Rover, take me away

Beautiful Peoples
Oliver Peoples' eyewear video. During a recession, are vignettes of bored rich people playing at Gatsby really a consumer purchase driver? Nice music tho http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=olHj2WxbYUE

How do you say "badabing" in Dutch?
MTV's "Jersey Shore" goes global, rolling out to 30 countries this week.

Unwedding china
The British department store Debenhams has opened a divorce registry so single-again people can make a fresh, celebratory start with new stuff. 45% of British marriages end in divorce. Clearly a huge, untapped market for toasters. (source: Christian Science Monitor, 3/22/10)

Chucks beg to differ
Keds' new campaign is based around having created the first shoe with soft rubber soles and coining the word "sneaker." When challenged by lexicographers etc., neither claim turned out to be true. The company is backpedaling. More info http://www.nytimes.com/2010/03/22/business/media/22adco.html?ref=business (source: NY Times, 3/21/10)

Now on aisle 5, Hefty zipper bags
Walmart is returning hundreds of products to their shelves after shoppers found their culling "aggravating." Last quarter, Walmart's sales fell for the first time in its history. (source: Ad Age, 3/22/10)

Clown power
In NYC members of an environmental group dress up like clowns and ask people to move their parked vehicles out of bike lanes. They've tried it without the costumes, too, but have less success. (source NY Times, 3/19/10)

Buyers' market
Experts predict beginning in 2018, there will be a huge US labor shortage -- approx. 5 million unfilled jobs - as Boomers retire in droves. (source: Northeastern U News, 3/22/10)

GPS high
No practicality pretext, no priceless family moment. This ad for a Spanish bank gets right to the point: Buying stuff makes you feel good. Just swipe it http://creativity-online.com/work/banco-hipotecario-gps/19411

Fast fashion past
The average American throws out 54lbs. of clothes and shoes per year. What happens to the stuff we donate that Goodwill etc. can't resell? 45% is sold to other countries, 30% becomes cleaning rags, and 25% is turned into stuffing or insulation via recyclers. Hence Spice Girls T-shirts on grown men in Mali. (source: LA Times, 3/21/10)

Hold the sake
Unless you're a sumo, it's illegal to be fat in Japan. In hopes of warding off health problems in older citizens, the government imposed maximum waist measurements for people over 40. Those who fail to meet guidelines at their mandatory annual check-up face counseling. If they don't reduce, their employer will be required to pay more into Japan's version of Medicare. For the record, Japan's obesity rate is less than 5%, yet healthcare costs are expected to double by 2020 because of their quickly aging population. (source: Globalpost.com)

Hyperbole aside, this ad makes me sad
Do you need a $60K mobile home away from home because you can't face your non-mobile home? McMansion bursting with possessions, a Godzilla-like child, and eternal digital connectedness? (That's what's in the drawing, in case it's a bit fuzzy.) There's a "work" and "city" version of "Defender," too. (source: MediaPost, 3/25/10)