By: Joe Strupp When "Dilbert" creator Scott Adams got into the business of online file storage, not everyone approved of him using his famed comic strip to promote it.
The Jan. 19 strip first mentioned the new Dilbertfiles service, which is branded through a company in the Netherlands. Adams said it is a service that allows people to send or store large computer files.
"I had always been looking for something to associate Dilbert with," Adams tells E&P. "Something that people would want if they knew of it."
Two more strips on Jan. 21 and Jan. 23 also cited the new brand. In a somewhat related storyline, Dilbert himself is actually fired for using his day job to launch the outside business, receiving a more serious form of the kind of flak Adams received.
Seattle technology Web site TechFlash stated on its site that the move was "somewhat questionable," and added, "Most publications would be quick to discipline or fire a journalist who similarly touted his side project in an article. Are the standards different for a syndicated cartoonist?"
Adams responds, "I think it was great in the sense that it made people angry, it got people talking, and it almost certainly increased viewership and readership."
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