Back in the early 80s when I and a ragged army of canvassers were knocking on doors to tell people about nuclear weapons tests and acid rain, we were lucky if, among the average 60 homes we visited in a night, three had heard of Greenpeace.So it was a big thing when, in 1984, Steve Sawyer happened upon a clue in the New York Times crossword puzzle: Environmental pressure group. Ten letters.

It was one of those informal indicators that you have passed into the zeitgeist — in some sense, you had made it into the fog of public consciousness if you were big enough to be teased out of its grey matter by a clue.

Yesterday, my colleague Kirsten told me that she was half watching the Dutch Postcode Lottery television quiz last weekend when the contestant, for 30,000 Euros, was asked

When Greenpeace recently held a contest to name a humpback whale, the winner was….

A) Mister Splashy Pants
B) Mister Big
C) Mister Darcy

Alas, despite Kristen yelling at the TV screen that it was “Mister Splashy Pants, you idiot,” the contestant flubbed it. He may have boned up on his countries and capitals before walking out on stage. He may have memorized the kings and queens of England. But not being a Reddit reader or internet stumbler cost the guy 30,000 smackers.

Now, what has all this got to do with the price of beans in Boston? I like to measure. I like to be able to take a fuzzy concept like “raising consciousness” and turn it into a data set you can evaluate and set targets against. So I propose a new informal advocacy Zeitgeist benchmark here, for measuring success in getting a concept out into the public domain:

Has the concept you are promoting appeared on a quiz show or in a crossword puzzle?

We can extend this to other Zeitgeist benchmarks:

Has your mother heard about it?
Has Letterman or Leno made a joke about it?
Has it been ridiculed on Slashdot?
Has it appeared in a fashion magazine?
Does it have a Facebook Group?
Does it have a copycat Facebook Group?
Has more than one person tried to make money on it on Cafepress?
Has it been on the Simpsons?
Has Reddit featured it as a logo?

If you make 2 out of 10, you´re a meme
If you make 5 out of 10, you´re a trend.
If you make 7 out of 10, you’re a phenomenon.
If you make 10 out of 10, you´re headed for Wired´s Tired list.

Mister Splashy is still waiting for his Simpsons episode and his Late Night joke, but other than that, he has made it.

–b

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Tags: MisterSplashy Pants, greenpeace, puzzles, zeitgeist, advocacy