit-flavor sweetness… and bright fruit-colors! Gay little sugared corn puffs in a happy mixture of colors – red, yellow and orange. Fun to see! A joy to eat! A real honest-to-goodness body-building breakfast-food besides! No sugar needed! Just pour on milk or cream and it’s ready to eat. The most exciting thing that ever happened to breakfast cereal. The most wonderful thing that ever happened to breakfast! A terrific between-meals snack, too… and wholesome. At your grocer’s now! Get Trix… the fruit-flavor c ereal!”

That same year, Brer Rabbit appeared on one of the earliest Trix boxes, pictured above.

Like other Disney characters, Brer Rabbit was often used in advertising partnerships with General Mills (Mickey Mouse, for example, made his way onto the Trix box, too).  Brer Rabbit had also promoted Song of the South on a Cheerios box in 1946:

For the next few years, General Mills experimented with the Trix brand, occasionally adorning the box with, say,  a different rabbit or a juggling kid on a unicycle, but nothing stuck.

Then, in August of 1959 illustrator Joe Harris (no relation) created Trix Rabbit, the cartoon rabbit who would fail miserably in tricking children out of their cereal.

Here’s an early commercial featuring Trix:

The rest is history.

Joe Harris went on to bigger and better endeavors (most notably, creating Underdog), but “Trix are for kids” became one of the most recognized corporate slogans of the 20th century, and the Trix Rabbit is still alive and kicking fifty years later.

Until recently, I’d thought that the Trix Rabbit was perhaps a subtle nod to Brer Rabbit, mostly because he’s a rabbit classified as a “trickster hero.”  But the connection seems to be much more overt.

First of all, Brer Rabbit was one of the few characters that’d actually appeared on a Trix box before. A trickster promoting Trix cereal wasn’t lost on General Mills.

Then, of all the names in the world, Trix Rabbit’s illustrator was named Joe Harris — the very same name that Joel Chandler Harris went by everywhere except the book jacket.

Perhaps this nod to Brer Rabbit was a little bit more obvious in the 1950s, when (Joel Chandler) Harris’ name enjoyed considerably greater renown.  Given the time period and the circumstances, Joe Harris creating Trix Rabbit is sort of like me naming my kid “Billy Shakespeare.”  If it happened, it sure wouldn’t be by accident.*

Sometimes when I’m talking to guests and trying to explain the significance of Brer Rabbit in American culture, I feel like the copy on the original Trix ad: “The most exciting thing that ever happened to breakfast cereal children’s literature!  The most wonderful thing that ever happened to breakfast American folklore!”

Or worse, like Carlton on the Fresh Prince of Bel-Air bemoaning the unjust treatement of his favorite rabbit :

But in truth, the echoes of Brer Rabbit and African-American folklore really do resonate throughout more than just our Saturday morning cartoons — they’re in our cereal bowls, too.  That is, if you’re six.

* Please do not let me do this.

Georgia Traveler Features the Wren’s Nest, Amelia, and Curtis

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Georgia Traveler, everyone’s favorite travel show not starring Michael Palin Anthony Bourdain Rick Steves, stopped by the Wren’s Nest a few months back for a segment on their “Book Tour” episode.

Amelia did most of the talking:

Curtis did most of the storytelling:

And Georgia Traveler did a bang-up job.  Thank you, Georgia Traveler! Watch the entire episode online, here (just click on the “Watch” icon next to the page title).

Our segment starts about 4 minutes in, but the whole episode is worth your time.  They stop by the Uncle Remus Museum, Flannery O’Connor’s Andalusia, the Margaret Mitchell House, and the Grit.

P.S.  Do you know how hard it is to find a screen grab where people don’t look like they’re drooling?  It’s medium-hard!

Illustrations from Nights with Uncle Remus by Milo Winter

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These illustrations by Milo Winter from Nights with Uncle Remus (1917) are great.  Brer Terrapin’s understated elegance belongs on the Sartorialist.

1946 Promotional Program for Song of the South

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Today marks the 63rd anniversary of the release of Song of the South.

Weirdly enough, Disney first chose to market the film as an “Old South Romance.”  Here’s the cover from its 1946 program:

Bizarre, right?  It’s less Who Framed Roger Rabbit? and much more Gone with the Wind.

The program — 16 pages in all — gets a lot more relevant once you get past the cover. I’ve included it in its entirety below.  You’re welcome.

I dig this illustration that’s on the inside of the cover.  With this one exception, I’ve tried not to crop much out (as much as our almost-large-enough scanner allowed).

Remember, you can click on the pictures to zoom in and read the (quite lucid and informative, though sometimes not so factually accurate) text.  Enjoy!

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Writing (and Righting) History on Wikipedia

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A few weeks ago I was inspired to start editing the Joel Chandler Harris Wikipedia page when I read an article based on erroneous facts about Harris quite obviously culled from Wikipedia, everyone’s favorite encyclopedic punching bag.

Wren’s Nest Blog Original Gangstas might recall this is not our first encounter with the Joel Chandler Harris Wikipedia page.  Way back in 2007, one ambitious editor included some, uh, fan fiction –

Harris’ page hasn’t been vandalized again, but it has remained far from complete.  The criticism and praise of Harris were irrelevant, and the actual information on his life was minimal.

So, I decided to edit and expand the Joel Chandler Harris Wikipedia page as judiciously as possible, drawing from diverse, respected sources.

For a long time I felt uncomfortable editing Wikipedia on a topic where I have such an inherent, genetic bias.  But, I realized a few things once I started editing:

• Editing Wikipedia is a lot of fun.
• No matter how many times we link to the New Georgia Encyclopedia article and no matter how questionable the source, folks are going to use the Wikipedia page.
• Short of a Disney release of Song of the South and my subsequent interview on Oprah, this is probably the broadest way for us to execute our mission effectively.
• My work is only the start!

Please take a look at the article and let me know what you think.  If you’re feeling limber, I encourage you to help edit the article where you see fit.

I’m not quite done — particularly with the journalism section — but it’s a start at least.