According to The Denver Post, the town of Crested Butte, CO has come up with a creative way to support local merchants--they issued their own money, a.k.a. scrip. Consumers purchase Butte Bucks at a 20 percent discount at the Crested Butte Visitor's Center, up to 100 a day for $80, until the supply runs out. Participating merchants pay $30 to market the program and agree to accept Bucks as they would dollars. The …
Evolution Doesn’t Favor the Weak Or the Intransigent
Ad industry bloat--as represented by $499.1 billion in global ad spending for 2008--is over and the industry is changed forever. At least that's the word from Sir Martin. According to The Wall Street Journal: The advertising industry "can return to what it was, but it's not going to be the same," WPP Chief Executive Martin Sorrell said in an interview following the company's first-half results. "It's not going to be …
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Banking On The Shitstem To Take Care of Business Is A Bad Idea
The banking industry is making your job and mine much harder to do. In order to move product and services (our job), people need money and/or access to money. Sadly, millions of Americans who once had access to money no longer do. According to Los Angeles Times, credit card companies slashed limits for an estimated 58 million card holders in the 12 months ended in April, even though a high percentage had good credit …
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One Day You’re A Creative Director, The Next You’re Not
Marc Colucci a director with Picture Park in Boston is the director of "Lemonade," a new documentary about laid off ad peeps finding their way in the New World Order. On Please Feed the Animals, Colucci says, "I wanted to be a part of this film so that I could help my laid-off friends and people like them to recover and deal with their newfound situations. And because of the candor of our subjects, this film will do …
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Here, Sign This And You Can Have One Month of Severance
It's not often that you see labor activists get in the grill of a large advertising concern, but that's what's happening in New York City, where members of Industrial Workers of the World (the Wobblies) are protesting the rough treatment workers at Havas' Media Planning Group (MPG) received last spring. MPG recently cut 11 percent of its staff, primarily at its headquarters in New York. But the media giant did not …
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Can You Imagine Any Ad Guy’s Advice Being Worth One Tenth of This?
Direct one-on-one advice from the world's most sage investor is priceless. Scratch that, the price is $2.1 mil. That's the coin that Chinese Hedge Fund manager, Zhao Danyang paid to dine with Warren Buffett, a.k.a. "The Oracle of Omaha" at Smith & Wollensky's in New York yesterday.. Embedded video from CNNMoney.com Video According to Fortune, the money will go to charity. Bidding for next year's charity lunch with …
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Clear Makes It Clear: Get Back In Line
Nothing says privilege like bypassing people standing in a long line, especially at a high stress terminus like an airport. That's why Clear got $199 from 260,000 members interested in skating by security lines at 21 U.S. airports. But those Clear customers are now SOL. According to the Washington Post, New York-based Verified Identity Pass ceased operations late Monday night and notified its members in an …
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The Recession’s Psychological Toll
Americans want to get back to business. Or at least that's the message in this Time Magazine "Money & Main St" article from Sean Gregory. The article's backbone is a new study from WSL Strategic Retail. Apparently 1 in 4 of the shoppers WSL surveyed said they were "tired of watching every little penny and are ready to break out a little." The top categories they desire: a vacation, a night out and clothes for spring …
