Yet one more example of consumer empowerment put to creative good use.
Here's a website devoted to whimsical innovations crafted from everyday objects.
Among the 25 entrants, our favorite innovation was the salad glove, which comes in handy when trying to reduce your calories and limit your oil intake.
Alas, there was no mention of whether or not the glove leaves you with lingering latex aromas..
While speaking with my mom the other day, I was reminded that there was a time in the not too distant past in which durable goods—especially electronics—didn’t arrive to market with an assumed discount horizon.
As in “I’m going to wait another year till the price of plasma screen televisions comes down before taking the plunge.”
All we can say is, thank heaven for economies of scale, ’cause we can’t wait to get our hands on one of these toys. Pillows covered in Luminex, a light-emitting fabric that blends optical fibers with natural fibers connected to internal LED’s and a battery pack.
Cool. Cool. Cool.
Not so cool is the $449 price tag, which is why we are waiting…
While the folks behind this fabric, Zuzka of New York, have applied the fabric to other fashion-forward products like handbags, skirts and even umbrellas, currently the pillows appear to be the only commercially available products.
Soooooo…though promised in early July, the next installment in the Sony Bravia ad campaign was finally released. See previous posting on the subject here.
Beginning with their now infamous colorful bouncing superball film, Sony’s been plugging their Bravia LCD televisions with a series of ever-more elaborate concept films. The latest version, filmed in Glasgow, took a crew of 250 people more than two weeks to film. Cleanup alone took 5 days and 60 people!
Given the wacky spelling of the word color in the tag line (Colour like no other), don’t expect to see the ad on US television…which is quite a shame as these ads are far better than what passes for prime time television these days.
The seminal new wave band Devo just finished a brief US tour showcasing music written some 25 to 30 years ago, much of which sounds fresher today than it did in the quirky electronic era that was the early 1980's.
For those unaware, the Devo moniker was shorthand for a unique philosophy they championed known as "Devolution." While this is not the place to explore those intricacies, suffice it to say Devo was making an ironic, whimsical commentary on the alleged progress of the contemporary epoch.
And examples of Devolution abound.
Consider: There is a set of vintage grocery store photos which appears to make its way around the blog-sphere every six months or so. While its once again bouncing around the ether—generating lots of interest and nostalgia—it’s worth noting that nobody has yet reflected on the truly startling implication wrought by this photo set.
Namely, that when you start really taking a careful look at these photos, it becomes painfully obvious how little grocery stores have changed in the past 50 or 60 years. And the more one reflects on this surprising lack of evolution or innovation, the more it becomes painfully clear why mainstream grocery powerhouses are vanishing before our very eyes.
It’s something of an understatement to suggest a lot has changed in our world over the past 50 years. Let’s see…Women entered the workforce en masse. The once ubiquitous neighborhood milkman became extinct, before being reincarnated as an element of authentic nostalgia. Perhaps most importantly, there are 5 bazillion more cars on the road. Oh, and then there was the fall of the Eastern bloc...
And through it all, the humble grocer operates largely the same as they did some 50 years ago, quietly stocking shelves with packaged products that we increasingly have little interest in or need for.
Traditional grocery retailing, you see, represents the essence of devolution.
Rest well Alberston’s, my friend. Peace be with you Winn Dixie. Are you next A & P?
So maybe it’s not really all that shocking, but still, it makes for good copy.
Neil Boorman, a London-based journalist and music promoter raised a lot of eyebrows by publicly burning all of his “branded” goods in a recent performance in Finsbury Square, London.
As one might surmise, Boorman is plum fed up with all of the consumer products which occupy his everyday life. As he tells BBC news:
“For as long as I can remember, they (these things) have occupied my thoughts during the waking day. To find real happiness, to find the real me, I must get rid of it all and start again, a brand-free life, if that is indeed possible.”
While the performance is indeed quite a spectacle, we’re not so sure many other necessarily share Mr. Boorman’s disdain for brands or consumer goods. And we note with a certain bit of irony that Mr. Boorman is planning to expound upon his newfound product and brand free life in…what else…but a new book scheduled for release in 2007.
We sure hope there aren’t any like minded folks out there who might, you know, jump on the anti-consumer product bandwagon—at least not until they wait to purchase Mr. Boorman’s own consumer good!!!
Slate featured the above photograph today along with a link to a 9-11 New York Times column by Frank Rich. Rich is discussing the above image by photographer Thomas Hoepker which was only published recently—ostensibly because the powers that be decided the public simply couldn’t handle the apparent banality in the image.
As Rich explains:
“Seen from the perspective of 9/11's fifth anniversary, Mr. Hoepker's photo is prescient as well as important—a snapshot of history soon to come. What he caught was this: Traumatic as the attack on America was, 9/11 would recede quickly for many. This is a country that likes to move on, and fast. The young people in Mr. Hoepker's photo aren't necessarily callous. They're just American. In the five years since the attacks, the ability of Americans to dust themselves off and keep going explains both what's gone right and what's gone wrong on our path to the divided and dispirited state the nation finds itself in today.”
Interestingly, Rich’s conclusions are in direct alignment with our own research on consumer behavior. Namely, that while 9-11 may have changed the way some people think about the world, it has had little to no effect on how people work, play, or live.
via | Slate
We were recently tipped off regarding a set of Populuxe films over at the Prelinger archive of public domain stuff. While the Populuxe folks were all focused on their 60s swoopy cars and Jetson’s futurism, these films also speak volumes about the origins of 1950s pop-culture mythologies regarding the future which continue to distract the marketers and designers of today.
