Am I blue

Just beachy
Pantone's color of 2010 is turquoise (PMS 15-5519) for its "deep compassion and healing, a color of faith and truth, inspired by water and sky." Iconoculture is also predicting that everything about water will be hot. They're looking at it from a sustainability perspective. (source: Marketing Daily, 1/2/10)

The tasty picker-upper
American's bought 2.6% more chocolate in 2009 than 2008. We eat about $55 of the sweet stuff per person per year on average. The numbers were even higher outside the US, with the UK coming in at +5.9%, Ukraine +12%, China +18%. But the Swiss still have us all licked at $206 per person per year. No wonder Kraft wants Cadbury so very badly. (source: Mintel)

CEOs that suck
Arrow Trucking let its 1,400+ drivers know they were out of a job by disabling their gas cards. When the truckers called the office, all they got was a recording telling them to turn their rigs in at the nearest dealership and catch a bus home. The kicker is that since the company hasn't formally fired them or filed for bankruptcy, they can't apply for unemployment. Truck leasing companies as well as other trucking companies and their drivers helped what stranded drivers they could with rides home and new job opportunities. (source: Christian Science Monitor, 12/24/09)

What the
Oddest product I saw advertised during holiday break https://shakeweight.com/ver5/index.asp
(source: probably WGN)

Sufferin' succotash
Plants don't want to be eaten. And they work hard at staying intact. For example, when a caterpillar begins dining on its leaves, one plant will convert CO2 into a chemical that attracts caterpillar-eating dragonflies. Brussels sprouts' response to having a certain kind of butterfly's eggs laid on it is to chemically summon a wasp that will lay her eggs inside the other eggs. Larva 2 devours larva 1, but has no taste for sprouts. We may not be subtle enough to hear it, but greens scream. (source: NY Times, 12/21/09)

What's my motivation?
Contrary to popular opinion (and management surveys), recognition for good work is not the best employee motivator. It's progress. A new scientific study shows that when workers see that they're making headway or overcoming obstacles, their emotions are at their most positive and their drive to succeed peaks. (source: Harvard Business Review, Jan-Feb 2010)

Unbling your life
According to the Wall Street Journal, this year we'll be marketing inconspicuous consumption. Americans will still buy -- consuming is our nature and our identity, but we don't want to be seen as flashy or wasteful. So here's what we'll be buying and the rationales we'll be selling: things that last a long time, things that help the environment, things that help other people, and things that improve consumers' lives without showing it. (source: WSJ and Ad Age, 1/4/10)

Green apathy
Only 54% of consumers would buy more sustainable, green products if the price wasn't higher than non-green products. Maybe saving the Earth through your choice of toilet paper doesn't seem real enough to trigger purchase. (source: Mintel)

If you think you're having a bad day, click here
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/01/07/world/asia/07yamaguchi.html?em (source: NY Times, 1/6/10)

New at CES
Dashboard web. This version from Audi. But not to worry, a reminder to drivers flashes on the screen: "Please only use the online services when traffic conditions allow you to do so safely." What is wrong with you people?!!! (source: NY Times, 1/6/09)

If you're tired of Big Money
Join the movement and move yours. http://moveyourmoney.info/