A Brand You Can Call Your Own

George reecieved a couple of nice tops for his birthday(thanks Auntie!). Wouldn't it be good if everyone could have a fashion brand named after them?

Children are not Adults as far as radios are concerned

Ollie hasn't used his Christmas radio much. I found this surprising as this one has lots of stuff that I thought might appeal: crank power, siren, flashlight, etc. He is still using the basic Brookstone bathroom one. I asked him why. He finds it a little tricky to find the station with the tuning knobs. Of course it all became very clear as The Brookstone one has pre-sets and pre-set one is set to his favourite station: WHUD 104.3. Stuff loads of features. He wants the shortest route to what he wants it to do!

Green Bay vs Giants

Hardy commentary team gameside for the Green Bay Packers vs New York Giants. It was the third coldest game in NFL history with temperatures at -1F (with wind chill down to -23F). They destroyed the hardy myth by revealing that they watched the match tucked up inside and came out only for the pre, mid and post game analysis. Meanwhile many of the players were in short sleeves.

Chocolate shop face off: M+M's vs Hershey's

The M+M's shop in Times Sq. Although there were a few long tubes of various colour M+M's to buy, the store seemed to be predominantly all manner of M+M merchandising; clothes, hats, soft toys, famous landmarks, and more. Why on earth would anyone want to buy this stuff? Admittedly, there were plenty of people in the store but I didn't see them buying anything. Perhaps M+M see it as an experience store. But I can't get inside a huge M+M nor see how they are made (Hershey factory in PA is very good for that), nor dive into a sandpit full of them. The brief for this store must have been something like "create maximum merchandising experience".

Across the road is the Hershey store. I believe it was there before the M+M store. I have heard that a smart ad creative, when asked to do more ads for Hershey, retorted "you don't want any more ads, you want a store", which may be a tad unoriginal nowadays but apparently was revolutionary at the time. Hershey did it. Good for them. Now the store doesn't have huge areas of space, like the M+M store, but nor does it have a lot of superfluous nick-nacks either. It has chocolate, and lots of it. OK, it may be a little gaudy and very busy, but it feels like a chocolate shop, and I can buy many varieties of Hershey's. The brief for this store really could be "make it feel like a kid in a candy store".

Believe It Or Not!

"Ripley's 'Believe It Or Not!'" muesum. The Ripley in question was Robert Ripley, a cartoonist and writer by trade but an amateur anthroplogist and entrepreneur by nature. He travelled extensively, in search of the interesting, exotic and odd and recorded them in his illustrations, journals, then radio, short films, muesums, exhibitions, short-films, and television. He lived late 19th century to the late 1950s. His Wikipedia entry, here, suggests he had an interesting and rich life.

Ripley's 'Believe It Or Not' museum is on 42nd St, near Times Square. I didn't expect the grosteque Victorian freak show that was served up to us. Having pictures of bearded women, a wax-work of the "world's ugliest woman", animals with extra heads or limbs or animals lacking thereof (did you know one chicken in Ohio lived for 4 weeks after its head was cut off) is one thing. Having jokey captions to accompany them is quite another.

There were a couple of odd and interesting pieces: the US government's 1950s public information film about what action to take if an atomic bomb explodes near you ("drop and cover"), a 30" parorama made with 70,000 stamps by a Welshman now living in Canada (see bits of it below),

and a rather witty front page celebrating Corrigan's transatlantic flight in 1938. Corrigan was not given permission to fly across the Atlantic, so he claimed he was intending to fly back to California but mistakedly when the wrong way! He beat Lindenbergh's time to get to Ireland and recieved a hero's welcome when he returned to America. He was named "Wrong Way" Corrigan.

Saints and Spinners

Grand Central Terminal is a great train station but it is also used for a variety of other things: craft stalls, exhibitions, a squash competition (transparent court) and this, the 24 hour cycling event, "Saints and Spinners" to help fight teen obesity. There were celebs riding along, a chance to do it yourself, ability to sponsor riders, and an attempt on the 24 hr world spinning record by an elite team of 6 riders. It was organised by the New York Sports Club.

Austin

I was in Austin, Texas, this week. People told me it was a good place to go so I took a couple of hours out to check out downtown. Austin is the state capital of Texas, and has a population of a little under a million (though the greater Austin-San Antonio area has over 3 million), a reputation for being the nicest place in Texas, a liberal centre in a very conservative state, a hi-tech industry and a vibrant music scene; its official slogan is 'The live music captial of the world". MSN selected it as 'The Greenest City in America" (committment to sustainable living) and Money, in 2006, No.2 best big city in 'Best Places' to live category. High anticipation then. Unfortunately, although it seemed ok, a couple of hours walkabout revealed little more than a nice river, some good local coffee shops, and an impressive Capitol building (photo, above). That many Austinites have adopted the unoffical slogan "Keep Austin Weird" alone is a good enough reason to continue my exploration.

"Welcome Home"

It's 2.12 am , EST time, and I have finally arrived at the Hampton Inn in Round Rock, nr Austin, TX. My colleagues all got earlier flights. I had to get the 8.45 pm. It is wet and windy. I have never stayed here before. I am very tired. I didn't even notice the sign on the door (right) that said "don't use this door", and tried to get in. The man at reception, after letting me in, apologised for the sign being bad - it may be a little small but really, it was my problem. Then he said 'Welcome Home'. On one level it is a bit rich me never having been here and all that, but you know what, having done a working day, then a 4.30 hr flight, a 30 min drive in my rental car, it was great. It wasn't over the top. It could have been so bad. In fact it was just a nice touch.

