Drunken Spam

This one's for Jeff Gabel
Idea Paint lets you turn any surface into a white board. (source: Met Home, June, 2009)

At last, Twitter ROI
Naked Pizza tracked an offer made exclusively to its followers: it was 15% of that particular day's sales. They're now working with Twitter testing beta applications for small businesses. (source: Ad Age, 5/18/09)

Denial, anger, acceptance
The Food Marketing Institute has found a pattern developing in the way people are cutting back on food costs.
Stage 1: Changing OOH patterns. Eating out less or moving from fine dining to fast food or fast food to supermarket MREs
Stage 2: Changing supermarket behavior. Swapping brand names for private label and using coupons and shopping lists more
Stage 3: Changing where you grocery shop. Although people still consider themselves loyal to a primary, full-service store, they use other channels more for fill-in trips. And bargain-hunters shop more often looking for deals
(source: Marketing Daily, 5/19/09)

Hatha beats
Get your groove and your yogi on in Squaw Valley. (source: Iconoculture)
http://www.wanderlustfestival.com/index.html

Making art personal for MoMA
The featured sculpture is Symphony Number 1 by Vladimir Baranoff-Rossiné (source: Ad Age, 5/19/09) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FO3umu9gu24

See different
Think big. Entrepreneurs are twice as likely to be dyslexic as the general population. Richard Branson, Charles Schwab, and Ingvar Kamprad (IKEA guy) are just a few. And in case you've ever wondered, products at IKEA have names because Mr. Kamprad couldn't read stock numbers. (source: Harper's, June 2009 and Wikipedia)

What we're reading
Of the 118 magazine titles that MNI tracks, ad pages are mostly down, way down, except for these: Fitness, Flex, Saveur, People's Style Watch, Successful Farming, Family Circle, Hunting and SI Kids. Provided media folk are correct in their assessment of what people want to read now, we're becoming more fit, family-oriented, and self-sufficient, yet we still need our dose of escapist trash. (source: Media Daily, 5/19/09)

Go meat!
A winning team in a Spam cook-off created a bloody mary using pureed Spam, bloody mary mix, vodka, dill pickle juice, Worcestershire, Tabasco and ground horseradish. Preparation instructions contained the recommendation, "Consume immediately, before Spam congeals." (source: StarTribune.com)

Also hot
Hershey's profits are up 20% for Q1. Double-digit growth as well for Kraft Mac & Cheese. Laxative sales up 12%. Remedies for upset stomach up 8%. Condom sales up 5% and Match.com had its strongest performance in 7 years. Gold coins, tan-in-a-bottle, anything from Hormel, and running shoes reaping the rewards of recession as well. (source: MSNBC.com, 5/16/09)

Evolution and consumerism
A new book by a U of NM evolutionary psychologist says that humans' purchase-to-impress instinct is a holdover from prehistory. Back then people hardly ever encountered strangers, "so we instinctively treat all strangers as if they're potential mates, friends, or enemies" trying to get their attention and showing them who they're dealing with at a glance. Unfortunately, this trait doesn't do us much good these days because our well-being no longer depends on our relationship with strangers. Says Dr. Miller, "Evolution is good at getting us to avoid death, desperation, and celibacy, but it's not that good at getting us to feel happy." (source: NY Times, 5/18/09)

Hello Bordeaux
Does the fear of purple teeth keep you ordering Chardonnay when you'd prefer Pinot Noir? Then Wine Wipes compact (with its own mirror) will soon be your favorite drinking buddy. (source: Springwise, 5/20/09)

Probiotic passing
Daniel Carasso, for whom Groupe Danone is named, died this week at 103. After immigrating to Spain, Carasso's Greek father started the company because he believed that common-in-Greece-but-rare-elsewhere yogurt could reduce the incidence of digestive-related illness in European children. When it was first introduced, Danone yogurt was sold in pharmacies by prescription. (source: NY Times, 5/20/09)

Natural enemy
Brilliance from Benadryl. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TF-7YR5s6Y8

Twansplant
In Texas, the mother of a 3-year-old was kept up to speed during her son's kidney transplant by tweeting surgical staff. (source: WHEC.com)

No comment
Doctors found that women's brain cells, when threatened with starvation, act conservatively and survive, whereas men's brain cells eat themselves and die. (source: Harper's, June 2009)

Like ants
Knock-out aerial photography to get you in the long-weekend groove. (source: Very Short List, 5/21/09) http://www.stephanzirwes.com/#