June 6, 2013
This blog originally appeared in Fast Company. Ah, Tumblr, home to a million fandoms, animated GIFs, and journeys of self-discovery by teenage girls. I’m not saying this as an insult–I’m actually quite impressed by how Tumblr became the go-to microblogging platform for these very specific communities. (The name Tumblr, or “tumblr” as it’s properly written, […]
March 19, 2013
FastCompany.com recently had an article about the title of Jack The Giant Slayer, Warner Bros.’s latest fantasy adventure film based on the fairy tales, “Jack the Giant Killer” and “Jack and the Beanstalk”. The piece by Lindsey Kratochwill talks about the film’s last-minute title change from Jack the Giant Killer to Jack the Giant Slayer […]
March 5, 2013
This blog originally appeared in Fast Company. We’ve always known that the golden age of air travel is long gone. The fabled United tagline “Fly the Friendly Skies” seems quaint, a by-product of a time when food was actually available and perhaps even tasty on flights. Now, it’s the most tortured, dreaded way to get from […]
June 4, 2012
This blog originally appeared in Fast Company. Though the “Trumptini” may be a stretch of a product, it makes good business sense to file trademarks, even preemptively. If you plan on selling or marketing something under your name, you need to protect your rights. It’s not necessarily greed–just good business sense. This week it was […]
March 27, 2012
This blog originally appeared in Fast Company. The Lorax, the cranky voice of environmentalism, is now telling us we should buy an even bigger car to “help” nature–that’s co-branding gone startlingly awry. McDonald’s gives away toys based on movie figures. Characters in TV shows use products with the brands prominently displayed. Athletes wear clothing emblazoned with corporate […]
February 23, 2012
This blog originally appeared at Fast Company. The other day I really wasn’t paying much attention to the AM news station in my car until I heard a commercial for a web-based company imaginatively branded Reputation.com. I got to wondering about this kind of service, and when I typed “reputation management” into a search engine […]
February 9, 2012
This blog post originally appeared at Fast Company. What a difference a week makes. On Tuesday, January 31, Susan G. Komen For The Cure announced that it would not renew its grants to Planned Parenthood for breast cancer exams, claiming that it doesn’t permit funding to organizations under investigation by Congress. This is equal to […]
June 2, 2011
This blog post originally appeared at Fast Company. What’s the go-to item on the restaurant menu when you want to eat healthy, or for post-holiday-feast atonement? It’s the humble salad, designed to trick you into thinking you’re full when it’s really just water and roughage. We love our salads when we’re feeling bad about ourselves […]