Regular readers will be familiar with my fondess for stupid analyst reports, but this latest one really takes the cake. Stupid topic, stupid theory and stupid all around:
Text-savvy Southerners may help explain why all five “American Idol” winners hail from south of the Mason Dixon line, according to figures from The NPD Group.
Cingular Wireless L.L.C., which sponsors Fox TV’s hit reality show, is based in Atlanta and claims 20 million subscribers in the South, the market research firm said. And half of the reported 18 million Cingular subscribers who actively use text messaging are from the carrier’s home region, more than doubling the number of Cingular text message users from any other region.
The 5-year-old show has crowned winners from Texas, North Carolina, Oklahoma and two from Alabama.
“Cingular has partnered with the show’s producers to provide text-message voting solely from Cingular phones, so it’s certainly possible that Southern subscribers might have more a voting edge than those in other regions in the U.S.,” said Drew Hull, wireless industry research director for NPD. “Had ‘American Idol’ partnered with another carrier with a higher percentage of their subscriber base in another region, the results might have been different.”
I’m left grasping for words by the sheer inanity of this, but I’ve been able to gather a few thoughts of my own:
1. As the kids say, WTF?
2. As Mike at Techdirt points out, if you can get over the stupidity of the subject matter, there are holes in this conspiracy theory big enough to drive a truck through. And never mind that anybody can vote by calling an 800 number, too.
3. Is this really going to make your firm look like it’s got a clue?
4. It bears repeating — WTF?
I’ve talked a fair bit of smack about some of these analysts and their rather useless reports and projections, so I won’t go into it all again. But how long can they continue to turn out tripe like this and sustain a business?
(Photo from The Ames Historical Society)
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