So consumers have often shown their love for brands in a variety of ways, some more endearing than others.
At one point in time, the pinnacle when it came to a consumer showcasing their love and dedication to a brand may have been the simple act of cutting the logo of the brand in one’s hair.
This took the top haircut spot recently, surpassing the faux-hawk.
Not only is it another form of advertising for the brand, but hey, this looks pretty killer and who wouldn’t want a haircut like that whether they liked the brand or not, right?
Of course there is always getting a brands tattoo on you (oh and if you need help with that, just see our earlier post on how you can find a good tattoo parlor via your iPhone), but come on, that’s still not showing a brand the love they deserve.
Well, thanks to the gang over at The Onion, we now know that at least one consumer showed his true love for a brand recently. They reported that earlier this week in a Circle K convenience store in Redmond, OR, Bryce Thompkins proclaimed his devotion and love for the Pepsi brand. Apparently only a small group of employees and close friends were there to see the ceremony.
Details from The Onion’s report:
‘”I love Pepsi,” Tompkins vowed as he offered the clerk two crisp dollar bills, symbolizing his willingness to sacrifice for Pepsi, and received 71 cents in return, symbolizing the portion of the two dollars that Pepsi does not cost. “Always will.” The solemn union of man and flavored soda was commemorated by a small bit of printed paper, which Tompkins declined.’
Now I ask you as you read this, can you say that you show the same dedication and support to the brands you use and respect? Our connections with the brands we use everyday are changing and Mr. Thompkin’s actions are a testament to that. I’m will to bet that as brand advocacy by consumers continues to evolve in 2010, we’ll see more of these types of reports.
So in short, take a cue from Mr. Tompkins and show the brands you love, some love.
The 2012 Olympics so far have not failed to entertain with each announced design choice/uber-Britishy production number, and things over in England have just gotten a whole lot crazier. Meet the mascots, Wenlock and Mandeville:
The press have been particularly unkind to this newest Olympic development. Barry Petchesy, of the Deadspin blog, describes them thusly: “Wenlock and Mandeville, their cyclopean eyes representing England’s Big Brother police state, were unveiled today. You might as well just sacrifice your firstborn now and get it over with.” Both the Telegraph and The Independent have ridiculed the choice as well.
Waldi
Mascots were originally introduced during the 1972 Munich Summer Games with Waldi the Dachshund. Subsequent mascots have seen the full spectrum of acceptance, from the much-reviled Izzy (Atlanta 1996) to the recent superprecious Vancouver mascots. Olympic mascots are important for two reasons: the more altruistic Getting Kids Interested In Sports, and the more practical Merchandising Bucks (Wenlock and Mandeville will be sold as cyclopean digital cameras, among many other things).
Izzy and the Vancouver 2010 mascots
It will be interesting to see how the new 2012 mascots fit into the overall Olympic plan, till then my only question is, Why so angry-looking, Wenlock?
You know that feeling where you want some KFC so bad that you’ll do anything to get it? And if anything or anyone gets in your way, you’ll go crazy and start flipping tables/chairs or staging sit-ins right?
Well, imagine you want that KFC, you have a coupon you got off the internet and you go to get your chicken on and the staff at your local fried chicken establishment won’t take your coupon.
What else is there to do but cause a riot, right?
Hard to believe, but it happened in Japan last week. Next time someone has to be a bit more careful to ensure fraudulent digital coupons can’t be made. But hey, it shows digital couponing works if the offer is good enough!
So our fair city of Cincinnati has been getting dumped on this week by good old mother nature. I like snow, I don’t love it, but it could be a lot worse as evidence by the beating that Washington, DC has taken.
Now, I’m not a Meteorologist and the HQ blog sure isn’t a weather blog by any means….. but I can tell when people are excited about their jobs and bring a passion to their work and Jim Kosek @ Accuweather, you my friend, are that guy. Why am I posting this here, well, I guarantee you will laugh hysterically at the videos of this guy’s forecast.
Thanks to mother nature, Jim is getting all kinds of play due to his crazy antics and manner of presenting the weather. I’m coming across him on various newcasts talking about his manner of delivering the weather and online in blogs, twitter, etc. If this storm never happened, I don’t think I’d have found Jim.
If only we all had a local weather man who truly tells it like it is and makes the story fun/interesting when they tell it to you.
“The Center for Advanced Visual Studies is a community for contemporary art in the School of Architecture and Planning at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.”
OK, so it’s not a web or graphic design school, but still…WHAT. This website…it periodically reloads itself. The layout appears to be random. There are animated gifs. THIS IS A REAL PAGE. I’m baffled and sort of enthralled all at once.
Maybe that’s the point, aha! The website itself is meant as a “contemporary art piece,” (right?) a commentary on Internet and Art and Grid Systems and Whathaveyou. Whoa. It really kind of IS making me think. This reminds me of a recent episode of NBC’s Parks and Recreation, where Tom (who proudly declares, “I have no interest in art”) commissions an abstract expressionist painting, and finds as he really looks at it, that his opinion changes from derisive to admiring. “A piece of art caused me to have an emotional reaction. Is that normal?”
Related: a friend just reported that, while viewing the MIT site, his cat leapt from his shoulder to attack the computer screen.
So apparently, Friendster still exists. Yep, if you are an active user of social networking tools, you probably know what I’m talking about. For those who don’t know Friendster, it started in 2002 gaining traction quickly (heck, I signed up) but then quickly died with the arrival of MySpace and Facebook.
Today, apparently Friendster is HUGE in Asia where it has 100 million users. Crazy!
With so many social networking tools around these days, its both interesting and confusing that Friendster still has users and is actually valued at something. I guess that should be good news to all those fledgling social networking sites out there.
Frederic Tabary and Yann Falquerho have seriously outdone themselves with this one. An article posted by Hotel Chatter states that the duo, who own a company that rents out unusual venues to adventure-seekers, just opened a hotel that allows you to live like a hamster!
The hotel room comes complete with hamster outfits, a wheel, food bowl filled with grains and water bottle. The room is a pretty literal interpretation of an actual hamster cage but seems to be balanced with some minimalistic design choices to make it a little more attractive and appealing.
Just one of those rare occasions when an absolutely crazy idea somehow manages to be brought to life.
So I was shopping for vacuums yesterday with my dad when I spotted the newer, friendlier Eureka logo:
What is this business, I thought? You’ve gone from sturdy and reliable to I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter. (Though I guess Gen-X moms probably buy ICBINB?) Anyway, while I’m sure vacuums are difficult to market, as folks don’t buy them very often, this friendlification of every brand is starting to get on my Gen-Y non-mom nerves, and I began to gripe about this trend to my dad right there in the vacuum aisle. I managed to stop myself after he gave me one of those pained-but-humoring-me looks.
My web design side would also like to point out that the Eureka site is really nice except for that logo, which seems to have been swapped out post-launch. I’m sure their products are good, but personally I’d like to see branding that says “machine that’s not going to break in 6 months” (as tends to be my vacuum luck) more than “hooray, cleaning!”
So I ended up buying Bissell instead (because Dyson, wtf are those prices?!), abandoning Eureka for the aforementioned very shallow graphic reasons.
You have developed an innovative carbonated Omega-3 drink made with fruit and fish oil. You need a commercial, so you go to the nearest big city to meet with the local branch of a giant four-lettered ad conglomerate. They give you this and ask what you think:
