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Peoples Jeans campaign

A few months ago, I was on a panel with a guy who presented an awesome idea for marketing a nonexistent product, Peoples Jeans. The basic pitch is summarized on a fake corporate website created by an rtmark-like collective that calls itself Conglomco:

Put simply, Peoples Jeans markets clothing that has previously been worn by actual people, whose greatest asset is their lived experience.

Migrant agricultural workers, factory workers, prisoners, and populations in economically stressed urban communities have more to offer than cheap labor. They offer us authentic human experience, which is in short supply in today's fashion industry. We have found a way to capitalize on this underutilized asset in order to give consumers the authentic experience that they can't find elsewhere.

The last I heard, Conglomco was pitching this to retail giants like Diesel to try to get them to bite. I'm guessing they haven't had much luck, because the site hasn't been updated in months. But it probably won't be the last we hear from Conglomco.

RSS feeds survey

Update 7/26/05: Thanks for the feedback. Since the response was about 50/50, divided between those who favor excerpts and those who favor full posts, we're going to stick with excerpts for now. If Typepad comes up with more options for RSS feeds, maybe we'll offer full posts in the future.

Technical query alert: For those of you reading this via a news reader (most of you?), I'm debating whether to switch our RSS feeds from excerpts to full posts. If you have an opinion, let me know. I set the RSS feeds on "excerpt" originally because we want to encourage people to look at the actual blog... 1, because links to the magazine, back issues, and merchandise are on there....2, because unless people click-through to the blog, we don't get stats on what they're reading... 3, Newsreaders make all feeds look the same and can therefore get disorienting. (I don't know about you all but I often forget which blog I'm looking at when reading my feeds.)

But as a blog reader myself, I find excerpts annoying. Sometimes they don't make sense without the images, and I wonder whether including full posts might encourage people to actually read more. If we did this, though, I'd probably bug you more often to buy stuff from us. I always feel kinda pathetic doing that, but I'm too old to still be working 30 hrs a week for free (15 would be more like it...).

If you care strongly about this, leave a comment or email me at carrie (at) stayfreemagazine.org.

And for those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, I'd strongly recommend trying a newsreader out. Once you start using one, it seems impossible to read things on the web without it. There are a bunch of recommended readers listed here.  I use Bloglines myself; it has it's share of  problems but at least it's easy.

This land is your land (reprise)

After a series of shitty Supreme Court decisions, I was psyched to see one developer's response to the eminent domain case -- you know, the ruling that says that the government can take over your house if some corporation offering promising greater tax revenue wants it. The deciding vote was cast by Justice David Souter. So Logan Darrow Clements, a private developer in The Towne of Weare, New Hampshire, is seeking to build a hotel on Souter's house:

The proposed development, called "The Lost Liberty Hotel" will feature the "Just Desserts Café" and include a museum, open to the public, featuring a permanent exhibit on the loss of freedom in America...

"This is not a prank" said Clements, "The Towne of Weare has five people on the Board of Selectmen. If three of them vote to use the power of eminent domain to take this land from Mr. Souter we can begin our hotel development."

(Via Boing Boing)

Real Men of Idiocy

Today I stumbled upon a press release indicating that Bud Light's Real Men of Genius campaign had won the "world's most prestigious advertising award" at the Cannes Lion Ad Festival. I must point out that handing out an award in Cannes does not immediately grant it the cachet of that city's film festival. Just ask the Corvette Hall of Fame which is NEAR Cooperstown, New York.

Now, I've been amused by several entries in what was a cleverly conceived radio campaign. But they've clearly gotten weaker, occasionally offensive (for example, one mocking carb counters), and one that has truly angered me: humiliating those who would apply sunscreen with a very high SPF. (mp3 available via KsiToyko)

The ad's "joke" is based on a dangerous misconception--that SPF equals the number of hours you can stay in the sun. It doesn't. The truth is, SPF is very difficult to explain. The guideline used to be, take the amount of time it would normally take you to burn, and multiply it by the SPF, which showed how long you could stay out with that sunscreen applied. But this isn't really accurate, and has encouraged people to stay in the sun longer if they are using a higher SPF. This was not the FDA's goal. Closer to the truth is that the greater the SPF, the higher the percentage of UVB rays that are blocked.

I'm not a dermatologist or an FDA scientist. This is all information available to anyone with an Internet connection. Clearly the ad copywriter could have done a little homework. But the whole concept should have been shot down. If one person buys a lower-SPF sunscreen because of this ad, then shame on you, Anheuser-Busch.

This summer, liberally and regularly apply a high-SPF sunscreen, wear a hat, shirt, and sunglasses, and drink a different brand of beer.

Accutron 2000

The robot thing below just reminded me something I wrote years ago (circa 1996) about Accutron 2000, the Matador Records robot. It was for Matador's newsletter and, lo and behold, it's still online.

No idea what Accutron 2000 is up to now. Last I heard, he was laid off and converted into an end table.

Robot to robot marketing

A couple of Stay Frees ago, we interviewed a man who creates robots for corporate marketing. These days, robot man has a lot of company. Several firms have sprouted up with hi-tech creatures designed to sell things to consumers, whether by cuddling with them, chatting them up, modeling clothes, or working as animated billboards. A Japanese company has even introduced in-store mannequins that do doubletime as spies.

Of course, we've known for some time that robots work for Fortune 500 companies. Usually, they're placed in public relations departments, where they churn out press releases and respond to journalist queries about the side effects of Vioxx or Philip Morris' (Altria's) charitable efforts.

But the neobots are on the frontlines, interacting with "end users." And they are only the beginning. The ultimate goal of sellers is not only to turn marketers into robots but consumers as well. This is the fantasy behind neuromarketing. By studying the human brain, corporations hope to uncover reliable methods for making us buy what they want us to buy.

Instead, what they really ought to do is build consumer robots specifically designed to interact with with the advertising robots, sparing humanity the burden... a win-win situation!

New from Stay Free! magazine

I just posted Eugene Mirman's "About Town" column from the latest issue (#24). Mr. Mirman reviews Brooklyn restaurants, but this is worth reading even if you plan to never step foot in Brooklyn or its restaurant 'cos Eugene is brilliant. From the introduction:

Carroll Gardens, Cobble Hill, Boerum Hill and Park Slope are beautiful neighborhoods filled with everything from delicious restaurants to shops that sell weird crappy glass things from Europe. Hey, do you know where I could get a children's shoe made of silver to hang in my kitchen? Yes, there are five stores for that. Where can a guy go to get a glass penis with eagle wings (hand crafted in Vermont!)? Where can't you buy that, fuckface? Is there an accessories store whose tag line is "Peace is always in fashion"? Yes. Finally, a skirt that says (through its spirit of design), "We should not have entered Iraq under false pretenses," or a pair of mittens that frown upon America's actions in Chile. Come with me on an adventure through BOCOCA (Boerum Hill, Cobble Hill, Carroll Gardens) and Park Slope. Pretend I am an unmagic, 30-year-old male Mary Poppins, who has no interest in child care, but instead loves fish and steak. Come with me on this adventure and let's enter a world of deliciousness and betrayal (except the betrayal). (CONTINUED)

Eugene is a local comic, whose record you should pick up forthwith. He he just got back from touring with Patton Oswalt, so New Yorkers can catch him on Wednesdays at Cinema Classics. (Schedule here.)

No, I'm happy to see you

Newsweek reports that, taking a page from the Wonderbra, manufacturers are designing men's underwear to give more lift (but presumably not to separate).

The article has reviews of package-enhancing briefs, including some that feel "like wearing your mother's underwear." I don't know the reviewer so ... is that a good thing? Are they roomy? Silky? Incredibly creepy? Newsweek doesn't let on, and if I try to figure it out next Thanksgiving, it would be the last one I spend with family.

Still, it is certainly easier than some other ways of creating the illusion of size.

Print and stick fun, Biblical edition

So my friend Galen was thinking about the case in Cobb County Georgia, where a US District court judge recently ruled against their practice of placing disclaimer stickers on textbooks that contained content on evolution. Those stickers read:

"This textbook contains material on evolution. Evolution is a theory, not a fact, regarding the origin of living things. This material should be approached with an open mind, studied carefully and critically considered."

Though the judge ruled against the disclaimer stickers, this is far from over. In an effort to clarify how incredibly unconstitutional it is to dictate a religious belief in a state-supported and run public school, Galen had the idea of making similar stickers for Bibles. Seems fair, if you ask me. So now, instead of wasting all the time and money in court, the next time this comes up the states can save a lot of hassle by letting the Fundamentalists sticker all the textbooks they want, as long as there's an equal stickering of Bibles.

Just to get things started, I've taken the liberty of making  a sticker for anyone who wants to print them out and do some Bible stickering. Try your hotel drawers, or even your preferred house of worship! It's fun!

Ratman Begins

An odd Q&A with the Darth Sidious of NBA owners, Bruce Ratner, appeared in the New York Times Magazine this weekend. Is he TRYING to come across as a bad-guy pro wrestler? He sings the praises of "advertisements all over the place" in stadiums, badmouths buses, belittles panhandlers, and happily admits to having not been a basketball fan. And somewhere in there, a cautionary tale: As you age and become successful, idealism can vanish if you're not vigilant.

Fight the good fight against him, Brooklyn. But as a New Jerseyan, I can only say, good riddance.