Frankenbrand

America has a home fetish

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 05:58:00 +0000

The fallout that started with sub-prime loans has spread, as the mainstream media likes to say, to both Wall Street and Main Street. It ultimately caused the federal government to pass a $700 billion bailout bill. People are seriously discussing whether the nation�indeed the western world�is headed for another Great Depression. How did we get here?

There are many factors, but the chief reason is that Americans have a fixation on home ownership. Owning a home is part of the �American Dream.� People rationalize it by thinking about the tax breaks and the fact they have equity. And all this is buoyed by an irrational faith that housing prices will always go up.

�A home is a great investment,� we�re told by real estate agents, loan agents, and other homeowners. But let�s think about the key word �investment.� No intelligent person would plunk down an equivalently huge percentage of their net worth on a stock without pouring over the financials and analyzing risk. But people don�t think about their home the same way. Homes are different�they�re safe as, well, houses.

But buying a house is an investment�the biggest one most people will make in their lifetime. Just as overleveraged speculators bought overpriced stock in the 1920�s bubble market, overleveraged homebuyers paid more than they could afford for overpriced houses in a bubble market. Adam Smith would say they deserved to lose their investment because they made a bad decision. But when we�re talking about someone�s home, it�s just not that simple.

People made bad decisions, but they were also given bad advice from an institutionalized fixation on home ownership. The �Ownership Society� is how President Bush described it. "We're creating...an ownership society in this country,� said Bush in October 2004, �where more Americans than ever will be able to open up their door where they live and say, welcome to my house, welcome to my piece of property."

But while America has had a political, financial, and cultural drive toward home ownership, Europe has largely stayed a population of renters. Indeed, many Germans, French, and Dutch see private home ownership as aristocratic. One big difference between the U.S. and Europe is how FDR and his New Deal tackled the issue of housing. While Europe decided to build �council houses,� basically public housing, FDR created Fannie Mae to lower the cost of home mortgages.

This fundamentally different approach demonstrates how Roosevelt can be seen as a fervent capitalist when viewed from the other side of the Atlantic, but as a socialist by American conservatives. It also reveals how the seeds of American ownership-entitlement were sown so long ago that most people alive today don�t remember any alternative.

Renting an apartment doesn�t make you less of a person. Not driving a SUV doesn�t make you weak. Taking mass transit doesn�t mean you�re a loser. Among the many paradigms Americans need to shift, that house in the suburbs 30, 40, or 50 miles outside the city that we commonly call the American Dream needs to be reevaluated.

Republican racists at Palin rally

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Thu, 16 Oct 2008 15:23:00 +0000

This is shocking, but unfortunately not surprising. There is, in our mostly wonderful nation, the vestigial remnants of absolute ignorance. The GOP wants to play it down, but Al-Jazeera reporters have exposed the racism that is out in the open at a Sarah Palin rally in Ohio.

If it was hard to understand was some of the individuals said, here are some of the shocking statements:

�I�m afraid if he wins, the blacks will take over. He�s not a Christian! This is a Christian nation! What is our country gonna end up like?�

�When you got a Nigger running for president, you need a first stringer. He�s definitely a second stringer.�

�He seems like a sheep - or a wolf in sheep�s clothing to be honest with you. And I believe Palin - she�s filled with the Holy Spirit, and I believe she�s gonna bring honesty and integrity to the White House.�

�He�s related to a known terrorist, for one.�

�He is friends with a terrorist of this country!�

�He must support terrorists! You know, uh, if it walks like a duck and quacks like a duck, it must be a duck. And that to me is Obama.�

�Just the whole, Muslim thing, and everything, and everybody�s still kinda - a lot of people have forgotten about 9/11, but� I dunno, it�s just kinda� a little unnerving.�

�Obama and his wife, I�m concerned that they could be anti-white. That he might hide that.�

�I don�t like the fact that he thinks us white people are trash� because we�re not!�

Wasilla SVU

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 17:11:00 +0000

As mayor of Wasilla, Sarah Palin began billing sexual-assault victims for the cost of rape kits and forensic exams. How can a woman have such a suspicious and misogynist view of women reporting a sexual assault?

It isn't that the cost of swabs, specimen containers, and medical tests were breaking the Wasilla budget�it came to just a few thousand dollars�when Palin pushed through a tax increase to fund the $14.7 million Wasilla Multi-Use Sports Complex.

More likely, Palin's extreme religious worldview has shaped her policy decisions. She is adamantly opposed to abortion, and victims of sexual assault are typically offered the "day after" emergency contraception pill�which the anti-choice zealots equate to abortion. So, helping a traumatized woman, gathering evidence to catch a sexual predator, and safeguarding her community take a back seat to her personal religious opinions.

Everywhere...such as, the Russia

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Sat, 27 Sep 2008 20:34:00 +0000

Ms. South Carolina was funny...

But she's not one heartbeat (of a 72 year old former smoker with a 40 percent chance of dying in office) away from the most important job in the world. Now, the following video would be funny if it weren't concerning the possible future VP:

Add to her lack of foreign policy experience a religious, fundamentalist worldview. She stood in front of her church, Wasilla Assembly of God, and described the Iraq War as a messianic effort with the United States acting out the will of God. She believes in teaching creationism in schools. She sought to ban books from the local library.

She believes in abstinence-only, as opposed to sex education, for teenagers. Not to draw too fine a point on this, but maybe if she had talked to her daughter about condoms, Bristol wouldn't be an unwed, pregnant teenager.

