What Hands Can Do

This spot for the Volkswagon Phaeton is over 8 months old, but it's still worth watching.
It's interesting to see how automotive companies handle "brand" advertising as opposed to hard sell feature-driven product advertising.

Every once in awhile it's enjoyable to see a car ad that has no car in it.

As is the case below:



Grabarz & Partner Werbeagentur GmbH, of Hamburg, Germany, took an auteur approach to their Gold-winning TV spot for the Volkswagen Phaeton. Filmed in black and white, the commercial uses silhouette shadows of hands to create an otherworldly universe of swans, blooming plants and other ethereal creatures. The montage clears back to a simple shadow of hands to reveal the question "Isn't It Beautiful What Hands Can Do?" The hands then close in on the phrase and open up to reveal the car and the text “Phaeton. Hand Made Perfection."

credits:
Agency: Grabarz & Partner Werbeagentur, Hamburg, Germany
Creative Directors: Ralf Heuel, Ralf Nolting
Art Director: Christoph Stricker
Copywriter: Paul von Muehlendahl
Production Company: Deli pictures postproduction
Director: Michael Reissinger
Flame artist: Melissa Panek
Music: Beatsucht, Florian Lakenmacher, David Paulicke

1,200 Marketers Can’t Be Wrong: The Future Is in Consumer Behavior

From the New York Times

By STUART ELLIOTT

Published: October 15, 2007

Al Gore, fresh from winning the Nobel Peace Prize, stayed on his marketing theme.

Consumer behavior as a route to effective marketing was a central focus of the largest gathering ever of an influential trade organization.

The 1,200 people who attended the 97th annual conference of the Association of National Advertisers, held here from Thursday through yesterday, heard speaker after speaker address the growing popularity of what is known as behavioral targeting, as opposed to basing pitches on consumer attitudes, opinions or perceptions.

The ability of new media to monitor what consumers are doing — like keeping track of which Web sites they visit — is fueling the interest in behavioral targeting. Several speakers also described how they were using traditional media to more precisely aim advertising at consumers based on behavior, through steps like tailored television commercials.

The Microsoft Corporation is investing in “well-targeted advertising,” said Steven A. Ballmer, chief executive, “as aggressively as we’ve ever invested in anything.” Its acquisitions include the $6 billion purchase in August of aQuantive, a leader in online advertising.

“What’s the joke about the egg and bacon breakfast, ‘Who’s more committed, the pig or the chicken?’” he added. “We’re the pig at the breakfast; we’re committed to the future of digital advertising.”

Rather than fearing the arrival of technology companies like Microsoft into the ad business, Mr. Ballmer said, marketers ought to realize “there’s an exciting future for all of us.”

“The more we know about customer behavior, the more every ad is relevant,” he added, and relevance improves the chances that a consumer will pay attention to an ad.

For example, as more TV sets are “fed with intelligent signals that come over the Internet,” Mr. Ballmer said, advertisers will be able to deliver personalized marketing messages based on online searches. The fact that his wife has been searching online for tile for their beach house could lead to a commercial for Italian tile turning up amid the beer and car spots as they watch TV sports together on a Sunday afternoon, he said.

A commercial like that would not typically be expected during a Seahawks game, he added, “but it’s in context — not in the context of the show, but in the context of her behavior.”

Roger W. Adams, senior vice president and chief marketing officer at Home Depot, described how his company regarded its Web site as “a learning laboratory” as it spent more time and money “on understanding our customer better.”

One finding was that “the underlying component of the emotional connection to the brand is the power of ‘I did it,’” he added, “as the ownership of your home becomes very personal because you created something” after buying materials for do-it-yourself projects at a Home Depot store.

“We’re experimenting with a lot of behavioral targeting, online and offline,” Mr. Adams said in an interview after his speech, in moving away from a “one size fits all” approach using ads in mass media like TV and print.

As a retailer, he added, Home Depot has the advantage of access to “individual customer purchase history” as it seeks to customize ads.

“There are different messages in different media for different consumers,” Mr. Adams said. “It’s incredibly complex, but that’s the way it is.”

For instance, he said, Home Depot has achieved positive returns by segmenting its campaigns for the Hispanic market, creating ads for “acculturated Hispanics” — those who are second- or third-generation Americans — that differ from ads for consumers who almost always speak Spanish.

Robert C. Lachky, executive vice president for global industry development and chief creative officer at Anheuser-Busch, discussed in an interview how his company, like Home Depot, is segmenting its customers.

Anheuser-Busch is taking “a bit of a deeper dive,” he added, going beyond factors like age, gender and ethnicity to aim at customers through “use occasions.”

For example, a beer drinker might order a domestic light beer while watching a baseball game at a sports bar and a full-flavor import while on a date at a nice restaurant.

Anheuser-Busch sought to tap into the power of the Internet this year with an ambitious online project that offered entertainment programming at a Web site named bud.tv. But visitor traffic fell far below initial predictions, and the content is being rethought.

The programming “had nothing to do with our brands,” Mr. Lachky said during his speech. “Branded content is what the consumer wants, and it’s what we’ll use that space for.”

For example, a video clip called “Swear Jar,” which was recently added to the Web site (and is shown below), shows how a company’s employees start to enthusiastically lace their conversations with obscenities after learning that the money being collected every time they curse will go to “buy something for the office, like a case of Bud Light.”

