Trend: Lawyers hurting marketing effectiveness.

Ok no big news here really. But I have noticed something recently that Adrian’s last post about the Bravia spot reminded me of… copyright and trademark law is TOTALLY fcuked up by current trends – whether it’s viral micro content ‘chunks’ to be passed around, wom, co-creation or branded entertainment, all the standard rules trademark lawyers follow need to be flipped on their head, and most of the things they recommend (read ‘mandate’ for most companies) to “protect” company control over things work in opposition to the strategy.

Case in point... I recently heard about a legal team preventing a particular piece of language being used for a campaign “because it was an adjective that the brand can’t trademark”.

Yes that’s right, the last thing the average lawyer wants is any danger of your tagline/campaign idea actually being used by any real people in conversation!!… Honestly! What more to say.. these people have degrees and are paid a ton of money, you think it would be reasonable to expect them to rise above moron status. But no, they’re lawyers of the “Just say no everytime, wait for the check and your job is safe in corporate America" school. We’d be better off and (much happier) with Karl Pilkington giving legal advice.

End rant.

Advertising: Parody

Looks like our Bravia spot has already been parodied. It's pretty funny, not sure how the lawyers will react when they see it though. hope they have a sense of humor.

From boingboing.net

Random: Completely unrelated topic

On the subject of real music, Van Hunt's album has to be the best soul album I have listened to in the last few years. Apparently he has a new relase coming in April, I can't wait.

Viral: Incubation

I recently bought the US release of the Arctic Monkeys debut album. As I don't really like it, nor do I really like this kind of music, it occurred to me that I am a sheep and as gullible as the next person. Thinking back on why I bought it, I realized there were 3 different influences that led up to the purchase.

1. A comment on this blog by Magnus
2. An article in the Guardian about them winning the NME awards
3. An article on from the Beeb about how fast their debut album was selling.

These 3 influences worked in around a month to convince me to buy something strictly on the basis of curiosity. I wonder how much of their success is based on just this. Looking over the reviews on iTunes, you see about an equal split of "love it" vs. "overhyped crap."

It got me thinking about how quickly trends spread in the UK and I thought about Elvis Costello's quote around the London scene being like, "a crowded nightclub where everyone's jostling for elbow room."

The UK acts as a viral incubator. The effect of the claustrophobic environment means that your 3 (or however many) interactions will happen more rapidly there and the trends will spread much more quickly. By the time it begins to spread across the shores, it feels like a mass movement that has enveloped an island of 65 million (who have a history of spotting trends).

Trend: Gadget Isolationism: Podding Out

More explorations on the social costs of gadget isolationism. Millions of people in public spaces who are there, yet not there.

See it here
http://www.current.tv/studio/media/1548272


via Current.tv

Trend: Mass Interactive: Web Dating

The $520 million online dating industry may be slowing, with sales up 9% in 2005 compared with 20% in 2004. But a group of niche sites has become the industry's fastest-growing segment. Check out a few SUPER-NICHE INTEREST WEB DATING below:


http://www.datemypet.com
For $10 a month, pet owners post photos of themselves and their four-legged friends. The site grew 250% last year, and with links to pet products and animal-care articles, the focus is more on pets than people.


http://www.meetsinglerunners.com/
Focused on active daters, this site's 1,500 monthly visitors are mostly in the Southwest (look for a national ad campaign this year). Search for a mate based on weekly mileage and average pace, sifting, say, marathoners from morning joggers.


http://www.farmersonly.com/
Farmers do it best. This site has 10,000 singles in categories ranging from organic farmers to alpaca breeders. It also recently upgraded from 1 server to 5 and is forecasting 100,000 users by the end of 2006.


http://www.millionairematch.com/
Why not skip the pretense and get straight to what you're looking for - a mate who's paid-in-full!
According to the site, "the busy lifestyle of a millionaire leaves little free time to meet and make friends." Awww. Millionaires (or those making $100K or more) are invited to join and get matched, while the golddiggers are given entre to a playland of Richie Riches looking for a little TLC. Though I'd imagine one should take many claims on this site with a big grain of salt...consider just how many adults are on MySpace claiming to be 17 and just looking to be your friend...


http://www.gorgeousgrandma.com/
Don't laugh at the Gorgeous Grandmas - expect the senior dating segment to just explode in the coming years as the Boomers reach 60 this year, and many are headed into both second careers and second (and third and fourth) relationships.