She believes you can "Pray the Gay Away." Her church is promoting a conference that promises to convert gays into heterosexuals through the power of prayer. "You�ll be encouraged by the power of God�s love and His desire to transform the lives of those impacted by homosexuality," announced the Wasilla church's bulletin.

Pastor Problem
Palin's pastor, Ed Kalnins, the senior pastor of Wasilla Assembly of God since 1999, has made some amazing statements:

"What you see in a terrorist�that's called the invisible enemy. There has always been an invisible enemy. What you see in Iraq, basically, is a manifestation of what's going on in this unseen world called the spirit world. We need to think like Jesus thinks. We are in a time and a season of war, and we need to think like that. We need to develop that instinct. We need to develop as believers the instinct that we are at war, and that war is contending for your faith."

Kalnins repeatedly preaches about the "end times" �an apocalyptic prophesy laid out in the Book of Relevations. You may have heard this...Satan takes over the Earth, 666 and the mark of the beast, everyone dies except those who are faithful and saved by Jesus. During his appearance with Palin in June, he declared, "I believe Alaska is one of the refuge states in the last days, and hundreds of thousands of people are going to come to the state to seek refuge and the church has to be ready to minister to them."

Sarah's Witch Doctor
This video from Palin's hometown church Web site shows her being blessed by a Kenyan pastor who prayed for her protection from "witchcraft."

Bishop Thomas Muthee is seen in the pulpit of the Wasilla Assembly of God church, holding her hands open as he asked Jesus Christ to keep her safe from �every form of witchcraft.�

�Come on, talk to God about this woman. We declare, save her from Satan,� Muthee said as two attendants placed their hands on Palin�s shoulders at the Pentacostal church. �Make her way my God. Bring finances her way even for the campaign in the name of Jesus.

The upside of Palin's affiliation with Muthee and his ability to practice "spiritual warfare" is that instead of invading Russia, he can create a voodo doll and stab it with a hat pin.

Hurricane Report from Houston Midtown

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Mon, 15 Sep 2008 23:00:00 +0000

If you never realized this blog is from Houston, Texas...know now it is. And we're mostly without power. parts of Downtown look like a war zone, with debris from the Chase Tower�the tallest building in Texas�scattered across the streets like the aftermath of a Beirut bombing. Glass, silver mini-blinds, chairs, waste paper bins, and employee manuals are among the myriad bits of business life strewn across the central business district for blocks and blocks. Police have cordoned off the area, but it still has official and unofficial photographers walking around taking pictures. Water was out in Midtown until Sunday morning. Without A/c it is miserable, but luckily a cold front came in to make the nights bearable.

Why designers need to stand up to clients...

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Sun, 03 Aug 2008 20:23:00 +0000

We've all been there. Designers, copywriters, and marketers that is. You deliver a great product that conveys the important details to the audience. It's simple. It gets the main message across. And then the client has some "suggestions."

Clients are clients�not designers. Isn't that why they hired you in the first place? Next time nip the myriad needless and harmful suggestions in the bud by showing them this video.

http://view.break.com/542649 - Watch more free videos

Walmart logo rips off LSI

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:48:00 +0000

Wal*Mart is becoming Walmart, simplifying their name and introducing a new graphic element. Certainly it's a big improvement on their old, stodgy identity�and more evidence that the retail giant is adapting to competition.

All this is good, and even expected. But what isn't expected is the striking similarity of the new Walmart logo to the existing logo for semiconductor maker LSI.

Walmart even refers to the new mark as a "spark," which is exactly the term LSI used as part of its "Spark of Innovation" rebranding after merging with Agere Systems.

Designed by branding firm Lippincott, the Walmart logo isn't a ROFLMAO moment like the OGC logo. But while the OGC logo was funny, it was original. The new Walmart logo is nice and clean...and derivative.

In a BusinessWeek article, one branding executive explains the new Walmart logo lacks the distinctive power of the most successful logos, such as Target's bull's eye, which is immediately recognizable. By comparison, Walmart's new logo "is designed so simply that there's no ownership to it," implying that it could be used by almost any corporation.

It seems to work best with the semiconductor corporation that adopted it first.

GM Brand: Greater than the Sum of its Car Parts?

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Tue, 22 Jul 2008 00:10:00 +0000

Brand Comfort Quilt

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Sat, 12 Jul 2008 15:16:00 +0000

Wrap yourself in the brands that comfort...

New from NYTO Studios is the Comfort Quilt.

"With today's increasingly fractured social fabric," explains the NYTO website, "it is now brands that give us a feeling of collective identity, heritage, and continuity, gradually taking over the role that family and cultural heritage once held.

"Our identities are no longer defined by our ancestors and our traditions so much as by multinational corporations who shape our personas through advertising and product placement. The traditional American quilt serves as a living family document, surrounding us both physically and emotionally with the events and the people who came before us. This quilt forces us to question the cultural legacy we are passing along to the next generation."

Boom and Bust

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Wed, 25 Jun 2008 15:26:00 +0000

This is a repost from 2001. Given the housing markets and economic instabilities, it seemed like we should give it another read.

Boom and bust. The words conjure black and white images of giddy 1929 flappers, flasks of bootleg booze, and horrified stock traders watching their speculative fortunes fall like yesterday�s tickertape. Our generation�s boom and bust sent scooter-riding, Starbucks-sipping Americans clicking to Monster.com seeking ever bigger paychecks then bemoaning the loss of their stock options and plans to retire at 29.