The previous highest turnout for the association’s annual conference was last year, when nearly 1,000 people attended. The sharp gains since 2002, when attendance bottomed out at around 250, followed a change in leadership at the association, which has 400 member companies, and the recruitment of widely known speakers from giant companies.

•

This year, the roster also included Wendy Clark, senior vice president for advertising at AT&T; James R. Stengel, global marketing officer at Procter & Gamble; and Al Gore.

Mr. Gore spoke on Saturday, a day after he learned he would share the 2007 Nobel Peace Prize for his work on raising awareness about climate change. But his speech was not about global warming, politics or the awards he has received, which include an Emmy and an Oscar.

Rather, Mr. Gore, who was greeted with a standing ovation, wore his hat as the chairman and co-founder, with Joel Hyatt, of Current TV, a cable network and Web sites (current.tv and current.com) that offer younger viewers the chance to create programming and commercials.

Mr. Gore played for the audience examples of Current TV programs and “V-Cams,” or viewer-created advertising messages, for sponsors like L’Oréal, Sony, T-Mobile and Toyota.

Mr. Gore was invited months ago to address the conference, which carried the theme “Transforming the Marketing Landscape.”

Still, said Robert D. Liodice, president and chief executive of the association, it was Mr. Gore’s choice to stick with his speech, titled “Consumer-Generated Media: The New Marketing Paradigm,” rather than discuss global warming or the Nobel Prize. The four questions Mr. Gore answered after his remarks were also limited to marketing.

Sony Bravia's Bunnies- A Rip off? You tell me.

So, like many bloggers this morning, I came across this wonderful ad and was going to post it as follows:

Fabulous new stop-motion animation with Clay Bunnies for Sony's Bravia tv:



Credits
Title: Play-Doh
Client: Sony Bravia
Ad agency: Fallon, London
Creative director: Juan Cabral
Executive creative director: Richard Flintham
Agency producer: Nicky Barnes
Account director: Ben Cyzer
Director: Frank Budgen
Production company: Gorgeous Enterprises
Producer: Rupert Smythe
Song: Rolling Stones, She's Like A Rainbow

And, of course, the making of:



And then the controversy began!

At first I thought that the post on Gizmondo was an overreaction.

Given that I'm an Advertising Creative/Art Director (yes, that's my "real" job) I was ready to defend creatives in the business for often using artists as their source of "inspiration". Something that has been happening in all art forms for centuries. After all, Kozyndan's work is clearly inspired by Hokusai, so why can't Fallon London be inspired by Kozyndan?


Above: Kozyndan's Bunny Tsunami


Above: Hokusai's Wave

Given that this is not Sony Bravia's first spot to use lots of colorful animation as a metaphor for a good color television, and that Kozyndan works in a static medium and this is tv, I thought maybe they initially intended to use Kozyndan as the actual animator (which, perhaps is why they requested samples of his work).

After all, I could see the process happening as such. But then decided that "illustration' wasn't a good metaphor for high def tv, so they decided to go with stop motion animation.

This is all a guess from having sat through hundreds of pre-production meetings.

But then the ugly comments began to appear. And frankly, I'm not sure how I feel now.

Do you think the spot should have credited Kozydan? Do you think it should say "Inspired by Kozydan? but then should it really say "Inspired by Kozydan, who was inspired By Hokusai"?

First from Gizmodo:

Sony Bastards Ripped Off the Bunny Tsunami Ad

What the Hell. When I saw this morning's post on the awesome Sony Bravia Bunny Ad, featuring multi-hued rabbits climbing through a cityscape transforming into a tidalwave, I assumed it was the work of my favorite artists, the LA-based kozyndan. By my front door, I have a framed print of one of their limited edition NYC bunny panoramics, which I've put below. Aside from this, they're probably best known for reworking of Hokusai's "Great Wave off Kana gawa" with bunnies inserted in the place of the white wash, which was featured on a Giant Robot magazine cover. I was only half right about kozyndan's involvement with this Sony project, unfortunately. They were robbed: For pretty damning proof, watch the video, and read on.

Apparently, the Passion Pictures animation studio ripped off kozyndan's after requesting samples of their work and never called them back. Dan just wrote me an email about it to confirm that this is pretty much the story, at least from their side.

I hear this happens often in advertising, but that doesn't make it fucking right. I guess it's not Sony's fault, but they should at least get their money back or get Passion Pictures to give a fair chunk to the artists. I'm pissed and not sure what I, or anyone else can do about it. Thoughts? [Passion Pictures vs KozyNDan]

Then from Core77:

Will the Real Bunnies Please Stand Up?

Posted by: Michael Doyle on Friday, October 05 2007

Why does that new Bravia ad look so familiar? Oh, right... KozyNDan did it years ago.

Here's what they say:
Its hard to think that people at Passion Pictures did not have this early panoramic of ours in mind when they created this new spot for the SONY Bravia line.

To add insult to injury, someone from Passion Pictures contacted us almost two years ago asking to see samples of our work (including this panoramic) as they were interested in working with us. We sent them samples and then heard nothing from them ever again. (It should be noted though, that the more likely culprit is the ad firm who hired Passion Pictures, Fallon.)

Still, its a clever ad.

