Winner Announced! Anybody hear it? Don't want to be a spolier :)

[Gary]

I saw it on Yahoo News page - so - check it out! wow! Now.....we'll see if the "rubber hits the road" :) They did say in live announcement (paraphrasing).."...this process captured the worlds attention...yadda yadda....." which really says what we and they have been saying - the campaign WAS the campaign :)

[Gary]

Whoops - "spolier" = "spoiler" don't type before coffee! :)

[art predator]

yep... you are so right!

When I woke up this morning and checked my blog stats, I had 17 hits for an old post about Julia and the porn scandal and a comment from someone saying some guy had been named not me so I've put this post up on my blog:

http://artpredator.wordpress.com/2009/05/06/ap-best-mom-ben-s-best-...

[Zellie]

Congratulations to Ben!!! He definitely has the energy and creativity to make a fabulous island caretaker and if I remember right he has a girlfriend in Canada and the job will allow them some awesome time together (:

[PatrickInChicago]

Yep. I'm sure he will do well.

I don't want to take anything away from Ben, either. He has the personality and TQ obviously felt that he deserved it. But I've been thinking about each of the other stages, and the picks have been VERY heavily influenced by demographics, as we've discussed all along. I had wondered with the top 50 if they were trying to break into the Asian market, but the safe choice is to market to the UK, which is their current biggest international demo. I can't help but wonder if they already were leaning toward the UK. And since James was redefined as being an Australian (his app was from the UK), and George specified Ireland, Ben was the only UK choice.

"Self", I said, "had they already decided that if nobody else blows their socks off, they're picking "the British guy"?"

'Self' hasn't answered, but is still pondering the possibility.

Zellie said:

Congratulations to Ben!!! He definitely has the energy and creativity to make a fabulous island caretaker and if I remember right he has a girlfriend in Canada and the job will allow them some awesome time together (:

[adrian neylan]

Yep, Ben sure is a worthy winner. Hadn't really checked his blog till now but gees, I feel exhausted just reading everything he does.

Coupled with skilled technical and creative writing ability plus an engaging and informative style on screen the guy seemingly has it all.

Good luck to Ben, he deserves it. Bastard !

[Eli]

Well it's always better to be safe than sorry ;) He's their man and I'm sure he'll do great.. despite the fact that it's not one of us who got the job hihihi.

PatrickInChicago said:

Yep. I'm sure he will do well.

I had wondered with the top 50 if they were trying to break into the Asian market, but the safe choice is to market to the UK, which is their current biggest international demo.

[Caitlin Fitzsimmons]

I am feeling a little underwhelmed. I might do a follow-up post on my blog but I need to find the best way to express myself.

[pseudopeach]

I'm okay with it. They guy seems pretty enthusiastic without being insincere. His major drawback to me is that he is already so well-traveled. I want to see someone get overwhelmed in the transition to their new life. If they'd picked a blogger who could write interestingly about their fairly mundane life, they might really shine when properly stimulated. But that would be risky. TQ knows they'll get a pretty good blog out of this guy.

[Barbara Bramblett]

Pseudopeach, good to see you back on Ning. How are you?

pseudopeach said:

I'm okay with it. They guy seems pretty enthusiastic without being insincere. His major drawback to me is that he is already so well-traveled. I want to see someone get overwhelmed in the transition to their new life. If they'd picked a blogger who could write interestingly about their fairly mundane life, they might really shine when properly stimulated. But that would be risky. TQ knows they'll get a pretty good blog out of this guy.

[VoteAudrey]

I really wished they had stuck to 10 ---I know that sounds silly, give more people a chance, but it's hard to follow that size crowd. A smaller group would have been more engaging, IMO.

Best of luck to Ben -- seems like a seasoned traveler, so it should be a breeze.

And at the risk of sounding envious, I'll go ahead and say it: Young white blonde guy, TQ? Really? Predictable.

[Gary]

yeah.....I was hoping from the beginning that they would go for the OLD white blonde guy! ;) :D
ohhh welllllllll

But after seeing his credentials, as listed and as evidenced (so far), I didn't have a shot in ...well....a long shot :) no matter how good, or as it turned out , bad, my video was :)

Be interesting to see what's next and if people connect and actually follow regularly - which I would wonder no matter who got the job. WILL any of it keep the "worlds" attention after a month or two? Fun to find out, it will be :)


VoteAudrey said:

I really wished they had stuck to 10 ---I know that sounds silly, give more people a chance, but it's hard to follow that size crowd. A smaller group would have been more engaging, IMO.

Best of luck to Ben -- seems like a seasoned traveler, so it should be a breeze.

And at the risk of sounding envious, I'll go ahead and say it: Young white blonde guy, TQ? Really? Predictable.

[Islandreefrawb.com]

You had to know that this was coming. Good for them. Wish I could say I was part of the team that came up with this one...


http://www.adweek.com/aw/content_display/news/agency/e3i7908e745d3e...