Like Icarus, high-flyers rose magnificently only to fatally fall back to the old economy�s terra firma. Companies such as MarchFirst, Napster, and Kozmo.com, stormtroopers of a seemingly inevitable economic and cultural blitzkrieg, crumbled under the weight of unattainable dreams�a modern tragedy worthy of the Greeks.

The sharp prick of reality that finally popped the inflated bubble of VC funded, speculative start-ups shouldn�t have surprised anyone with enough smarts to run a lemonade stand. In hindsight, it�s appallingly obvious that profitless companies worth billions on paper and nursed along by Pollyannaish investors are about as competitively viable as a three-legged gazelle. A new and sustainable business model needed to emerge for legitimate and innovative ideas to prosper in the marketplace.

But how could a boom have gone so wrong? Were the dot com dreams of Net-driven innovation and boundless optimism for the future just the folly of a pampered, technologically obsessed American generation out of touch with economic reality? Sure, a little bit. But booms and busts are a phenomenon that can happen to anyone in any industry.

Pipe dreams and tulip troubles
Culturally, telephone companies are as far from the dot com image as you can get�all geek, no chic. Yet they also succumbed to the boom and bust cycle.

Predicting an exponential growth in data traffic with the rise of the Internet, Qwest spent tens of billions of dollars to lay as much new fiber optics as the combined existing networks of AT&T, MCI and Sprint. Other billion dollar spenders like Winstar, e.spire, Teligent and Covad went bankrupt building fiber networks to compete with local phone giants like Verizon or Southwestern Bell.

All these new fiber networks required routers and switches. So equipment makers like Cisco and Lucent became Wall Street sweethearts with market caps to prove it.

The entire industry bought unabashedly into a �build it and they will come� mentality. The result was a staggering glut of fiber capacity that all the voice calls, spam, porn, warez and assorted silly multi-megabyte Quicktime movies that North Americans email to each other didn�t come anywhere close to fully utilizing.

Profits evaporated in a previously robust industry. Long Distance prices fell so precipitously that telecom icon AT&T was forced to break into pieces just to survive. Lucent is similarly plotting how to fashion a raft from its shipwrecked stock price.

But booms and busts aren�t confined to technological sectors or even this century. Another older and non-technological example of economic bubbles is what history has dubbed the Great Dutch Tulip Fiasco. Along with windmills, dykes and wooden shoes, 17�th century Holland produced top-notch tulips. In fact, Dutch tulips were so highly prized that the market went insane�for a while at least.

Speculative investors leveraged all they owned to buy into the tulip bulb market. If you thought dot com stocks were through the roof, wait till you hear that really, really nice tulip bulbs once went for the equivalent of tens of thousands of dollars. Finally the absurdity of all this occurred to merchants and a cascade of sensibility returned the tulip market to reality. But, in doing so, many were left penniless.

The cosmic connection
Economies, markets and individual companies actually behave with the comforting regularity of any ordered system. Corporations compete according to the same Darwinian rules that any living species must follow. Creatures or markets that expand too rapidly will overpopulate, consume too many scarce resources and suffer the consequences.

Like stars that transform their nuclear fuel into new elements then explode them across the galaxy to form new suns and planets, economic booms forge new business models, technologies, attitudes and workers that become the fuel for future growth.

Workers of failed dot coms are using their knowledge to start new ventures and invigorate older stable companies. Innovations like broadband access, online shopping, digital music and Net-enabled B2B transactions aren�t going away because a company that popularized it went belly up.

Booms and busts are inescapable cycles. Like good and evil or Yin and Yang, they must be accepted as a package deal. The bust times are the price we pay for the advances that come during the boom.

Leo Burnett rebrands carrot, how about lifting swastika stigma?

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Thu, 19 Jun 2008 15:03:00 +0000

An interesting segment from CNN following agency Leo Burnett's efforts to refresh the image of this beta-carotene leaden vegetable.

That's nice and all, don't get me wrong. But did anybody really hate carrots�I mean other than picky kids? How about giving the guys at Leo Burnett a real challenge:

That's right. I want to see them do what nearly anyone would consider mission impossible�rebrand the swastika.

Listen carefully, this is not pro-Nazi in any way. It's just the equivalent of climbing Mount Everest or landing a man on the moon. It's the sound barrier of branding. Is it possible to rehabilitate the most maligned graphic element of modern times?

The swastika is an ancient symbol, used in major religions including Buddhism, Hinduism, and Jainism.

It is seen today adorning structures throughout India and surrounding areas as both a geometric motif and a religious symbol.

The swastika became essentially the official logo for evil because of its identification with Nazism. Just including it on a commercial item creates a public backlash.

What if Hitler had picked another symbol? For more odd occult symbols, check out this Myspace page.

Cyborg Tax, where are your clients?

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Sun, 08 Jun 2008 16:16:00 +0000

We couldn't help but snap this photo of a Midtown Houston business that looks like it's closing its doors. That's right, it looked like Cyborg Tax is powering down its systems and heading toward the biomechanical business junkyard.

So, where did their clients go? I don't know, but in rummaging through their dumpster I found a partial list of their clients. Here it is in order of revenue:

1. Darth Vader (worth a percentage of the $4.2 billion revenue from Star Wars)

Probably the biggest client was Darth Vader. We know from his MySpace page he's still living large off all his movie dough. Does the Death Star count as a home office? Is the Sith religion eligible for non-profit status? That could save him a bundle.