In Design for Dreaming the narrator introduces us to the kitchen of the future as envisioned in 1956, a fully-automated food factory—replete with a domed device which fabricates birthday cakes with candles! In a twist of savage irony to today’s now routine dual-income households, the exuberant dancing housewife proclaims, “Now I’m free to have fun around the clock!!!” The message rings through loud and clear. The kitchen—and, by proxy the consumer world of the future—will be all about saving time to free ourselves up to have fun.
Of course, the only problem is that the future rarely works out in the way that the past had envisioned. As it happens, we’re not necessarily always so crazy about saving time in the kitchen. And increasingly, folks looking to “have fun” head straight to the kitchen, the garage, the garden, Home Depot and many other domains of work which 1950s visionaries assumed we would rather avoid. Go figure.
But you wouldn’t know any of this by looking at the offerings of most major food manufacturers, who still seem to be stuck in this now dated mindset that believes men and women are always looking for “clever, new, convenient, products” to save them time and effort in the kitchen.
via | Boing Boing
With great fanfare, McDonald’s proudly announced their corporate responsibility blog last winter. Even though our own research shows that consumers are little interested in issues of corporate responsibility, we were enthusiastic—especially because the blog promised to pull no punches and be “completely transparent.”
“Cool,” we thought. “It’ll be great to see a respected brand lead the way in demonstrating how to be real with your customers.”
Alas, our heritage brands don’t always appear so clear when it comes to the meaning of “transparent.” Transparent, you see, means opening yourself up to praise as well as criticism, ridicule, etc. It’s a two-way street that way.
It seems that McDonald’s recent promotion involving toy Hummers raised a few eyebrows among the environmentalist community. After Bob Langert (VP for Corporate Responsibility) posted his views on toys and the environment, several bloggers responded with critical comments, only to see their comments not show up on the blog.
After five days of not seeing his comments, radical environmentalist dude notifies no less than AdWeek, Fast Company, Emergence Marketing and a bajillion other blogs before comments are finally posted. And as of press time, Langert has yet to reply.
Of course, the whole thing could have been a legitimate mistake. We’re sure Bob’s a busy guy and all. But it just goes to show you that if you’re going to jump into the sandbox with gleaming pride and self-confidence, you’d better be ready to play with others.
Mention the words “Second Life” around innovation and marketing folks and you’re liable to be met with uncomfortable silence. This discomfort stems from two sources. Firstly, most outsiders still can’t manage to wrap their heads around the concept—what happens “in world,” the hows and whys of life in a virtual space, etc.
But perhaps more revealing, we believe many are simply hoping that all this will all go away before they are forced to redirect critical organizational resources to investigate maintaining a presence in Second Life. Much as in the internet’s early days as the “Information Superhighway,” Second Life’s paradigm shattering tendencies cause many to drive their heads immediately into the nearest sand.
If you happen to fall more toward the latter camp, don’t hold your breath. None other than the good ole’ U.S. Government—long the bastion of all things cool and cutting edge—has arrived in Second Life. In this case the folks at NOAA have teamed with the Earth Systems Research Laboratory to host simulations and other teaching devices
"The NOAA's sim is called Meteroa, which is derived from the Greek adjective meteoras which means 'suspended in the air' (Full disclosure, I'm Greek). On this lovely island sim you can find fully interactive educational demonstrations about the ocean and weather. Examples include a sea life submarine ride created by The Magicians, and two different tsunami demos by Aimee Weber Studios and Electric Sheep Company. Other fun stuff includes a demonstration of a real-time temperature map powered by Yahoo, narration by Exploratorium Chief Scientist Paul Doherty, an airplane ride into a hurricane, and a melting glacier demonstration."
If you don’t have the wherewithal to create and account and visit the site in game, you can check out a video of the Tsunami demonstration here.
(via | Second Life Insider)
If 2006 is the year we see the mainstream public finally go hog wild over MMORPG’s, one wonders what sorts of trends may be simmering under the surface of the video game world. While are credentials in the gaming community are admittedly lacking (though we were early fans of Bungie classics like Marathon), we’ve been following with interest the recent spat of documentary video games or “docu games.”
Imagine immersive role-playing games similar to Second Life, only set within the parameters of a specific time and place of historical import. So rather than reading about history in books, or watching a documentary, one might choose to plunge straight into a recreated computer-based simulation.
Below is a list of just some of the title’s published or in development.
JFK Reloaded: You’re chance to be JFK’s assassin (depending on whose report, book, story you choose to believe)
Amen Amin: Your chance to dine with “His Excellency President for Life.”
Medieval Unreality: initiating a discourse on Albania’s “blood feud.”
Under Ash: An examination of the Palestinian/Israeli conflict, set in Damascus.
Waco Resurrection: Feel how hot it must have been from the inside!
Not surprisingly, this fledgling field has already been inundated with the all the expected criticisms: these are merely simulations, the potential lack of objectivity, revisionism, etc.
But we’re not so skeptical. For as we’ve seen recently with the wild success of the documentary form in cinema, contemporary audiences are proving far more sophisticated that our concerned critical theorists might prefer to believe. Sure, no documentary is accurate. And yes, in fact, we do understand that all reality is conjured and constructed at some level.
But the larger point remains that whether experienced in a game, the pages of a book or in the dark of a movie theater, anything that causes us to stop and reflect on events most of believe to be true or real—at some level—has a heck of a lot of value.
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