Bad PR for all.

But THIS year’s NYC Condom package design contest has resulted in a really simple, witty and timely solution. So obviously right!

The last package design was based on the subway graphics, also highly recognition icons.

How many cities produce their own condom package? Six million condoms are distributed for free in NYC. Let’s face it, New York, the city that never sleeps, is one busy place.

TED is a information/communication phenomena the venue for which blossomed in the last few years from an elitist Monterey, California conference to include a vast level playing field – a broadband audience of hundreds of millions.

TED Talks broadcasts TED Conference segments online to the world – sharing often personal, always excellent 18 minute presentations from very specialized speakers – representing the best and brightest (and the best communicating) in their area of expertise.

The topics are vast and varied but Technology, Entertainment and Design are the main pools from which prized speakers are pulled, hence the name TED.

Currently many TED Talks are translated in over 50 languages (including Urbu and Swahili), by volunteers organized by TED.

TED has taken seriously their mission, their motto: ideas worth spreading. The very dedicated TED team has devoted itself to that mantra in the best way: learning, exploring how to spread ideas – ideas worth spreading.

The next logical step, of course, was to invite people to organize their own TED, on their own turf. So TEDx has been birthed. Adopting the excellent TED branding, TEDx may be licensed for free by qualified organizers. A TEDx may be as simple as a living room of people watching, discussing existing TED Talks to a themed conference with invited speakers. In the past 7 months there have been almost 300 TEDx events in 25 languages, 60 countries. And as many are anticipated in the next 7 months, for a total of 47,000 attendees. There are three TEDx’s in Singapore alone.

I just returned from TEDIndia where I met many whose introduction to TED was through TED Talks and who were organizers of a TEDx in their region. Having been to many TEDs I can see these innovations are changing the audience at TED: ratcheting up the number of attendees (including 120 TED Fellows) dedicated to positive social change.

TED is a small nonprofit owned by the Sapling Foundation run by Chris Anderson, who considers himself, not the owner or controller of TED but rather its curator. This monicher speaks volumes about his egalitarian mission and the future of TED.

Uncle Sam is the money man.

Is any comment necessary? I don’t think so.

Would you buy your home from Russo Realty?

Talk about bad branding! It’s hard to know what to think about this company. Is this condemned building really the offices of Russo Realty? Or is it one of the houses they are proudly offering up? They also do taxes! What a find.

I went by this site in a mixed use area on my way to IKEA in Red Hook, Brooklyn. It was such a cartoon. I had to share it with you: it’s a true sign of our times.

Product segmentation is now a standard strategy for brands yet that’s difficult for a store. How many coffee products can you tout under one small roof before it gets overwhelming? Segmentation offers something for every taste, captures all tastes.

But once you walk through the door, or the thousands of ‘doors’ of Starbucks or MacDonald’s or Gap or Anthropology you expect something and it must be delivered. The brand is reinforced by consistency. There is no way to deviate from the offering or the brand style and still reinforce the brand image.

Control is king. And control can kill. How does a corporation keep growing, keep key talent, build enthusiasm when everything is controlled down to the 1/64th of an inch?

So un-brand. Come up with something so completely different that the blood pulses through the creatives’ veins again. And capture the imagination of the public – again. Felissimo, a very high end Japanese-owned store in an elegant townhouse on 56th Street in New York was such an experiment. Felissimo is also a low-end brand sold in Japan. Its products are sold in Target. It’s hard to know how the high end store has helped the corporation thrive.

Starbucks’ observers are watching carefully as customers shop in the 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea, trying to see what they see during this scientific experiment in un-branding. The retail world is watching to see the results.

The illustration included here is a clever parody of the now iconic Shepherd Fairy poster of Obama that just help elect the man.

The amazing Coen Brothers have produced a series of satirical ads. Check them out at http://www.ThisIsReality.org/#/?p=canary

Obama and the EPA have allowed the blasting of coal on 42 of 48 mountaintops in Virgina and Ohio. Is that green? Is it clean? These are moutaintops that are not going to grow back. They call it surface mining. It’s not sustainable!

This is the thing about branding. It has to be authentic. Otherwise it gets ripped to shreds as we are seeing here.

And this is the thing about euphonisms. They are meant to distract us from the truth. This is a whole 25 years AFTER Orwell’s 1984.

2009: time to pay attention!

Interesting how pigs got such a bad rap so quickly with this new flu. And Mexico (now they wonder if it indeed started there and whether it has anything to do with pigs). Now, its down to meaningless numbers and letters H1N1 – to keep the pork industry from taking the heat. The Wall Street Journal says all flus have and H and N, “As it turns out, human strains of H1N1 flu are also pretty common.” Let’s just hope we don’t have a lot of flus flying around because we will never remember their names. ‘Did you hear there’s now an H2N3 flu coming up from Peru? And a H1N5 flu from Yemen?’

You get my point. This is nothing to joke about and the fear is that H1N1 will spread and mutate over the course of the summer and come back in the fall as a respiratory illness. Whether it will require a new H and N numbering is unclear. Is there a doctor in the house who can explain?

Beauty within

She has a beautiful voice. from the mainstream perspective, she is a visual mess. She is proud of herself and she has a dream as she expressed to a vast audience of mostly women and Britian’s Got Talent’s three judges, with great dignity. But she is a visual mess. And the Brits have their prejudice. “Everyone was against you. We were all quite cynical.” Blonde bombshell judge Amanda Holden said – and then with surprising deference added, “It was a complete privilege to listen to you.” Why? Because Susan Boyle’s her own woman. Susan Boyle

But now that Susan Boyle has blown the minds and won the hearts of all these people, making them cry and smile at the same time (0ver 30 million viewed on the internet in 24 hours), what is next for her? Does she clean up her brand? Get a ‘brow job’ – or does she just remain herself? If you listen to her music (close your eyes) does something change? Is she as unique? If she transforms her like Celine Dion did so many years ago (nose job, etc), would she have the same impact?

Now she’s got a publicist – appearing on Larry King a heartbeat after her sudden fame saying “I won’t be lonely anymore.” Let’s hope she remains as original as she is. Susan Boyle says, “Why should I change?”

This is just one more indication how the world is changing right in front of our eyes.

Emperors, Queens, aristocracy and religious icons (Jesus Christ) have been kept on pedestals, in isolation, in order to enforce their Godlike statuses (i.e., immortality) as a way to convince the common folk that they were protected by magic way beyond their understanding. And to avoid mistakes becoming too public.

But in this time, royalty has become increasingly irrelevant. And America, which never had any anyhow (closest: The Kennedys with whom there are huge parallels with the Obamas which are rapidly being exploited).

I think its safe to say both Obamas would probably chose to be thought of as simply human. This is a good and timely thing. Michelle or Barack makes a mistake and an acknowledgment and appropriate apology are immediately forthcoming. To err is human. Let’s watch as Europe gets to know them. This may be just one more way the world may shift under this administration. Send me your comments.

a unique occasion