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Interviews: Ask Blendtec Founder Tom Dickson What Won't Blend?
Reducing various items to a fine powder in one of his blenders earned Blendtec CEO Tom Dickson a cult following. One of, if not the greatest viral marketing campaigns of all time, the "Will It Blend?" series has been watched almost 221,000,000 times on YouTube. In addition to receiving many marketing awards, Tom and his blenders have been featured on The Tonight Show and the History Channel series Modern Marvels. He has agreed to take a break from pureeing household objects and answer your questions. As usual, you're invited to ask as many questions as you'd like, but please divide them, one question per post.
Which things really suprpised you by how well, or poorly, they blended?
Are you going to go for a rematch with the Tuff-Writer pen?
Passionately Indifferent
Have you considered embedding a blender in the door of a refrigerator with hoppers and a timer and a dispenser, so that we could be awakened by an automatically created fresh smoothie/milkshake waiting for us in our fridges?
Were there any things that you blended where the outcome was not what you expected?
Will you be interred, cremated, or blended?
If Slashdot were chemistry it would look like this:Cadaverine
Did anyone blend something they really shouldn't have and then send in for a warranty repair?
Can you blend the blades of the blender?
Have you ever tried to blend a second Blend Tec blender?
What product created the most noxious byproducts after being blended? Have you ever had to get medical treatment or call out a HazMat team after blending a product?
Have you ever tried to blend a Blendtec? Perhaps a failed prototype or perhaps even a successful one that had outlived its usefulness?
I'd like to know how you got the idea to do the "Will it blend?" videos in the first place? As mentioned in the summary, it's one of, if not the greatest viral marketing campaigns of all time. Did someone at BlendTec just suggest out of the blue "You should do videos on YouTube", or were you looking for a new advertising idea and a clever marketer had this idea?
Love the videos, by they way.
In your opinion what is the item that blended most poorly or caused you to regret the attempt?
They always touted the Ginsu knife as being one of the most durable knives that "never needs sharpening".
And, of course my question is.... Will it blend? ;)
"We have normality. I repeat, we have normality. Anything you still can't cope with is therefore your own problem."
Blenders do not seem like an area of technology with a lot of room for innovation, but I've been surprised before (Sears has a "hammer research division" that is kind of amazing). What do you see as the next big thing in blending? Perhaps plans for a reassembler?
Was the intro song written specifically for the videos, or did it already exist elsewhere? It is very reminiscent of the The Price is Right theme song.
Slashdot's first reaction to VMware
Blend-tec blender: Will it recursively blend?
Have you ever thought about marketing your blenders as Data Destruction devices?
Blending thumb drives or Hard Disks?
Or doing paid placements in movies for such? Seems like a Hollywood spy movies would make a great place for a product placement.
I own a blendtec. Wife loves it. My OCD and I hate it.
you can put anything into it and be 100% assured that 3-4 tablespoons of any liquid you put into that blender will end up in the cavity of the lid. the lid seems purposely designed to accept these liquids as if you wanted to save them for later or as a place to hold samples. not only that, but the lid is designed in such a way as most of the liquid that is collected in the lid and will never make it back into the container where it originated. the mitigate these problems they engineered the lid to be easily broken down and cleaned. this happens no matter what speed you use and despite what kind of liquid you use - and yes ice is counted as a liquid in this sense.
In light of complaints about the design of the BlendTec lid, are there any plans to incorporate customer suggestions and introduce a new, improved model?
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
How awesome is your job? As in, other than obliterating random household goods with a blender, what else does your position entail?
An enigma, wrapped in a riddle, shrouded in bacon and cheese
I've pretty much hated every blender I've owned to date and recognize that there are only two or three blenders on the market that are actually good at their job, and they each cost as much as a new refrigerator. Clearly sticking a viscous blade on the end of a beefy motor isn't all there is to it.
So, please explain to the engineers who haunt this site what the challenges are in making a good blender.
My God, it's Full of Source!
OUTSIDE_IP=$(dig +short my.ip @outsideip.net)
I'm interesting in what kind of background did you have that lead to this series? Did you do any video productions prior to "Will it Blend"?
"Waste not one watt!" - CZ