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October 9, 2003

The Humor of Demotivators

If you've never heard of Demotivators from Despair.com I have to share them with you. I imagine at one time or another you might have encountered the Successories line of materials, designed to motivate you in work and personal situations. At the local shopping mall, Successories used to have a kiosk in one of the mall hallways years ago, which I would see whenever visiting that mall.

I don't know how I stumbled on Demotivators, but it was years ago and I laughed so hard I cried when I saw their materials. So, what are Demotivators? Essentially, they're pessimistic parodies of the Successories line of motivation items. Instead of using encouraging or motivational messages combined with beautiful imagery like Successories does, Demotivators combine pessimistic messages with beautiful imagery. The result are some really, really funny items, like posters, calendars, mugs, t-shirts, etc.

Now don't take Demotivators too seriously -- they have a strong Dilbert-esque bent to them. The idea is to approach these posters as dark parodies of the more positive Successories items. The idea from my point of view, is to have fun, and in many cases (like in the Consulting poster) see the kernel of truth in the humor.

So, head on over to Despair.com and have a good laugh... it'll do you good. :-)

October 9, 2003 10:20 PM | General | add to del.icio.us