Out for a Walk

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Consumer Relations

Russell usually has the most astute sense of where these things are. Me not so much, but this proposition needed to be captured.

1up

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Funny till it Dies?

This made the rounds the past week or so but seems to be part of a larger trend out on the web. Youtube was huge in giving consumers a space for user generated media, but we are quickly seeing clusters of likeminded consumers creating sites based on agenda. FunnyorDie is trying to be the comedy hall of user generated media. Speaking with a former associate the other day he was right on in noting that the "sites tend to grow, become more concerned with monetizing growth than maintaining the integrity of the site, sell out, and become exceedingly more corporate" only to lose their audience and die out to the newer breed of independent sites that instantly make them a dinosaur. Will Ferrell and Adam McKay, both formerly of Saturday Night Live have made two of the funniest movie comedies in the last few years, Anchorman and Talladega Nights, and this short featuring McKay and Ferrell as two roommates and their cranky landlord. Great that Ferrell is using this as a place for personal comedies, but the long-term sustainability picture is questionable. If Ferrell can continue to inject exclusive clips, shows and other comedy spots, this could be the laugh factory of the internet, potentially putting comedy in the hands of the people.

On the otherhand it could live and die with this clip.[ed. note: AND WE HOPE IT DOESNT]
TheLandlord

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Manhattan Chocolate Tours

It doesnt just have to be edible these days. We want to know where did it come from, what was it fed, heck whats the name of the town. Origins and Sourcing are two hot trends of the food world at the moment. Consumers want to know everything behind a product, most especially when it comes to food. Chocolate has been going through a recent innovation spike, that was also noted in the NYTimes. Now a chocolate sommlier of Michel Cluziel has started chocolate walking tours in New York City. There are three tours: uptown (traditional glamour and class), union square (trendy), and downtown - soho (adventurous). A great way to indulge in New York for all you cocoa fanatics. Especially if you aren't into the Hamptons thing. Check out the handy Google Maps feature!

Walking Indulgence

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[thanks for the tip Laine!]

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Battle of the Brands: Rockstar vs NYC

If you live in New York City, you may have noticed this yellow sticker popping up everywhere in site. This sticker is the logo of Rockstar Games. They are the makers of the notorious Grand Theft Auto Series. Wired recently wrote a great story about the rise and fall of the company which got in quite a bit of trouble over the whole hot coffee incident where code was left in the game, which when hacked allowed players to virtually have sex. Not a generally a good idea, but if you read Wired's story you will have an idea of what goes on over there.

One of the best things about GTA is its level of immersion within a virtual city environment. Miami was a virtual replication of of its self in the 80's during the cocaine wars, and LA/SF were mirror images during the 90 gangbanger days. Well GTA IV is set in NYC aka Liberty City. Looking at the trailer its full of Chrysler buildings, grand central, Tribeca building, the seaport docks, and even the statue of liberty. Instantly the NYC Politicos got upset at this.

Now comes the fun part. Since the initial trailer launch, NYC has been plastered with GTA IV billboards and now the flood of Rockstar stickers. I have counted around 500 in a small block radius around my apt in the alphabet, but the city is plastered. Got me thinking that no matter what NYC can do to fight it, this city has already been branded a GTA city. Very clever to brand it before it happens. No politician can clean up all the graffit or stickersi. Unless the game gets banned, GTA is here to stay in the city. And NYC is Liberty City. If you live in NYC how many stickers have you seen? And i have a nice giant rockstar sticker myself, any suggestions where to stick that sucker?


NYSeeit

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Whole Foods Shows Your Local Organic Sources

A new Whole Foods has opened up on Houston St on the east side of Manhattan. It is absolutely an absoultely amazing space, with a cooking school, sushi bar, pomme frites bar, and a whole body shop upstairs. What i love the most though is the fact that they show you where the foods come from. There has been a lot of debate lately about organics versus locally grown produce. The consensus is that local is better than organics flown in from argentina because it supports the local economy and causes less pollution. They also have another board which shows imported foods from various countries. As far as i know this is the only Whole Foods or grocery store that visually shows the origin of the food they sell. The visual impact is much greater than any written label. Washington Apples or Upstate New York strawberries will always be sweeter than generic organic produce. Great idea to establish WF as supporting local farmers. Would have loved to have taken more photos but we got kindly chased away.

WholeBlock

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Jesus Loves Porn Stars

Had a friend out at the Adult Expo in Vegas a month or so ago. They were giving out this interesting book in an attempt to reform "habitual" porn watchers. Interesting form for a ministry, but America can't seem to enough religious groups and they certainly brand in an interesting way. Bottom line, that is the snazziest New Testament I have ever seen.
JesusShot

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Ingenuity

Practical & Portable its the most perfect bagel armor to date! Sometimes things just make sense together


via Core77

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Future of the Rock Band

Yesterday was a fairly important announcement when it comes to video games. Ok not just video games but rock n roll. Guitar Hero has been an enormously successful game on video game platforms, allowing players to "play" a simplified guitar to real songs, making it the karaoke of music games. Peripheral games have been leading the innovation charge as of late in the video game category.

