Lunchmeat Underpants
New Stuff and Inspiration
Do schools kill creativity?
Anyone that works in an industry that requires creativity understands how hard it can be to sell creative ideas. Why is it that some people in the business world have such a hard time buying into creativity and innovative thinking? Well, Sir Ken Robinson has an interesting take on how schools squeeze the creativity out of their students. Or as Picasso said, “ Children are all born artists. The problem is to remain an artist as we grow up.”
Basic branding still matters.
Today business’ scramble to crack the code on branding in the 21st century, but some could take a lesson that is taught on the first day of marketing 101. In a very tangible way a brand has always been, and will always be, the mark it uses to identify itself to the world. How much do you think SAAB thinks its brand is worth?
Lost there felt here.
Great concept for Conservation International done by Designworks at BBDO New York. The idea was to show that one acre of deforestation may not literally be seen by us, but that it’s effects are felt all over. But this got me thinking about good ideas and effective executions. The concept is great for this shirt, and the execution is well done. But, I couldn’t help but to think, would I wear a shirt with a hole cut in it? I mean, maybe in the dead of summer, but since I’m a pasty, computer working-type, I am not in the buisness of showing off my chest (I do not look like this guy in the pic).
It got me wondering, as I love this shirt, but wonder if no one actually wears it, does it lose some effectiveness?
Good Times rolled one up for YOU.
“Hey, pass that burrito over to me, man.”
Was that who you thought it was? Yeah it’s Cheech Marin talking to Tommy Chong about Good Times’ new cheeseburger burrito made with Santiago’s Green Chile.
“They take a cheeseburger and some Santiago’s Green Chile and roll it all up… Like a fatty? No, like a burrito.”
We figured who better to talk about Good Times hamburgers. They’re all natural, with no antibiotics or hormones. That’s important to everyone, especially two ex stoners who’ve turned over a new leaf.
“I don’t do that stuff anymore man. I’ve got an ankle bracelet.”
The only buds they scorch now are their taste buds. And Good Times has a new Santiago’s Green Chile menu that will do just that.
“You aren’t afraid of the heat are you? Only when I see the heat in my rearview mirror, man”
Give it a try. The first one’s free. Just kidding.
We like Mr. Elstrott
John Elstrott, Ph.D., Chair of the Board of Whole Foods Market, shared many insights last night with an audience of natural products insiders and CU students at the University of Colorado. Mr. Elstrott is renowned as an award-winning educator and researcher, specializing in economics and entrepreneurship.
According to Mr. Elstrott, your brand is the most valuable intellectual property you can own. But it is also the most difficult to create. In fact, he stated that raising capital is easy, compared to the intellectual rigor of building a brand.
Mr. Elstrott indicated that Conscious Capitalism (purpose-driven for-profit business) is currently outperforming profit-driven companies. The companies that succeed do so by finding true alignment among stakeholders, which explains how Whole Foods maintains 87% happiness among their employee ranks.
Mr. Elstrott also shared that if you’re an entrepreneur, your number one problem is convincing your customer base that you exist, followed by getting them to make the choice to buy something from you. He recommended looking at guerrilla marketing and social media as solutions to those problems.
We couldn’t agree more, Mr. Elstrott.
kc
What Matt does at lunch.
Give him some free time and you get some cool thing like this.
Fire in the belly
Another great piece for Sciene World from the ever-talented Rethink. Naval lint is always a humorous topic.
Book book shelf
Apparently a lot of books get thrown out each year, even though they can be recycled. Nowadays, you see people using the books to create other things instead of getting rid of them, perhaps because of the emotional attachment that goes along with books, and we applaud this type of thinking. The creation of a book shelf from books seems almost obvious, but when executed is a beautiful shelf with great design aesthetics.
Jonathan's card
We might be a touch late to the game, but we came across Jonathan’s card and loved it. What a cool social experiment, masterfully using our new world of social media and technology. The idea was that a guy named Jonathan Stark put $100 on a Starbuck’s card and shared the mobile image of the card to the public. Users would download the image of the card, put it on their phone and hold the phone up for the barista to scan when they got coffee. If you enjoyed your free coffee and felt generous, you could reload the card with some of your own money. The card continued to be refilled and actually made the rounds for over a month, and users ended up spending about $8000 on the card.
Whether Stark, a mobile app developer, started this project out of pure generosity, curiosity or as a marketing/PR ploy is unknown. But, what is certain is that he created a very large social experiment. And what it proved was that people really are generally good. Way more people involved, on a person by person basis, did the right thing and refilled the card after using it. The card seemed to gain momentum, and appeared as if it would continue onward. But, after a week of it being in the media spotlight, it was closed by Starbucks. They were citing fraud, as a second programmer-type wrote a script that allowed him to transfer money to his own card. The pilferer was very open in blog posts about what his intentions were (and even deposited the amounts he scammed back onto the card), but his attempts to simply prove the ‘system’ created by Jonathan’s Card was not secure were what actually ended the experiment.
There’s a good article on GOOD that gives you the full lowdown. We loved this project and how something that was merely an experiment could lead to such media attention and would ultimately find that people still are truly good out there. Oh, and Starbuck’s is donating the balance of the card to a charity.
Melting ice bergs in your drink
Hey, you can be an activist and have a drink at the same time. Make a statement at your next beverage get together with these cool ice cubes that look like polar bears and penguins standing on melting icebergs. They’re balanced so that they stay upright in your drink whilst you sip away. Buy some here.