REWORK, our new book on starting, building, and growing — or not growing — a business was released one week ago today. The book is selling out around the country and rocketed to #3 on Amazon.com’s bestseller list. Thanks to everyone who picked up a copy and spread the word.
But there’s this book right ahead of it by this guy named Karl Rove. Heard of him? Turns out his book just came out too. And he’s all over the press (well, part of it) pitching, pitching, and pitching.
We wondered how we could compete with Rove on the bestseller list. We don’t have the luxury of friends in high places. We don’t have national TV exposure. So how could we be Rovian and beat him at his own game? One thing immediately came to mind: An attack ad.
With a wink and a grin, we present the truth about Karl Rove’s “Courage and Consequence: My Life as a Conservative in the Fight” and 37signals’ REWORK:
Spread the word. Find out more about REWORK.
Please direct all press/media inquires to Jason Fried at [email protected].
(Special thanks to Steve Delahoyde from Coudal for putting this together so quickly. We presented the idea in rough form late Thursday afternoon, and by Saturday morning we had the finished product uploaded to the Basecamp project. We owe you Steve.)
Tony
on 16 Mar 10Hey Jason,
This video is coming up as private. FYI.
Zak Kidd
on 16 Mar 10That is awesome. Crazy how formulaic political ads are
John Athayde
on 16 Mar 10That was absolutely brilliant.
Gregor
on 16 Mar 10picked a fight, hm? I really hope that smartness can win over money and influence! I love it, good luck!
me
on 16 Mar 10in the same line as http://www.sqlonrails.org/
Jeff Mackey
on 16 Mar 10When I first heard [via Twitter] that you guys were going to do this “attack ad” on Karl Roves’ book, my feathers got a little ruffled.
I actually didn’t know what to think about it. You guys do a good job of keeping politics out of your public image so I started to think “Okay, they’re taking a stand on a viewpoint”, or something like that.
I should have known.
The ad is hilarious. I love it. Well done!
Chuck
on 16 Mar 10You guys get mixed reviews from me, but this one goes straight into the win category.
Pitch perfect.
Jason
on 16 Mar 10That was brilliant!
Jim Gay
on 16 Mar 10Awesome! That should get you some coverage.
Matt Sanders
on 16 Mar 10This video tops even the trailers!
Peter
on 16 Mar 10Brilliant!
Cory Wilkerson
on 16 Mar 10The piano/sunrise bit is unbelievable. Cliche coup!
Jon
on 16 Mar 10Great ad!
JB
on 16 Mar 10Haha! You loons!
Tony
on 16 Mar 10Hysterical.
Adam Kahtava
on 16 Mar 10Fantastic! :)
derek
on 16 Mar 10Ha, funniest thing I’ve seen all week! The font reference is the best!
Business School Veterans For Truth
on 16 Mar 10Did you know that Jason Fried isn’t always right but is actually sometimes wrong? And that David Heinemeier Hansson isn’t even an American? Are these the kinds of people you want to expose your MBAs to?
We don’t think so.
The commenting system on this blog approved this message
Jeff Lewis
on 16 Mar 10Hilarious – I hope you get news coverage on it.
Mark
on 16 Mar 10608 pages / too heavy? come on, just because someone wrote a better or better selling book?
Jordan Harper
on 16 Mar 10Hahaha, brilliant stuff. I love the Garamond bit.
Justin Reese
on 16 Mar 10Spot on. Well done.
curt
on 16 Mar 10Just Order the book, I’m voting with my money
John
on 16 Mar 10This made my day.
Daniel
on 16 Mar 10Hilarious video! Really great work!
But be careful. I’m not sure Karl Rove has too much humor in him. If he fights back… man, that’s going to be brutal.
Just think of the impact he could achieve by taking a few of your conference or podcast statements out of context – especially with David’s often expletive-laden speaking style.
... actually, that could really fun too :-)
Jason Clements
on 16 Mar 10Nice job! ReWork is a must read for every starter. I’ve already used “Say ‘no’ by default” to save productivity time. A gigantic Thank You to Jason and DHH!
