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Wednesday, February 27, 2002
A Blatant but Heartfelt Promotion
By Paul Ford
Steve Burns, some new music, and familiar squirrels that have learned to sing.
Some of you - particularly Americans with small children - may know a fellow named Steve Burns from his long run on the children's television show Blue's Clues. He and I are friends.
Steve quit the TV show several months ago and has since been writing songs for grown-ups. His album is mostly done, and he's shopping it around to different indie labels. Hopefully, it will end up in stores before too long.
A short while ago he asked me to work with him to develop the Official (Post-Blue's Clues) Steve Burns Web Site. I like his creative work - especially his music - so I jumped in.
The whole thing is at:
It's a small site, but filled with squirrels, dust mites, and songs, and I think you'll like it, even if you don't know who he is. My 7 regular readers (Mom, Jim, and the Murphy quintuplets) may find the images of squirrels familiar, but the rest of it is spanking new.
And yes, there are some bad precedents for celebrities deciding they can write music, but for someone who formerly spent most of his time in the public eye talking with an animated blue dog and a salt shaker made of felt, Steve rocks hard, especially on Mighty Little Man and especially Troposphere (both ~2.5MB MP3s). I'm listening to Troposphere for about the 30th time as I write this. Good drums.
StevesWebPage.com implements a highly strategic approach to rebranding and marketing which I've developed over the last 8 years. The following table lays out some examples of the problem-solving process used to implement this effort:
It's a true branding and marketing revolution.
Steve's site will continue to grow and change, so feel free to let us know what you think of it, and of the music. You can write Steve or Paul with questions and criticism. If you see things you like, or ways things could be improved in order to make the site a Total Web Entertainment Product, let us know. It would be much appreciated. Watch for lobsters.
Incidentally, check out Squirrels are Beautiful and download the MP3 to hear a squirrel, with a voice suspiciously like mine, and a rat, with a voice suspiciously like Steve's, sing about being friends. The illustration under the lyrics is by the ravishing Helen Cho.
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