2. The Terminator/CSM-101 (worth a percentage of about a billion and a half dollars)

He's ruthless, relentless, and unstoppable. He's more industrial than a thousand Soviet tank factories. He's "a hyperalloy combat chassis, micro processor-controlled, fully armored. Very tough." But you wouldn't know it on the outside because he's covered in "living human tissue�-flesh, skin, hair, blood...grown for the cyborgs."

And, because his advanced AI allows him to learn, he's picked up some new tricks. He can pick up new language skills and "not sound so much like a dork." He can learn not to kill, which is impressive since he's a Terminator. And he learned to take advantage of some really cutting-edge tax breaks thanks to Cyborg Tax�-like how to depreciate new parts, "own" himself through an offshore shell corporation, and avoid "technology transfer" issues when touring Asia.

All in all, he can expect a very respectable return on his investments. So he can afford a nice lifestyle until his power cells run down in the 2090's

3. Master Chief (with part of a billion dollars in revenue)

Master Chief Petty Officer John-117--known simply to all as 'Master Chief'--is the last hope for the survival of the human species. Mankind faces extinction at the hands of technologically advanced aliens known as the Covenant, whose religious leaders pronounced humanity as 'infedels' and declared a 'jihad' to purge the galaxy of homo sapiens.

Beat back from planet to planet, the Marines of the United Nations Space Command (UNSC) and Master Chief--the only surviving cyberneticaly enhanced SPARTAN super-soldier�-are the only thing standing between the Covenant and their final assault on Earth.

Sound as epic as Star Wars? It is, but it's an interactive, internet-enabled game you can play as a campaign or against other players around the world. Master Chief doesn't just save humanity, he propelled Microsoft's XBOX game console to the forefront against industry leader Sony's PlayStation franchise. The original Halo became the "killer app" that ensured the success of XBOX.

Then came Halo 2. It's launch broke records for video game sales--with $125 million in sales in the first 24 hours. It rivaled the revenue and media coverage of a major motion picture and cemented the power Master Chief had over his fans. Like Star Wars fans who camped out in front of theaters, teens and adults, fathers and sons, queued up late Monday night for the 12:01 AM November 9, 2004 release.

With Halo 3, the launch wasn't just a video game release. It was a major story, fueled by huge promotions and viral marketing, covered by the Wall Street Journal and CNBC, as well as live coverage from G4TV and thousands of bloggers. Master Chief took a place of honor on the homepage of Microsoft.com.

And so many people called in to work sick to play Halo 3, researchers measured the productivity loss to the American economy, dubbing it Halo Sickness.

So what is Master Chief doing with his hard earned cash? Probably just collecting interest, he's not the kind of guy to get a huge TV or pimped out ride. Like the original Spartans he's named for, Master Chief is the consummate professional soldier who ignores the niceties of life and concentrates on defending the rest of us. Bungie concept artist Eddie Smith said of Master Chief: "He does his job, walks off, doesn't even get the girl, he's that cool he doesn't need her." Thank you, Master Chief.

4. Seven of Nine

"I knew exactly what I was in for when I had my first costume fitting," explains actress Jeri Ryan. "Clearly my character was added to the show for sex appeal, which remains the one way to get attention very quickly." Say hello to the sexiest cyborg on our list: Seven of Nine, Tertiary Adjunct of Unimatrix 01. Also known as Seven of Nine, or just Seven.

Seven's story in a nutshell: Born a human named Annika Hansen, her parents were exobiologists who took her along for a deep space mission to study the Borg when she was just six years old. Not a great idea as it turns out. After nearly two years of shadowing the Borg, making over 9,000 log entries, and collecting 10 million teraquads of data, the Hansens are discovered and assimilated. About twenty years go by and Annika, now known by her Borg designation Seven of Nine, is a mature Borg drone serving on a Borg vessel in the Delta Quadrant.

This where we meet Seven, during the Star Trek: Voyager two-part episode Scorpion. The Voyager crew and the Borg face a common enemy called Species 8472, and are forced to work together. Seven is the designated representative from the Borg assigned to the U.S.S. Voyager. After she tries to assimilate the crew, they disable her ability to communicate with the Borg collective consciousness--and she begins a long journey toward reclaiming the individuality lost when she was only six years old.

It is this struggle to understand individuality and humanity�a role filled in other Star Trek series' by Spock and Data characters�that provided a needed element to the series. Although Ryan acknowledges her sexy attire as a way to boost ratings, it was Seven's outsider perspective, honest probing of human behavior, and even pointed questioning of the Captains decisions that she says "brought conflict to the show, which was sadly lacking."

Smart, sexy, and cybernetic. When it comes to Seven of Nine's charms, resistance is indeed futile for most male sci-fi fans. But why was she at Cyborg Tax? Unknown. It's common knowledge that money is irrelevant in the 24th century.

F*ck it, we'll do it live

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Fri, 23 May 2008 07:13:00 +0000

Everyone not just waking up from a coma has seen Bill O'Reilly blowing his top 20 years ago on Inside Edition. That was funny, very funny. Commentators and bloggers have had a field day. But taking the humor to a whole new, and very danceable, new level is this dance remix of the blustery FOX host.

