Practicing The Meditative Art Of Levitation While Pretending To Ski

Francisco Tamagno (1851 - 1933), ca. 1900

We Wish You A Rapey Christmas

I see Bloomingdale's department store hired some frat boys to create their Christmas catalog this year.

Washington Post article here.

New York, New York, It's A Helluva Of A Town..

The Bronx is up, but the Battery's down.
The people ride in a hole in the groun'.
-"New York, New York" from On The Town

"Fashion models wear a variety of hats on the roof of the Conde Nast Building against a view of the New York skyline, 1949."
Corbis/© Norman Parkinson Ltd/Courtesy Norman Parkinson Archive

This beautiful view of the New York skyline includes the Chrysler Building at 42nd Street and Lexington Avenue right behind the woman in the red hat. The Chanin Building at 122 E. 42nd Street right next to it and behind the two women with their heads together.  The  New York Central Building (AKA Helmsley Building) at 230 Park Avenue, pointed to by the feather on the hat of the woman on the right. The Lincoln Building at  60 East 42nd Street behind and slightly to the right of the New York Central Building.  Grand Central Terminal down behind the New York Central Building.  The Mercantile Building at 10 E. 40th Street is to the right of the Lincoln Building and the Empire State Building at Fifth Avenue and West 34th Street right behind the Mercantile Building.  What great buildings and what a great photo.

Those Were The Days

 

 

So, Which Car Would You Buy?

Read what's going on here: Ford mocks Cadillac's 'Poolside' ad.

Mosaic Theory

A method of analysis used by security analysts to gather information about a corporation. Mosaic theory involves collecting public, non-public and non-material information about a company in order to determine the underlying value of the company's securities and to enable the analyst to make recommendations to clients based on that information.
-Investopedia

In advertising this is known as data-mining. Does it work?

The New York Times ran a story last year about how a man angrily confronted a Target stor manager to complain that the company was sending his teenage daughter coupons for baby goods. Were they trying to encourage her to get pregnant? Nope. Target's data-mining operation had found a strong correlation between purchases of about 24 items- scent free lotions, certain nutritional supplements, and so on- and different stages of pregnancy. The teenager's purchases had fit the pattern. The teenager's father apologized to Target a few days later, when it turned out that his daughter was, in fact, pregnant.
-Glenn Harlan Reynolds, December/January issue of Popular Mechanics

I guess it works but where could it lead? The real question is where shouldn't it lead? Big brother is already spying on us although Microsoft seems to be doing something to counteract that.

Shopping In America

Look! A 50% OFF coupon for Any One Regular Price Item in the store!

Wait....it seems to be valid only if I don't actually buy anything.

Legal Disclaimer:
Not valid on: As Seen on TV, MiDesign@Miichaels(tm), Silhouette and Cricut brands; Custom special order product, services and package pricing, Tulip Screenil, Fiskars Fuse Creativity System Machine, Rainbow Look & rubber bands, sewing machines, all Lego Friends, Lego Creator and Lego For Young Builders Product, 4' and taller Christmas Trees, books, magazines, CD/DVDs, gift cards and debit card products; Buy More, Save More offers; sale, clearance or buy & get item; Buy the Bunch(tm) orders; online purchases' class, in-store, birthday party, shipping, delivery, or installatior (sp) fees. Limit one coupon per customer per day; no combining offers. Original coupon must be surrendered at purchase. Not applicable to prior purchases. Limited to stock on hand.

Void where prohibited. Valid only in US.

Exclusions subject to change. See store associate for details.

The Pause That Refreshes

Cleaning house today...except for right now.


Coca-Cola ad from 1949.
(Ahhh, icy cold.)

Visions of 1960's Teen Life in American Advertising 3

You can give you hair that Summer look
(All year long)
That Summer bright, sunny light, Summer look
(All year long)

With Summer Blonde
(The gentle hair lightener!)
By Clairol

Now your hair can have that Summer look
Get Summer Blonde!

(It's easy to do. You just shampoo.
Lightens just a little like the sun does.)

(All year long)
Summer Blonde by Clairol!

BTW- I had a friend who used this. An example of the effect advertising has on thirteen-year-old girls.

Visions of 1960's Teen Life In American Advertising 2

Hey, meet the Swinger
(Swinger)
Polaroid Swinger
(Swinger)
Meet the Swinger
(Swinger)
Polaroid Swinger

(It's more than a camera
It's almost alive
It's only nineteen dollars
And ninety-five)

Swing it up
(Yeah, yeah)
It says yes
(Yeah, yeah)
Take the shot
(Yeah, yeah)
Count it down
(Yeah, yeah)
Zip it off

Meet the Swinger
(Swinger)
Polaroid Swinger
(Swinger)
Meet the Swinger
(Swinger)
Polaroid Swinger
(Swinger)

Swing it up
(Yeah, yeah)
It says yes
(Yeah, yeah)
Take the shot
(Yeah, yeah)
Count it down
(Yeah, yeah)
Zip it off

Hey, meet the Swinger
(Swinger)
Polaroid Swinger
(Swinger)
Meet the Swinger
(Swinger)
Polaroid Swinger

BTW- Yes, that girl is Ali McGraw and, yes, that is Barry Manilow singing.

Visions Of 1960's Teen Life In American Advertising

Any place can be a soda fountain now
With Great Shakes
New Great Shakes

Shake it up with milk
And make a great milkshake
New Great Shakes
New Great Shakes

(Just add milk to Great Shakes chocolate flavor shake mix.
Shake it, and you've got a great milkshake.
Tastes just like a soda fountain shake.)

Taste so go now
Oh so good now
It's so creamy
Smooth and dreamy

There's no more now
Better get more now
Go to the store and get
Great Shakes!

