Business Lessons from the Human Centipede

May 20th, 2010 | Small Business | 1 Comment »

There is a ground-breaking film that was just released — one that deals with issues of innovation and collaboration.  You guessed it (or at least you read it in the title), it’s the new IFC film “Human Centipede“. 

My good friend Steve first alerted me to the movie trailer last week.  The trailer was being sent around the normal circles.  The premise of the film is that two young ladies on European vacation stumble across an unorthodox surgeon (in a really nice, secluded home).  After being drugged, the ladies find out that they will be part of his project — creating a human centipede.  That is, creating a unified GI tract through three people.  Not sure what I mean, watch the trailer (and make sure you pay close attention to the end).

What in the hell does this have to do with business?  I know it’s a stretch, but since I wanted to alert our readers about this film, and I need to find a legitmate reason to do so, here goes:

1.  Trust is Important — I’m not saying these ladies deserve their fate, but why did they automatically trust this surgeon?  Because he had a nice house?  Well, you need to go by more than appearance (if they only had KikScore, maybe they wouldn’t have fallen victim to this guy).

2.  Innovation isn’t always good — just like the ability to get emails on flights, not all innovations are for the better.  Ok, you could tie three GI tracts together, but does that mean you should?

3.  Viral Marketing is powerful stuff — I’ve been talking about this movie concept to everyone I know.  There was no need for marketing spend, as the shocking concept sold itself.  I still haven’t seen the movie, but that’s only because my wife is not on board to see it.  But I’m sure she’s going to change her mind soon.

Please share you thoughts on this…and if you’ve seen the Human Centipede, let us know if you think it was a good movie.

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