Venti dose of retro in old Starbucks logo

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 16:08:00 +0000

Say hello again to the twin-tailed mermaid reversed out of a brown medallion. It takes you back to 1971 and the beginning of Starbucks in Seattle.

"It's a good time to celebrate our heritage," says Starbucks spokesperson Bridget Baker. For sure, Bridget, it's good to remind people of the "good old days"�especially when Starbucks, like all of us, is weathering a sluggish economy. Unemployment is up, gas prices are high, utilities are as costly as ever, and even commodities like rice and corn have risen high enough to cause food riots around the world. When times are tough it gets harder to justify a $3.73 venti wet cappuccino.

King of the hill (of beans)
As Starbucks has gobbled-up coffee competitors Seattle's Best Coffee and Diedrich Coffee it has become the undisputed king of the coffee world. Success and acceptance has moved Starbucks from a niche, luxury purveyor to a ubiquitous, near-mainstream retailer with over 15,000 Starbucks-branded stores worldwide�over 70 percent of which are in the U.S.

Now the Starbucks brand and business is under attack from down-market competitors like Dunkin Donuts and McDonalds.

One Dunkin Donuts ad really sums up the problem many people have with Starbucks. The 30-second TV spot features befuddled customers staring at the menu and trying to figure out how to order a beverage. Oh yeah, they're all singing: "My mouth can't form these words. My mind can't find these words. Is it French or is it Italian? Perhaps Fritalian."

One ad exec from Dunkin' Donuts' agency explains: "It's a thinly veiled swipe at a certain competitor." (Thinly veiled? What were they covering up?)

But Starbucks responded with a new milder blend of the Pike Place coffee and the new heritage logo on their cups. There's even a new microsite, starbuckscoffeeathome.com. It offers a virtual barista to help demystify the many Starbucks blends. "The online experience...mimic[s] the experience [consumers] would have in the store, if they went to the barista and said, 'I want to try Starbucks, but I don't know where to start,'" said Wendy Pinero, VP-global consumer products group at the coffee chain.

And, in response to the "Fritalian" attacks from Dunkin Donuts, a billboard reassuring coffee drinkers they can simply "ask for it by name."

Make the logo smaller...much smaller

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 05:52:00 +0000

Clients always want the logo bigger. Maybe 20 percent bigger, sometimes 50 percent bigger. I call the condition "logoitis," the irrational need to increase the size of a logo. But here's a rare case of wanting to make it smaller�much smaller.

�In the nanolithographic work we�re doing for carbon nanotube and graphene electronics experiments, we need to be able to draw and cut in very careful patterns,� said Jorg Bochterle, an Oregon State University (OSU) physics exchange student from Germany. �So we started drawing some recognizable patterns. This was actually a very useful exercise.�

The pen used to draw the images is controlled by an atomic force microscope. The researchers program the machine to apply pressure to the tip and draw lines in precise configurations, down to the size of a single molecule.

�The smallest size of modern electronics is about 100 nanometers, whereas we�re working at a scale about 10 times finer than that,� said Matt Leyden, an OSU doctoral student also involved in the studies. �Some of what we can produce might not be suitable to mass production, but it can allow creation of new prototypes and is good for research purposes.�

So, we'll award the smallest logo award to the guys at OSU�until they or someone else start painting with quarks.

Platform-A: brand new brand for AOL ad network

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 03:35:00 +0000

(FYI: Platform-A is the TOP advertising network by reach)

From an AOL press release posted April 24th: "AOL today revealed the logo for its Platform-A advertising division. Lynda Clarizio, President of Platform-A, said that the new logo �effectively communicates our distinct competitive advantage of scale and reach. And its bold and simple design fits with our mission of providing advertisers and publishers with effective, impactful and easy-to-use solutions to their digital advertising needs.� Complementary brand identities for companies owned by Platform-A will be rolled out in the coming weeks."

Well, that was nice. But the logo isn't. In fact, I'm not even sure about the name. Come to think of it, maybe the whole "AOL" thing isn't working out.

As Mike Vorhaus mentions in his piece, the Time Warner 10K filing reports that "AOL believes that the 'AOL' brand is associated in the minds of consumers with its dial-up Internet access service, and AOL is seeking to build a portfolio of other brands, such as MapQuest and TMZ.com, that have a strong and more updated consumer association. If the AOL brand continues to be used to identify the AOL dial-up internet access service as well as various web products and services, such as AOL.com, AOL Money & Finance and MyAOL, this could lead to consumer confusion and exacerbate the challenges AOL faces in attracting internet consumers to and engaging them on its web products and services."

Not to rag on AOL, but the whole "training wheels for the internet" image is very much ingrained. Instead of adding a new brand to a portfolio under a tired flagship brand, perhaps a complete overhaul is needed.

The dark side of "green" biofuels

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 23:39:00 +0000

America's fixation with corn-based ethanol, as it turns out, isn't producing fuel that's much greener or cheaper than regular old petroleum-based gasoline. True, ethanol from Iowa means we're not sending money to Saudi Arabia, but it uses almost as much energy to produce ethanol as it delivers to end users�so there's no real energy benefit.

It also uses substantial amounts of limited water resources. A typical ethanol factory producing 50 million gallons of biofuels guzzles over 26 million gallons of water�putting a heavy burden on aquifers in corn-growing areas.

