Ben Clemens...Web 'Celebrity'?

You may have heard the odd story from a few days ago about The phone, the thief, his wife and a Chihuahua? I met Ben for the time last week (friend of a friend) and I can say for a fact that he's not a guerilla marketer (though I'm sure he'd do a find job of it were he to apply himself) but rather a very soft-spoken, razor-sharp interactive designer with major chops. The story of his cell-phone being stolen from the Amtrak train and the thief's unawareness of auto-uploading phone-cam pictures generated tons of vitriolic response from the web community (thanks digg). It got kooky enough that Ben was actually contacted at work by people cussing him out and accusing him of being a sleazy marketeer. My response, what a brilliant advertisement for Shozu if it were planned. The fact that it was authentic makes it that much more a bluebird for the fledgling start-up.

Written while groovin' to Jay Dee Tribute Mix from the album “Rhymes and Beats”