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Introducing The New And Improved Evil Scumbug
It’s a rich irony that ad people—those who help shape perception—have such a dubious public image, often ranking alongside lawyers in opinion polls rating
least-trustworthy professions. “Perhaps it's time we stopped viewing advertisers as ‘evil scumbags,’” suggests Brendan O'Neill in a BBC News story on
product placement, “and recognize that they're just doing a job—and that we, in our buying habits, have the final say over whether or not they did a good job.”
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Gallery + Grocery = Not-So-Starving Artists
Forward-thinking grocery chains like Whole Foods and Trader Joe’s are now employing resident artists in each store—not to stock shelves between classes but to create
original works promoting sales. “It's like a revolving gallery. People get to see my artwork every day,” Katie Lanciano, a blackboard artist at Whole Foods, tells
NPR. The work has a nice financial reward as well. “The stocks I got from Whole Foods bought my house.”
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Creepy Is The New Annoying
As with major world events, you likely remember where you were the first time you saw the voyeuristic new Burger King or sat slack-jawed trying to process the Head On (“apply
directly to the forehead!”) commercial. Blog site “Yes But No But Yes” recently counted down the “10 creepiest icons in advertising history.” Click
below to discover how the King placed. |
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When Innovation Hammers Its Thumb
Microsoft has launched Zune, its so-called “iPod killer,” and the reviews are not good or even kind. Writing in the “Chicago Sun-Times,” Andy Ihnatko
sums up the counter-intuitive, bug-ridden, music-industry-kow-towing, dung-brown device thusly: “The Zune is a square wheel, a product that's so absurd and so obviously
immune to success that it evokes something akin to a sense of pity.”
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Making Innovation Look (And Feel) Easy
With the iPhone reportedly on the horizon, pundits are wondering if Apple can maintain its streak of successful innovation. How has the company done it thus far? “A
huge amount of what we try to do is simplification, solving very complex problems without making the complexity evident,” Jonathan Ive, Apple's senior vice president
of industrial design, tells the “International Herald Tribune.”
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The Return Of The Original “It” Girl
Before there was Paris Hilton, there was Edie Sedgwick. Edie was Andy Warhol’s original superstar, a slumming rich girl famous for appearing at the right parties dressed
as the Pop artist’s more fabulous doppelganger. She was eventually ostracized from his camp—reportedly for getting too cozy with Bob Dylan’s people—and
terminally O.D.ed on barbiturates in 1971. Now she’s risen again, inspiring movies, books, fashion and, of course, marketing.
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| The Primordial Mulch Springs Eternal
The late Pop artist isn’t doing too badly for himself—or his estate—either. Andy Warhol’s cultural influence has never receded
since his emergence in the ‘60s, but the Warhol brand is especially booming this season with his licensed imagery appearing on everything from jewelry to jeans.
As Simon Doonan, the creative director of Barneys, says, "He is the primordial mulch from which all cool in Manhattan sprang."
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