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Here’s a really lovely claymation video that charts the evolution of Adidas from Adi Dassler’s workshop through global domination. (Well, maybe not domination. There is that whole Nike thing.) Anyway,  Jesse Owens, Mark Gonzalez and, those anti-athletes, the Brit pop band Oasis make cameos.

adidas | Originals

• Consumer Reports’ Secret Shoppers Have Lots of Explaining to Do
  . In 2006 (last year’s numbers aren’t available yet), CR tested 3,377 products, drove 85 cars, purchased 572 tires, washed and dried 192 wrinkle-free shirts, and prepared 470 pounds of mashed potatoes. According to the magazine’s rigid ethics code, it all
  (tags: Shopping consumerreports)

• The McCain Article - New York Times
  The Times has received more than 2,000 comments, many of them criticizing the handling of the article. More than 4,000 questions were sent via e-mail to The Times on Thursday night and Friday. Editors and reporters who worked on the article answered some
  (tags: newyorktimes politics journalism media)
• Cartoon Brew: Leading the Animation Conversation » Spongebob Rectal Thermometer
  I was shopping at the supermarket yesterday when I came upon a unique piece of Nickelodeon merchandising - a Spongebob Squarepants Musical Rectal Thermometer! Yes, it’s musical.
  (tags: weird spongebob gadgets cartoons funny brand)

• Sony’s $500 headphones to hit U.S. | Crave : The gadget blog
  Available in April for around $500, the Sony PFR-V1 are a bizarre-looking solution to an age-old audiophile headphone dilemma: How do you recreate the superior sound stage characteristics of listening to full-size speakers, in a portable product that fits
  (tags: product music)
• Pitchfork: Ian Curtis, M.I.A., Common, Karen O Sell Converses
  We tend to associate Common with dapper headwear (and safe sex and vodka), but a new advertising campaign will use the MC’s likeness– as well as those of M.I.A., Sid Vicious, Karen O, Joan Jett, and Green Day’s Billie Joe Armstrong– to promote shoes.
  (tags: product sneakers concerse brand)
• The Torture Playlist
  Music has been used in American military prisons and on bases to induce sleep deprivation, “prolong capture shock,” disorient detainees during interrogations—and also drown out screams. Based on a leaked interrogation log, news reports, and the account
  (tags: music politics news iraq torture)

• Reebok’s New Kool-Aid Collection! - a photoset on Flickr
  Check out Reebok’s newest collection: the Kool-Aid collection! The first installment will launch on February 1st in three great flavors: Grape, Cherry and Strawberry, each complete with hoodies, T-shirts, hats and sneakers. Plus, Reebok packed each of t
  (tags: sneakers marketing brand reebok kool-aid)
• Shepard Fairey: Obey Obama | Creativity Online
  As the party primaries heat up and clear front runners begin to emerge, so too do the gaggles of enthusiastic endorsements for the remaining candidates. This week, Democratic hopeful Barack Obama received a significant nod of approval from a popular cultu
  (tags: art politics)

It shouldn’t come as a huge surprise that Facebook’s quarterlifish founder, Mark Zuckerberg, is looking for someone closer to the end of life to help him run a company that’s had something of a fall from grace of late. I’ve been thinking this is a fantastic idea at least since the “60 Minutes” segment on Zuckerberg last month. The dude might be a sort-of genius, but he’s flat-out terrible with the media, even journos that basically want to love him because the tale of wunderkind CEO is about the easiest business story in the world to tell.

The big problem with his approach to interviews is that he comes off like he’s running Blackwater rather than a company that’s predicated on connecting people and basically having fun. [Read more →]

• Unasked-For Advice to New Writers About Money
  Why am I offering this entirely unsolicited advice about money to new writers? Because it very often appears to me that regardless of how smart and clever and interesting and fun my fellow writers are on every other imaginable subject, when it comes to mo
  (tags: writing money business)
• Credit Scores: Not-So-Magic Numbers
  Greene also acknowledges that Fair Isaac had grown insular, even arrogant, over the years as its hold over the credit- scoring market strengthened. “Customers haven’t always liked the way we’ve behaved as a company,” he says. “We haven’t always been as cu
  (tags: debt)
• A Credit Card You Want to Toss
  Credit-card issuers have drawn fire for jacking up interest rates on cardholders who aren’t behind on payments, but whose credit score has fallen for another reason. Now, some consumers complain, Bank of America (BAC) is hiking rates based on no apparent
  (tags: credit)

• Bubblegeneration Strategy Lab
  Bubblegeneration, bubble generation, is a website about corporate strategy, business strategy, business models,
  innovation, venture capital, and theory from gurus like Michael Porter and Gary Hamel
  (tags: web2.0 blog business strategy advertising economics)

 I’d be remiss if I didn’t spread the word:

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE, PLEASE!
FEBRUARY 11, 2008

CONTACT: DEBBY LENING
(615) 860-4084

WOMEN’S FOOTBALL LEAGUE NOW TAKING APPLICATIONS
FOR 2009 EXPANSION TEAMS

The National Women’s Football Association, the largest tackle football league
in the world, has announced that applications are now available for 2009
expansion teams.

The league is looking to start new teams in many cities in the U.S. and
potential owners should call the NWFA office at (615) 860-4084 for information.

“We have found that by getting these expansion teams up and running early,
they have a better understanding and are much more prepared to play in our
league,” states league CEO and Founder, Catherine Masters.

The NWFA will kick off it’s 8th season on April 19 with 35 teams playing from
coast to coast.

The only downside to going to the Super Bowl is not seeing the ads in the context of the game. I just plowed through all the spots, posted here on AdAge.com, and have pulled together my thoughts on the five best and worst.

The Best:

1.  Careerbuilder. The jobs website had a few ads in the game,  the best of which is the one where a grim, desk-bound woman’s (computer-generated) heart crawls out of her chest and goes on to quit her job for her. Besides taking the whole follow-your-heart thing quite literally, the ad creates a striking and somewhat disgusting image and connects it to clear message about work life and, of course, the brand in question.

2. E-Trade. Allergic as I am to kids in movies, TV shows and commerical, the pair of E-Trade spots that dubs an adult trader dude’s monologue over a baby pictured speaking into a webcam about how easy it use to do trades really work. Best snippet of monologue: “Me and the boys were talking about what to do with the extra coin. I said I’m renting a clown.”

3. SalesGenie.com. Who would have thought that a bit of animated, borderline offensive ethnography as written by the CEO of a sales lead-generation company would actually work? Against all odds, the adventures of two Chinese-accented pandas named Ling Ling and Ching Ching and an Indian salesman named Ramesh (who speaks in a cartoonish Apu-like accent) are kind of engaging and surprisingly cute, despite all of the sociological sophistication of an old Warner Bros. cartoon. I’m not sure why the company would stray into such potentially offensive territory, but I’m glad they did.

4. Bridgestone. Speeding on a dark road, a driver avoids a deer and a lurking Alice Cooper, but a third potential target sets up a cosmic dilemma: Whether or not to run down the excruciating  human sight gag that is Richard Simmons. The driver chooses to just buzz the tower. Weird, funny, and beautifully done.

5. Procter & Gamble’s Tide-to-Go. The only reason this isn’t number-one is because it’s been in circulation for a while. The setting is a job interview in which an obnoxious stain keeps talking over a frustrated candidate dominating the interviewer’s attention. It’s a hilarious yet extremely relevant way to communicate the practical  benefits of nothing more exciting than a bleach pen.

[Read more →]