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Sucking all the air out of the room.

Oh, hello there! I’m Donna and I’ll be your Bad Chart server today.

Since we’re late in the day, EST to be exact, we’re going to treat you to two, yes TWO, bad charts.

The first is from Jamie Bernstein by way of Jamie’s super awesome boyfriend™, Eric. “Make me a chart of IMPORTANT DATA FINDINGS!” she demanded. And he replied with this.

EricGraph

If you look at this information … and then this information [sorry, my eyes just rolled back in my head] … you will see how all this will make sense to you. In fact, you will ascertain that marathon runners are causing a rise in Carbon Dioxide levels. As Jamie commented, “Now we know who is to blame for global warming!” It’s all clear. Stop with the goddam running, people. Stop it. Stop it now! I can’t breathe! Really! The data bears it out. Dontcha’ see?

And then there’s our second offering. This gem was actually posted at Mad Art Lab. The Lab denizen who is responsible for this genius art is the super-fabulous Brian G. Seriously- read the whole thread. It’s a hoot.

Let me explain.

So a person—and by person, I mean WINGNUT—sent a “fan mail” letter to Rebecca. And we people at the Lab got wind of this.

To wit:

Hey,

First off, I am a huge fan of your site.

One of my clients, HomeInsurance.com, has recently developed an infographic on the 5 signs that you’re a bad driver, that we think would be a great fit for your site.

We were in fact inspired to create this info-graphic by safe driving tips that we found on sites much like yours.

The URL: for the link is http://homeinsurance.com/blog/2012/12/11/5-signs-youre-a-bad-driver/

The Embed code is as follows:
[Embed Code Removed]

Being a fan/inspired by your site I believe that posting this info-graphic would be incredibly beneficial for driving traffic to your blog as we all know that we’ve ran into people like this on the road before. Please let me know if you have any questions. Thanks so much!

Sincerely,

Jimmy King, Content Director – Engage Analytics

So, we at the Lab had an eleventy-billion email chatfest about this on the Mad Art back channel and it was awesome. And then we peer-pressured Brian into action. Brian replied for realz:

Hi Jimmy,
It’s funny you should write in . . . the Mad Art Lab team is actually working on our own infographic, 5 Signs You’re a Bad Marketer. Can you send in a picture of yourself? It would really help the accuracy.
Thanks!
Rebecca

At which time, the entire collective at Mad Art Lab proceeded to browbeat Brian into creating what might arguably be the World’s Worst Infographic Diagram Thingy.

And here it is.

bad_marketing_flat

You’re welcome.

Edited to include this: Thanks to the fabulous Maggie, you can see Brian’s diagram readably embiggened here.

Donna

Geologic Universe, vault-keeper. Sheer Brick Studio, principal. Empty Set, designer. Bethlehem Mounties, media. WDIY 88.1FM NPR station programmer. Skepchick.

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11 Comments

  1. At first, I thought that the marathon issue would be self-correcting. As carbon dioxide levels rise, the frequency of dangerous marathon weather will increase. In recent years, there have been a number of marathons that have been halted or canceled due to hazardous weather conditions. I expect to see more and more of these incidents as climate change worsens. So it seemed we may soon reach an equilibrium where the increase in carbon dioxide due to marathon participation is canceled out by the number of marathons that are canceled.

    However, I soon realized that this is faulty logic. Of course, it is silly to believe that the number of people competing in marathons has a significant effect on carbon dioxide levels. After all, in running 26.2 miles, a person does not produce enough CO² to have a significant effect. Even multiplied by thousands of runners, it is not enough to affect global CO² levels.

    It is, in fact, the TRAINING that is the problem. Each marathon participant, in preparing to compete, runs hundreds, if not thousands of miles. And this training will still take place, even if a marathon ends up being canceled.

    So, for the sake of us all, take off those running shoes and plop your ass on the couch. The world is depending on you!

  2. I am so sorry. You are close, but no cigar. The real culprit is the SHOES of the Marathon runner. This article explains that the carbon footprint of a shoe can vary between 22 pounds to 220 pounds a year.
    http://www.earthlab.com/articles/thecarbonfootprint.aspx

    But, hello, that is for the average shoe wearer. A marathon runner that runs thousands of miles a year, goes through many pairs of shoes in a year. As this article explains a shoe should be replaced every 300 – 400 miles. http://running.about.com/od/shoesapparelandgear/f/replaceshoes.htm

    And you know your marathon runner isn’t buying cheap shoes. Their shoes must fall closer to the 220 pound carbon footprint category. So take 220 pounds and multiply by say 5 pairs of shoes and you have 1100 pounds. People, that is not even counting the shoes they buy but get blisters due to ill fit and have to replace after 40 or so miles.

    Now multiply that by your number of marathon runners and you have the answer.

    Please people, if you must run marathons, please run barefoot!

    Lisanne

  3. Oh wow. I’m currently taking a marketing course, which is totally outside of my purview. I was really annoyed to have to make a Venn diagram for my last project, as I felt I was shoehorning totally disparate categories into one tri-circled graphic. Instead of clarifying my ideas it confused them further.

    So I am getting a big kick out of the stupid, superfluous Venn diagram in the bottom graphic. Thanks!

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