That's the cover of the 2010 edition of Arthur Hardy's Mardi Gras Guide, the best-known publication listing parade routes and schedules for the New Orleans Carnival season. Arthur has produced the Guide since 1977. He's a true Carnival afficianado, expert, and memorabila junkie. One of my favorite things is to read the articles in the Guide while waiting for parades to come.
As a long-time fan of the Guide, I was excited when they followed me on Twitter, as @mardigrasguide. I immediately replied back, saying how pleased I was and that I had just bought the 2010 edition. I tweeted that I picked up the Guide at Zuppardo's Supermarket just before New Year's and mentioned @mardigrasguide. This led to a discussion of my friend Steve Faure's article on page 80 of the Guide, and our congratulations to him on a job well done.
Imagine my surprise when I noticed that @mardigrasguide blocked me.
(more after the jump)
At this point, the only thing I can figure is either the developers of the iPhone app don't want to hear about the print version, or they have something personal against me. So, I was confused even more when @mardigrasguide followed me under my "real name" twitter account:
That's the email I received from topify.com, notifying me that @EdwardBranley was being followed by @mardigrasguide. Wait a minute, they block one and then follow the other? Not to worry, when I mentioned this, they blocked me on this account as well.
Which is their prerogative, of course. Twitter users block folks all the time, for lots of reasons. The problem with this particular incident was my first reaction. I didn't think, "some iPhone app developer blocked me," but rather "Arthur Hardy blocked me! WTF?!"
I got pissed off at the larger brand.
When you've got tens of thousands of copies of a seasonal paper publication to move at gas stations, grocery stores, and other impulse-buy outlets across metro New Orleans, pissing off potential readers is probably not a good idea. Pissing off the owner of an iPod Touch who might spend the $4.99 for the "app" version of the Guide isn't a good idea, either. When both of those combine, it's even more problematic.
Now, let's go from bad to worse. These guys didn't just piss off a customer, but one who is a blogger. And bloggers aren't vindictive and petty, right? They'd never try to exact vengence for a twitter-related slight, right?
It's not something I'd do, even though I have the perfect venue for it. Just before the holidays, I finished a book on a book titled Brothers of the Sacred Heart in New Orleans that presents a photo history of the Brothers' schools in the city. Arthur Hardy used to be band director at Brother Martin High School. I suppose I could have written a screed about @mardigrasguide and their twitter antics, but that would be counter-productive for me as an author. Arthur is not only into publishing the Guide, he's doing other books as well, most notably Angus Lind's memoirs/reflections of his time working for the Times-Picayune. No doubt there will come a time when I'll pitch a book idea to Hardy, and the last thing I want is him remembering how I ranted about his business in a blog.
Don't rely on others being this prudent, though. When you represent a brand larger than you, stop and think how your on-line actions will reflect upon that brand.
- Edward Branley's blog
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