Why is it economically viable? Because of heavy subsidies from state and federal governments, mandates by states for ethanol to be blended into gasoline, and high tariffs (like a 100 percent levy on Brazilian sugar-based ethanol) that keeps out foreign ethanol imports. With federal subsidies of 51 cents per gallon and many states mandating the E85 fuel blend (that contains 85 percent corn ethanol), biofuels are artificially buoyed in the marketplace by government policies.

So this market distortion has shifted corn from food to fuel. The number of ethanol factories has almost tripled from 50 to about 140 since 2000, with 60 or so more under construction. Last year President Bush signed a bill increasing mandated biofuel production 500 percent, to 36 billion gallons, by 2022.

As more land is used to grow corn for fuel instead food, prices rise. It also pushes up the price for soy, wheat, and rice. Rice prices rose 16 percent in 2007, and wheat increased 77 percent. Very sharp rises historically, but nothing compared to this year. Since January, rice rocketed 141 percent, and one variety of wheat shot up 25 percent in a single day.

And since corn is used as animal feed, the price of meat, milk, and cheese is also rising. And that's just here in America.

Across the world there are riots over soaring food costs. It's driven by biofuels, but also growing demand from emerging markets, droughts, high oil prices, increasingly expensive agricultural chemicals, and the weak dollar. This conflagration of events threatens to push million into poverty and starvation.

Who's benefiting from this? Big agribusiness like ADM produce around 70 percent of corn in America, and higher prices mean higher profits. And how do they keep the ethanol business safe? Lobbying, of course. And, if you're a West Wing fan, you'll remember the political problem ethanol causes for candidates who try to balance the truth with the need to win votes.

Energy Secretary Samuel Bodman said at a conference in Alexandria, Va. that we need to start "moving away gradually" from ethanol made from food such as corn. "As we pursue diversity in our overall energy mix, we must also pursue diversity in our biofuels," Mr. Bodman continued, "this means moving away gradually from ethanol produced from foodstocks like corn."

Joseph Romm, a senior fellow at the Center for American Progress, agrees we need to move away from corn-based fuel. He says "we've gone too far on corn ethanol. I think we now can see the real impact it's having on food in the marketplace--around the world and at home. And I think we need to rethink the corn ethanol policy, absolutely."

"I think the pursuit of the mandate for corn ethanol, especially in the 2007 energy bill, does more harm than good. I think mandating cellulosic ethanol that doesn't use a lot of energy, doesn't interfere with food production and doesn't cause a lot of greenhouse emissions, I think that makes sense."

Sugar is a different story. It provides 45 percent of Brazil's fuel on only 1 percent of its arable land. Marcos Jank, the head of their trade group, explains "grain is good for bread, not for cars. But sugar is different." In America, however, domestic politics has led to a 100 percent tariff on Brazilian ethanol.

But there's something even better: cellulosic ethanol. It's a biofuel made without food crops, using inedible plants not grown on premium farmland. It's called switchgrass--yes, the switchgrass President Bush made famous in a State of the Union Address. Switchgrass grows across the prairies and doesn't take the place of food crops.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture and the University of Nebraska-Lincoln performed a long-term, large-scale field switchgrass study. Farmers in 10 fields of 15 to 20 acres each in Nebraska and North and South Dakota grew switchgrass over five years, and kept track of how much fuel and fertilizer they used during the trials. Vogel and his colleagues showed that switchgrass yielded 540% more energy as a biofuel than the amount of energy used to grow, harvest and process it.

So swichgrass is the cold fusion of ethanol. It will take a while longer to come into the mainstream, but it promises low carbon emissions, high energy returns, a replacement for foreign oil, and doesn't take food out of anyone's mouth. Here's a crazy thought: maybe the money used to subsidize ethanol would be better spent developing cellulosic ethanol?

Drink it forward (with Heineken Light)

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Fri, 25 Apr 2008 02:39:00 +0000

I saw this commercial during a ball game the other day, and it did what not a lot of ads do. It made people take notice. Somebody said "hey, it's like that movie Pay it Forward," and I jokingly said "so it's Drink it Forward." Laughs and beers followed--which is exactly the reaction Heineken was looking for.

Only later did I see the Wall Street Journal article about the estimated $40-$50 million ad campaign. "Designed to appeal to the altruistic among beer drinkers, the spots ask beer drinkers to share their brews with others in a pay-it-forward mentality."

Agency Wieden + Kennedy describes the approach as "designed to lift people's spirits at a time when the national mood is generally gloomy," and to spread a positive message at a time when 'the mood of the country is somewhat dark," says Lee Davis, an account director at Wieden.

According to a Heineken press release, "consumers can experience Share the Good through national marketing activation including on- and off-premise sampling, interactive media, TV, print, radio and OOH advertising. Then in the summer, the brand will launch a nationwide mobile marketing initiative as well as execute grassroots sampling events and impactful PR initiatives in key markets."

According to Beer Marketer's Insight, the flagship Heineken brand holds an 18 percent market share among imports, number two only behind Corona Extra. But Heineken Premium Light, launched in 2006, is in eighth place at a time when the economy is sapping import sales. The U.S. Department of Commerce reports shipments of imported beer have fallen about 12% in the first two months of 2008.

Even though it's a very successful brand, and a top 10 import in its second year, it has not really delivered on that promise in a big way," says Benj Steinman, editor of Beer Marketer's Insights. And with light beer sales making up about half of the market, Heineken Light needs to succeed for Heineken.

