News You Missed Because of Hurricane Irene

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Former Destiny's Child lead singer Beyonce' Knowles announced that she is pregnant.

Hooray.

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KCD

Bank Of America Musings

As part of a company wide "restructuring", Bank of America apparently plans to layoff 3,500 employees with plans to reduce staff by another 10,000. Or so says the Wall Street Journal, that august chronicle of the doings and goings on in the financial world. The stated reason is that the bank's profits have been hit because of lawsuits and related liability stemming from the mortgage mess of 2008.

That may be true.

But I think a far more compelling reason lies in its interiors. For example, the branch of BofA that I do business with just underwent an interior re-fit. And it's horrible! Pale grey-green on the walls, and a dreadful charcoal and grey tile carpet. Moreover, there's no art on the walls of the place! The branch office feels cold and sterile, much like the doctors' office, and don't we just love going there! The very nice people working at the branch informed me that it was a "corporate decision".

Of course it was.

Now, they're thinking of laying off 10,000 plus people. Might there be a connection between their lack of an aesthetic and their lack of soul and imagination which could be affecting their bottom line?

Just a thought.

Might be time to find a new bank though.

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KCD

Another Bit of "Jersey Shore" News

A brief from the USA Today Money desk yesterday stated that clothing giant Abercrombie & Fitch has asked that Mike "The Situation" Sorrentino, and the lot of his "Jersey Shore" mates stop wearing their clothing on their show. They've even offered to pay an undisclosed sum of money for the "cast" to wear something else. Now this little bit of a dust-up does pose a risk for Abercrombie & Fitch since they've lost market share in recent years, but lately they've had a 64% increase in net income and they've achieved name recognition again after J. Crew. So maybe they feel like they can afford to pick a fight with the decidedly low-brow MTV hit and play the "elitist" card. Of course, all this could raise the profile even higher for Sitch, PaulyD, JWOWW, Snooki, and all the rest, which is, as we all know, something the world desperately needs right now.

From my perspective, this can't be good. When a major clothing retailer is asking you not to wear their clothes in public and will actually pay you not to, the standard reaction is to feel perhaps a bit slighted. One might ask, "What? Is your clothing too good for us?"

Abercrombie & Fitch is saying, in effect, "Yes. It is."
Is it a bit elitist? One could argue that. Or one could argue that since we seem to be celebrating lowlifes on TV these days, certain brands might not want to be associated with that.

Personally, I got quite a laugh out of all this. Just what I needed with my coffee.

Talk amongst yourselves.

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KCD

RIP Borders Books

Today, I join my book loving comrades in mourning the passing of Borders Books, the enormous bookstore chain that boasted a friendly vibe, a spacious cafe, and an assortment of books of every conceivable variety, along with CDs, DVDs and destinations for people looking to be enlightened or just to be still and think. Much has been made of what caused Borders downfall, and there are the usual suspects to be blamed: poor execution in a changing marketplace, coming late to the e-reader party, the metastasizing growth of downloadable music, movies, games, and books for those who, we believe, live "on the go." Perhaps it's the very nature of the company's unstated reputation as a place to slow down in a world that technology seems to be constantly speeding up that brought about its demise.

From my perspective, this brings up important questions about the nature of marketing, and how it seems to emphasize one kind of user experience as superior to another, when maybe there are good things to be taken from both. Books and e-readers can live together in the same world. But the marketing seems to clobber us, shout us down with the idea that they can't or shouldn't. We don't think through the options because we're being driven, literally, to go for that "smart" phone when the phone we have seems plenty smart enough, or that new IPad which is a "must buy" even though the laptop or, God help me, the desktop does the same thing quite well and is just not needed in every setting. Like coffee and a bagel with a friend in a place like Borders with all those books around where you can talk, laugh, dream aloud.

But now, because the beast child's hunger for the new must be sated with blinking android trinkets and toys (from which it will soon turn and cast aside), there is one less space for us to gear down in, one less space to hear oneself think in, one less space to just pause in. That's what Borders was. Not so much a refuge, but a restful stop along the way. Barnes & Noble doesn't quite have that even though you can do the same thing technically: get a cup of joe, read a book, or a magazine article, pause. Borders just always seemed a warmer place to do all that in. You could relax and talk to people who worked there and who loved books just as much as you did, who loved culture and learning as much as you did. The ripples of this bookseller's demise have yet to be fully felt or appreciated, but the ripple I'm feeling now is that, for those of us who stopped by to grab a cup of cappuccino and a bit of human warmth before heading off to... whatever, we've lost something profound, perhaps a bit more of our souls that have been sold off to serve the ends of a technology we barely even understand, or more worrisome, the ends of a marketing strategy that increasingly tells us what we need without allowing us to think that through for ourselves before destroying our perception of our experience in favor of its "new and improved" one.

RIP Borders. You will be missed. More profoundly than you know, I suspect.

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KCD

New Client!

I'm beginning work on a logo and other branding materials for a company to be called "Italian Choppers" based in Southbridge, MA just south of Worcester near the CT border. A curious thing worth mentioning: in the run up to meeting with the client, I saw more motorcycles in two days than I have all spring and summer to that point. Now, as the sign says, "Motorcycles are everywhere!" So I'm pretty excited. As the new stuff gets done, I'll feature it here and on my companion blog, The Work of Art.

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KCD

More about "Miracle Whip"

Yet another Miracle Whip ad which has no more a personality than Pauly D disapproving of this horrific condiment to the point of breaking up with a girl if she liked it.

I certainly understand the sentiment, but one shouldn't base relationship decisions on things as trifling as this (nor should one take relationship advice from Pauly D). After all, there are more substantive things to disagree about, such as the Yankees/Red Sox rivalry over which whole wars were fought and justly so.

Of course, I'm a Mets fan. So I have no horse in that race.

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KCD

A Plea to "Tone It Down"

From our friends at YouTube we get this oft-aired ad for Miracle Whip in its latest attempt to "sex up" mayonnaise, which is what Miracle Whip is ultimately. Now, I don't know about you, but the mayonnaise thing was lost on me when I was a kid and they showed ads for Hellman's brand of the stuff. I'd already tried it, dismissed it as the yuckiest stuff ever invented by human beings (and that's saying something!), and firmly decided that you were NOT bringing out the best when you bring on the Hellman's. I knew I could live the rest of my life without this substance in, well, anything.

Now comes this barrage of ads in a desperate effort to make this dreadful condiment relevant in the 21st century. I only note this one here, but there are others. This one sticks out because it's a defiant, edgy piece of art, saying that it's cool to eat this...concoction. It's actually quite clever, and it might make the casual observer think twice.

Unless you're me, of course.

Or unless you came to the same conclusion about the stuff that I did.

So here's Miracle Whip saying "We Will Not Tone It Down".

Lovely. In an era when so much is dialed WAY UP that probably shouldn't be, we have this to look forward to.

Dialed up mayonnaise.

Hooray.

Nice ad, though. Effective.

This one? Not so much.

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KCD