MURKETING

The latest in obsessive consumption

Well this pretty cool: Kate Bingaman-Burt, whose drawings of her own credit card statements I’ve written about in the past, is doing a letterpress print — with colors! — edition of 100 of one of those statements. Via Poketo.

1 million Uglydolls

Yesterday’s NYT Sunday Styles section had a piece about former Consumed subject Uglydolls (February 15, 2004 installment), looking at their popularity among boys. The article notes that the company “recently sold its millionth doll.” How about that!

Vladimir in The Believer

Issue No. 52 of The Believer, which has a film theme, includes a thoughtful Q&A with one of my personal favorite Consumed (May 13, 2007 installment) subjects: Vladimir, maker of works for the Viewmaster which she calls Vladmasters. There’s a short taste of the Q&A online. Also online, but in its entirety, an essay from that issue on road movies by Chuck Klosterman; it’s rather good.

Nike to “homage” brand Mike: Cease and desist

A while back (January 29, 2006) I did a column on a small New York-based brand called Mike, created by Scott Nelson. As I noted at the time, much about Mike’s design referenced Nike. I wrote:

Nelson is not trying to pass off his clothing as Nike goods, in the manner of a Canal Street counterfeiter. Nor is he engaging in some kind of subversive satire, like AdBusters magazine’s famous twisting of Joe Camel into a dying and bedridden Joe Chemo. “I’m strictly paying homage,” he says, adding that he doesn’t expect any trouble. He did talk to a lawyer first and says he believes he has tweaked everything enough to be on the right side of the law, but that’s not the real reason he’s confident. “If anything,” he says, “I’m helping their brands.”

My interest in Mike — or rather Mike 23 Inc. — was precisely this unusual thing – it was a kind of tribute brand, and I’d not seen anything quite like that before.

And for about two years following that column, it seemed that Nelson was correct in not worrying about trouble from Nike, because none was forthcoming.

Recently, however, Nelson got in touch to tell me that this has changed. Nike has sent him a cease and desist. Read more

Airborne’s $23 million false advertising settlement

I saw passing mention of this the other day and forgot about till E reminded me, but it seems that:

The makers of Airborne have agreed to refund money to consumers as part of a $23.3 million settlement of a class-action lawsuit for false advertising. It does not admit wrongdoing or illegal conduct.

I wrote about Airborne in Consumed, January 8, 2006. At the time I noted that “as with many supplements, there is no independent scientific evidence of Airborne’s medicinal value,” and suggested that the folk remedy aspect (the brand story was heavily tied to the fact that it was created by a teacher, not a doctor) was probably part of its appeal for some consumers. But apparently not for all, given the class-action suit.

I haven’t seen anything about how the brand is selling these days, but I’m pretty sure I’ve seen it prominently displayed in drugstores as recently as a few weeks ago.

Etsy (& Cyberoptix Tie Lab) on Martha

Martha Stewart will be doing an Etsy-focused episode this Friday. While Etsy was at the center of the Handmade 2.0 story, what I’m really pleased to hear is that one of the featured creators will be none other than Bethany Shorb/Toybreaker, the maker of hand-silkscreened ties, interviewed here in Murketing.com way back in August 2006, in this site’s very first Q&A. Big congrats to her, and Murketing remains a fan of her ever-growing line, and ever-expanding business. Check out the latest from her Cyberoptix Tie Lab here. Her Etsy shop is here.

Update March 3: Video of Etsy chief Rob Kalin on Martha Stewart. He does a good job; his energy level strikes me as quite a bit higher than when I met him, but that’s important on TV. Plus I’m quite confident that Martha is more fun to talk to than I am. Anyway, also featured in the segment was The Black Apple, mentioned in the Handmade 2.0 story — and according to this segment, she will be on the Martha show herself later this month. Impressive! Finally: Amusing to see a Toybreaker tie modeled by none other than Matthew Stinchcomb.

Past-subject convergences of the week

Two items (I meant to highlight last week and got distracted) from the ever-surprising world of Handmade 2.0:

Etsy seller’s laser-etched Moleskines (Moleskine Consumed June 26, 2005; Murketing/Moleskinerie Q&A.) Via Moleskinerie.

Craftster user’s crocheted Brobee (Consumed on Yo Gabba Gabba January 20, 2008). Via Craftzine blog.

Reborn dolls revisited

I already mentioned this after Coudal.com linked to it a month ago, but because both BoingBoing and Make have highlighted the recent-ish documentary about reborn dolls, I’ll mention it again: Reborn dolls were the subject of this February 4, 2005 installment of Consumed, probably in my top ten personal favorites from the column’s history.

Here again is a link to a clip from the doc from Britain’s Channel 4; interesting.

Consumed update-o-rama: Threadless star; “My Fake Baby;” etc.

1. An interesting note came to the inbox last night that’s inspired me to whip up another round of Consumed updates. It was from Glenn Jones (and it wasn’t just to me, it was announcement) one of the Threadless stars I interviewed for a column about that company for the July 8, 2007 issue. At the time, I noted that Jones “the creative director of Dashwood Design in Auckland, New Zealand, has won 17 times. He regularly gets fan e-mail, has been featured on the cover of the New Zealand magazine ProDesign as the ‘King of the Tees’ and is often asked why he doesn’t start his own shirt company.” (On Threadless he’s also known as Glennz.)