Trend: US Kids Love to Instant Message

U.S. Leads in IM Adoption
Percent of average
monthly subscribers
(fourth-quarter 2005)



Source: M:Metrics

Trend: Shopping 2.0: Peel-Free Fruit

The Tyranny of the Fruit Peel

What fruit needs is a snazzier package! The peels and rinds are simply not cutting it with consumers who would rather peel open a snack bag than a fresh orange. Sunkist Growers Inc. announces a plan to appeal with a line of grab-and-go cut fruit. Small bags of sliced Sunkist fruit 2.0 will be sold in grocery stores, schools and fast-food chains this year through a joint venture with Taylor Farms of Salinas

----------------------------------------------------------------------------
According to a recent article in LA Times, the idea is to make eating fruit as simple as munching on potato chips, said Sunkist Chief Executive Jeff Gargiulo, "Not even my kids will peel an orange."

The packaged fruit venture could grow to several hundred million dollars in sales over the next two years, said Bruce Taylor, CEO of Taylor Farms, which sells more than $750 million of cut lettuce and vegetables to clients such as McDonald's Corp., Subway, Burger King Corp. and Darden Restaurants Inc., which owns Red Lobster and the Olive Garden.

"A big barrier to getting people to eat more fruits and vegetables is convenience, the packaging and accessibility," said Barbara Rolls, a nutrition professor at Pennsylvania State University, who sampled several packages of Sunkist fruit at an American Dietetic Assn. meeting last year and liked what she tasted.

"This could be great if they make it easy for people, if it tastes good and it is affordable," Rolls said. In the past, sales of cut fruits and vegetables have suffered because the packaging couldn't keep them fresh and appetizing, she said.

Taylor acknowledged that the venture would work only if Sunkist could deliver consistently good-tasting fruit and if his firm could get it to customers while it was still fresh.

"People won't buy fruits and vegetables because you tell them it is good for them," he said. "They will buy them only if they taste good."


Although the venture faces some "technical" challenges, Taylor Farms has pioneered the delivery of prepared lettuce and vegetables to the food service industry and could apply many of those techniques to distributing Sunkist branded snacks.

Expect the fruit to hit the market in the fall, primarily in supermarkets and schools. The initial selection will be made up of small bags of sliced oranges, apples, pineapple and seedless grapes.

Some Sunkist growers said they supported anything that might widen the market for their crops.

Competition from salty snacks and candy bars "is brutal," said Charles Sheldon, a citrus farmer. "I am all for this. Our crop comes in assorted shapes and sizes and maybe this is a way for us to utilize more of what we grow than we are doing now. That could be a great advantage."

via LA Times

Taste it all here: http://www.latimes.com/business/la-fi-sunkist22feb22,1,4428875.story?coll=la-headlines-business


AKI COMMENT: Watch for another trend to then develop of Moms pre-chewing the fruit and spitting it into the mouths of their kids. This burgeoning custom will likely take place thru the kids' high-school graduation, after that, the kids are heartlessly on their own...

On a serious note, I am kinda curious what the design brief for peel-free fruit 2.0 will be! I mean, how do you top the world's most functional packaging? Well, with packaging. Perhaps it would be like the notorious Coke can design which highlights imagery of the old Coke bottle design on it. Brief: Replace the classic bottle with a can, then draw the bottle back on the can so consumers can feel nostalgic for the bygone era denoted by the classic bottle.