Justin Jackson
on 16 Mar 10I’m a Canadian. And I like this ad. A win on both sides of the border.
Duff OMelia
on 16 Mar 10This ad is hilarious. Well done.
John Tarcza
on 16 Mar 10Brilliant! I love it
Diego Scataglini
on 16 Mar 10Really funny, great job guys.
Congratulation on the book, I saw it among the best sellers at Charlotte’s airport. I was like, already? wow http://bit.ly/dms8kS
Sam Beal
on 16 Mar 10Gee hasn’t the world suffered enough from Karl Rove’s output? Picking Rework over Rove is a no-brainer if you have one.
Jay Owen
on 16 Mar 10That is funny. Too perfect.
Rahul
on 16 Mar 10Is this the literal interpretation of Getting Real’s “Have an Enemy – pick a fight” chapter?
Terence Gannon
on 16 Mar 10Well done, folks, you managed to capture the tone of these types of ads just perfectly!
Charfish Charlie
on 16 Mar 10Fantastic!
And the book is even better. Bought it on Sunday night and, sadly, I’m nearly finished. It is a tremendous read.
Thanks, guys.
Kyle West
on 16 Mar 10hilarious.
Sanat Gersappa
on 16 Mar 10Brilliant!
jDeppen
on 16 Mar 10This is the bomb, good work
coalex
on 16 Mar 10Wondering how long before 37signals grows into the corporate slugs we all loath.
Although this “attack add” could not have been directed towards a bigger douche…perhaps its only a matter of time until our geek-heros are indoctrinated in the Rove philosophy.
Case&point. Attack adds (while hilarious) don’t seem very 37signal-ish.
Time will tell.
Jeremy Bise
on 16 Mar 10That’s great. I love it!
Joel Dietz
on 16 Mar 10Less than half?
List price for Rework is 22, selling new on Amazon for 12.10 List price for Rove’s book is 30, selling new on Amazon for 16.50
Adam Wride
on 16 Mar 10Great crossover from tech to politics. Only nit is the voice should have been more ominous and fake. =)
Cory Comer
on 16 Mar 10The audacity of Karl Rove!
I’ve done my part by ordering the Rework book, any good American would so as well!
Great panel #youarentdoneyet at #sxsw can’t wait to read the book. Keep fighting the good fight fellas.
Mike
on 16 Mar 10Hilarious. Some of you folks need to lighten the fuck up. Sheesh!
Philip
on 16 Mar 10Rework is currently #14 on BookTicker.com! Check it out!
Sarah Hudson
on 16 Mar 10I agree with basically every comment except for Mark’s (16 Mar 10)- You’re ridiculous.
That was HILARIOUS.
Alex Obenauer
on 16 Mar 10Hysterical. I actually found myself despising Karl Rove’s book for his french-made font.
Abhinav
on 16 Mar 10This reminds me of the Veridian Dynamics ads from Better Off Ted. :P
Felix
on 16 Mar 10Hey guys, that’s brilliant, absolutely brilliant! Better than all the trailer videos.
Bashar
on 16 Mar 10Where can we vote :)
Taus
on 16 Mar 10Brilliant!
Jamie, Baymard Institute
on 16 Mar 10@Joel Dietz Are you really disputing the facts presented in a political ad? ;)
LG
on 16 Mar 10Is a PDF version gonna be made available for purchase at some point? If so, any idea when?
Patcito
on 16 Mar 10In this book, Karl Rove says he’s proud of having introduced torture (water boarding) to the US interrogation procedure. That in itself is reason enough not to give the guy a dime.
Eric Anderson
on 16 Mar 10Now this is brilliant advertising! Well done!
Joe Mako
on 16 Mar 10Just last night I read pages 112 and 113 (among many others). Looks like you really lived that paragraph.
How long did you take you from concept to delivery?
Brad Balfour
on 16 Mar 10I love the ad. It definitely has that political attack ad feel to it.
JF
on 16 Mar 10How long did you take you from concept to delivery?
Idea late Thursday afternoon, final version ready Saturday afternoon.