Turns out he’s leaving Dashwood to do his own thing. At the moment he’s selling prints and greeting cards at his own site, www.glennz.co.nz. Perhaps T-shirts will be next? I’m keeping an eye on it.

In other news:

2. Way back on February 4, 2005, I had a column about reborn dolls. (“‘Reborning’ is the name that has emerged for a curious process of altering and enhancing a baby doll to look and even to feel as much like a human baby as possible,” etc.). Via Coudal I learn that there’s a British documentary about the phenomenon. Titled My Fake Baby, it’s about “The extraordinary world of ‘re-borns’ — life-like baby dolls — and the women who buy them.” The trailer is here.

3. For the life of me I cannot figure out why my formulation “phads” — meaning manufactured fads and similar products of the trend industry — did not catch on. That was from a December 10, 2006 column on the astonishing number of alleged trends pumped out year after year — and which noted that this is not just a supply-side phenomenon, but demand-side one. That is to say, there is a curious kind of demand for trends, fads, and even (maybe especiall) for Phads. And so talk of such things continues, of course, one recent example being this Talk of the Nation segment addressing “how fads are born and perpetuated within a culture.”

4. The November 18, 2007 column on imaginary brands made passing mention of the (widely discussed) promotion for the Simpsons movie that brought various imaginary brands from that show into the real world, at certain 7-11 locations. The WSJ (via Brand Autopsy) says 7-11 “saw major sales lifts at the 11 U.S. stores that were converted for the month of the promotion. The company says total merchandise sales doubled; fresh bakery sales increased sevenfold and customer count went up almost 50%. Moreover, 7-Eleven says the promotion garnered about $7 million in free publicity.”

Handmade 2.0 reaction finale

All right then. I was pretty pleased at the overall reaction to the Handmade 2.0 story (additional links here), which I’ll shut up about after this post. I’ll return this general subject in the new year, with some new Q&As and so on, but for now I did want to pass along a few final reactions of interest to those who read the story.

Anne Elizabeth Moore, author of Unmarketable and former Punk Planet editor (and Murketing Q&A victim) is currently in Cambodia and writing a great blog about her experiences there, but also took a moment to offer some thoughtful reaction from a DIY veteran point of view. Or to be more precise, a DIY veteran who happens to be learning Cambodian culture. It’s so good I refuse to excerpt it. Read it here.

I was also quite interested in this BlogHer post, which gathers up some interesting tidbits I had missed, and links to the author’s own thoughts (pre-dating my article) on living “at the intersection of craft and Web 2.0.)

This Moop post offers an interesting point of view on one crafter’s relationship with Etsy, and with the ideology of crafting.

I believe I have already noted the one very long thread that came up of reactions to the piece in the Etsy forums. It is here, and as of the moment runs to about 32 pages of comments. There’s also a much shorter thread of reactions in Etsy’s blog/magazine The Storque, right here. Another site with a discussion is the Unofficial Etsy News blog.

Broadly speaking, there’s just too much in these three threads for me to respond to, and my general policy is that while I will always read and am very interested in such reactions, I don’t respond to them. I figure in most cases they are more about people wanting to state a point of view, rather than hear from me. Which I think is fine, and in fact good: I’ve already had my say.

Besides, if somebody wants to ask me something directly — here I am, go ahead.

Other random mentions: Henry Blodget says “gushing.” Counter indicator? Maybe so, given a lot of what’s said in the threads cited above, and that Core77 (which in my view has a better track record than the former stock analyst) says “sober, non-sentimental.” Also: Design*Sponge, How, Good, PSFK, Apartment Therapy, We’ll Know When We Get There (who makes a good point about all the folks trying force community), Then Thousand Places (who writes about the Handmade Pledge), Crafty Kim, Modish, Humane Recipe, and Rubber Nun. In some cases those posts simply quoted one section, or offered a very quick reaction, but I find those kinds of things quite interesting — and much appreciated.

Imaginary beer brand in the works … but it’s not Duff?

Two quick follow-ups relating to the November 18, 2007 Consumed column on one of my favorite topics, imaginary brands. Brandweek reported recently (I’m still catching up reading) that:

Family Guy will become possibly the first animated show to ever have a beer licensee. In an example of reverse product placement, the Rhode Island-based microbrew will be dubbed Pawtucket Patriot Ale after show patriarch Peter Griffin’s libation of choice. It’s scheduled to appear in liquor stores and specialty outlets next year.

Also, I meant to pass along earlier this startling list of fake companies on Wikipedia. Plenty of inspiration for column subject LastExitToNowhere!

Consumed update-o-rama: Knitted watches and more

1. Re: The October 28, 2007 column on counterfunctional watches, here, at left, is perhaps the ultimate example — knitted watches. $60. Via Make blog.