I, myself, would like to submit a SQUARE PACKAGE RE-DESIGN. Cuz nothing is more annoying than analog round fruit rolling around all over the floor. Square fruit will stack much better on-shelf and in-fridge. Perhaps Sunkist may grow them square on the tree. Think of all the savings in packing+shipping just by going square. Also consider a LASER-CUT PERFORATION, that leaves a dotted line that tears open effortlessly and splits the fruit into fun slices. These design ideas are on the house. No charge. Really. I do it in the name of progress.

Trend: Age Compression: Teen Credit

Debit Cards For Teens

Allow Card says it's goal is to "teach financial independence" and good money management habits to youngsters while eliminating those last-minute, running-out-the-door, I-gotta-have-it-now requests for money. Nice jedi mind trix, dude, but we're all smart enough to realize that this is all rather thinly-veiled credit card training wheels for the young seeds.

To quote Allow on the site: "The Allow Card is a Prepaid MasterCard® designed for Kid's … and the parents who love them"

Love your kids at http://www.allowcard.com/


AKI COMMENT: Ok, so Allow Card may be a bit sinister...sure, I know the stats on College Credit debt and default. But that dark view comes from looking at it thru my humanity lenses. When I switch to my fashionable Hidden Persuaders rose-tinted lens - you really friggin' gotta love the clever Get A Card Link which easily allows youngster to forward an email to parent to plead his case for him. C'mon, now, give the Hidden Persuaders a clap, that's a smooth tactical move. Give it up. Further, check the faux-personalization copy tips like "Love Ya, Your Son". Awww.

I quote from that great American pimp statesman Don "Magic" Juan, who once said, "Don't hate the player, hate the game."

Culture: Hip Hop at the Smithsonian

The Smithsonian Institute's National Museum of American History is in the process of launching and hosting "Hip-Hop Won't Stop," the museum's first-ever on-going and evolving exhibit on Hip-Hop culture in the The Smithsonian.

Ice T., Russell Simmons, Crazy Legs and others will hold a press conference on Feb. 28 at the New York Hilton, where a list of artists that will assist the museum in documenting Hip-Hop's 30-year history will be announced.

The project will trace Hip-Hop from it's origins in the 1970's to its current global domination.

The exhibit will showcase a permanent collection, with various artists donating an artifact to the exhibit. Vinyl records, handwritten lyrics, boom boxes, clothing, microphones and other artifacts will be featured.

Get on the mic at http://www.cantstopwontstop.com/

Trend: Mass Interactive: Socially Contagious

This week in MASS INTERACTIVE...

Catch the latest social diseases below...


http://www.couchsurfing.com/
Got couch? Cool, lemme crash on it tonight...


http://www.airtroductions.com/
Get high? Cool, I'll meet you up there...



http://www.flirtomatic.com/

Got phone? Cool, gimme your digits, I'll call you later...

Industry: Blog Economy

Excerpts from a blog post by Roland Picquepaille on ZD Net about

The Economic Weight of the Blogs

"If you're one of the millions of active bloggers today, you probably think that your own publication is one of the most important ones in the world. And from your point of view, you're certainly right. But have blogs changed the global economy? Only marginally, and in a minuscule way."

http://blogs.zdnet.com/emergingtech/?p=162 or at http://www.primidi.com/2006/02/15.html



via Smartmobs.com

Tech: Full Motion Stamp

Developed by Dutch design studio Solar (http://www.solar.nl/), the stamps use twelve successive original television fragments of the winning races of Ard Schenk in Sapporo (1972) and Yvonne van Gennip in Calgary (1988). The stamps are available for 0,39 euro by order in The Netherlands." Go postal at http://www.tpgpost.nl/ to order yours.

AKI COMMENT: Our US Postal Service (and the whole US gov't for that matter) has got to start innovating around it's products and services! And that means digging deeper than another Minnie Mouse commemorative stamp or the ol' "let's raise the price on 'em" tactic. Go Netherlands.

