People Really Are As Dumb As I Think

In our classes so far, Emi has talked about different ways that her clients have misused their websites. One example was the campaign that didn't want their phone number on the website. She has also discussed how campaigns are reticent to integrate their websites with their other communication strategies.

I have to admit that I believed this kind of talk was pretty "last year." Surely, in 2005, no one would make these mistakes.

Never underestimate the stupidity or short-sightedness of others.

Today, I was on the website for Deer Park Water, trying to find the customer service phone number and it's not on there - ANYWHERE. And it is a a Nestle company! Maybe their web designer was having a stroke - who knows - but there is no way to contact Deer Park unless you call your co-worker and make them dig through their invoices to find it.

And then there is this quote from an article I read yesterday:

The Democrats have pursued a more scattershot course designed to promote individual advantage for former staffers and candidates, rather than to build for the party as a whole. Even when Kerry's Internet team offered to write a "best practices and lessons learned" report about the campaign, Kerry campaign higher-ups failed to requisition it.

Wow! They didn't even see enough value in their Internet campaign - a campaign that raised a lot of money - to capture their lessons learned.

It is strange that the Internet as a medium can be so over and under-valued all at the same time.