Related: the original Bunny Tsunami for Giant Robot

It's not like KozyNDan are so outside of mainstream media that nobody would eventually notice. I still love the ad, but this certainly takes some of the magic away. I've seen it happen so many times at big agencies - there is little regard for the line between inspiration and flat-out plagiarism, and often a complete lack of conscience or even understanding why it's wrong. (Some people call it "business", but psychiatrists call this kind of behavior "psychopathy".)

And comments from Kozyndan himself.

so what do you think? Vote in the above poll and let me know.

'Gina Ads Are All The Rage. Or: How Coochies Sell Cosmetics

Or, better yet, Scent of a Woman: Now available in a bottle.

Please be aware that the following post is not 'porn' but is sexually suggestive and should not be viewed by those under the age of 18.

Last week, Tom Ford debuted a new campaign which featured his newest Men's Fragrance directly between the legs of a naked, and nicely waxed, woman.



The campaign has been controversial for obvious reasons and as you can see below, what has run in the US publications is a tamer, less titillating version of the actual photographs.

Below are the original photographs for Tom Ford's campaign shot by Terry Richardson.
These are the uncropped photos and are not marred with giant logos.
The ads ran cropped and with the logos, of course. As you will see below.






and below are the actual produced ads that are presently running in the fashion pubs:





I fear he has started a trend.



Now, a German company Vivaeros has a product called Vulva.
And although the site, shots, and ads seem like a 'spoof' on the Tom Ford work, the company insists the product is for real. They describe it as a "beguiling vaginal scent" and is selling it both as a fragrance for men to wear seemingly to bring them pleasure in the absence of the real thing and for women to wear during intercourse to stimulate their own pleasure.





Below is their HILARIOUS tv spot (I still can't believe this isn't a spoof):



Tagline in their tv spot? Smell me and Cum. Hence the url: smellmeand.com

Below is a clip from Jonathan Ross of the BBC as he talks about "Vulva". Please be patient for the download, the file is 11 megs.:



If you're going to the site, it's full of nudity, so please view at your own discretion and only if you are 18+ years of age.
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About Tom Ford's Controversial new ad campaign from WWD:
Though the designer took a more demure approach in his original ad campaign for his new fragrance, he's decided to shock the masses once again, switching images shot by Marilyn Minter in April for racier photographs of a dewy woman's body taken by Terry Richardson. The photos range from tame to titillating — the most shocking being the Tom Ford for Men bottle wedged between a woman's glistening thighs, with the bottle barely covering her bare genitalia. "We loved the original Marilyn Minter images, but while on a shoot with [Richardson] in Milan, we decided that a sharper, more graphic approach clearly communicated the bold and provocative mood of the fragrance," said a spokeswoman for Tom Ford Beauty, a division of the Estée Lauder Cos. Inc.

Want some Hi -res vaginas on your desktop?

You can download the Tom Ford ads as wallpaper for those of you who want to see a large brazilian wax staring back at you from your computer. Click here for the downloads of Tom Ford wallpaper here.

Or the Vulva Wallpaper downloads here.

Trendwatching tips & Insights

the article below is reprinted from trendwatching and is part of a long series

How about: “A statistically significant change in performance of measured data which is unlikely to be due to a random variation in the process.” That won't get the creative juices going. So consider the following definition, which we (trendwatching.com) came up with years ago and which still holds pretty well:

A manifestation of something that has unlocked or newly serviced an existing (and hardly ever changing) consumer need,* desire, want, or value.

At the core of this statement is the assumption that human beings, and thus consumers, don’t change that much. Their deep needs remain the same, yet can be unlocked or newly serviced. The ‘unlockers’ can be anything from changes in societal norms and values, to a breakthrough in technology, to a rise in prosperity.

Example? One of the core human needs is to be in control, or at least to have the illusion of being in control. No wonder then, that the online world is so addictive. After all, it firmly puts the individual in the driver’s seat.

Just give it a try: apply the above definition to your daily spottings and observations of how consumers behave, and how that behaviour is forever changing, and you will find that many seemingly unconnected business success stories will start to make sense. Successful innovations often satisfy existing, dormant needs in new and attractive ways.

* P.S. Need to brush up on your knowledge of human needs? Re-reading Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs never hurts.

It’s hard to find two people who share the same language when it comes to trend watching. Here are a few common misperceptions. Not complete by far, so add your own:

Predicting next year’s colours. Trend watching is about more than spotting the next colour, fabric or hot designer. Sure, black may be back, and miniskirts may re-conquer the catwalks in 2009, but the consumer arena is infinitely more complicated than that. In other words, fashion in all its variety, excitement, and pioneering business models is just another part of the world of consumer trends. In no way does it define consumer trends.

Gazing into a crystal ball. Trend watching isn't about ‘hard-core’ futurism, either. Better leave gazing into a crystal ball, predicting what's going to happen 15 to 20 years from now, to futurists and scenario planning departments. Trend watching is about observing and understanding what’s already happening, the major and the minor, the mainstream and the fringe. In our case in the consumer and business arena.

Declaring the pizza cone an emerging consumer trend. We still get asked a million times about how to distinguish between trends and fads. A pizza cone is a fun product, but it won’t dramatically change the consumer arena. At most, it’s yet another manifestation that consumers want convenience no matter what. The latter is the trend. The product isn’t.

