Sidewalk Life

Experience Consumption

 

According to this Times article, people are dong more and buying less thanks to the recession. Or, as this Florida teenager figured out, you can have it both ways - pay to ride waves at the local mall.

We're All A Little Tired

"Tired" seems to sum up how most people are feeling about the closing decade. Especially if you read Paul Krugman's article The Big Zero .  "...the decade in which we achieved nothing and learned nothing."

Piggy Backing

I'm not sure if piggy backing is a bonafide marketing practice, but it should be.  Here's a good example (it's been around since '08 so I'm admittedly a bit late):

The people at ColaLife want to piggy back on Coca Cola's distribution network - surely one of the most expansive in the world.  Their idea is to deliver medical aid to poorer parts of the world using an aidpod stuffed inside cola cases.

It's also a great opportunity for Coca Cola to use its corporate infrastructure for social good - and deliver on the 21st Century marketing promise of making people's lives better. 

Twitter Fired

Why Larry Johnson of the Kansas City Chiefs didn't see this coming is surprising.  He took out his frustration with his coach and the fans on Twitter, and guess what, the Chiefs released him today. 

It's not the first time someone has been fired from posting personal thoughts in a public forum, but now that it has happened in the NFL, maybe people will realize that people are actually reading this stuff.  Beware kids.  Twitter is not a toy.

Thanks to Duane Hoffmann / msnbc.com for the image.

Last Years Model

I really like the idea of going against throwaway gadget culture. 

I'm not sure I like the idea of trying to make it cool.  Seems slightly hypocritical. 

This American Banking Crisis

Ira Glass dedicated one entire episode of This American Life to explaining the banking crisis without the political spin we hear everyday in the news.  It's worth listening to.  Key quote:

"If we let the banking system fail, no one will talk about the 'Great Depression' because this will be so much worse."

Listen to the podcast here. 

Wish I could give credit for image, but don't remember where I found it. 

Danger! Trees.

I never really considered the natural world to be that big of a threat. 

Until now. 

Thanks Ithaca.

The Age of Honesty

I like this NY Times article about how going bankrupt might be the best thing for GM. 

The authors point is that old people are the ones concerned with heritage and stability where young consumers don't care.   If fact he suggests, young buyers might one day consider buying a GM car if the company owns up to past failures, puts it behind them, and restructures itself as something else for the future.  His rationale is that today's youth are forgiving of failure and are actually in favor of brand reinvention - whether you're a start-up, consumer brand or a President.  He points to Silicon Valley and the new entrepreneur spirit as evidence that failure is just a part of success today.

"Transparency and reinvention, rather than stability and regality, are the more valued assets in an economy where entrepreneurs expect to stumble more often than they succeed and where employees expect to have to change jobs (if not careers) multiple times. In the fastest-growing quarters of the economy, admitting your failures and remaking yourself is the new American work ethic."

He also uses  George Bush vs. Al Gore to reinforce his point here. The collapse of one by failing to admit mistakes and the success of the other by reinventing himself after a humiliating defeat.

The idea of failure leading to success reminds me of a great Jordan ad from years back.

Banking Irony

This is the sign my bank teller, Denise, made and put in her window this morning. 

Then she charged me a $79 penalty for closing the account. 

Awesome!

Why We'll All Be Bankers in The Future

Douglas Rushkoff wrote an article called Futurenomics for the Holland Herald magazine.  He looks at the role of money and banking in business and raises the question whether business needs banks at all and whether banking itself may be bad for business. 

"The problem is, more value is being extracted on each level than business can produce."

"The financial meltdown will help many businesses realize that their priorities have been artificially skewed towards making bankers and investors happy - and their communities less so."

He also proposes a new future for business and its need for money...We'll all be bankers.

"The beauty of this era - this networked, hi-tech and decentralized world  is that we no longer have to do everything from the center.  The laws and regulations requiring us to run our fiances and resources through tremendous industrial age corporations are more obsolete than ever."

"Once we accept the fact that the money and banks we have become accustomed to using are not the only ways to generate capital, we liberate our businesses and ourselves from a finance industry that has enjoyed a monopoly over our commerce for much too long."

He points to a real world example of a friend who couldn't get a loan from a bank to expand his restaurant business, so he went to his customers with an interesting proposition...

"He invented 'Comfort Dollars' that customers can buy at a discount of 20%.  If you spend $1000, you receive $1200 in 'Comfort Dollars' that can be spent at the restaurant.  John gets the cash infusion he needs to complete his expansion - and for less than the bank would charge him.  The community gets a 20% discount on food they would be buying anyway, as well as a chance to invest in making their town better."

Here's the pdf.
Download Futurenomics
Download Futurenomics2