True story of a disgruntled employee:
Back in 1986, Disney was set to release a new movie called Basil of Baker Street, based on a book by the same name.
But studio execs thought the title was too cryptic, so they renamed the movie to telegraph what it’s really about. The result was The Great Mouse Detective.
This didn’t go over well with the people working on the movie.
Ed Gombert, an animator on Basil of Baker Street, wrote up a slightly bitter office memo, claiming Disney has decided to rename other classics in its portfolio. The new titles included:
“SEVEN LITTLE MEN HELP A GIRL”
“THE WOODEN BOY WHO BECAME REAL”
“COLOR AND MUSIC”
“THE LITTLE DEER WHO GREW UP”
“THE GIRL WITH THE SEE-THROUGH SHOES”
“THE GIRL IN THE IMAGINARY WORLD”
“THE AMAZING FLYING CHILDREN”
“TWO DOGS FALL IN LOVE”
etc etc.
The joke memo became widely circulated inside Disney. Disney CEO Jeffrey Katzenberg was not impressed. He did his best to ferret out who had written the sarcastic note, without success.
To make things worse, the memo eventually leaked out and resulted in an article in the LA Times. Suddenly, everybody was talking about the new Disney film, but for all the wrong reasons.
Or was it really all that wrong?
After all, The Great Mouse Detective, with its prosaic new name, went on to become a big commercial and critical hit.
It wouldn’t be the first time that’s ever happened.
I once read a book called The First 100 Million, by E. Haldeman-Julius, publisher of the Little Blue Books. The Little Blue Books were a phenomenon for much of the 20th century, and sold hundreds of millions of copies. Some were fiction, but mostly, they were practical how-to info about health, self-help, relationships, etc.
The most interesting chapter of The First 100 Million is about The Hospital. That’s where Haldeman-Julius took poorly selling titles and performed a radical operation — he renamed the books, including some classics. Results:
“The mystery of the iron mask” => “The mystery of the man in the iron mask”: 277% jump in sales
“Ten o’clock” => “What art should mean to you”: 450% jump in sales
“Fleece of gold” => “The quest for a blonde mistress”: 833% jump in sales
So while it’s good to be creative if you are an animator, maybe it’s not so good if you are naming a product and hoping for lots of sales.
Therefore, I would like to announce I am renaming my too-poetic Most Valuable Email course. From now on, the course will be called:
“How to use an email copywriting trick to turn ordinary and rather boring emails into something clever and cool”
I’m still reworking the sales page to account for this change and expansion in the name. But in case you’d like to get your paws on this soon-to-be classic right now, here’s where to go: