Measure Twice, Cut Once

I like to think I’ve learned a lot of things from my dad (probably not as many as I should — but I’ll save that discussion for my memoirs). Amidst these many life lessons, one in particular — heralding from the field of carpentry — comes to mind often: “measure twice, cut once.” This expression is most commonly invoked in the vicinity of 2x4s and tables saws, but the philosophy can be applied to many different disciplines.

Take for instance, the discipline of creating branded microsites (incidentally, my current favorite is that for the Pomegranate Phone). If I had to break the process of building a microsite down into three steps, they would be:

Pick a clever, relevant, unregistered .com domain.
Build your microsite.
There is no Step 3.

Of course there is a great deal more that goes into Step 2, which is no doubt why Step 1 is such an underrated part of the process. Nevertheless, there is no excuse for the following travesty of branded microsite creation:

http://www.thefirstworldwidewebsitewerenothinghappens.com/

Let it load. Explore it as much as you desire. Then look more closely at the domain. And the “contact” email address at the bottom. And then ask yourself… how could this site possibly have launched with the word “where” spelled wrong in three places on the site (including the domain)?

I considered suggesting that this domain had been purchased by some intern at Kit Kat’s (or more likely, Hershey’s) digital agency of record, but that would be an outrageous insult to interns everywhere. What’s even more funny/tragic is that the correctly-spelled domain is being squatted.

I’m flummoxed. Anyone care to provide any insight into this perplexing situation?

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