Rumours are being floated about Apple preparing to set up shop in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. They are, of course, just rumours as the building in question is currently occupied by the Salvation Army.
Being a Williamsburg resident, it would be massively convenient to have an Apple Store within walking distance. Not to mention a clean, public bathroom [...]

// a tale of New York, brands & branding, music
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It wouldn’t be my blog if I didn’t talk about the branding of nations.
This year’s Olympics were touted as China’s “coming out party.” Here they are, showing the world what they can do — showing the scale, precision, technology, tradition, coordination, planning, and slick execution of a massive event that took about 8 years, and [...]

// a tale of Britain, China, brands & branding, fashion, music, national identities, the internet
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Today I have the unexpected honour of being heavily quoted in an article on CreditCards.com. The author, Emily Starbuck Gerson, discusses celebrity credit cards, and why they generally don’t work. She interviewed me and I provided some memorable lines like this:
Having a celebrity-branded product is analogous to taking advice from that person. You might take [...]

// a tale of brands & branding, fashion, music, the internet
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Here’s something that I find odd, even by New York standards. First, a little backstory:

In recent times, the Empire State Building has gone batty for their coloured lights. You know, those segmented series of lights at the tippy-top of the building, just below the radio tower. It started innocent enough — red, white, and blue for [...]

// a tale of New York, music
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Oh, those British and their puns. Gotta love this new campaign for the Tube where the last names of popular singers are swapped and conjoined with the names of tube stations. Get it? Check out the mini-site from TfL.

But also take note of the visual pun of the Oyster Card as iPod. It’s worth it [...]

// a tale of Britain, advertising: print, brands & branding, computers & gadgets, design: product, music
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In the bizarro marketing moment of the week (possibly, month), Dr. Pepper has teamed up with internet musical sensation Tay Zonday to introduce a new product called “Cherry Chocolate Rain”. Perhaps stranger than the premise, is the method by which they display the product, an absurd mock-parody rap video. Trouble is, I can’t figure out [...]

// a tale of advertising: tv/radio, brands & branding, music, the industry
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You can’t walk down the street these days without being bombarded with celebrity imagery. Faces of the rich and famous and beautiful are plastered on buses, billboards, and magazine covers. Cashing in on celebrity status often means endorsing products and becoming part of the great consumer economy. We’ve seen it for years. Celebrity branding, as [...]

// a tale of WTF, brands & branding, fashion, music
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