MURKETING

Hipster embrace of Obama reaches logical conclusion

Finally! Obama kicks!

I assume this long since made the rounds and I missed it, but just saw and felt compelled to note.

Earlier: Let Them Eat Font; 4/13/08 Consumed on Obama as muse.

[Thanks: Mark!]

In other news of Montreal murketing…

Following this recent post about brand-made street art in Montreal, got a note from Zeke about another example of murketing in that lovely city. Montreal City Weblog says:

Many folks have no doubt noticed the postering campaign up and down the Main, urging that it be renamed for Lucien Rivard, a colourful Quebec bandit of the 1950s and 60s. Turns out it’s a viral marketing stunt to promote an upcoming film…

More here at Spacing Montréal.

Another fine example of murketing, not unlike one noted here: This is a form of commercial persuasion you cannot “TiVo out,” because it’s not on your TV set. It’s in your life.

[PS: Memo to Zeke: Was gonna link here but … Let me know if you have another request, I will honor it.]

Flickr Interlude

Old Navy – San Francisco, originally uploaded by miaanne27

Coffee, free books, and the likeminded…

Do you live in one of the cities marked on the map above?

Are you a fan of PSFK and/or Noah Brier? Or, far less likely, of my work?

You might consider attending this Friday’s Likemind meeting. Likemind is a recurring coffee get together of “people like you” in a large number of cities. Details about where and when to show up in all these various cities is here. And the thing is:

Likemind coffee morning takes place this Friday [May 16] around the world. As a special treat for those of you in North America, Rob Walker & Random House were kind enough to supply early copies of Rob’s new book “Buying In: The Secret Dialogue Between What We Buy & Who We Are” (until the books run out). Coffee in the US and Canada is also paid for by Random House (until the money runs out).

A little more here and here.

I’m certainly interested in and excited by the general idea of all these people getting and maybe starting conversations about the book — and before the pub date, no less. Lots of cities there, so I hope some of you can and will take advantage.

Is this post shameless self-promotion? Of course it is. Guess what? I think it’s a good book, and I think everybody should read it.

Scandalous!

New: Links to reviews of, references to, and riffs off Buying In here.

— > Reminder: First four chapters & discount advance ordering offer at ReadBuyingIn.com.

Kindle quiz: Should there be a Kindle version of Buying In?

A friend of Murketing, and a fan of the Kindle, has asked me if there will be a version of Buying In for that device. The answer is I have no idea, but I’m guessing that if there were plans for that my publisher would have to told me.

And before I ask my publisher about this, I want to gauge whether anybody else has any interest in the format. I don’t have a Kindle, although I understand the appeal in an abstract way (I think).

So I ask you: Anybody interested in this format? Please reply in the comments, not to me directly. If there’s much response, I’ll bring it to the publisher’s attention.

If there isn’t, then I won’t.

Thanks as always.

Can hatred of Crocs sell more Crocs?

When I wrote about Crocs in Consumed (July 15, 2007), I suggested that the fact that many people hate Crocs was probably seen as a plus for those who wore Crocs (“maverick cachet,” etc.). Some, including the person I spoke with at the company, insisted that this was not so.

However, Crocs hatred is now apparently the brand’s new selling point, if this new commercial is any indication. Maybe the brand should’ve simply hired I Hate Crocs.

Via AdFreak.

Student repping, for Macy’s

Via Commercial Alert, here’s a Chicago Tribune story about college “brand reps,” such as 20-year-old Northwestern student Alex Covington, who reps for Macy’s. Specifically she:

plans Macy’s events on campus, from a sorority slumber party to a casting call for a Web documentary. She hands out fliers, sends out mass e-mails and text messages, and angles for articles in the student newspaper.

And whenever she gets a compliment on her tailored white blouse or her California-casual sundress, she makes sure to credit the company that provided them free of charge.

“I got it from [Macy’s’] American Rag” collection, she says.

“You should check it out.”

In exchange she gets $450 “stipend,” and $400 gift card. She apparently says “she reveals her ties to Macy’s about 85 percent to 90 percent of the time,” when pitching fellow students. The piece says her employer is RepNation, a division of Mr. Youth that claims to have 5,000 college reps working for various corporate brand clients.

This style of murketing — breaking the fourth wall between commercial persuasion and day-to-day life — is discussed in some detail in Buying In.

Streety Vespa

Speaking of street art: Who do you figure might be responsible for this work in Montreal and other Canadian cities?

An ad agency of course. Working for Vespa. Via AdFreak.

“Wow that’s a lot of Skittles”

I can’t resist highlighting this, via Craftzine: Someone posted on Craftster the dress she made for prom … out of Skittles wrappers. Apart from being a remarkable feat of DIYism and upcycling (and thus unconsumption), extra points for the use of branded trash.

Plus, for those of you who remember the Consumed column on donks: I wonder if she knows about the infamous Skittles donk?

