getting punk'd, six sigma style.

apparently "joe herrick" of "gutterman research" has been able to sneak into a slew of earnings calls as of late, seizing the opportunity to ask (read: bore to death) c-level execs random questions about supply chain management.

so exactly how lame is this prank? i submit two exhibits for your consideration:

1. one particularly annoyed analyst who has had to sit through multiple punk'ngs believes "Mr. Herrick is 'some minion' at a consulting firm trying to do clandestine research on companies’ use of Six Sigma techniques." oooh damn. BURN. that there's dem fightin words.
   
2. meanwhile, coca-cola had been tipped off and executed a contingency plan during its earnings call by giving special analysts a super secret password to enable question-asking. and what is the completely random, impossible-to-decode password, you ask? none other than the shocking, thoroughly unpredictable "diet coke". for a corp that prides itself on its marketing, i'm pretty sure they asked the least creative person in the world to think of that one. they could have at least used "sparkling peach citrus fresca" or something (yes, it's real).
   

the wsj article then goes on to point out that this has become an inside joke in the analyst community and has given them "another reason to look forward to a big conference many of them plan to attend in Boca Raton, Fla. next week."

wow.

boca better brace itself with these bad boyz blowing into town. and right now, i couldn't be prouder that i'm going to earn my keep next year marketing alcohol.