Applying all trends to all people. Don’t fall for this one. One massive mistake both trend spotters and brands make all the time, is to assume or pretend that a certain consumer trend will affect or be embraced by ALL consumers. No. Remember, in life and in trends: beauty is in the eye of the beholder. The above HSBC ad illustrates it well. Whatever catches your fancy while spotting and tracking trends, please remember that not everything applies to everyone, and that virtually every trend has its anti-trend.

Furthermore, the new doesn’t always kill the old. E-commerce may be booming, but real world retail is far from dead. Has the latter changed? Sure. But take one look at excited shoppers and TRYSUMERS spending hours in Apple’s flagship store in New York and it becomes clear that both online and offline retail have many years of innovation and opportunity ahead of them. In trends, always try to figure out what the ‘AND’ is, not just the ‘OR’, and your trend (and opportunity) spotting skills will improve immensely.

Those who watch trends have to possess some rare kind of intuition. Not true. This isn't brain surgery, nor is it rocket science. Observing the world around you, with an open mind, is something many professionals have unlearned, but not something they aren’t born with. If you want to spot trends, you can.

New Chanel Campaign breaks with Keira Knightly

Hot from the newswire:

NEW YORK, 12 (UPI) -- British actress Keira Knightley has reunited with her "Pride & Prejudice" director, Joe Wright, for a short film called "Coco Mademoiselle."

In it, the Oscar-nominated screen star plays the role of a modern-day incarnation of French style icon Coco Chanel.

"Coco Chanel's strong personality, her bold temperament and her charisma were impressive," Knightley said in a statement. "There was no one like her in the world ... her impact went beyond fashion and transformed society by liberating women in both a real and figurative sense."



Shot in five days in Paris, the short film was directed by Wright and overseen by Chanel artistic director Jacques Helleu, the man who has developed the image of Chanel for 40 years.

The film's theme song, "L-O-V-E" is performed by Grammy Award winner Joss Stone.

A national cable television flight of 30- and 60-second spots is scheduled to debut Sept. 24 through Oct. 7. but you can see it now if you can't wait, by clicking here.

In April 2006, Knightley became the new face of Chanel, starring in high-profile advertising campaigns and following in the footsteps of Nicole Kidman, Ali McGraw, Catherine Deneuve, Vanessa Paradis and Anna Mouglalis.

© Copyright United Press International. All Rights Reserved.



excerpt below from the NY Times:
The public will be able to start watching the commercial later this week on the special Web site, which will then be renamed cocomademoiselle.com. The spot will subsequently make its way onto Web sites like mtv.com and vh1.com as well as onto television, including Chanel’s first buys of commercial time on American broadcast networks in 15 years.

The campaign for Coco Mademoiselle is being created internally at Chanel by executives who include Jacques Helleu, the company’s longtime artistic director. An interactive agency, the Vanksen Group, is working with the internal creative team on the digital elements of the campaign.

The campaign has a worldwide budget of at least $10 million, according to the trade publication Women’s Wear Daily. Chanel executives are not discussing the budget nor how much of it is being devoted to online initiatives, but it clearly is far more than the company has ever spent in cyberspace.
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below are a few example of the online component which goes into great depth about the style and the items in the apartment of "Mademoiselle":










and there's some neat 'behind-the-scenes' stuff on the site as well:





Click here and check it out for yourself.

So Much Global, Don't Forget Local

STILL MADE HERE

(reprinted from trendwatching.com)


Last month, Trendwatching discussed TRANSPARENCY TYRANNY. The month before that, it was all about CROWD CLOUT. Two trends firmly rooted in the online revolution, offering further proof that the most disruptive innovations are now to be found online.

However, that’s not to say the bricks-and-mortar world has become an innovation backwater. Two mega-trends of our time, the greening of consumption and the proliferation of alternative status symbols, hold the promise of vast new riches for real-world entrepreneurs, while wreaking havoc on those that lag behind. Which brings us to the (STILL) MADE HERE trend: the comeback of all things local, all things with a sense of place, and how they're surfacing in a world dominated by globalization.

“(STILL) MADE HERE encompasses new and enduring manufacturers and purveyors of the local. In a world that is seemingly ruled by globalization, mass production and ‘cheapest of the cheapest’, a growing number of consumers are seeking out the local, and thereby the authentic, the storied, the eco-friendly and the obscure.”

In this briefing, they (trendwatching) focus on three big drivers behind this trend — social responsibility, status and support. There are more, but we'll save those for a future update. Oh, and don’t worry, we’re not going to wax on for hours and hours about farmers' markets ;-)

Now, let’s start with everyone's favorite 800-pound gorilla: social responsibility, from eco to ethics.

Eco and ethics

Global vs. local

THE story of 2006, 2007, 2008 and many years to come? Consumers, governments and business leaders are finally feeling the pressure to confront and act upon the fact that unbridled production and consumption comes with mounting pollution and at a significant human/animal/earth cost. Now, since virtually every think tank, trend firm, eco-blog, former US presidential candidate and oil company has chimed in on the issue, we'll refrain from rehashing endless studies and scenarios on the globe's future. Instead, we'll focus on one sub-trend — locality — that is still emerging and as such can offer brands additional inspiration to come up with new goods, services and experiences that are part of the solution, not the problem.

Let's start with 'eco'. Now that carbon footprinting has become a household term in mature consumer societies, expect consumers' desire to find out about the origins of a product to become a given. Questions no one ever asked a few years ago will become an integral part of the purchasing process. How was the product made? By whom? How did it get to its point of sale? What effects on the environment will it have after purchasing?

