…as seen today at Duane Reade. Remember when VO5 was a cool, upscale product? After seeing this packaging I don’t either…
With Barak Obama and the Democratic National Committee selecting Invesco Field as the host of the Democratic National Convention, Invesco just hit the jackpot. Granted, they might not want to be seen as political, but they’re certain to be mentioned thousands of times over the next couple months and featured prominently in the actual coverage of the event earning them a windfall of free publicity.
The loser, of course, is the Pepsi Center which was all game to get the coverage themselves. It’s a shame that Pepsi moved away from the “Taste of a New Generation” since it would have seemed so appropriate.
article here: http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/07/07/obama-picks-stadium-for-acceptance-speech/
Debbie Millman makes me laugh…
The Seattle SuperSonics have received permission (read: cash) to move to Oklahoma City. Fortunately, they will leave the name SuperSonics in Seattle where it belongs.
I’m always confused when teams move and take their names to a new locale where they make absolutely no sense. Yes, I’m talking about you Los Angeles Lakers and you the Utah Jazz. See, Jazz made sense when you were a New Orleans based team. When you moved to Utah you might have taken on a name like the Desert Bats, the Sister Wives or the 3% Beers. Something with a little local significance.
Naming helps bring customers to you and helps you form a relationship. The New England Patriots and the NY Yankees come to mind. They make sense and stir up a little subliminal emotional connection. So here’s my two cents and to hoping that as more teams move they take the opportunity to rename themselves and create new brands. It’s tough to leave a brand and history behind but it’s a basketball team and you have a big arena; it’s not like the grocery store or the web where folks are going to forget what you do and how you do it.
SwissMiss points us over to Girl Effect, a non-profit committed to helping women fully participate in their societies and affect economic change. A great cause but also a great site and short video. Looks like Keynote to me and just another reminder that I need to spend a weekend understanding how to fully use that program. Video here…
For all those all-important decisions when you just can’t make up your mind, ‘I can’t decide’ offers an answer. Not always a good answer but an answer nonetheless. And frankly, if you look at a result and say, ‘well that’s stupid,’ you have an answer already, don’t you?
check it out for at least a few minutes of entertainment: I can’t decide
Still looking at the backstory for all of this between client meetings and calls but… this is fun! Looks like Stride Gum underwrote a 39 country trip in exchange for some fun viral video and solid street cred. We’ll be seeing more of this type of unproduced work in the future as budgets are axed and clients look for ways to cut through the clutter. Frankly, I’m not even going to try to hide my jealousy, I want some of that action!
hat tip: laughingsquid
For everyone out there in MacFandom, here’s a sneak peek of what I’m relatively sure will be seen someday in the future. It reminds me of the user-generated iPod Touch ad that was later picked up, reproduced and seen around the world.
Dear WaMu,
There are a few issues with rebranding that I’d like to bring to your attention. First of all, there is little that you can do to distract people from the fact that your stock and business are in the toilet. In these situations most companies take the predictable approach of working to reaffirm their commitment to their consumers and to regenerate trust. You, dear WaMu, have decided to go in a different direction.
You’ve tried to brand what you are calling a “Whoo hoo!” moment. What they heck is a “Whoo hoo!” moment?! It continues to make me believe that you are opening a line of red-light massage parlors and yet, it seems as though they are just banks.
I get the fact that you are a nicer bank. One that historically has given really big loans to people that didn’t necessarily deserve them. That was really nice of you even though it doesn’t seem to have worked out so well. And even if that isn’t quite what you were getting at here, you have to remember that you are a freakin’ bank! Unless your ATMs add zeros to my account you probably aren’t going to elicit a Whoo hoo from me.
This strikes me as the result of a bad focus group laddering exercise where someone says they want a bank that makes them feel happy. The moderator asks, ‘what does happy feel like?’ and they say ‘joy.’ The moderator probes, ‘what does joy feel like?’ Eventually someone says “Whoo hoo!” and WaMu starts printing posters.
And don’t even get me started on the stupidity of spending money to put arrows right outside the bank. It’s as if you’ve discovered a segment of mouth breathers who only stare straight at the ground when they walk and didn’t notice that they were right next to a WaMu. If this is how spend your own money in a crisis I’m not sure it’s the safest place for my money.
I’m not a big fan of futurists and trendspotters. I’ve listened to them, read them, even set out to hire one or two. The rub is that they tend to be great at spotting things early (at best), or telling me what I already know to be true (at worst). Few seem to be able to contribute to the next phase of the discussion which begins with “so what” and ends with “and how.”
For instance, gas prices are rising. YES. This will disrupt holidays, vacations, the great American road trip. YES. But what about the 10 year view? What will take their place and what will happen as a result?
Here are some things that I’m thinking about.
Kids in sports. The SoccerMom and MiniVan dad are going to have to question the return on investment of going to all of those games and running back and forth to practices. There will be other trade-offs made first. Mom & Dad may forgo date night. Dad won’t get a new pair of shoes even though he could really use them. The kids will come first in these occasions. But…over time I predict that the extracirculars that have become part of the over-scheduled generation will be cut back. This will lead to more family time and also more independent time for kids.
I’m also thinking about the weakness of the dollar (which yes, is a major component of rising gasoline prices). As folks start to cut back on pleasure travel what effect will this have on how Americans view the global community in which we all live. When study abroads are questioned, when people don’t venture out of the country because airlines have raised prices and don’t go on roadtrips because gas is too high, how do you learn about cultures that aren’t familiar? On the web people tend to seek out opinions that mimic and reinforce their own. Television is no better window to the world since most of the world appears through the cable box to be either hungry and poor or power hungry (neither of which aren’t true). And yes, more people from other countries will come to the states because it is more affordable but it doesn’t have the same effect to meet someone from another place as it is to be a stranger in their place. So the question becomes: do rising gasoline prices and a weak dollar actually weaken our understanding of the world and reinforce the isolationism that may have caused a couple wars to begin with?
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