Now imagine when kids get ahold of this idea and merge their Photoshop and iMovie Edit with Photostamp.com...and a whole new market of user-created "limited editions" stamp series featuring everything from Tupac shooting gang signs, to Chris Farley doing the humptydance, to Darth Vader using the force will hit the reseller grey market at collectible prices...and the USPS will see little of the new dough (just like they see none of the collectible stamp resell dough as is). Pity the slow bureaucrats who are still brainstorming lame Muppet lick-stamps.


via www.picturephoning.com and www.we-make-money-not-art.com

Technology: Gadgets and Anti-social Behavior

I was at the mall last weekend and saw a scraggly-haired teen engrossed in his PSP, oblivious to the circle of friends standing around him. Last night I saw the adult version. Out at a bar, with his friends, some guy pulled out his ipod, announced that he had every episode of Lost downloaded, flicked on an episode and quickly became entranced by the little screen. So I took a picture of him (I want to be bucky turco); he's the guy on the far left.

I think I'd have a conniption if one of my friends lapsed into this private entertainment, but none of the others around seemed to care. Maybe this sheds some light on the question of whether personal devices will slowly shrivel our communities...nope, we'll still get together but now we won't have to talk.

Trend: Open Source Intelligence (Conference)

Here is a fasinating companion to all the recent posts about CITIZEN JOURNALISM>MASS INTERACTION>HACTIVISM>USER CO-CREATION, COLLABORATIVE TECHNOLOGIES, etc.

INTERVIEWS from the Open Source Intelligence Conference. (who knew that Washington was awake on this?):
http://www.echochamberproject.com/osint

some excerpts about the conference:
There were over 300 people from within the intelligence community, retired analysts, other corporate contractors as well as other attendees who were interested in the concept of open source intelligence.

One of the common values that seemed to unite all of the attendees was the perspective that classified sources of information do not necessarily mean that the information is any more relevant or useful than information that can be collected from open sources (i.e. newspapers, Internet, academic literature, reports from non-governmental organizations, etc.)

Another common value seemed to be that open source intelligence provides a more collaborative and transparent environment for generating knowledge. There were many people who have been fighting the compartmentalization of intelligence for many years.


AKI COMMENT: Now I think the purpose of this conference was to discuss open source with regard to Washington and espionage-type perspectives. But these interviews are good for our repurposing, too (I think this idea is the conclusion they came to at the conference).


But also as interesting is this site that collected the interviews, www.echochamberproject.com, which classifies itself as "...an open source, investigative documentary about how the television news media became an uncritical echo chamber to the Executive Branch leading up to the war in Iraq." The director, Kent Bye, gives you accesses to help with (transcribing interview notes, for instance) and track the production of the movie!

Kent says, "The Echo Chamber is a documentary on the failures of the mainstream media, and how I produce this film will hopefully provide some solutions to this infotainment bottleneck. I'm trying to develop more sophisticated techniques for citizen journalism by open sourcing my interview material and collaboratively producing The Echo Chamber on a Drupal/CivicSpace platform."

Can Hollywood get fluid like that? How 'bout CNN? The movement just keeps grinding forward...

Comment: Beat to the punch

I was just thinking last week that someone ought to use Google Maps for a marketing program and according to Adage, the clever folks behind the Sopranos already did. This is pretty smart, but I think that this is still a fairly obvious use. There's a really big idea waiting to happen with Google Maps, it is such a cool product that even non-computter users like my wife love it.

Trend: Cashless Society: Mobile Retailing Stats (US)

US Warms to Mobile Commerce

Research firm predicts the digital wallet will be a reality in the United States by 2007.

In the report, Schatt predicts that the mobile commerce market in 2006 will be worth $24 billion, with Japan and South Korea accounting for nearly 60 percent of the total.

In 2008, that figure is expected to more than double to $55 billion. And with four out of five Americans subscribing to mobile service by then, the United States will take a larger share.