DL
on 16 Mar 10Such a creative way to gain some publicity. If you’re luck Rove will bite and say something. Even if he doesn’t wikid fun video!
Julius O
on 16 Mar 10Brilliant, guys! HILARIOUS!
JO
Raymond Brigleb
on 16 Mar 10Great job. But isn’t the font in the ad itself Garamond? :)
Warren Benedetto
on 16 Mar 10win.
Scott
on 16 Mar 10Brilliant!
Chris (from L.C.)
on 16 Mar 10Someone in Rove’s camp is going to take this ad seriously and then proceed to spend thousands shooting a rebuttal.
(and when that happens, it will be beautiful)
Sarah Jane
on 16 Mar 10You guys are amazing. Thanks for lightening up my afternoon.
Also, I love the book. So so so good.
Ron Zasadzinski
on 16 Mar 10Love the spoof ad! Brilliant!
mark nagurski
on 16 Mar 10effing genius
Jason Klug
on 16 Mar 10Love the video! Way to turn it out quickly enough that it’s still relevant… gotta love life in the digital age.
This feels like a great fit for a Colbert-esque flame-war ; )
Matt Henderson
on 16 Mar 10Mike Rohde — The Bipartisan illustrator from America’s heartland. Love it!
Vasily Myazin
on 16 Mar 10A joke is a joke, but why go down to their level? Are you out of progressive strategies?
@TJ
on 16 Mar 10In all sincerity, I have no idea what Rework is about and I just bought a copy because of this ad.
Excellent work.
kadavy
on 16 Mar 10“When it came time to choose a font, Rove selected Garamond, a kind of type developed in France, and NOT by hard-working Americans.”
Shoulda gone with Goudy.
Ian
on 16 Mar 10Very difficult to write any comment about that crap.
Karl Rove Book
on 16 Mar 10awesome idea! And a very deserving target, don’t be upset that there is a another project that has been doing this for awhile though.
Karl Rove: Courage and Consequence (unabridged audio), is a 13 song rock compilation record of songs about or to Karl Rove. All the songs are about exactly what we think of him. Available for $20 physical product purchase (postage paid) or free download.
The attack ad is a great idea! And I’d certainly rather read re-work than Karl’s horrible book. But we’re still trying to culture jam him with our record.
He’s even come face to face with it.
in the end though, either of these ideas are good for America, just know that we’ve got a head start. :)
Bill
on 16 Mar 10The video isn’t displaying on an iPhone. Maybe On account of an Edge issue? Regardless it would be nice if there was an old fashion hyperlink to the video on YouTube.
Jimmy Chan
on 16 Mar 10@JF Why you need to attack Rove, Jason?
It’s only less for month, which I believe your book will rocketed to #1 soon.
Attacking him will looks like you very ambitious.
John Kordyback
on 16 Mar 10I bought my copy of Rework from Audible and it’s read by Mike Chamberlain, a hard working voice over actor and narrator from the blue collar town of Boston which is the cradle of American liberty.
Karl Rove’s book is narrated by Karl Rove himself. Like all sleazy politicians he’s double dipping and taking the voice over work away from hard working American narrators and pocketing the money. I wouldn’t be surprised if he used a cheap imported microphone from a factory that used puppies and kittens for labor. I bet Karl Rove even tosses them in wood chippers when they’re too old to work.
It’s your choice. Support hard working patriotic American narrators or puppy abusers.
Cathy
on 16 Mar 10I love, love, love the ad. Great job. Will buy the book just to see Karl Rove cry.
Ward
on 16 Mar 10Brilliant!
John
on 16 Mar 10More faux economy built on selling tech to techies for techies.
When there are riots in the streets because the IRS wants 80 percent of your income, fat lotto good these lil web 2.0 webapps will do you.
jsp
on 17 Mar 10Good work, except for the quotation marks at 0:30…
Tim Robertson
on 17 Mar 10Brilliant.
@JT
on 17 Mar 10The best publicity from this will come if Rove decided to respond, now that would be awesome, great work guys!
