corporate

So I was invited to a marketing conference—really, a "futurist" conference, but I'll describe what that means in a moment—and decided to go along the line of thinking that if I'd spent the last six years standing in front of the White House telling passersby we needed to overthrow George Bush and then one day he invited me in for dinner, I'd probably have to go do that too.

A "futurist" conference is sort of hard to describe to, well, anyone I think who does not run one, but the gist is that you gather all these various forces together that represent differing emerging trends, and then you invite people to come witness the emerging trends and suss them out a bit, see what is to be gained from them. And who wants to do that? Mostly, marketers. Other people too, sure. But mostly, marketers.

From The Nation: America's founders understood the First Amendment would be worth little without a postal system that encouraged broad public participation in America's "marketplace of ideas." Thomas Jefferson called for a postal service that allowed ideas to "penetrate the whole mass of the people." Along with James Madison, he paved the way for a system that gave low-cost mailing incentives to small publications.

Those of you familiar with my "work" know that for a time i was invested full time for awhile in the pursuit of teasing the Mattel corporation* for being, you know, disingenuous, weird, money-grubbing, anti-feminist, and kinda mean to me. But I moved on, because of course this turns out not to be Mattel policy—in fact their policies are almost exactly opposite these—but simply a side effect of our corporate culture.

Well, right, and fine, but what's been happening to the little girls flooding the store since, while i've been all off running around investigating the larger implications of copyright and image control and consumerism on the American mindset? Mattel's gone right back to treating them like dirt.

i've got a beef with your robot marketing strategy of not buying ads and then pretending that you're all whatever and just posting youtube videos and links to freaking myspace pages as if we cared what you thought just because you found this site and came up with a nickname that is approximately as clever as anyone else's that posts here? which, you know, wouldn't probably bother you normally, except that i also have the ability to delete your stupid viral crap, and have begun to use it.

so here is my new rule, and i hope that anyone who posts here that actually isn't paid to do** so will weigh in with their opinions on this matter: if you are a jerk as outlined in the above paragraph, you can post exactly two pieces of ridiculous marketing bullshit (ben kweller's grandma? who gives a rat's ass?) and have the chance to respond like a decent person to all our polite messages urging you to behave like a respectful community member before i delete your dumb threads.

CHICAGO (AdAge.com) -- Paul McCartney hasn't just signed on to create an album for Starbucks -- it appears he left Capitol Records after 43 years to do so.

Full story here: http://adage.com/article?article_id=115688

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Hey people,

I need pictures of things that are both underground and corporate: your star wars tatt; the stenciled nike logo on your neighborhood wall; the flyers at the Gap that look suspiciously like the ones you made for your band last week; your homemade, hand-drawn CK t-shirt; whatever. Anything and everything.

Got any? Send 'em to me puh-leeeze at aem@anneelizabethmoore.com (so's we're not clogging the PP.com emails). Lemme know who shot 'em, when, and why, and I will show them to people and tell them how awesome you are.

The Union of Concerned Scientists has released a new report detailing ExxonMobile's use of deliberate obfuscation, insider political leverage, absolute lies, and publicity people posing as scientists and journalists—AKA, big tobacco techniques—to throw the existence of global warming into question.

http://www.ucsusa.org/assets/documents/global_warming/exxon_report.pdf

The Gap seems to want to link an entire color to shopping-based activism, and that's just weird. Then yesterday I saw a dude wearing a (red) t-shirt while raking the leaves in his yard, which is sort of a hard image to link to the Gap's stated intent to "making a difference in Africa." (http://www.gap.com/browse/home.do?cid=16591&mlink=5058,650755,9&clink=65...)

Although probably it is a step up from famous people wearing sexy clothes to make a difference in Africa. (Rob Walker again: http://www.murketing.com/journal/?p=273)

Anyway, I think it's weird. "The Gap has historically been a target of anti-sweatshop activists; according to the Gap’s own data, in Africa last year, between 25 and 50 percent of the factories the Gap used to make clothes violated local labor laws on working conditions." (http://nymag.com/news/intelligencer/23175/)

A month or so back I was asking about the Yaris DIY campaign, so I thought I'd share a part of the essay I happen to be trying to edit RIGHT NOW, AS THIS GETS READ ON THE INTERNETS. (In a few weeks, hopefully, I'll be able to share my crazy-ass findings about who planned the damned thing and what people got out of it. Hint: not as much as they should have.)

This is from my upcoming UNMARKETABLE, due out from The New Press whenever it gets done being written. It's the first sixth, maybe, of chapter five, and mostly concerns the non-DIY portion of the Yaris campaign.

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It is difficult to imagine anything less politically radical than a brand-new midsize foreign vehicle appearing on the market during a seemingly never-ending war over oil that raised gas prices to ridiculous highs. The team behind the Toyota Yaris nonetheless linked their latest model with do-it-yourselfiness anyway during the late summer 2006 promotional campaign Yaris DIY: Drive It Yourself. Borrowing a page from the Starbucks playbook—not to mention several of my compatriots in Chicago-based independent publishing and the national DIY crafting community along with it—the Yaris version of doing it yourself meant having cool kids from the underground show you how to do what they do, albeit in the context of the corporate-sponsored workshops: make hats, comics, and lampshades at home for very little cost. This is supposed to be the primary parallel: the low cost of their brand-new mid-size vehicle. And while the Yaris is surprisingly inexpensive compared to other cars (starting at a little over $11,000 MSRP for the 2007 models), as several Yaris workshop instructors may or may not have been willing to point out, buying one still costs more than a bike you can make from parts found in the garbage. The connection to the do-it-yourself community doesn’t end there, however. Like the hand-made wares you could purchase directly from their creators at the Renegade Craft Fair or DIY Trunk Show, this car is customizable, crafty, and hip. The Yaris Web site enthuses, “At YarisWorks DIY (Drive It Yourself) events there will be test drives (duh), hot music from indie artists cranking from the PA, and the opportunity for you (yes, you!) to decoupage a Yaris . . . quirky but fun!” (1) The links to crafters don’t end there, though. Actual links to DIY merch, made and sold by tried-and-true members of the DIY community, are all available here—just a few clicks away from the Toyota main page.