In addition to TV and print, the includes unique double coasters--two beer coasters hooked together--and tokens that barflies can give to other barflies that will get them a free Heineken. "Our goal is to sample hundreds of thousands of new consumers," says Brian Citron, brand director of Heineken Premium Light.

"It's more than an advertising tagline--it's a movement that encourages people to break out of their comfort zone and try new experiences, and in turn, share those positive new experiences with others. Share the Good encourages people to try Heineken Premium Light, and more importantly, empowers them to share this 'new find' with their friends."

Interestingly, Mr. Citron says that "consumers will still be trading up," he says. "They want affordable luxuries," and they are "trading up across all categories from Starbucks coffee to Seven Jeans." So Heineken Light, as a smooth-tasting brew, is squarely aimed at Miller and Bud drinkers looking for a more sophisticated brand.

And, of course, there's Heinekenlight.com where you interactively share the good with your friends. Go ahead--drink it forward.

Real life vs. the internet

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 23:12:00 +0000

Obama & Fitch

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 22:23:00 +0000

Okay, we shouldn't need to go over this story again since it's hard to have missed it. But, in case you did, watch the video and see if you notice anything strange.

Okay, another typically great speech from Senator Obama. But what the hell is going on with the Abercrombie & Fitch guys in the back? What are the odds? Theories abound across the blogosphere:

1. Abercrombie & Fitch guerilla marketing (Their stock is up)
2. Obama campaign appealing to the "white" audience
3. Obama campaign reaching out to gay audience
4. It was the Obama campaign offering a distraction to his defeat
5. It's part of Obama's next generation marketing tactics

Whatever it is, expect to see Obama & Fitch brand hybrids out there:

New OGC logo arouses laughter

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Thu, 24 Apr 2008 14:04:00 +0000

Ever heard of the OGC? Well, neither have most people, and that's why the UK Office of Government Commerce (OGC) hired London design firm FHD to create a new visual identity for the organization. And it sounded like everything was going well, with OGC communications director Catherine Hastings saying she was "impressed with the integrated approach FHD had to offer."

So, after �14,000 and who knows how many rounds of client review, the new, clean and modern identity was unveiled to some of the 564 staffers of the OGC. It took less than a minute for some of the government workers to turn the logomark 90 degrees clockwise and, well, you can see for yourself.

Employees quickly snatched up all the ballyhooed paraphernalia before managers attempted to confiscate them. Look for them to appear on eBay any day now.

Reportedly, the OGC is going forward with the new look despite the unintended issues that popped-up. It was undoubtedly a hard decision.
An OGC spokesman commented: �It is true that it caused a few titters among some staff when viewed on its side, but on consideration we concluded that the effect was generic to the particular combination of the letters OGC - and it is not inappropriate to an organisation that�s looking to have a firm grip on Government spending.�

"Firm grip," he said? We must give the spokesman points for that one. But, going forward, is this accidentally exhibitionist identity worth the red cheeks? Or should they throw in the towel and forget the tent pole?

This might be one of top unplanned marketing results of 2008. Here's our favorite from 2007.

Where no brand has gone before

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Mon, 04 Feb 2008 09:56:00 +0000

The newest installment of the Star Trek franchise won�t hit theater screens until Christmas 2008, but some tidbits are trickling out of the secretive set. Winona Ryder is playing Spock�s mom and Shaun of the Dead star Simon Pegg is playing Scotty.

New, young faces are a good start at refreshing a classic 40-year old sci-fi series. But this film is being �reimagined� be director J.J. Abrams. Think Tim Burton�s Batman, which transformed the campy �shark repellent�-wielding Adam West incarnation and took inspiration from the darker beginnings of the caped crusader.

In the original five year mission, Star Trek offered sixties viewers a Utopian future in stark contrast to the racial difficulties, social tension, and looming nuclear oblivion of the real world. Star Trek showed us a world where not just men and women, blacks and whites, and Americans and Russians worked in harmony together, but humanity overcame war and strife to form a Federation of Planets with other species.

It also inspired our techo-fetishes: communicators inspired a Motorola engineer to design the cell phone, Uhura sported a �Bluetooth� headset, computers talked to us, and the impulse engine is in use today on NASA space probes. Transporters and warp drive were more than a plot device�they gave us hope of a grand future peacefully exploring the final frontier.

And it was all new and fresh and inspiring. In later years, Star Trek became more and more formulaic. Visual artist Gabriel K�erner is working on the new movie, and offered insightful criticism of the last Star Trek TV series, Enterprise. �They did my dream show,� says K�erner, �and closed the book on doing a good take on that concept. It was essentially a surrogate Original Series.�

�It�s a prequel to The Next Generation. It shared TNG and Voyager�s look, feel, scoring, pacing, dialog, storytelling that centered around a white male Captain, a logical Vulcan to be his judgment, and a southern man of bold feelings to be his conscience. Nothing about it was daring or different. An awful vocal soft rock theme, taking �Star Trek� out of the title, guys in button-down shirts and ties, little more rough language, and whipping up �prequel� words for all the same luxurious technology does not make a �Proto-Trek�. Its producers blamed its premise for being �too different to accept� for its demise. It was that it wasn�t different.�

The new movie is expected to bring Star Trek to the mainstream and bring back the excitement. K�erner goes on to discuss his inspiration for the upgraded movie version of the NCC-1701:

�I took inspiration from old Chryslers, women, Starship Troopers, women, art deco, and Jonathan Ive and mid century modern design. I wanted a flying Jayne Mansfield, Captain James Tiberius Muthafuckin� Kirk�s Flying Sex Machine. His hot rod. The only lady he keeps around longer than a beamdown to the planet of the week.�

As a lifelong Trek fan, I hope the movie is as hot as the ship design�and pumps new life into the Star Trek brand.