Living in IKEA

On NPR this morning I heard an article about Mark Malkoff, the comedian filmaker, living in IKEA in Paramus, NJ. Apparently, his appartment needed fumigating and he didn't want to burden his friends so he asked if he could go live in IKEA for a week. To their credit, they agreed. He lives in the showroom, uses the customer restrooms, and a shower they have laid on for him, but has problems cooking (the appliances don't actually work) and sleeping (the flourescent lights are on 21 hours a day) but posing as King of IKEA, he is allowed to make the 10pm "ok folks it's time to go announcement, and he has had some fun with the night security guard, Jarvis; laser tag, kart racing, rollerblading, for example. Have look at this for more details. Good for IKEA. I wish more brands shared this spirit.

By the way, it is comes as no surprise that Malkoff also pulled the stunt of visiting all Manhatten's 171 Starbucks in one day.

The Red Rooster, Seligman and authenticity

On the left is the Red Rooster drive-in on Route 22 in Brewster, NY. It is acclaimed as one of the best of the 1950's style drive-ins still operating in the Atlantic states. Jack, a manager and part-owner, apparently has been working there for 30 odd years. The food is cook to order. It tastes great anyway, but the fact that we know it is cooked to order makes it taste just a little better still. The menu is pretty basic, the service great and it enjoys a loyal local following. We invariably stop on our way back from the Thunder Ridge ski area. It doesn't particularly trade on its heritage. It has just been around a long time, isn't part of a chain and does what it does really well.

In contrast is Dellgadillo's Snow Cap (also a drive-in) in Seligman, Arizona. The town is on the old Route 66 and its trying to re-invent itself a kind of kitsch shrine to the fifties and the romance of the route. Seligman is a fun place for a couple of hours as it is, but it could be so much more than tatty clothes shops, dummies and195os cars parked on the street (right). Route 66 is so rich in culture - in Steinbeck's 'Grapes of Wrath" it is called 'The Mother Road', it was the route of migration West in the 1930's, the first highway to be completely paved in 1938, home to the birth of the fast food industry, of course the famous song, and most recently the film 'Cars' in which the town of Radiator Springs was in part based on Seligman - that one would have thought that Seligman could do better with its lot that it has. Dellgadillo's Snow Cap fits in perfectly with the Seligman ethic. It was opened in the 1950s by local legend Juan. Sure it's fun, and the comedy routines that you receive as a customer are entertaining (ask for a straw you get what looks like the insides of a scarecrow) but it seems to be a parody of the past and all the worse for it, rather than having a rich heritage that it draws upon.

Think about it

I have been trying to position a brand around the notion of taking time to actively reflect. I like the idea that a brand can be about taking time to think. I like it in part as most brands are NOT about taking time to reflect. In fact, there seems some resistance to thinking or taking time out to think in general. I know I am in culture that prides itself on its anti-intellectualism and 'can-do' attitude, but I still have this idea that people everywhere could benefit by having some time to think. I would even go so far as to say that thinking is neglected; it gets a bad press.

I think I shall spend some time thinking about this.

Parking with a difference

42nd St. between Grand Central Terminal and Madison Ave.

All change

I am going to change font and font size. It has all been too small. It isn't easy to read. I am going up a size.

Obama wins in Iowa

Obama in Iowan primaries. CNN polls suggest that his perceived ability to bring change was an overriding factor in his victory. In contrast Clinton is seen as the candidate of experience (which seems to matter less), and therefore the traditional candidate. American narratives like the outsider that rides into town and sorts everything out. And Obama is nothing if not an outsider, though his own personal story is wonderfully American: immigrant family, broken home, self-made success. He also did much better than Clinton amongst 17-44 yr olds (Clinton did much better with 65yr +)

"Change" is the key word of the moment; and tied to it, the notion of unity through change. I looked for a couple of meangful quotes on the subject, words of great wisdom. The following fitted. It had both wisdom and humour:

"There is a certain relief in change, even though it be from bad to worse; as I have found in traveling in a stagecoach, that it is often a comfort to shift one's position and be bruised in a new place." Washington Irving "Tales of a Traveler"

An office with a view

Here is a sunset taken from my office yesterday evening. The building is The Empire State Building. The pictures were taken at 5.58pm, 5.59pm, 6.13pm and 6.34pm

For more of my views click on the "views" link, under "my links" on the right of the page, or just click here.

"1966 and all that"

"1966 and all that" by Craig Brown. It is a satire of the famous historical satire "1066 and all that" by Sellar and Yeatman. Yummy, a satire of a satire! It is a trawl through twentieth century history, finely observed with frequent and outlandish puns that had us in stiches. It is hardly politically correct but it is hilarious, especially if you know the original. Here are some snippets:

"Mahatma Grandhi walked around India in his loincloth and Nehru jacket stirring up inaction. He advocated a new form of passive resistance, to be known as pacifistfight...Grandhi later put on ten stone to play the title role in 'Dikhi', the award-winning film based on the life of Lord Attenborough"

"For a year the Nazi War Machine bombarded London with 'Teach Yourself German'' pamphlets. This period came to be known as the Berlitz"

" Under New Labour, a new pop group came along, called Oasis. It consisted of the two elderly Gargler brothers, Loin and Mole. The names became synonymous with Cruel Britannia. It was easy to tell which was which. Loin was the brother who drank too much and was abusive whereas Mole was the brother who was abusive and drank too much. They swore, didn't shave, wore old clothes and burped. They were hailed as a breath of fresh air. They were proud to have written all their top ten hits themselves. These included 'Hey Jude', 'Yellow Submarine', ' Hello Goodbye', and also 'The Ballard of John and Yoko', which Loin said was about him and his girlfriend, Pasty Kissit"

Brilliant!
http://www.amazon.co.uk/1966-All-That-Craig-Brown/dp/0340897112