Something you'll be hearing a lot soon is that something “is your new bicycle.” It started with a website called “Barack Obama is your new bicycle” which caught fire and already has a slew of imitators.
The term will probably reach a peak in a few weeks, when advertisers will start using it in their “hip” commercials. That's when we'll quickly get sick of hearing it, and the once-clever term will die out of use.
Here's what Matthew Honan, a San Francisco based writer for Wired magazine, told Eric Zorn at the Chicago Tribune about the website and how it got started:
“I came up with the idea for the site last week, on [Wednesday, Feb.]13, while riding the bus up Market Street on my way home for the day. My wife is an avid cyclist, and loves to talk about bikes and cycling. Recently, she's gotten really active in the Obama campaign, and I had been kidding her that “Barack Obama is your new bicycle.” There seem to be a lot of people who feel that way.”
The 35-year-old got home, registered the domain, wrote the items that appear randomly (like “Barack Obama carries a picture of you in his wallet”) and wrapped it up in about four hours. He did it as a joke for his wife and friends.
In the first 7 days, 140,000 people visited, recording 2.3 pageviews. Now Honan is making T-shirts.
Other websites spun off in its wake:
Hillary Clinton is your new bicycle (of course)
Steve Jobs is your new bicycle
Michelle Obama is your new bicycle
Amazing, eh? What's your new bicycle?
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