Top Brand Moments: Mooninites take Boston

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Sat, 29 Dec 2007 07:26:00 +0000

In our countdown of the top marketing and branding events of 2007, the Adult Swim Aqua Teen Hunger Force guerilla campaign that turned into a bomb scare was a wildly successful, if accidental, effort.

Time Warner ended up paying a $2 million fine, and the head of Cartoon Network was forced to resign, but what a load of publicity they received. And listening to befuddled TV news personalities come to the realization there�s no terrorist attack, its just Err, the middle finger wielding Mooninite...priceless. Remember 1-31-07.

Watch the funniest, and most explosive, brand event of 2007:

Reclaiming the Republican Brand

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Fri, 05 Oct 2007 07:13:00 +0000

We recently discussed how numerous gay sex scandals are affecting the base of the Republican Party. But an even more profound shift in attitudes is eroding the �Republican brand.�

The dominance of Christian conservatives has alienated business leaders and fiscal conservatives within the organization historically know as the party of business. Social issues such as abortion, gay marriage, immigration, school prayer, stem cell research, and Terri Schiavo has preempted the traditional focus on free markets and fiscal responsibility.

In his new book, The Age of Turbulence: Adventures in a New World, former Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan faults Republicans for out-of-control spending. He went on to say: �I was brought up in the Republican Party of Goldwater. He was for fiscal restraint and for deregulation, for open markets, for trade. Social issues were not a critical factor.�

Greenspan isn�t the only one who feels his party has left him. In a September Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll, 37 percent of professionals and managers identify themselves as, or are leaning toward being, Republican. That�s down from 44 percent 2004.

Follow the money�away from Republicans
Data from campaign finance reports also show the waning business support for Republicans. The securities industry gave 58 percent of its money to Republicans in 1996. Last year that number fell to 45 percent�which is good news for Democrats. In fact, Democratic presidential candidates have raised more than $200 million this year�70 percent more than Republican rivals.

Two Republican Parties
The traditional �Goldwater Republicans� Greenspan speaks of are the business-focused establishment-types. The party, under President Bush, is far more driven by a quest for power that caters to relatively lower-income, less educated �Bible-thumpers� attending Suburban megachurches and concentrated in the South.

This may not be a sustainable strategy. Even though the U.S. is the most religious of all industrialized nations, and fundamentalists comprise about one on four Americans, secularism is on the rise.

According to the American Religious Identification Survey (ARIS), the number of "Nonreligious" American adults more than doubled between 1990 and 2001 while the number of "Religious" and "Christians" declined. The "Nonreligious" are now the fastest growing segment of the population.

This diminishing of Christian fundamentalism explains findings from the Pew Research Center. Between 1987 and this year, support for "old-fashioned values about family and marriage" dropped 11 percentage points and the percentage of those who said gay teachers should be fired dropped 23 points.

Rebuilding the brand
The irony of the current Republican Party�s dependence on Southern fundamentalism is that the party was founded on a platform of modernization and opposition to the spread of Southern slavery. Unless the Republican Party wants to be on the wrong side of history this time around, it should return to a focus on its core brand attributes: sound fiscal policies, free markets, and enlightened social policies.

Chevron campaign opens dialog on energy needs

noreply@blogger.com (Mark) — Tue, 02 Oct 2007 05:23:00 +0000

And outside the debate rages...
Oil.
Energy.
The environment.

It is the story of our time
and it is definitive
and it's all encompassing
and it leaves no one untouched.

Because�-make no mistake�-this isn't just about oil companies.

This is about you and me
and the undeniable truth
that at this moment there are 6.5 billion people on this planet.

And by year's end
there will be another 73 million
and every one of us will need energy to live.

Where will it come from?

These words from the two and a half minute "Untapped Energy" commercial launching the new "Power of Human Energy" campaign from Chevron. According to a press release, the effort is �aimed at engaging people in today's energy issues and highlighting the steps Chevron is taking to bring more energy supplies to the global marketplace.�

In other words, the $201 billion energy giant is laying it all out on the table for the public: you need oil, and we�re getting in the most environmentally friendly way possible. �We want people to see us as part of the solution," explains Helen Clark, Chevron Corp.'s manager of corporate brand and reputation. "When people get the chance to learn about us, it helps to change their views."

And those views, according to Jean Halliday in her AdAge.com article, are that roughly 10 percent of Americans hate Big Oil and another 10 percent agree with their quest for energy resources. But the remaining 80 percent haven�t made up their minds regarding the myriad concerns about our need for energy and can be swayed�they�re the target audience for this campaign.

This cross-media campaign asks provocative questions (like the recent Hyundai campaign) and drives the readers to www.willyoujoinus.com for answers.

Although the campaign discusses the environment, the ads never use the terms �global warming� or �climate change.� Environmentalists call it �green-washing,� but the company insists it is opening a dialog.

"The energy industry is one of the most complex and vital industries in the world yet public opinion is most frequently shaped by the price at the pump," explains Chevron Vice Chairman Peter Robertson. "How we find, produce and use energy are critical issues of our time. We all need to participate in developing and shaping our energy future. Chevron takes on this challenge every day."