Increasingly, this transparency will pit distant production against local production. Above all, local production holds the promise of less pollution due to less transport. And, in prosperous and regulated nations, chances of inhumane labor practices are smaller, too.

A slew of projects and publications are fanning the current debate on local versus global production. Not too surprising, it’s the food and beverage sector — which can be both closest to, and most removed from nature — that finds itself at the forefront of the eco-meets-local debate, while the apparel industry (sweatshop, anyone?) is feeling the impact of ethics-meets-local more than any other industry.

To stick with our promise to not repeat too much that others have already effectively investigated, we'll gladly refer you to the books and projects below: they all deal with the specifics of how local consumption may (or may not!) trump more wasteful global activities.






Life story labels

Now, to stick to our usual approach, let's look at some brands that are already experimenting with attaching ‘life story labels' to their products, satisfying consumers who are ready to spend their dollars, euros, pounds and yens on whatever does the least harm:



UK supermarket Tesco plans to introduce carbon footprint labels on all 70,000 products it sells to allow shoppers to compare carbon impacts. Implementation will take a while: the company is currently investigating how to develop a “universally accepted and commonly understood” measuring system.




Last year, footwear manufacturer Timberland started placing a "nutritional label" on each shoe box, educating consumers about the product they are purchasing, including where it was manufactured, how it was produced and what effect it has on the environment. Nice touch: messaging inside the box asks customers "what kind of footprint will you leave?" and provides a call to action for them after purchase. Hey, it takes two to tango!




Dole Organic lets consumers “travel to the origin of each organic product”. By typing in a fruit sticker's three-digit Farm Code on Dole Organic's website, customers can read background info, view photos of the farm and workers and learn more about the origin of Dole products.



What works for bananas, works for eggs. Aptly naming their site wheresyoursfrom, UK-based Chippindale Foods was the first company to offer customers full egg traceability. Also check out intermediary MyFreshEgg, which aims to be bringing the same services to a host of farms and egg producers.




And the examples keep rolling in: from Nature and More to Lloyd Maunder West Country to Aceites Borges Olive Oil.

The latter gives each bottle of olive oil a Numero de Lote (batch number), informing customers about the geographic origin of the olives, the pressing date, oil producer, place of pressing, liters bottled under the same batch number, date of bottling, degree of acidity, tasting score and tasting notes.



Next for these 'life story' labels? Integration with ‘supply-chain’ codes like barcodes, QR codes and RFID, of course. Which will really take flight when, as is already the case in Japan, millions of consumers have code reading software on their camera-phones. Which means that infinite amounts of information (including images and videos) can be 'attached' to products, satisfying even the most seriously INFOLUSTY consumers. To be continued, though probably not a bad idea to start mapping out your product life stories strategy as soon as possible?
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Taking back production

Now, books and labels are fun, but how about setting up entirely new (STILL) MADE HERE ventures? Expect local companies to take back production that's currently based in regions less concerned with eco and ethics. Some examples:



American Apparel The most famous advocate of (STILL) MADE HERE deals with ethical concerns in a radical way: by manufacturing its garments in… high-cost LA. American Apparel now operates the country's largest garment factory, employs more than 5,000 people and operates 145 retail locations in 11 countries. Workers are paid (on average) USD 12 an hour, almost twice as much as California's minimum wage.




American Apparel isn't the only brand to do so: NoSweatApparel calls itself the pioneer of fair trade fashion and footwear, setting (in their own words) an empowered, unionized workforce as the gold standard for fair trade clothing.



And for those of you needing more proof that (STILL) MADE HERE can be profitable and sexy: Ujena offers one of the largest selections of swimwear in the world, yet still manufactures its products in the United States.



Back to edibles: Dutch start-up Happy Shrimp is Europe’s first tropical shrimp farm, located in the very non-tropical port of Rotterdam. Promising fresh (‘superfresh’) shrimp, aimed at local restaurants, the business is taking on low cost shrimp farming in Asia. It does so by smartly capitalizing on trends that the competition may find hard to latch on to.

First of all, Happy Shrimp is thoroughly eco-friendly. Its farm is located next to a power plant and benefits from a heat-exchange system, using waste heat that would otherwise be released into the air. Farm waste, meanwhile, is used in a biological filter bed (many existing shrimp farms in the southern hemisphere pollute coastal wetlands).

Secondly, Happy Shrimp promises demanding consumers that the food on their plate is safe and unpolluted. An ISO 22,000 system is implemented throughout the whole process, while the farm is a closed recirculation system, which means nothing can enter or exit.

Thirdly, as the current trend in food and beverage is all about freshness, with supermarkets increasingly shifting from packed and canned goods to fresh, if not produced on the premises offerings (STILL MADE HERE indeed!), Happy Shrimps prides itself on being able to deliver shrimp to local restaurants within hours after ‘harvesting’, without freezing or month-long travels on mega-freighters. To feast on Happy Shrimp, locals will have to wait until the end of this year: the first baby shrimps arrived at the farm early May, and they’ll be ready for consumption this Christmas.