(You get four serving plus your own shaker.
Just add milk to Great Shakes shake mix and shake it.)

Any place can be a soda fountain now
With Great Shakes
New Great Shakes

So if you want your own soda fountain now
Go to the store and get
Great Shakes!

(What's the name of it?)

GREAT SHAKES!

BTW- It taste nothing like a soda fountain shake.

No Men Allowed

Dr Pepper has come up with an advertising campaign for its new diet soda, Dr Pepper 10, that is causing quite a ruckus. Dr. Pepper 10 was created for the male consumer, a group Dr Pepper believes will not drink regular diet soda because they think it is too "girly."  Dr. Pepper has decided the only way to overcome this perceived prejudice is to market Dr. Pepper 10 as a manly, It's Not For Women, soda.



Some people believe this approach is sexist but this commercial reminds me a lot of the Old Spice advertisements which make fun of the fantasy man that women supposedly dream about every night.



If there is any stereotyping going on in commercials aimed at men, this stereotyping is directed right at them.  Below is a collection of commercials from last years Super Bowl. The first one includes a little boy acting like a little boy. The rest contain men acting childishly, immaturely, selfishly, irresponsible, and sometimes down right moronic.



Why aren't men outraged by this view of themselves?   Do they really see themselves as a bunch of idiots? Guys?

All I Want Is A Bottle Of Cranberry Juice!

© 2011 Ocean Spray Cranberries, Inc

There is a scene in the movie The Hurt Locker (2008) where a soldier home from war stands in the middle of a supper market aisle and becomes overwhelmed by all the products. I know the feeling.

Last week cranberry juice was on my shopping list and when I reached the bottled juice aisle looking for a bottle of Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice I found what seemed like hundreds of bottles of Ocean Spray including Cranberry Juice Cocktail, Cranberry Juice Cocktail with Calcium, Cran-Grape, Cran-Pomegranate, Cran-Raspberry, Cran-Apple, Cran-Cherry,and Cran-Strawberry. There were also Diet and Light versions of each flavor and bottles of what Ocean Spray calls Juice Blends. In total there are 45 different types of Ocean Spray juices and all are put in bottles that are exactly like the one shown above.

After locating the plain old cranberry section, I ignored the cranberry juice that contained calcium and grabbed a bottle with the word Cranberry Juice Cocktail written across the front of it and put it in my shopping cart. The next day I pulled it out of my refrigerator, poured myself a glass, took a big sip and swallowed. It tasted wrong. It was too sweet and had a funny taste. I pulled the bottle back out of the refrigerator and looked at the label. Right there in big letter were the words Cranberry Juice Cocktail but next to it were also the words WITH A HINT OF LIME and right above the letters Cran in the word Cranberry, was a small yellow label with the word New! written in blue letters. And I missed them. I missed the extra words on the label because I was so overwhelmed and frustrated by all the choices that when I saw a bottle which had the words Cranberry Juice Cocktail written on the label I just grabbed it and put it in my cart.

This I do not blame Ocean Spray for as it was my own fault. I should have examined the bottle closer before I put it in my cart. If I had I would have also seen the words Cranberry Lime Juice Drink With Another Juice written in smaller letters across the bottom of the label. Now, I'm upset with Ocean Spray. What, their Cranberry Juice Cocktail is no longer just cranberry juice anymore? I looked at the ingredients listed on the CJC WITH LIME bottle and found; filtered water, cranberry juice from concentrate, cane or beet sugar, white grape juice from concentrate, lime juice from concentrate, natural flavors, and red grape concentrate for color. No wonder it tastes sweet and funny at the same time- it's the grape and lime juice. It also has those words I do not like to see on any food ingredients list, natural flavors. You can hide a lot behind those two words. Whenever I see them I wonder what the product tasted like before the natural flavors were added.

Today I bought another bottle of Ocean Spray Cranberry Juice Cocktail, plain old cranberry juice this time but I made sure to read the ingredients before I left the store; filtered water, cranberry juice from concentrate and cane or beet sugar. No white grape juice from concentrate. No red grape concentrate for color. No natural flavors. I'm happy but I do wonder what is in their other juices and if you are wondering, too, don't go looking for the answer at the Ocean Spray website because the information isn't there. I know, I checked.

The Big Blue Box

This last photo I took from the restaurant, The Prefect Landing*, at the airport. Notice anything in the far background? Yep, a new IKEA store. I know because the word IKEA is written in gigantic letters across the front of the store. See that sign atop the very tall pole to the left of the store? Well that thing stands 92 feet above the ground and each of its four sides is 52 feet long. The sign is so huge people complained about it when it first went up. I think they were complaining about the wrong thing. What about the size of the store? This photo was taken from 4 miles away!!!

I cannot wait for it to open.


* If you are ever visiting Denver try not to miss this restaurant, the food is excellent. After my meal I asked the waitress to tell the chef his food was a joy to eat.

Continuing Yesterday's Discussion.....

Takes A Licking And Keeps On Ticking

I did laundry yesterday and noticed one load of wash made a clicking-banging noise throughout its spin cycle. When I finished unloading the machine I was a bit shocked to find my Timex watch lying on the bottom of the wash tub. I could not believe I had accidentally thrown the watch in with the clothes. When I reached in and retrieved the watch the first thing I noticed was the condensation under the watch crystal. I examined the watch face closer and could see the second hand ticking away. What do you know, John Cameron Swayze was right.

Advertising As Art

You can trust your car to the man who wears the star.

History of the Texaco Oil Company.

Movie Posters As Art 5

(The Thief of Bagdad, 1924)

Movie Posters As Art 4

(The Canary Murder Case, 1929)

That is Louise Brooks in the canary costume.

Movie Posters As Art 3

(The Cabinet of Dr. Caligari, 1920)