advertising industry
high end marketing, an adequate strategy in a recession?
By lainie at 2 October, 2008, 2:03 pm
As the housing market collapses, as banks acknowledge bankruptcies, as the stock exchange breathes again with the governmental bailout, everybody has in mind the 1929 American financial crash featuring the great depression. As its precursory signs announce flagrantly the gradual fall of the economy, one niche paradoxically still thrives : the High end. According to [...]
brainwashed! it’s us versus them!
By lainie at 24 September, 2008, 5:12 pm
We, humans that is, haven’t changed a whole hell of a lot since becoming a socialized animal. Although most of us consider ourselves to be living in a civilized civilization we’re still just a large amalgamation of different tribes. Of course, these tribes aren’t our sole focus of sustainability and survival anymore. They are, instead, [...]
put your money where your mouth is
By lainie at 18 September, 2008, 6:38 pm
It is ten o’clock on a Friday night, an hour before Gelson’s in West Hollywood is about to close. I find myself holding a basket with overpriced goods because Trader Joes has already closed for the night. I am eyeing disaster in the form of large red font underlining someone else’s life. Headlines accompanying the [...]
when going green loses to saving green
By lainie at 18 September, 2008, 3:47 pm
There’s no I in team unless that team happens to fail. Then it’s all Is. Not sure if you’ve heard, but, well — we’ve got quite the tumult crashing through our economy at the moment. It’s already ravaged Lehman Brothers, Bank of America has purchased Merrill Lynch, and AIG has been bailed out by (whom [...]
Microsoft’s Future to be Delicious, “Moist and Chewy, Like Cake”
By lainie at 17 September, 2008, 11:55 am
Perhaps we’ll all be wearing dunce caps when a year from now Microsoft releases the first edible computer, moist and chewy like cake. But, all in all, Microsoft’s latest ad campaign is a misfire. And it’s because Bill Gates doesn’t get it. He never really has. Sure, he’s the third richest man in the world. [...]
Hits and Misses in High-End Branding
By lainie at 4 September, 2008, 6:14 pm
At first glance, it looks like an image straight out of Time Magazine: a toothless old woman holds a small child in her arms as she walks down a crowded street in India. Just another photo spread on world poverty, right? Wrong. The image is from a recent photoshoot from the September issue of Vogue [...]
Brand loyalty: an exercise in mindless irrationality?
By lainie at 4 September, 2008, 3:08 pm
Recent Coke slogans over the last couple years have put an emphasis on “The Coke Side of Life”: less about the taste, per se, than the lifestyle. A great post by MediaPost talks about how “the strongest brands evoke a visceral response, beyond the reach of reason” (and taste too, apparently). Coke/Pepsi blind-test studies show [...]
making money on women’s fear
By lainie at 2 September, 2008, 7:58 pm
If you’re female, and have watched TV within the past year, or gone to see the recent Sex and the City movie, you’ve most likely been urged to get a new vaccine called Gardasil, marking the first time most of us experienced being targeted by a drug company when sitting in a movie theater. Pharmaceutical [...]
bottled water is the world’s biggest scam
By lainie at 2 September, 2008, 2:35 pm
How much are you willing to pay for bottled water? How’s $480 for a case of Limited Edition Crimson Red sound? Much in the same way that celebs like Mary-Kate Olsen helped turn a Starbucks coffee cup into a must-have accessory, luxury bottled water has become something of a status symbol, with many individuals paying [...]
McCain blows a lot of hot air on wind energy
By lainie at 26 August, 2008, 1:27 pm
Presidential hopefuls are notorious for making promises they can’t keep. So what makes Republican candidate John McCain any different from other elected officials who have jumped on the environmentally-correct bandwagon? Let’s just say that if you’re going to be disingenuous about supporting tax breaks for solar and wind power, at least be smart enough to [...]