To completely eliminate transit between source and table — and the need for egg traceability labels — British Omlet brings hens to consumers' gardens and fresh eggs to their table every morning. The company designed a hen kit for urban and suburban gardens, aimed at first-time chicken owners, families and eco-savvy individuals. How it works? Omlet supplies organically reared and fully vaccinated female chickens (no early morning cock-a-doodle-doo), at a cost of GBP 365 (USD 700 / EUR 550). The two-hen service comes complete with an Eglu, an eye-catching, 21st century version of the henhouse. In its first three years of business, the company sold 10,500 Eglus and is now also offering a larger version, the Eglu Cube, capable of housing up to 10 chickens.


Read the rest of this interesting article here or copy and paste the following into your browser.
www.trendwatching.com/trends/stillmadehere.htm

Now You Can Mine Debeers Diamonds Online

It's June. The month of marriage and weddings. Therefore, this month, there will be posts occasionally dedicated to those who are tying the knot. So, let's start at the beginning, shall we? With the traditional purchase of the rock/stone/bling/ice/diamond......



DeBeers Enters The World of E-Commerce



Last week Luxist mentioned the expansion of Blue Nile's diamonds for sale online, now the diamond behemoth DeBeers is finally joining the internet jewelry business. WWD reports that DeBeers is launching e-commerce on their website. The company will let you spend up to $30,000 for a diamond engagement ring (1.5 carat center stone with two side stones) so far, with plans to let people spend more in the future. The website doesn't include everything that is available in their brick-and-mortar stores, focusing instead on products that are easier to buy without seeing in person such as diamond earrings or tennis bracelets. For pieces from the High Jewelry collection, such as the Grey and Orange Diamond Ring shown above (11.5 carats of white and fancy-colored diamonds set in platinum) you will still need to make an appointment to see the goods in person. For DeBeers, the good news is that unlike opening a brick-and-mortar store, no one shows up to protest when you open up online.



Article from Women's Wear Daily below:
By Sophia Chabbott

De Beers and its diamonds are entering cyberspace.

This month, De Beers Diamond Jewelers, the joint venture between South African mining firm De Beers SA and luxury conglomerate LVMH Moët Hennessy Louis Vuitton, is launching e-commerce on its Web site at debeers.com.



E-commerce will be exclusive to the U.S. market and will offer diamond jewelry ranging from a $500 gold pendant detailed with diamonds to a $30,000 engagement ring with a 1.5-carat center stone flanked by two side stones. Prices will climb higher than $30,000 in the future.

The launch comes at a time when luxury goods, namely designer apparel, fine jewelry and handbags, are selling strongly on the Internet on sites such as neimanmarcus.com, Net-a-porter.com and eBay.

The jewelry Web site Bluenile.com has gotten lots of attention and considers itself the largest online retailer of certified diamonds, while smaller Web sites such as Angara.com specialize in novelty diamond jewelry, such as a bib necklace featuring fancy yellow and white diamonds, that climbs well over the $100,000 mark.

Many such sites say engagement rings are top sellers and that consumers can save up to 40 percent shopping online rather than purchasing in a brick-and-mortar store.



De Beers' site offers no such discount incentive, but rather access to the firm's branded jewelry in cities where it doesn't have stores.

The six-year-old brand opened its first store in the U.S. in 2005, on Fifth Avenue in Manhattan. Stores in Beverly Hills and Las Vegas soon followed. Additional units are on deck, including a 1,353-square-foot shop in Houston set to open in August, and a 4,700-square-foot store in San Francisco and a 2,082-square-foot location in Washington, both planned for November. The firm has 14 stores outside the U.S., including locations in London, Paris and Dubai and expects to have 28 to 30 stores internationally by the year's end. But it's the middle of the country that chief executive Guy Leymarie anticipates will drive the site's sales thanks to the brand's cachet.

"Today, e-commerce is clearly the new route [for selling], including goods like diamonds," said Leymarie. "It suits a new concept, a new behavior. [We're] not only [offering] entry prices, but also the very high end."


While competitors like Tiffany & Co. and Cartier have extensive Web sites where consumers can view anything from watches to jewelry, diamond engagement rings are only sold in-store. Cartier doesn't sell online, but Tiffany does.

Leymarie said the firm started its e-commerce effort with the U.S. because the country consumes the most diamonds of any other place on the planet.

De Beers' designer collections, Talisman and Radiance, will also be sold on the site, in addition to classic styles like tennis bracelets and studs.


Above: Necklace from the Talisman Collection available online


"The products that we put on the site are what we consider products that are easy to buy," he added. "For more complex stones or pieces that require more explanation, we'll invite [consumers] to the store for a more complete retail experience so they can benefit from the knowledge of our staff."

All diamonds on the site include De Beers Passport, guaranteeing the provenance of the diamond.


Above: Guy Leymarie

Leymarie declined to give sales projections for the e-commerce business, but said branding is key to the initiative.

"When you think diamonds, you think of De Beers," he said. "Our heritage is not denied. We have a brand name with a very high level of awareness."

Some industry watchers said offering its goods online could take brand awareness to an even higher level.

"Obviously, e-commerce has exploded in a variety of different areas. Some had strong fits and starts," said Andrew Jassin, managing director of Jassin & O'Rourke Group, a New York industry consulting firm. "Being that De Beers is a cornerstone of the diamond business and the luxury business, there's a possibility that they may be more successful than others. [However], the fact is that most customers accustomed to buying luxury jewelry purchases need to feel [the products] and see them to complete the purchase. To a large degree, De Beers in this country is not so well-known. The Web-based business can improve the knowledge of who De Beers is."