David Owens
on 17 Mar 10@Joel Dietz I think you missed the subtlety of the quote about the list price. The video never actually claims that the list price is less than half for Rework, just they it’s being sold for less than half of the list price.
It’s a half-truth, just like you find in political ads.
The ad is pure genius.
Bill Rice
on 17 Mar 10Jason,
It’s unfortunate you went here. I pre-ordered both of these books at the same time. That’s (obviously) really working across the aisle.
By the way, I’m throughly enjoying both. Oh, I also bought it for everyone in my six person small business.
Thanks for your book!
Guan Yang
on 17 Mar 10What font is REWORK set in?
R-GAY
on 17 Mar 10Hey guys, this is so ridiculous.. Your “attack-ad” reminds of the idiotic electoral propaganda in the U.S. targeted to the narrow-minded..
Kris Anders
on 17 Mar 10my god. what a stupid politic propaganda. “hard working americans?” some of the 37signals elements are not even american. not that I have anything agains that. but this is just stupid
Michael Ellis
on 17 Mar 10Great. You’ve just ensured that significant portion of your audience, including myself, will never again recommend your service to any of our clients.
Mathew Patterson
on 17 Mar 10Wow, looks like HTML 5 really needs that “joke” tag to clearly mark something as a gag.
Beautiful work as always.
Patricia Legault
on 17 Mar 10Brilliant! You’ve just made thousands of people aware of your creativity, opening up new channels to bring your service to new clients.
Tal Giat
on 17 Mar 10It is interesting to see that Michael Lewis, the author that currently tops Amazon’s best seller list, works in a similar way to 37 signals’ philosophy; when asked by Charlie Rose why people like his books he answers (and this is not an exact quote): When I write a book I try not to bore myself, I try to amuse (or entertain) myself, and apparently that amuses other people as well. (http://www.charlierose.com/guest/view/1487 – the episode was aired tonight and is not up yet).
Maybe you guys should produce a support ad for him :)
Roxanne Darling
on 17 Mar 10Jason and David – I continue to love you guys so much! Though it could have been truly partisan, it actually was not IMO, and I dare to guess that Karl would admire the concept. I suspect it will even drive some sales for him. I am hoping you win though. :-)
It does appear many of your fans are parody-challenged and perhaps do not grok these sweet elements that have been with 37 Signals from day one? You guys after all, are poster kids for capitalism, hard work, self-determination, and no-bull communication!
Brad Wilkening
on 17 Mar 10I bought one. One more tick for 37s.
thorsten wulff
on 17 Mar 10haha, awesome. Take that, Claude Garamond, Real Americans prefer Freedom Type!
sethaurus
on 17 Mar 10Loved the video, enjoyed the satire and the joke, then was utterly confused by the handful of commenters apparently taking it as a serious political statement. Are we really that literal and genre-blind? Or is there another level of intended irony that I myself am missing?
淘宝网
on 17 Mar 10Loved the video, enjoyed the satire and the joke, then was utterly confused by the handful of commenters apparently taking it as a serious political statement. Are we really that literal and genre-blind? Or is there another level of intended irony that I myself am missing?1
Paul Montwill
on 17 Mar 10I like the video – you picked the fight!
BTW Karl’s book costs $16.50 on Amazon.
Anonymous Coward
on 17 Mar 10To those pointing out the price… You much not watch a lot of political ads. They compare apples and oranges to make a point. That’s what’s going on here. It’s subtle humor (the best kind). They are using the full list price for Rove’s book and the discounted Amazon price for the 37s book. It’s how political ads work which is why 37s is doing it this way. It highlights the ridiculousness of political ad “facts” and “claims”.
Ashley Grayson
on 17 Mar 10Brilliant! I was going to by Rework anyway, but this ad needs special recognition. Nice work guys.
Jim
on 17 Mar 10fantastic…love it.
Eric
on 17 Mar 10Good job, but I expected to be more scaring. Replace the announcer with the voiceover guy from Shutter Island, then talk about joblessness and “protecting the children,” and you’ve got yourself a full-fledged scary attack ad. :)
Wayne
on 17 Mar 10Funny!
