For years, millions of dollars in unlicensed Grateful Dead merchandise was sold outside of the band's concerts by its tour-hungry fans. The band did crack down on it a bit after 1987, when "Touch of Grey" was on the radio, Macy's started stocking tie-dyes and non-Deadhead criminal networks started hawking goods in the lot. http://youtu.be/cusPs0sgg0c Since Jerry Garcia's passing in 1995, the band that made a …
Amazon Wants To Protect Its Pricing, But At What Cost?
What is the battle to avoid paying sales tax in states where it has a physical presence doing to the Amazon brand? According to The New York Times, the standoff between Amazon and California is simple: the state passed a law at the beginning of the summer requiring online retailers with a physical presence in the state to collect sales taxes. Amazon denies that its subsidiaries in the state, which include a unit …
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Spotlight On NW Creative: Blaine’s Pretty Profound Non-Billboard
On the outskirts of Blaine, Wash., a small town north of Bellingham, near the Canadian border, is home to this critical-of-advertising art installation from Lead Pencil Studio. Lead Pencil's Daniel Mihalyo says, "this permanently open aperture between nations works to frame nothing more than a clear view of the changing atmospheric conditions beyond." "Non-Sign II" is made of thousands of stainless steel …
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Let Me Guess, The Unemployed Are Lazy? What A Crock Of Shit
Change.org is a hotbed of citizen activism against corporate tyranny. The site is host to petitions that ask Hershey's to stop exploiting student guestworkers; tell New Balance to stop supporting anti-gay politicians; and another meant to get McDonald's to stop buying pork from producers who use gestation crates. There's also a campaign to get Monster.com to Ban Job Listings that Discriminate Against the …
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Citizens for a Better Tomorrow, Tomorrow Is The Real Deal
Stephen Colbert is a culture jammer. By day he lampoons conservative talk show hosts by pretending to be one, by night he runs a Super PAC, spending real, not funny, money in the Republican race for U.S. President. According to The New York Times, Colbert applied for status as a Super PAC with the Federal Elections Commission and was approved in June. “This is 100 percent legal and at least 10 percent ethical,” he …
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A Feast For Untired Eyes
I keep wanting to click on more and more pages of Flavorwire, the blog by Flavorpill, "a network of culturally connected people." Because the site points to a multitude of visual oddities and things that make one wonder. Like "Masks for the Modern Tribe" by artist Jud Wimhurst. The contemporary masks he envisions are adorned with familiar iconography from companies such as McDonald’s and Chanel. His culture …
Are We Artists With An Income, Or Unconscious Pacifiers?
It's perverse I suppose, but I like to see resistance to advertising. My reason for this is simple enough--I want bad advertising eradicated from our culture. It's a tall order, but it's one we can handle. All we need to do is guide our clients toward their brand truths, and show them how to best work with those truths to gain marketplace advantage. Of course, the harshest advertising critics have a very …
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Goodby Embraces Criticism Of New Milk Campaign
With criticism of its new "Milk can help reduce the symptoms of PMS" campaign all over the web, Goodby Silverstein & Partners has shifted tactics. The campaign's website, EverythingIDoIsWrong.org, now points to GotDiscussion.org. The site links to many of the articles and blog posts that discussed the campaign, and also provides a forum for more people to comment. The New York Times has more: Jeff Goodby, the …
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