Arnold Aronson, managing director of retail strategies at Kurt Salmon Associates, said by democratizing diamond engagement rings via selling online, De Beers has the opportunity to grow its business significantly.


above: Rings from the Talisman Collection available online

The company has been trying to expand so that it is not only known for diamond stud earrings and engagement rings, but as a diamond jewelry house. Hollywood jeweler Neil Lane designs a collection for the firm and British jeweler Stephen Webster, who is known for his sense of rock 'n' roll and bedecking Madonna in his Gothic-inspired pieces, has just signed on to do a men's line.

In October, De Beers is slated to introduce a watch line in conjunction with a Swiss manufacturer. The watches will be within the Talisman collection, which focuses on rough, uncut diamonds.

Doublecheck that URL before you buy it! Or Speed Of Art will be Speedo Fart!

Sometimes, some of us get 'too close' to our work and we are unable to view it with fresh eyes. So before you go buying that url, I suggest you type it out and have someone else read it. Why? Read on...

I've been helping a client of mine name his company as well as find an available url for him. One of his suggestions was to name his company O Incorporated. Never mind the multitude of reasons why that name is both wrong, inappropriate and 'taken' by Oprah, Overstock, Cirque Du Soleil, etc.. but the fact that his url would have read as www.oinc.com (oink!) was something I had to bring to his attention as well.

Which brings me to the hilarious and real URLs below brought to my attention by Sean Alvarez of www.watchmylistings.com

Read on...

ACTUAL "ONLINE" NAMES:
All of these are legitimate companies that didn't spend quite enough
time considering how their online names might appear .... and be misread.

These are not made up. Check them out yourself!

1. Who Represents is where you can find the name of the agent that
represents any celebrity. Their Web site is http://www.whorepresents.com/

2 . Experts Exchange is a knowledge base where programmers can exchange
advice and views at http://www.expertsexchange.com/

3. Looking for a pen? Look no further than Pen Island at http://www.penisland.net/

4. Need a therapist? Try Therapist Finder at http://www.therapistfinder.com/

5. There's the Italian Power Generator company, http://www.powergenitalia.com/

6. And don't forget the Mole Station Native Nursery in New South Wales,
www .molestationnursery.Com

7. If you're looking for IP computer software, there's always www .ipanywhere.Com

8. The First Cumming Methodist Church Web site is http://www.cummingfirst.com/

9. And the designers at Speed of Art await you at their wacky Web site,
http://www.speedofart.com/

And I'm still chuckling over Powergenitalia! Speedo Fart sends me into giggles as well.

Menacing or Marketing? D&G's Controversial Ad

Above: The ad that caused the controversy: Fantasy Gang Rape?




Above: The ad they seem to be running instead

Below article reprinted from MSN NBC

By Susanna Schrobsdorff
Newsweek

March 6, 2007 - The fashion design duo behind Dolce & Gabbana announced today that they are pulling a controversial print advertisement from publications worldwide following protests in Spain, and, egads, their home turf of Italy. The photo features a blank looking young woman in a bathing suit and high heels being pinned down by a glossy shirtless man while four other men look on.

Is the image glorifying gang rape or tapping into a sexual fantasy?
That may still be up for debate in some quarters. But Kim Gandy, president of the National Organization for Women says the ad indisputably promotes violence against women and has put it at the top of their Web site's page of offensive advertisements. Meanwhile, Stefano Gabbana says that he regrets the way the ad was perceived and insists that he and his partner Domenico Dolce were not intending to demean women. He adds that the image is artistic and was meant to "recall an erotic dream, a sexual game."

Provocative images have been a staple for D&G, whose other ads have featured sexy scenes including one of a nude man lying down while several other clothed men look on seductively. Another ad, which was pulled last year from British publications, featured women brandishing knives. The most recent controversy broke out last month when the Spanish government demanded that D&G's "fantasy rape" ads be withdrawn. The country was coping with a wave of crimes against women at the time and public outrage was high. The designers complied, but said that Spain was "behind the times." That claim got harder to maintain on Friday when 13 Italian senators also demanded that the photo be taken out of circulation. On Tuesday, Stefano Gabbana said that they did not mean to "cause controversy," and were pulling the ads. But when is an onslaught of attention ever bad for a company looking to stay on fashion's leading edge?

We asked Kim Gandy at NOW in Washington and Stefano Gabbana in Milan, Italy, about the ad and about that elusive line between sexy and exploitative. (Gabbano responded via e-mail.)


Above: Dolce & Gabbana

Excerpts:

STEFANO GABBANA

NEWSWEEK: Were you surprised at the criticism of your ads in Italy and Spain?
Stefano Gabbana: It was never our purpose to cause any controversy and instigate violence against women. From both human and emotional points of view, we certainly do not want to attack women, a sex for whom we have always declared our love, as the feminine market represents 60 percent of our worldwide sales. We are businessmen and the results that our company achieves demonstrate it.

How did you hope women would respond when they saw the ads?
In Italy, the image first came out Feb. 5, in the most famous and bestselling [Italian] newspaper ... at that time, there was no reaction. The effects did not arrive in Italy until after the poor Spanish reaction [to] the ad. We understand that in Spain there is a truly important social emergency as far as violence against women [is concerned], which is why we did not want to offend anyone, so we immediately withdrew the image from all Spanish press. We want to reaffirm that the image does not represent rape or violence, but if one had to give an interpretation of the picture, it could recall an erotic dream, a sexual game.
Women's groups say the ads promote violence against women. Is that an overreaction?
We respect other people's opinions, but we do not look at it in this way.