Driving the trend is the growing number of so-called 3G handsets, which carry more data. The number of 3G phones in the United States has finally topped 50 million, creating what Celent calls “critical mass.”

Also worth quoting:
"The rise of mobile commerce represents a large opportunity for banks and carriers to either exploit or miss, Mr. Schatt said. If banks cede ground to upstarts like Google on mobile transactions, the forfeited profits could be huge."

Get more here:
http://www.redherring.com/Article.aspx?a=15728&hed=US+Warms+to+Mobile+Commerce+§or=Industries&subsector=Computing

Trend: Cashless Society: Myth of the Cashless Society

Forbes reports on the nature of money in the US - in both electronic and paper forms.

"In the last few years, there has been an ever-louder drumbeat of pundits saying the world is moving to eliminate cash, but the many businesses that have popped up in the hope this would come true--Bitbux, Digicash, CyberCash, Flooz, Netchex and PayPal, to name but a few--have found only limited success, or have died, or have been merged into other companies."

Cash in at:
http://www.forbes.com/money/2006/02/11/cashless-society-cash_cx_em_money06_0214cashless.html

Trend: Cashless Society: Mobile Retailing Stats (Global)

Mobile retail to generate over $63 billion revenue by 2010

Juniper Research says that ringtone purchases have taught people use phone as payment instruments.

Revenues from mobile ticketing and mobile retail services will assist the global mobile commerce market by generating over USD 63 billion worth of revenue by 2010, according to a new report from Juniper Research.

Mobile phone users, familiar with purchasing digital content such as ringtones and games, equipped with smart phones and accessing the mobile Internet via faster mobile data networks will increasingly use their devices for mobile commerce.

The report reveals that innovative use of technology such as mobile barcodes and integrating RFID into a mobile device coupled with consumer demand for easy to use applications is driving up the adoption of mobile ticketing and mobile retail services.

By 2010, 32 percent of Japanese mobile users will be buying tickets using a mobile phone, the report predicts.

By 2010, 87 million European mobile users (15 percent of total) will be using their mobile devices to buy tickets as the use of mobile barcodes is revolutionising the way we purchase and store tickets.

Juniper predicts that there will be sufficient consumer demand, adequate payment schemes available and enough retailers supporting these schemes to see worldwide mobile payment revenues reach over USD 10 billion by 2010.

Report author Alan Goode said: “The modern mobile phone and mobile network provides unparalleled levels of commercial potential. We are now beginning to enter the mCommerce era – and this era will see all of its expectations met.”

Dial up more numbers at:
http://www.nordicwirelesswatch.com/wireless/story.html?story_id=4598

Trend: Mobility: Photo Morbid

According to Reuters, Japan's obsession with camera-equipped mobile phones has taken a bizarre twist, with mourners at funerals now using the devices to capture a final picture of the deceased... "Some can't grasp 'reality' unless they take a photo and share it with others ... It comes from a desire to keep a strong bond with the deceased," social commentator Toru Takeda told the paper. "

Get a glimpse at
http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20060216/tc_nm/japan_funeral_dc


via Picturephoning.com

Battle of the Ad Blogs 2006: Memorial

I am running a bit late with this final tally, but the Battle of the Ad Blogs concluded a few days ago.

We came in a respectable 4th Place in the Planner/Theorist Category (there is just no stopping the esteemed Russell Davies). While we experienced some IP Address/tech difficulties in voting, all in all, we appreciate the nomination from Ad-Rag.com, and further appreciate the floods of people that gave us a look-see (and a subscription for more).

Thanks everybody!

And not bad for a six week anniversary!

Get more details of the Battle here:
http://ad-rag.com/127764.php

Trend: Old School Revisited, Modern remakes of crap we loved as kids

Well, OK not cool really, but many an hour as a young kid was spent glued to the original, it is superbly ridiculous (anyone remember the cloud-whislte??) I hope this makes it to the US...


