So Good’s Top Stories of 2008

I suppose I’m a few days late on this, but screw it, I was enjoying my vacation too much to dive into this. But here, in this post, I humbly present to you the Top 5 Stories Covered on So Good in 2008.  This Top 5 has been determined by the blog traffic for each story, media coverage of each story and the level of buzz these stories generated in the blogosphere.  Note that all of these stories were multi-part, and actually consisted of at least 2-3 posts.

1. The Papa Johns/Lebron James “Crybaby” Story

Regular readers of So Good know that this story helped put So Good on the map.  After attending a Wizards-Cavs playoff game, I broke the story about a handful of t-shirts being passed around at the game calling Lebron James a “Crybaby” – that also happened to be emblazoned with the Papa Johns logo.

The story quickly spread from So Good to major sports blogs and the Cleveland media. Realizing I had created a firestorm and broken what was turning out to be a national news story, I stayed at my computer most of the weekend providing round the clock coverage.  The Cleveland Plain Dealer interviewed me, as well as WJW Fox 8.  At this point the story had hit CNN, ESPN, ABC and Papa Johns was forced to issue a formal apology to Lebron James and the city of Cleveland.

I stayed on the story, reporting a few days later on the chaos and controversy surrounding the $.23 pizza giveaway that Papa Johns offered to residents of Cleveland as part of their apology.  A week or two later I was asked to publish an op-ed for iMedia in which I dissected the controversy and explained why Papa Johns did an admirable job in tackling a tough situation. Check out the interview I did about the story:

2. Rants

I didn’t write rants very often in 2008, but when I did, the posts led to heated discussion both on So Good and by other writers across the blogosphere.  From my rants for 2008, three in particular got by far the most traffic and attention:

No I Do Not Want to Order Pepperoni Pizza – Do I Look Like I’m 12 Years Old?

Wherein I take on the once sacred cow of pepperoni pizza by informing everyone that no, it   isn’t that good, and no, it doesn’t deserve to be considered a default ordering option along with cheese.

It’s Time to Shut Up About Cupcakes

I alert the American public that this cupcake nonsense has gone too far.

New Rule: Until I Have Actually Been to One, Sonic Must Stop Advertising on National TV

Seriously Sonic, you’re killing me.

3. 12 Meals or Bust

In mid-February, Ryan Giesel was just a college kid. A college kid with a Facebook group titled “If 100,000 People Join My Facebook Group, I’ll Eat Every McDonalds Value Meal, #1 – #12.” The Facebook group was nowhere near 100,000 people. That’s when So Good decided to break the story in order to let the world know about this American hero.  What followed was a firestorm of interest, as radio and TV stations across the world reported on the story.

The story doesn’t end there my friends. Oh no, we needed to get the payoff. After the Facebook group hit 100,000 members, true to his word, Ryan headed to a nearby McDonald’s to attempt this great feat.  My post summarizing his attempt to eat all 12 value meals has been one of the most popular posts in So Good history – even Sports Illustrated couldn’t help but be intrigued enough to report on it.

4. Kraft Bagel-Fuls

When I heard that Kraft was planning on making a bagel pre-filled with cream cheese, I jumped on the story and bashed the seemingly insatiable desire of food companies to create products of convenience that no one seemed to be asking for.

But then the story got more intriguing. I quickly identified a pre-filled bagel product that was already on the market, that sounded suspiciously similar to what Kraft was proposing. This is when my inner Sherlock Holmes sprung into action.  My investigation uncovered the fact that someone already held a patent for a cream cheese filled bagel, along with the boiling, steaming and forming process needed to create it.

Shortly after, Kraft contacted me and explained they had bought out a smaller company already making the product. Kraft also sent me a sneak peak of the Bagel-fuls packaging.  Finally, several weeks before they hit the market, Kraft sent me two boxes of Bagel-fuls to review.

5. Orange Underground

In late January, I profiled the bizarre new Orange Underground commercials and website that had been launched by Cheetos.

A mere three weeks later I was ready to declare the campaign a total and complete failure due to the fact that basically no one at all was talking about it.  PC World agreed. In an article titled “Lame and Lamer: 10 Dumbest Viral Marketing Campaigns” they cited Orange Underground as the #8 dumbest viral marketing campaign, quoting my analysis as evidence of why it sucked.

It’s been a fun year, thanks everyone for reading.