Now comes Rock Band. Created by EA and MTV "Rock Band is to completely change the way people interact with and enjoy the music they love," said Jeff Yapp, EVP, MTV Program Enterprises. "By joining forces with EA and the music industry's largest record labels and publishers, we are striving to create a groundbreaking new platform that allows people to connect with their favorite music and artists in ways they never have before."

Rock Band will allow gamers to perform music from the world's biggest rock artists with their friends as a virtual band using drum, bass/lead guitar and microphone peripherals, in addition to offering deep online connectivity. Built on unprecedented deals with the world's biggest record labels and music publishers, the music featured in Rock Band will span all genres of rock. EMI Music Publishing and Warner/Chappell Mussic will be opening up their catalogs for the game and EMI, Hollywood Records, Sony BMG Music Entertainment, Universal Music Enterprises and Rhino Entertainment are going to be supplying master recordings for the game.

Rock Band represents a huge evolution in video games, but also in music and the MTV model. MTV has capitalized on the social aspect of music to build a huge (often mis-managed brand that sometimes doesn't resemble music) that continues to remain cool. This is the perfect marriage of social networks with music, allowing the ultimate connection of consumers in gaming activity to create their idol music fantasies. MTV is really taking the idol trend to a new level and by combining it with video games is genius. With the legitimization of air guitar, who knows MTV may be finding new talent from this. All in all a brilliant idea!

Legendary

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Is Planning Diluted by Blogging?

Been giving a ton of thought lately as to how the internet and blogs have not only shaped our behaviors, but our interactions with brands and culture itself. Then this ransom note generator popped up and seemed like an anomaly. Not that i know much of anything about ransom notes, but surely computers and email has taken a chunk of fun out of painstakingly creating the ransom note. This really got me thinking on the flip of trends manifestation. What about the counter- trend? Scott Campbell from the PSFK conference was a great example of the handmade/DIY trend we are seeing infiltrate brands as technology continues to insinuate our culture.

Clearly there is a bigger issue at hand. How has behavior changed as the world has? The IPA strategy group held an excellent debate last week about blogs infiltrating the minds of would-be planners through blogs. John Lowery argued that it was, while John Grant advised otherwise. Lowery said that the web was muddling “a bunch of people who don’t know what they are talking about setting tasks for and judging the efforts of a bunch of people who don’t know what they are talking about”. I tend to agree to an extent, with the numbers of planners who have blogs seemingly for the sake of having one. Many arent that focused (lifefilter) nor all the interesting (lifefilter) but while that may seem overly incriminating, I do have a bit of foundational training which i can utilize when certain situations call for it. Quite a few of the knowledge seekers seemingly dont have the abilities, but it shouldnt raise the alarm yet. It also allows me to accurately take blogs for their true self worth - filters for connectivity, conduits of inspiration and conversation, and the occasional good image or laugh. Grant on the otherhand suggested "blogging, social media and web 2.0 are facts of modern life, how could the IPA, endorse a motion that suggested that it wanted to turn back a tide of technology and behaviour that everyone else in society was embracing with alacrity." True and we won't ever go back to pre-email or pre-windows days, so who is to say we don't embrace blogging and the social change we are seeing evident today? John's final point was that "judging the state of planning from the plannersphere is like judging the state of the advertising industry by reading Campaign magazine."

So really we have a rise of a second discipline based on habits of a younger generation. Russell Davies has brought this up a couple times, not only on the state of blogging but killing conferences as well. The ideas thrown around are simply regurgitated from most online forums. But what I find most interesting in that then Russell goes on to create his own SuperConference. Quite interesting that while one aspect of planning pulls, another is pushing.

Is this evident in our society or brands? Planning as smart as it is, often follows the flux of human behaviors. Are counter-trends cropping up, in response to the vast sea of information floating about? There certainly seems to be a chemical backlash spurred by the inorganic foods and over-pollution. Influx has brought up this notion as well with the rise of the counter-trends, looking at the seemingly down-trodden music industry, which is being forced to rethink the idea of compact discs. Stores like Amoeba buck the trend and create wonderful cultural hubs which thrive despite going against the cultural norm (LvHrd is based on this premise)

So most likely blogging isn't killing planning but in reality adding another layer. The success of the plannersphere has done wonders as far as creating an academia landscape, with knowledge only helping and not hurting. Even if its mis-information that will stimulate conversations and young minds, which goes a long way to promote the discipline. It is still to early to really judge blogging and planning, as its rise has only been in the past 2 years. Some training bits might never be utilized online, otherwise might be stimulated further, but it makes for fascinating thought and one hell of a future.


Planning For Newbs

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