February 23, 2006
Jury Duty
Jury Duty, originally uploaded by plemeljr
Yup - they got me.
Someone told me I'm "Jury-bait" today.
I guess they are right.
February 21, 2006
Band
Band, originally uploaded by plemeljr
Right now, a marching band is walking down Jay Street in DUMBO (Brooklyn) playing Beyonce Knowles Crazy in Love, right down to the Jay-Z break-beat in the third verse. They have been circling the block for the last thirty minutes, and are at least 20 strong.
I'm happy to say that DUMBO isn't completely gentrified yet - it has only reached 1990's Williamsburg level yet.
Anyone know what was going on?
February 14, 2006
Fake Puma Ad Mystery Solved
Remember that Fake Puma Ad? Well, now we know where it came from:
What really happened - a small Eastern European agency affiliated with Saatchi & Saatchi created the ads on spec, trying to win business with a PUMA subsidiary. They got nothing and emailed the ads to friends; from that point it snowballed.
...
...but online store sales were up like CRAZY for a couple of weeks. Too bad we didn't even have the shoes in the ads in stock!
Too bad that agency didn't get hired, because they created on of the most viral advertisements in the last 5 years.
February 13, 2006
Rainbow Clothes
Rainbow Clothes, originally uploaded by plemeljr
February 7, 2006
The MySpacification of (American Apparel) Retail
American Apparel study, originally uploaded by tempo
Ruminations of The MySpacification of (American Apparel) Retail:
I wandered through American Apparel yesterday snapping pictures. It’s kickass retailing all around. Mostly I was struck by how it comes off as an real-world sibling to MySpace, with the amateur snapshot photos of kids in underwear juxtaposed with random images of junk culture. If only MySpace would steal American Apparel’s typographic sensibilities then we’d really have some progress!
Putting aside the debate over whether the sexy photos are pornographic or not, American Apparel’s whole retail experience is engaging and relevant to a youth culture raised on LiveJournal and MySpace. It’s no wonder that its star is rising as the Gap, with its Wonder Bread branding, is hitting the skids.
Interesting... not so sure that "junk culture" is the right term, perhaps "cast-off culture" would be more apropos. It really is the chicken-egg problem: is MySpace a product of culture or a cultural driver affecting different, physical, spheres? I would say that MySpace is more a reflection of the culture than a wholly independent cultural-generator actor. That isn't to say that the DIY/tech/simplicity of American Apparel does not share the same mind-space and cultural ancestors.
Interesting thought nonetheless.