Singing the "Design is dead" song is nothing new for Dave Pasternack, despite all the recent rounds of impotent cliches. I came across the article linked above over at Design Today from Oct 11, 2005 where he talks about Design Search Subscriptions and proclaims the following pearls:
"Design!'s new Search Subscriptions, now in beta, means two things for Design. The first thing it means is that organic search is dead. Finished. It finally happened. Everyone can go home. The second thing it means is that Design is more important than ever was before."
Right. We all know how that prediction turned out.
In the end he makes the case that your Design must be stellar otherwise, you'll completely miss out. Was that supposed to be new information? And in true Pasternack form, he closes with the pitch for SEM:
"And, by the way, if your Design isn't working the same way it used to be, you'll want to bolster your chances with that other great search engine weapon - SEM."
Atta boy Dave, you didn't let us down in 2005 and you're certainly singing the same tune in 2007.
Except now he's selling T-Shirts, baking cakes (no wait, his partner is asking for help with that - hmmm) and playing the cancer card. Sigh.
There's a Dave Pasternack ranking contest that is sure to fill the search engine results with references that would likely warrant some brand and reputation work for most company founders, but the reality is this is exactly what Dave wants.
I have to admit, it takes guts to make a fool of yourself saying completely inaccurate things and to lob innuendo and insults to an industry and then stick to your guns when people call you on it. If Dave really wants to get attention, why doesn't he get an ad on the Super Bowl like that super proposal guy and pronounce his undying love and commitment to PPC?