2. The November 25, 2007 column on Guitar Hero got a fair amount of sour reaction from Guitar Hero fans who seemed to think I wasn’t suitably impressed by the game, or whatever. I found this puzzling. A few days after the column appeared, Slate published a piece by Carrie Brownstein, about Rock Band, a Guitar Hero competitor that I mentioned in the column. One blog (I’ve lost the link, sorry) referred to her piece as a “nice counterpoint” to mine, or something like that.

As it turns out, what she said wasn’t really at odds with what I’d written. Toward the beginning she writes: “Rock Band isn’t about music or about being in a band, it’s about pretending.” And here’s the conclusion: “These days, it might be easier to exalt the fake than to try to make sense of the genuine. But maybe by pretending to be in a band, there will be those who’ll find the nerve to go beyond the game, and to take the brave leaps required to create something real.” I’m not sure how that counters what I said. I certainly agree with it.

Anyway, the other interesting thing about the Slate piece is that Brownstein recounts learning about Rock Band “during a short stint at an ad agency in Portland, Ore., where I was asked to come up with a few ideas to help promote the game.”

This is never really spelled out. Did W+K try to hire Carrie Brownstein? Did she consider working for them, like as a job? Anyway, I’m glad to read that her attempts at coming up with promotional ideas didn’t really work out, and to read that whatever this “stint” was, it was “short.” Also, I recommend her blog Monitor Mix, it’s quite good.

3. The December 2, 2007 column was about Linzie Hunter’s spam-into-art project. Jen Bekman’s 20X200 project has not one, but two new and original Hunter pieces for sale. (More on 20X200 here.)

More updates after the jump. Read more

Consumed update-o-rama

In the most recent Journal of Murketing email newsletter, I had an update about recent-ish Consumed subject Crocs smacking down the creator of a Crocs fan site. I’ve been thinking for a while I ought to incorporate regular Consumed-related upates into either that newsletter or this site. So I’m experimenting a bit and doing both.

First the Crocs update, and then a series of other, smaller updates after the jump. Maybe I’ll do this every two weeks or once a month. If you have thoughts let me know.

In the July 15, 2007 column about Crocs, I was trying to work out why something that seemed so faddish wouldn’t die. Recently Crocs stock got socked, partly on the theory that maybe the fad is fading after all.

But the more interesting update is this: For the story, I interviewed a guy named David Chidester, who had a site called CrocFans.com. Needless to say, he’s a Crocs fan, and gave me his fan’s-eye view of the brand’s success, and why it wasn’t a fad, and so on.

He made ad space available on his site, and apparently some of the advertisers turned out to be selling things that weren’t official Crocs. So what did the company do? They sent him a cease-and-desist! Demanding that he turn over the CrocsFans.com domain to them!

He’s ended up deciding to move his site over to a new domain, Littlerubbershoes.com, but not surprisingly, a look at that site indicates he’s not doing much enthusiastic evangelizing for Crocs lately. (There’s a post on that site giving his full view of the cease-and-desist experience.) Even the folks at I Hate Crocs were appalled. My take is that I can’t believe the company bullied a fan site. And I really can’t believe that the move didn’t get more attention among customer-evangelism blogs, or the marketing trade publications, and whatnot. The general theory, which I’ve read many times in such places, is that companies and brands need to work with such fans, and that alienating them carries a huge risk, since word of mouth can boomerang, especially on line. This seems like a good case for advocates of such theories to examine.

As a final note: I see that actually the cease and desist came just a few days after my column. I hope I wasn’t indirectly responsible. If I was: Sorry, Mr. Chidester.

Other random updates after the jump. Enjoy the long holiday weekend. Read more

More counterfunctionality?

Here — maybe — is another example of the counterfunctional value discussed in yesterday’s Consumed. It’s a bookshelf that rocks back and forth. Core77 says:

Julian Appelius‘ Topple bookshelf leans ever so slightly on its rocking base–5° to be exact–when books are stacked on, creating the perfect amount of tilt to add some extra stability. A bit ironic, yes, but it works!

One might fairly wonder what the upside of this approach is, over, say, a perfectly stable bookshelf. To echo Jonah Berger’s point in the column, regarding watches that do a less-than-optimal job of telling you what time it is, this seems like another object whose main value is that it “provides more information” about the owner. And part of that value is that not many others will swarm in to buy the thing and water down its identity value, because most people will want a shelf that doesn’t move.

Speaking of that line about counterfunctional watches “providing information” about those who wear them, Marginal Utility has this amusing reaction: “Exactly, it screams loud and clear that you are an idiot.”

aNYthing update

I heard something about this a month or so ago but had not had time to confirm:

It’s official: Aaron Bondaroff aka A-Ron, no longer has anything to do with aNYthing, the very brand he created and that was profiled extensively in both the New York Times Magazine and the Post, not to mention numerous magazines and blogs. The ‘Downtown Don’ apparently didn’t have any kind of deal ironed out and somehow managed to hand his entire company over to an investor he took on.

See the Complex post for a bit more, including talk of a trademark infringement lawsuit.

A-Ron’s new(ish) online home is The New York Glob.

I’ll try to get a bit more on all this in the weeks ahead.