Personal Branding in Reverse

In the past two weeks or so, I’ve received about a dozen different links and/or emails to various stories about how the McRib is made of old gym mats or tennis shoes (or something like that) and about how the pigs used to make the McRib are tortured with waterboarding and stuff.

In the past week, I’d say I’ve received at least half a dozen links and/or emails regarding the demise of Zooey Deschanel’s marriage to Death Cab for Cutie frontman, Ben Gibbard.

This isn’t the first time things like this have happened.

When the McRib rolled out last fall—the first nationwide distribution of the McRib since 1994—I’d say more than 20 different people sent me links and/or emails letting me know that the McDonald’s Embargo was about to die.

When the ridiculous Bacon Explosion was released upon the world in January of 2009, I was bombarded with links and emails asking me if I’d tried it, when I was going to try it and/or if I’d already died from trying it.

In the summer of 2008, numerous people hit me up with info regarding the demise of Jennifer Aniston and *shudder* John Mayer’s relationship. Granted, this one yo-yo’d for the better part of another year and a half or so before they finally called it quits for good.

All of this has got me thinking that I’ve clearly established a sort of reverse “personal brand” for myself over the years.

For anyone not familiar with the concept, your personal brand is, essentially, what other people think about you when they hear your name. There are a butt-load of books on the topic and it’s more or less the end-all, be-all of trying to survive in the internet era as everyone wants to build a personal brand to help themselves “stand-out” from the other eighty-bajillionty people on the interwebs.

In my case, it seems to be a bit of a reverse, wherein people read about Zooey Deschanel or McRibs or Zombies and they think of me and immediately go “I’ve gotta tell, Graves!!”

I suppose, one could look at me and their first thought—after “he should stop slouching and stand up straight—could very well be “this dude likes Jennifer Aniston and cheeseburgers.”

Granted, I think it’s safer to say that I’ve got more of a reverse personal branding thing going.

…with that in mind, I’ve decided to take a look at some of the things that have been deemed as part of my reverse personal brand.

Foodstuffs

Cheeseburgers

The Oft-Elusive McRib

Bacon (aka: Meat Candy)

Potato Oles (and Taco John’s in general)

BBQ

Hotties

Jennifer Aniston

Taylor Swift

Zooey Deschanel

Carrie Underwood

Katy Perry

Other

Baseball

Zombies

The Batman

Professional Wrestling

Carrot Top (aka: Douche-Canoe)

Energy Drinks

Kitties!!!

That’s just a brief rundown acquired from a brief online poll with two of my favorite internetters, Ms. Margaret “Walla-Walla” Willison and Ms. Brittney Paige Hansen (note: don’t stalk either of these ladies or I’ll feel really bad about mentioning them…also because stalking is weird…don’t be weird).

I’d like to see what else fits into the “OMG, I’ve gotta tell Graves about this!” category. So have at it, My Faithful Readers…hit it up in the comments section or send me a shout-out on the Tweeters and let me know what should be added to this list.