We are increasingly suffering from consumption fatigue, but brands and designers have yet to acknowledge the fact, says David Carlson of The David Report. Carlson says only the future will tell if the climate of anti-consumerism is genuine or if we are only on a pause between mad bouts of bag-filling. Consumption in itself has become a lifestyle – we go shopping to pass the time, and feel disappointed when …
WebVisions Keynote: Douglas Rushkoff
PORTLAND—Whatever Brad Smith of WebVisions had to do to bring Douglas Rushkoff to Portland to speak, it was worth it. Few speakers bring this kind of passion and clarity to their talks. Even fewer are willing to grapple with real societal issues and call bullshit when and where it is needed. Rushkoff doesn't have a slide show at the ready, he has notes at the lectern, but he doesn't need them. He wrote the book. …
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Ronald McDonald Doesn’t Make Kids Fat; Hamburgers, Fries And A Coke Make Kids Fat
Corporate Accountability International ran a print ad on May 18 in newspapers in Chicago, New York, Boston, Baltimore, San Francisco and Minneapolis that calls for McDonald's to stop marketing to children. "Mounting evidence points to the correlation between predatory marketing and the rise in diet-related illness among children and young people," says the group, which brought Joe Camel to his knees several years …
Tree Huggers Throw Some Punches
"Climate science has basically been at the receiving end of the best-funded, best-organized smear campaign by the wealthiest industry that the Earth has ever known—that's the bottom line." - Professor Michael Mann The factors that ruin our air and drive the Earth's temperature to dangerously high levels are also busy destroying our land and water. Take a look... According to Rainforest Action Network the …
Labor’s Taking It To The Streets
Pacific Northwest Regional Council of Carpenters is picketing Ross and Nordstrom Rack in downtown Portland. I received a leaflet in front of both stores today. The Council of Carpenters believes Ross and Nordstrom have "an obligation to the community to see that area labor standards are met for construction work performed on their projects." The union claims that the contractors employed by Ross and Nordstrom …
Freedom Runs On Information, And Google Loves Information
Sticks and stones make break Google's bones, but words will never hurt her. Yet, dart-like words are flying. According to Times of India, Google denied that the US government meddles in its business decisions after Chinese state media published an opinion piece saying the Internet-search company is a "tool" of US foreign policy. Google is "playing its political cards in China" after helping disseminate …
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Athenos Is Yiayia-Approved
Athenos is ruffling a few feathers with their new ad campaign. "These commercials are not appropriate from a Greek perspective," says Maria Anagnostopoulos, program director at The Greek Institute, a non-profit cultural center. She wants them pulled. But Kraft executives say they have no such plans. "While these ads may be controversial, for the most part people will see them for the light-hearted fun they are …
London Olympics Part of The Zionist Conspiracy, Says Iran
I like to see that people are sensitive to design, but what you're about to read is some lunacy. According to the Daily Mail, Iran may decline to participate in the Olympics next summer because the logo for the 2012 games spells "Zion." The Iranians sent a letter to IOC president Jacques Rogge saying: "(This is) definitely spawned out of some people's racist spirit. The use of the word Zion is a very revolting …
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