The blogosphere is all aflutter because Paula Deen, purveyor of all things fine and butter-laden, has recently a). revealed that she has diabetes and b). been selected to promoted Novo Nordisk’s diabetes medication. A certain snarky foodie hotshot has likened this to breaking someone’s legs and selling them crutches afterwards, but maybe it’s just the latest example of rebranding. Heck, if Abercrombie & Fitch—who once outfitted big game hunters and polar expeditions—can morph into a company that clothes (barely) pouty lipped, six-pack-abbed teenagers, anything can be rebranded. And maybe Paula, with her everywoman “if I can do it, you can too” charm will actually get people thinking about eating healthier. Time will tell.
Can Paula do it?
January 18th, 2012The appeal of order
October 20th, 2011I don’t know why I like this concept so much—I am not a very neat person—but I do. For whatever reason, Swiss artist, Ursus Wehrli, has made the act of organizing life his passion and his art. If you’ve ever thought to yourself, “You know, the universe would be so much more appealing if it were just a little TIDIER,” this is the book for you.
Generation gap
September 13th, 2011My daughter recently ran a blog post that started with a (largely verbatim) conversation we’d had about her “what next” plans. As a tail-end Baby Boomer, parenting a Gen Y child, I frequently find myself faced with some pretty glaring examples of how much life has changed since I was making my way in the post-college world. I was all about getting a “real” job and having a business card with my name on it. She is more interested in finding herself and exploring the big world around her. Granted, photo journalism majors aren’t exactly inundated with job offers in this economy and she was gainfully employed all summer, but it’s interesting that the thing that would have given me a huge pit in my stomach–a minimum wage job with no career potential–doesn’t faze her in the least. She’s racking up adventures at the age when I was getting my first taste of credit card debt. I’m betting that her path to the future will be a bit more crooked than mine, but who’s to say that it isn’t better—and, if nothing else, her stories certainly will be!
Summer in the city
July 1st, 2011Ok, ok, so Madison (population roughly 208,000 give or take 40,000+ students) might not count as a city if you’re REALLY from a city (I’m talking about you Chicago, NY, LA, etc.), but it’s city-ish and today it’s hot. Ok, not Phoenix or Austin hot, but definitely Midwest hot. But I’ve promised not to complain because I am fortunate enough to have AC (though, for whatever reason my office has some issues with its ducts which may or may not have to do with one of my children dropping a book down said duct) and I already complain about the winter and you can’t complain about both! If you are also enjoying a heat wave, pour yourself your iced beverage of choice and wrap up your work so you can head out to a movie (I highly recommend the new Jane Eyre—and it’s even at the cheap theater here). Have a great weekend.
Will Jacque Pen-ay be the new Tar-zhay?
June 15th, 2011When I cast around for an adjective to describe J.C. Penney stores, the one that immediately pops into my brain is “tired.” My local J.C. Penney feels dim and dusty, a place where I might find a bargain on, hmmm…shower curtains or something but not a place I necessarily want to shop. So, it was a surprise to learn that they’ve managed to lure Ron Johnson, the mastermind behind the Apple stores, to their company. It’s certainly a big leap to go from one of the world’s most valuable brands—especially one synonymous with technology and innovation, clean lines and empty spaces—to one of the country’s oldest. This could be a revolution in the making—the next Target, perhaps, though even Target may not exactly want to be Target at present if current sales results are any indication. It will be interesting to see how Mr. Johnson uses what he learned at Apple to turn J.C. Penney stores into a new type of retail experience.
The power of the comments section
March 7th, 2011I was about to do a post about Martin Lindstrom’s “Buyology”—a book I recently read about using fMRI technology to analyze what we really think about products and purchasing decisions, vs. what we say we think. I thought the book was quite fascinating and decided to poke around on Amazon to see what others thought. After reading a few less-than-flattering comments about the book and its author (I’ll let you go out to Amazon yourself to read them if you’re interested), I found myself thinking “Hmmm…maybe it wasn’t as clever as I thought.” Which, in turn, got me thinking about the power of comments. How many times have negative—or positive—comments on Amazon, Trip Advisor and the like driven you to make a purchase or stick your credit card back in your wallet? How much power do we assign to people we’ll never meet whose personalities and tastes might in no way reflect ours? And, how often does the competitor plant negative feedback in the hope of derailing another company’s efforts?
Putting words in Andrew Bogut’s mouth
February 17th, 2011I recently had the extremely fun experience of getting to write a video featuring Andrew Bogut (the Milwaukee Bucks basketball star with the delightful Australian accent). No, I didn’t get to meet him (my Bucks-loving family is quite dismayed!) but I did get to see giant life-sized cut-outs of him, which is nearly as good. It’s all part of a very cool campaign currently being run by my client, Savage Solutions. Check out Andrew Bogut, tech guru for yourself.
Happy New Year!
January 1st, 2011
It’s now officially 2011 which means I should be swearing off high-fat food (don’t worry Paula, butter makes the cut!), promising to exercise every day and learning Mandarin. Instead, I’ve decided that 2011 should be the year of realistic goal setting. Item #1: finally accomplish my 2010 goal of adding a headshot to this site. With the help of my favorite soon-to-be-professional photographer, Kat Franchino, I now have a lovely headshot! Thanks, honey! And may accomplishing your resolutions be this easy and rewarding!
Record labels are so 2009
December 17th, 2010Say you’re a struggling band looking to make it big. While the ultimate goal of not that many years ago would have been to cut a sweet deal with a record label, musicians today are exploring ways to cut out the middleman and head right for the consumer. Success is certainly mixed—for every OkGo success story (see today’s Wall Street Journal or visit their site), there are plenty of talented newbies and not-so-newbies doing their darnedest to make a buck off their music with limited success. But the paradigm of what music is and how we experience it continues to shift.