Can you talk about how you navigate the border between what's considered sexy and what's considered offensive?
Sexy and offensive are two concepts very far from each other. Sexy can become vulgar according to how the item is worn and interpreted. From our point of view, we like to enhance everything that is beautiful and sexy in a woman; but, never offending, demeaning or being vulgar. We have always been in love with women and our collections are dedicated to their beauty.
Has your agency ever shown you a campaign that you thought went too far?
We do not work with agencies; we personally develop the campaigns' concept with photographers and art directors. From our point of view, we do not feel that we've ever gone too far.

You've been in the business for 20 years and your advertisements have successfully pushed the envelope before. But a number of your campaigns this year have gotten some bad press. Is this the strongest, or most negative reaction you've ever gotten to your ads?
We are sorry that unfortunately other campaigns also weren't understood, but we want to reaffirm that we never had the intention of causing noise or controversy in any way.

One might expect these kinds of images to attract protests in America, which is considered a little more prudish about sex than Europe. Are you surprised at the complaints about the ads in your home country—a place which is not known to be repressed?
As we already said, the reaction blew up in Italy only after it did in Spain. When it came out in February nobody was appalled, the reaction arose after a while, following what had happened in Spain. We are shocked because we do not agree, but we respect other people's opinions and do pay attention to the frustrations the advertising has caused worldwide.

Will you pull the ads from Italian publications?
The image will not be used going forward worldwide. It will come out only in publications that we could not block, because of printing deadlines.

KIM GANDY

NEWSWEEK: Where is the line between an ad that is about a sexy fantasy and something that is offensive?

Kim Gandy: The line there is whether one considers rape to be a sexy fantasy. The Dolce & Gabbana ad was a stylized gang rape.

Were you surprised that the ad caused such a stir in Italy and Spain, but not when it ran in Esquire magazine here in the United States?
It surprises me a little bit because I thought almost anything could be in Italian and French ads to some extent. I guess this goes too far even for a society that has traditionally objectified women. It was interesting to me that the Italian senators who made this objection were both women and men and were from the ruling party and the minority party. It crossed gender and party lines.


Above:NOW's Kim Gandy says that modern girls are'bombarded with the message that women are there for sex and are available for sex at anytime'

Do ads like this successfully sell clothing to women?
I think they were trying to sell clothes to men with this one. The woman was wearing a kind of bathing suit, but presumably the men were wearing Dolce & Gabbana clothes. It was in Esquire [magazine] here in the States and the idea that even a stylized image of rape appeals to a broad readership of men is disturbing. Interestingly, in Italy it ran in some women's magazines, which may have been what generated the response there.

You've got a number of ads on your "Love Your Body" Web site that you've deemed offensive to women. Should they all be removed from circulation?
Some of those ads are just insulting and of course there's a difference between being insulting and portraying women as less than human—as people to be raped or assaulted. The bourbon ad that said "Your bourbon has a great body and fine character. I wish the same could be said for my girlfriend," is more insulting. I think that insulting various groups of people has become a lazy way of getting laughs or attention

Men are insulted a lot in ads too. Fathers and husbands are often portrayed as clueless. If everyone is being insulted can we pick out one ad or another for criticism?
The sexualization of girls is different. It has gotten extreme and that can't be good for our kids or our society. I don't want my two middle school daughters internalizing images which objectify women and I especially don't want their male friends internalizing them. They are bombarded with the message that women are there for sex and are available for sex at anytime. And as strong as parents try to be in educating our own kids and giving them good values, they get bombarded by messages from the outside for more hours per day than their parents have them.

Is advertising more demeaning to women today than it was 10 or 20 years ago?
Advertising is far more demeaning to women today than it was 20 years ago. In the 1970's and 1980's, we had a national project where you could send post cards to companies who used offensive advertising. It said that they were the recipient of a bad ad award. I'm sure if we looked back at some of the ads we were talking about then, they probably wouldn't even register as offensive now.

Dove has recently launched ads with nude older women as part of their "Real Beauty" campaign. Several big cosmetic companies are using older women like Christie Brinkley and Diane Keaton in their ads. Is there also concurrent trend toward ads that promote more realistic images of women?
In some ways yes. Thank goodness for the Dove campaign. Nike did something similar with the ads that show girls running and jumping and being athletic. And maybe cosmetic companies have finally figured out that women over 50 are using these products.

So the kind of nudity Dove is using is OK?
I'm not a great proponent of using naked women to sell products, but it's refreshing for a change at least to see a normal-looking woman who's not emaciated being used to sell products. The whole idea of airbrushing and elongating the necks and legs and enlarging eyes in advertisements is very dangerous. They are creating a standard of beauty that's impossible to reach. Even the models don't attain it. Yet this is what our daughters aspire to and what our sons are expecting. By these standards women and girls are always inadequate and they're always buying the next beauty treatment trying to catch up, trying to be something they can't ever be.
© 2007 Newsweek, Inc.

Double Standard?

Now what amazes me is the double standard here. Take a look at the two following Dolce & Gabbana ads that ran without any controversy. You're gonna tell me these don't imply gang rape as well?





So, what gives? You tell me....