In today's "Sunday Business" section I came across an appalling piece on the mortgage crisis. Particularly off-putting is an email communication from Countrywide's co-founder and CEO, Angelo Mozilo. Mozilo responded, by mistake, to a mortgage holder in turmoil, who had asked for his help. “This is unbelievable. Most of these letters now have the same wording. Obviously they are being counseled by some other person or …
Are You Ready To Make Change?
It's Sunday morning and I just read two pieces by Douglas Rushkoff (I'll get to the Times later). In Riding out the Credit Collapse, Rushkoff suggests that we make friends and participate in our local communities as an antidote to buying things on credit. In Beyond Brand Obama, he claims that "we’d be mistaken to consider his politics a complete break from the past, a renaissance in participatory government, or the …
Bullshit Called
It used to be that nothing lasted forever. In today's world of hyperlinked information that maxim needs an update. Something like "nothing lasts more than a year or two" would be more appropriate. Witness: The A-list is dead. Jason Calacanis will blog no more. Hugh MacLeod and jolly old England are divorced. And most impressive of all, "the conversation" is finally over. Oh, and when the sun comes up tomorrow the sky …
Happiness Not Included
Ancient Greek philosopher, Epicurus, asserted happiness was the result of friendships, freedom and an analyzed life. Modern day British philosopher Alain de Botton, takes these Epicurean tenets and expounds on them in relation to the pursuit of happiness in today's consumerist society. This video plays for 24 minutes, but it's well worth the investment. Near the end, de Botton visits London agency, St. Lukes and …
Building Community the Old Fashioned Way
Mercury Advertising in Bozeman has the right idea. They know advertising is a powerful medium that can (and should) be used to help people. At least some of the time. By the way, Mercury is looking for a new copywriter and art director to join their activist team. …
Continue Reading about Building Community the Old Fashioned Way →
Question Of The Day: Is It Just Me…
or do most of the viral/microsite/buzzworthy things get most of their traction because of ad industry publications and blogs? I'm wondering because of the Converse discussion, and it occurred to me that I'd never hear about 95% of the viral stuff unless I read it on a blog or in Adweek or something. Seems that intra-industry PR fuels the perception that this stuff is successful. Are all these viral things just a big …
Continue Reading about Question Of The Day: Is It Just Me… →
paidContent Gets Paid
Kara Swisher of All Things Digital is reporting that Rafat Ali of paidContent is about to come into to some serious coinage. Britain’s Guardian Media Group is set to announce this morning that it will buy the company that runs the high-profile digital media news site paidContent for a price “north of $30 million.” The paidContent site is owned by ContentNext and was founded by Publisher and Editor Rafat Ali in …