From BBC News:


Monkey magic casts spell in Asia

The original 1978 series still has a faithful followingAn ambitious remake of Japan's most successful television drama Saiyuki (Monkey) is causing a stir across Asia.
The new version of the 1978 drama broke ratings records last month with one in three Japanese viewers tuning in.
Companies in Taiwan, South Korea, Hong Kong and Singapore have secured rights and makers Fuji TV have had inquiries from Thailand, China and Malaysia.
It is based on a 16th Century Chinese myth following hero Monkey's journey to India to obtain Buddhist scriptures.
The fantasy drama, first broadcast by Japan's Nippon TV Network, was a mix of lavish special effects, witty performances and martial arts.
The remake has remained faithful to many of the original elements - the fighting stick that shrinks to fit inside the human ear and the magical cloud that Monkey uses to travel great distances.
Fuji Television's most significant decision was to cast Shingo Katori as the show's hero.
Mr Katori is one of five members of SMAP - one of Japan's most popular boy bands. The Japanese heart-throb will be the first actor to play Monkey after Masaaki Sakai more than 25 years ago.
Modern Monkey
However, Monkey purists may be disappointed by the new version. The opening scene of each old episode that retold the legend of his birth from a stone egg on a mountain has been dropped.
The scene where Monkey achieves immortality by gorging himself on 9,000-year-old peaches will also not be included.
A dubbed version of the original was shown in the UK on BBC Two in 1981.
An undisclosed British TV company has secured the rights to the new 11-episode remake and will broadcast the show later this year, reports say.

Trend: RFID: Smart Implant Chips

Workers have chips embedded into them

In what is believed to be its first use in the U.S., workers who volunteered at CityWatcher.Com have had RFID chips embedded in their arms, the Associated Press reports. The chips act like an access card and are read by readers stationed at the company's doors. CityWatcher provides security cameras and digital video storage that are recorded over the Internet.
Sean Darks, chief executive of the company, also had one of the chips embedded. "I have one," he said. "I'm not going to ask somebody to do something I wouldn't do myself. None of my employees are forced to get the chip to keep their job."

Read the complete story here:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20060213/ap_on_hi_te/security_chips

*I will be posting an in-depth report on RFID trends, soon!

via PaymentNews.com

Execution: Huge Brand Condoms

In time for Valentine's Day, check out Huge Brand Condoms. I find it particularly clever in the realm of branding something from nothing (or nothing so special).

Huge Brand touts itself as "the condom with the slightly larger package", to be specific, they are standard size condoms, just the name and package are Huge. Choose from the Nightcap (a pack of three), the Weekender (twelve), and the Extended Stay (thirty-six), depending on your plans(and stamina). Each comes with the word “HUGE” printed in suitably ginormous lettering so all who see it know just what they’re dealing with.

Of course, you can’t hide the truth forever.

get Huge at
http://www.hugebrand.com/shop/shopdisplayproducts.asp?id=1&cat=Condoms

via Daily Candy

Industry: Ad Agency Deathwatch: R/GA

Today's NY Times features a profile of Robert Greenberg and R/GA (Interpublic).

Read "Madison Avenue's 30-Second Spot Remover" here:
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/02/12/business/yourmoney/12adman.html?pagewanted=1&th&emc=th


While the article is no shocking reveleation, some interesting background on the R/GA business model are detailed, and some quotes are worth noting.

Read excerpts below:

John Stratton, the chief marketing officer for Verizon, an R/GA client, offered a withering assessment of traditional advertising, warning agencies that they were failing to grapple with the realities of alternative media.

"Major money is going to be in motion in the next decade and yet no one really understands exactly where it will land, or even if it will land, or just disappear altogether," he said at an Advertising Age conference in Beverly Hills, Calif. "Your clients are in trouble. They are looking to you to save them."

BUT authentically new approaches are in short supply, Mr. Stratton added, saying that the advertising models that have taken shape over the last 50 years "no longer work."

