Daniel Turman of Organic has an interesting side project going. It's called Fear the Beard. The blog quickly took on a life of its own. While it often functions as the "junk drawer" of my (and our) collective consciousness (thanks Misha), it has also developed a surprisingly ardent following and opened some interesting doors. I was interviewed for a French basketball magazine, Reverse. I was invited to play in a …
Thinking On Your Feet
Rob Walker has been out touring the nation to promote his new book, Buying In: The Secret Dialogue between What We Buy and Who We Are. Portland bookstore, Powell's, asked Walker to write an essay that would help sell the book (because they're Powell's). In the essay for Powell's, Walker says no one wants to see themselves as a consumer. It's too trivial a description for a complex organism. Yet he argues that …
Lost Tribe Looks for Meaning In All the Wrong Places
Adweek's Brian Morrissey and Eleftheria Parpis note the difficulty ad pros in Cannes had distinguishing between "the idea" and the myriad executions for a given idea. The awards are not keeping pace with the infinite ways in which brands reach customers in today's fractured media landscape. Rather than honor holistic systems built for brands to reach consumers in many places, Lions are given to objects created within …
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Hard Numbers To Hit
Gavin Heaton, has metered out the components of digital storytelling the way a conscientious chef would when writing a cook book. Like anything, you need to start with an idea. This is the 1%. A good idea will get you started but an idea on its own is dormant. There is another 9% that is planning. You need to think through the what, why and how of your story. You need to consider the methods you will take to bring …
People Who Read The Label Won’t Be Impressed
According to The Wall Street Journal, the Corn Refiners Association, an industry group led by ADM and Cargill, is launching a big ad and public-relations campaign today. Their goal? Convince Americans that high-fructose corn-syrup isn't the evil it has been made out to be. The group is running full-page ads in more than a dozen major newspapers around the country saying its product is no worse for you than sugar. And …
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Are Ad Men As Hollow As The Fantasies They Create?
Alex Witchel, a staff writer for the New York Times Magazine spent some quality time with Matthew Weiner (pronounced WHY-ner). Weiner is creator, producer and head writer of "Mad Men," the original series on AMC. The show begins its second season on July 27th. It's a long article with lots of interesting detail, like the fact that Weiner is a meticulous control freak from an over-achieving family and somewhat …
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Striking Green Poses
You can rate the ad above, and others like it at EnviroMedia's Greenwashing Index. …
How To Become Irrelevant Online
It's kind of sad to see Associated Press limping weakly through its struggle to determine what "fair use" means to them. Or is it? Perhaps, it's equally entertaining in a physical comedy sort of way. I suppose it depends on where you stand. Whether you belong to the old guard or new media? Saul Hansell of The New York Times frames the story: A.P. — a not for profit group of 1,500 newspapers, including The New York …
