links for 2006-10-24
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Has anyone seen 'Idlewild'? Outkast movie? Looks/sounds pretty good.
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October 24, 2006
October 17, 2006
More Fun with 'Monopoly Here & Now'
YouTube user BrendanBrendan has some Community Chest suggestions for the new 'Monopoly Here & Now' special edition.
I'm looking for a version of the Bo Bice 30 second TV spot for the game, but the version on YouTube seems fucked up somehow. Maybe that is just the way it actually is.
Co-Branded: Superman Eats Jerky
Flickr™ user kmikeym has captured a terrific in-store standee featuring the newest Superman of Superman Returns™, appropriated for the endorsement of Oberto beef jerky.
The image begs Mike's question, "Does Superman eat beef jerky?" A good question. The most remarkable thing to me is the "25% More Free!" banner. For some reason Mr. Super seems to me to be touting this particular exciting feature of the jerky bag, which is even more absurd than his endorsement of beef jerky in a way.
Snacking is not generally something I associate with Superman. Beef jerky is also not something I think of as being "big," let alone "big enough for a super hero." How do we think "Superman" and "jerky" at the same time?
The image begs Mike's question, "Does Superman eat beef jerky?" A good question. The most remarkable thing to me is the "25% More Free!" banner. For some reason Mr. Super seems to me to be touting this particular exciting feature of the jerky bag, which is even more absurd than his endorsement of beef jerky in a way.
Snacking is not generally something I associate with Superman. Beef jerky is also not something I think of as being "big," let alone "big enough for a super hero." How do we think "Superman" and "jerky" at the same time?
What a nightmare.
links for 2006-10-17
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A mind blowing PR release on Bo Bice of 'American Idol' fame, and his current contribution to the new "branded Monopoly" ad campaign.
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Branded game pieces on the new Monopoly "Here and Now" edition include a McDonald's fry box, Starbucks cup, New Balance shoe, Toyota Prius, etc.
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Press release on the Monopoly website, detailing the new "relevant" tokens, and their consequent "authenticity."
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A post on Commercial Alert about the new Monopoly game, including information that the branders apparently did not pay the usual fee to be included.
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Another article via Commercial Alert (originally published in the Washington Post) on Monopoly "Here and Now."
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Wired article about the film "Foodfight!" which is scheduled for a long-awaited release in Spring 2007. Once again, the branders apparently did not pay for inclusion and gave the studio "complete creative control."
October 15, 2006
Michael Chabon on Berkeley, CA
Further indulging my recent proclivity for deviating wildly from the general topic of this blog (branding, co-branding, co-co-branding) to supply the quotes and contents of brilliant minds more clever and more writerly than mine, I am compelled to link to this excellent essay on the city of Berkeley, CA, authored by Michael Chabon.
Berkeley is my home, and so too its imposing academic institution, which unfortunately takes up most if not all of my time these days. But what is time after all? In Berkeley time facilitates seemingly infinite productivity, the results of which are mixed.
Read Michael Chabon, and think about it.
Quotable Potables: In the American Grain
"Heroically, but pitifully, he strove to fasten to himself that enormous world, that presently crushed him among its multiple small disguises."W.C. Williams
from The Discovery of the Indies
October 4, 2006
Quotable Potables: The Making of Americans
Once an angry man dragged his father along the ground through his own orchard. "Stop !" cried the groaning old man at last, "Stop ! I did not drag my father beyond this tree."It is hard living down the tempers we are born with. We all begin
well, for in our youth there is nothing we are more intolerant of than our
own sins writ large in others and we fight them fiercely in ourselves ; but
we grow old and we see that these our sins are of all sins the really harm-
less ones to own, nay that they give a charm to any character, and so our
struggle with them dies away.
It has always seemed to me a rare privilege, this, of being an Amer-
ican, a real American, one whose tradition it has taken scarcely sixty
years to create. We need only realise our parents, remember our
grandparents and know ourselves and our history is complete.- Gertrude Stein, The Making of Americans
October 3, 2006
Co-Branded Spirituality
Flickr™ user uncleboatshoes has an eclectic view of "co-branded" living in his capturing of the angel in the dreamcatcher at the Multnomah Falls Gift Shop.
This sort of imagery seems to me to be indicative of the way we orient ourselves in relation to symbols, their capacity to be combined, defined, re-defined and re-contextualized in every moment.
A great shot from a gifted photographer and artist.
This sort of imagery seems to me to be indicative of the way we orient ourselves in relation to symbols, their capacity to be combined, defined, re-defined and re-contextualized in every moment.
A great shot from a gifted photographer and artist.