Some examples of advertising's cutting edge future are also offered by Greenberg:

"quick response codes embedded on movie posters that allow trailers to be downloaded directly onto cellphones placed near them; billboards used by companies like Dove that let consumers vote on themes or messages by cellphone; instant messaging and ads streamed through game consoles like Xbox or online gaming networks; and wireless services like Dodgeball that help people find peers at bars and restaurants within a 10-block radius after they pinpoint their own location by sending a short text message to the service."

see more from John Stratton's videotaped speech, here:
http://adage.com/news.cms?newsId=47867

Trend: Lady Ass-Kickers

So I am home watching the '3 Stooges Slap Happy Hour' on Spike TV (insert your jokes here), and noticed a lengthy advert for an upcoming movie called Ultraviolet. It is another in the new Hollywood Blockbuster template of action-heroines with big guns and bad-ass martial arts moves (and a bit of low-cut-tight-fitting leather, and spiked heels to boot).


It then occurs to me that the past 10 years have seen a massive barrage of Lady Ass-Kickers. Notice, too, how the Lady Ass-Kicker has become so ubiquitous that she's actually replaced the Blockbuster Hero Guy template that we all grew up on. Muscleheaded Heroes have become an endangered species at the Cineplex.

I suppose the original Lady Ass-Kicker goes back to Jane Fonda in Barbarella.


Fast-forward to the late 70s-80s as Sigorney Weaver portrayed Ripley in Alien (1-4) who defended herself, and a prepubescent girl from the menancing, single-minded, icky phallic invaders who fought to get inside of her (to make them unwilling hosts to more alien spawn). What Ripley specifically brought us was an archetypal image of Strong Lady with Big Guns - a new symbol of strength on par with the male standard. This image was the 70s Virginia Slims woman on steroids - outdoing the corporate and military dudes with a combination of decisiveness, endurance, power, and a fierce moral-compass. This image, at the time, was actually a refreshing change of pace amidst a schedule of overly-muscled dude actioners starring Chuck Norris, Arnold, Stallone and their many cheap clones.



Later, Thelma and Louise arrived and sparked a new gun-toting tough girl prototype that signaled the new sexy.


Since then, the Lady Ass-Kicker has become the new normal in film, she has single-handedly resuscitated the dying tradition of the action-movie - imposing her politically correct ideal of "woman in charge" on the unpolitically correct expectation of gratuitous violence and simplistic storyline. Typical of Hollywood to reframe the same bad movies as being "better" with the mere addition of a tough woman holding the guns.

















But is this trend good or bad? And are these Lady Ass-Kickers truly appealing to women and drawing more women to the action genre (I only notice the ads on Spike and Comedy Central, never on Oxygen and Lifetime)? Or is this simply another compromise to the same male geek consumer who may now get his action and soft porn in one production? And truly, is this Lady Ass-Kicker image indicative of Hollywood's growth since the days of Barbarella?

Commentary: Marketing: Shaving

With all the Super Bowl ad hype winding down, I still haven't purchase Gillete's new razor, which I fully intended to... that is, until receiving an email with this link - http://www.shopping.philips.com/norelco/ - this morning (and pictured left). Now I'm thinking I should just stick with my Mach3 Power and use this already allocated $ from my "male grooming products" budget on something that can also help in the kitchen. Talk about killing 2 birds with one stone. Yes, I refrained from revising that idiom. Anyway, I'll probably end up getting both, but not because of Gillete's SB spot... rather because it was prophesized by The Onion a couple years ago in this article: http://www.theonion.com/content/node/33930/print/

Industry: State of the Blogosphere

Technorati's David Sifry has given an update about the state of the Blogosphere. His blog search engine, Technorati, currently tracks 27.2 Million weblogs, and the blogosphere continues to double about every 5.5 months. The blogosphere is over 60 times bigger than it was only 3 years ago. 75,000 new weblogs are created every day and 13.7 million bloggers are still posting 3 months after their blogs are created.




get more data at
http://www.sifry.com/alerts/archives/000419.html