Great Spoof…
BTW I am awaiting delivery of REWORK today!
Wayne
slowpioson
on 17 Mar 10Hilarious spoof. BTW, where’s the buy link for the book? It should be on this page too!!
Stirling Hewitt
on 17 Mar 10You should contact the state department and ask where your giant check and hook ups are. Since Rove is using all of his connections he made while we paid for him to be in office.
Personally i think you should sue, for defamation of national character, misleading the shareholders (american people) and general fraud.
Michael O.
on 18 Mar 10This was brilliant!
Fredrik
on 18 Mar 10Brilliant video! I hope mr Rove doesn’t suddenly decide to take Rework of the bookshelves :)
Tom G.
on 18 Mar 10OMG – further proof that attack ads work…
sigh… facepalm…
I’m buying the book immediately…
Mike Rohde
on 18 Mar 10Hee hee! I’m honored to be mentioned as a bipartisan illustrator from America’s Heartland! Thanks guys, you certainly got me smiling in David’s talk at SXSW. :-)
Ruben A
on 18 Mar 10I happen to like Karl Rove and think this attack ad is an insult to human decency and everything American!!!
No, really, I do like Karl Rove, AND this ad was super funny. I also like Jason/David (Javid, Dason, I think I like Dason…), and I hope that someone in the media picks this up so you guys can sell more books.
Again, hilarious parody IMO! Keep on keeping on guys. Even though we will likely not vote the same at the polls I still like you guys!
Joshua
on 18 Mar 10Well done… Down with “Special Interest”! :-)
Sam IT
on 18 Mar 10Hahaha you guys are hilarious! That video was quite funny :-)
By the way, your other REWORK videos (the “official” ones on the book’s homepage) are brilliant.
Keep up the great work!
jared
on 18 Mar 10Loving it.
Rob Fahrni
on 18 Mar 10You guys better be careful. You may be labeled Terrorists and Dick Cheney may show up at your doorstep, if he’s not afraid of leaving his bunker, and shoot you in the face. ;-)
I’m just sayin…
Good luck with the book, it’s off to a great start.
DK
on 19 Mar 10That’s strange to see such a video from you guys. It is the same as if you’d launch a video describing why your products are better than Microsoft ones. Despite you might argue, those people who buy REWORK will hardly ever by this the second book you are trying to compete with. If you want to improve your sales, go and spread the word about what good you have inside, but do not say that other guy sucks (in fact, you’ve always done it previously and I don’t know what made you make such a strange and discouraging ad – no offence)
Bill{
on 19 Mar 10Brilliant!
Thanks for being such upstanding hard-working American. Makes me proud to be from the heartland.
Vicky H
on 19 Mar 10I think everyone’s missing the point or maybe I got this one wrong. Why does everyone think this is so much about politics? I for one don’t think it’s about politics much at all. I think that they chose this book because of many reason’s politics playing a small part.
It’s very smart the whole video. It is very tongue and cheek and I think rather brilliant. Keeping the politics to a minimum and picking the right subject (other author) that brings back their support of Obama and change, playing SvN’s strengths as witty, out of the box thinkers, that pimp their wares in brilliant ways!
I would have loved to see @JF on a tractor in WI doing a very Hee Haw meets Green Acres type of piece, but maybe a second one is needed. I will volunteer my services as a redneck Wisconsonite if needed (if yes, @JF email me).
Congratulations guys you deserve it and a special shoutout to the illustrator, Mike Rohde @rohdesign.
Chad
on 19 Mar 10Awesome video, and unlike political advertisements, this one is actually true!! I ordered my book yesterday and can’t wait to dig in. Keep up the good work!
Sean Tierney
on 22 Mar 10So great.
Have you guys considered airing this on real TV via Google TV ads? Would be epic to figure out Rove’s next TV appearance and take up a collection from your community to be able to present this during his time slot.
sean
Peter Cooper
on 23 Mar 10@Sean: I just came back here to say the same thing! Gawker posted about doing just that. (Though not with this ad.)
This discussion is closed.