Linkpile (via Delicious)

• Jobless Tap Power of Merchandising: Someone selling ‘Laid Off Need A Job’ wristbands. Fascinating.
• Autoworkers Compete to Keep Jobs, Livelihoods on New Reality Show: Onion video. Amazingly well-executed.
• Bud Light Product Placement on Facebook: “The beer maker recently released a Bud Light page that features an application that lets users send digital gifts as a part of the company’s ‘Drinkability’ campaign.” Whenever a user sends a virtual Bud Light gift, it appears on the user’s Wall and will be seen by all the recipient’s friends.
• Phantom portraits: Fascinating project “used digital photo manipulation to illustrate the phantom limbs of post-amputation patients.”
• Claim: Affluent Consumers Regain A Bit Of Confidence: “Unity Marketing’s Luxury Consumption Index reports a modest uptick of 1.5 points in their latest survey of affluents (average income of $207,000). While luxury consumers are still cutting back on spending they do feel more optimistic about the future of both their personal finances and the country’s economic recovery. Many of the 1,034 people surveyed said they see a recovery coming within the next twelve months.”
• How Susan Boyle Spread and What It Means: “While she originated on British broadcast television, her entry into the American market was shaped more by the conscious decisions of 87 plus million people who choose to pass her video along … than by any decision by network executives to put her on the airwaves in the first place.” Well, sort of. How many people actually had this video “passed along” to them, as opposed to heard about it from a media source — a category that I would say includes prominent/popular blogs — and then either Googled it up, or clicked through? I would guess a LOT of the views came from the latter scenario, especially as this became such a prominent media story. I certainly think that X million views does NOT equal X million people “choosing to pass [the video] along” to someone else. The distinction matters in this context because of the argument being made about spreadability.