What is it about Skittles, anyway?

The headline quote is one of the comments to the Getcrafty post.

Muji’s designs … on middle America?

PSFK notes this Japan Today writeup about Muji planning a further push into the U.S. market. Last year the company — maker of many products; the name roughly means “no-brand goods” — got some notice for opening a boutique in SoHo. (It has operated a store within the Moma Design Store since 2004; here’s a Consumed about Muji from January 9, 2005.)

Interestingly they’re sounding pretty ambitious. The president of Muji USA says: “I don’t want to just be accepted by design-conscious people or people who like Asian tastes…I want Muji to be accepted as a generic brand.”

While most brands target a certain segment of consumers, the purpose of being ‘‘a no brand’’ is to appeal to all people by ‘‘simply providing products that are comfortable and convenient.’’

The Japan Today item quotes a number of people who all seem pretty skeptical that Muji can make it outside “trend-conscious” locales like NYC. It also mentions something I didn’t know, which is that Uniqlo closed its three locations in New Jersey. I was really interested in those at the time, partly because I was living in Jersey, but also because I thought it was a really interesting move to test the waters outside of Manhattan, which is really an atypical retail setting. I was briefly in touch with somebody from Uniqlo at the time and my memory is that this was a very explicit strategy on their part, that they didn’t want to just be focused on superconsumers who prowl SoHo.

I guess that testing of the waters didn’t go so well? Or maybe they just shifted tactics. I have no idea what either company’s strategy is at this point, but if Muji is serious about trying to build a more mainstream base in the U.S., it’ll be interesting to see how the company goes about it. Apart from the forthcoming Times Square location, the article mentions “small outlets” in New York airports. Hm.

Flickr Interlude

Consumerism: America’s Religion, originally uploaded by urbpixbryden.

Does the New York art world have a problem with street art?

“Despite its American origins, Street Art is now centered in Britain,” announces The Guardian (via Arts Journal).

What this seems to mean is that the market for street art has been driven by Britain:

The auction houses here have been quick to sell it, and the media has turned it into a running news story. Faile’s comic-book inspired stencilwork will appear in the Tate Modern show, but founders Patrick McNeil and Patrick Miller, who talk over each other on speakerphone from their New York studio, say their art world isn’t as receptive. ‘New York has such a history of this art, but institutions are waiting to see what happens before they open the doors to it. The art is starting to surface in New York Sotheby’s and Christie’s, but it wouldn’t be if it weren’t for the excitement [in the UK].’

I’m not sure what to make of Faile dropping references to Sotheby’s and Christie’s. However, I do think it’s fair to say that for the most part the New York art world has not quite grasped the significance of the street art that started to emerge in the 1990s, and has grown throughout the 21st century. Yeah, some street artists have galleries and have done shows, but there hasn’t really been a sense of a big, important movement that’s been going for a decade, or longer. Why is that? Maybe it’s because of the earlier, late 1970s/1980s version of graffiti moving into the galleries (Haring, Basquiat, and a variety of Wild Style types), so there’s some kind of been-there, done-that attitude.

But I never could figure out why, for example, Beautiful Losers never got a New York venue. It should have been at MoMa, like three years ago. (Even if Moma did something similar tomorrow, I think it would feel very, very late.) And many of the street artists (or artists drawing on similar influences) who were in Beautiful Losers really made their name in the 1990s. Lots of new people have emerged since then (although not so many in the last few years, I’d argue), in New York, yes, but in L.A. and San Francisco and elsewhere as well.

So far as I know, only Banksy, of all people, has rated extensive mainstream notice in the form of things like a New Yorker feature. It’s weird.

In The New York Times Magzine: Down on the dollar

Almighty Dolor:
As Americans, we like the greenback, but as investors, we’re a little more willing to go where the money is

This week Consumed looks at spending money — on other forms of money.

Currency prestige has a long history in the context of nation-states, but the idea that individuals might find some forms of money more desirable than others is less familiar. Perhaps rising awareness of the falling dollar is changing that.

There is a way to, in effect, spend your dollars on other forms of money, and apparently the number of people doing so is increasing. …

Read the column in the May 11, 2008, issue of The New York Times Magazine, or here.

Consumed archive is here, and FAQ is here. Consumed Facebook page is here.

Cookie that looks like a tattoo

It’s Mother’s Day and all. Craftzine points to this post about making tattoo-style cookies for mom (or anybody else, I suppose, at Zakka Life (where for some reason there’s a sound track, so you might mute before you go, just FYI).

Portraits in (former) trash

Another example of the previously mentioned uncomsumption variation, upcycling: artist S.A. Schimmel Gold. Her site explains:

Every little “tile” you see was once advertising ephemera, junk mail, a postcard or packaging. I save everything and upcycle this resource to create fine art.

Via Everydaytrash.com.