Entries Tagged as 'context'

Thursday, June 26th, 2008

the empire’s new clothes

Once you ‘got’ Pop, you could never see a sign again the same way again. And once you thought Pop, you could never see America the same way again.
- Andy Warhol

It is totally disconcerting to discover a book that pretty much compiles your insights and articulates them back to you. Buying In: The Secret Dialogue [...]

Thursday, June 12th, 2008

taste the difference

…And I can make you wanna buy a product
Movers shakers and producers
Me and my friends understand the future
- The Flobots: “Handlebars”

I’ve been trying to get through Matt Mason’s The Pirate’s Dilemma for a while. It’s an easy read, but between digging up mind-blowing historical discoveries from the cultural strata–Did you know that a nun [...]

Tuesday, June 3rd, 2008

growing up and the city

“I am real!” said Alice, and began to cry.
- Through the Looking Glass, Lewis Carroll

I always find it fascinating when movies do things that executives didn’t expect. Entertainment, particularly the kind with narratives and characters, is like a Rorschach test where what we have to say about the inkblot and what the inkblot [...]

Saturday, March 29th, 2008

the integration is the message

Have you seen these billboards?

They’re all over the place:

Been wondering what the hell that’s all about, maybe?

Well, answer #1 goes like this:
Hope people have been seeing the billboards that I have put up around town. I think its important everyone knows how much Sarah Marshall SUCKS! How she does look fat in those jeans! [...]

Saturday, March 22nd, 2008

culture seeks its level

In Nation of Rebels: Why Counterculture Became Consumer Culture, Joseph Heath and Andrew Potter explain that really, there was never any conflict between the two to begin with. Counterculture hinges on, and consumer culture consists of, the expression of your lifestyle/identity. Whether you’re choosing to wear Nikes, Doc Martens, or some crazy obscure Japanese [...]

Monday, February 18th, 2008

consumer insight is funny

“You’re just perpetuating the stereotype by acting all stereotypical.”
- deleted line from tony scott’s domino

i have no idea about the racial background of the individual(s) that publish stuff white people like, but does it even matter?
as lenny bruce said, it’s not the word itself, but the censorship of the word that gives it its [...]

Monday, January 28th, 2008

a trend’s success

“Is The Tipping Point Toast?” asks the recent FastCompany article in which researcher duncan watts talks about his findings (and their less than exuberant reception) that expose the billion dollars a year marketers spend targeting “influentials” as a waste of money.
i am constantly repeating the phrase that “we buy the brands and products that we [...]

Sunday, December 16th, 2007

today’s awesome ad award goes to:

 
…AOL news? yeah. apparently. way to make an ad that speaks to a demographic that’s been writing you off for a minute.
 
thanks (ariel)

Thursday, November 29th, 2007

quantum marketing

i’ll admit right now that this is not what i ought to be writing about.
i’ve been travelling for more of the past month than i’ve been at home, and just coming up with things to write about that i had no time to follow through on. so now that i’ve finally gotten to shower in [...]

Tuesday, October 16th, 2007

across the universe’s “discovery strategy” model

first, you need to watch the trailer for sony pictures’ across the universe: here. if you cannot be trusted to come back here afterwards, however, you can just watch the shittier-quality youtube version:

ok then. now that you have been adequately briefed, we can begin.
i first saw the trailer for across the universe on quicktime.com in [...]