What Old Spice Man and Amanda Knox have in Common

Tonight I attended a dinner where the lead speaker was Jason Bagley (Creative Director at Wieden & Kennedy), the mastermind behind the hunk-a-hunk-a burning love Old Spice Man.  Also in attendance was David Marriott, the man currently being heralded with having a critical role in shifting Amanda Knox’s  public persona from “she-devil” to “all American girl” being penalized for anti-American sentiment by a corrupt Italian legal system.

Jason’s talk was on: “HOW TO ABSOLUTELY 100% GUARANTEE SOMETHING GOES VIRAL (MAYBE).”

Now, since it’s my shameless dream to become a famous food blogger like the lovely Molly Wizenberg of Orangette, or perhaps even better yet, become a famous food critic who travels the world eating in amazing restaurants while still miraculously maintaining my size four (ha) figure, I paid close attention.

He had ten tips for how to absolutely 100% guarantee something goes viral. Unfortunately for me…the ones I really liked are still a bit out of reach (hire a team of geeks and get random celebrities like Michael Bolton and Fabio to do TV spots for you), but there were a few that also resonated that I’m going to try to employ into my blogging.

Note: This is where you, reader, come in.

1. Be Nimble – It’s easy to start overthinking something like a blog. “Who’s reading it? Is anyone reading it? It can’t just be my mom reading it…can it? Do people think I’m funny? Do they think I’m pretty? Do they like my food?” The more that little voice goes off in my head the longer it takes for me to post. So resolution #1 – Don’t get so hung up on being perfect. Just Shut Up & Cook.
2. Be Controversial – It’s not my nature to be controversial (unless you count Foie Gras or pink headbands at funerals), but I’m going to try to stretch the limits a little bit here. Even the title of this post is beyond my comfort zone. I promise I won’t make penis cupcakes or anything like that…but get ready for some wild times here at ‘ol Shut Up & Cook.
3. Keep the Conversation Going – This is your blog too. Tell me what food you love, what you hate, what you can’t seem to figure out. A new reader from Pennsylvania is interested in, “Healthy breakfast muffins! I have eaten the same quinoa carrot muffin every morning for too long now!” What do you want to talk about? Come on….comment people! Please?

And with that I’m going to curl up with my man and my dogs…no recipe, no distraction, no crappy iPhone picture,…and commit myself to Jason’s last piece of advice as it applies to this blog and my pursuit for it to be your favorite (and your friend’s favorite…and your friend’s friends favorite), which is:

Fail Harder.

You should just see how terrible some of the Old Spice ads were before Isaiah Mustafa graced us all with his devilish good looks and gorgeous abs.

I’m going to take a deep breath, hit “Publish”, dive into bed, and definitely, not at all, not even a little, feverishly check my site stats to see how many of you have read this thereby satisfying Jason’s ABSOLUTE 100% GUARANTEE SOMETHING GOES VIRAL.