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Foreign National: why the best Americana comes from overseas

It pisses me off to no end that American heritage brands are doing much cooler stuff overseas. Filson has Red Label in Japan, Carhartt has Work In Progress in Europe. Red Wing and Converse have imprints in Japan that are doing much nicer stuff than their American motherships. Now, it’s a familiar story for foreign…

Are you for real?

I have car insurance. I bought it from a man who we’ll call ‘Bill’ in Oakland, because my uncle said he was a swell guy. Recently I needed Bill’s phone number so I looked him up online. I was greeted with his striking good looks and some strange achievements: Crystal Excellence Agency Golden Triangle Agency…

Conspiracy theory: J.D. Power and Associates is way more powerful than we think

I got a really interesting piece of junk mail. No, I didn’t win a chance to win a million dollars. I’m not pre-qualified for a limited-time offer. I wasn’t even entered for a chance to set sail for luxury on a Celebrity cruise. I received a piece of junkmail addressed to me by myself. It’s…

Am I tasting dirt?

Oenophiles are people who know a lot about wine. They can recognize flavors like gooseberry, lychee, and dirt. They rely on their discerning palates to judge wines. But that’s not always the whole story. Sometimes they lead themselves to believe that a wine is extra delicious just because it has a foreign or unusual name….

Facebook ads: Print edition

Every day, at varying times with varying degrees of friendliness, someone in a blue uniform comes into our office to deliver a stack of papers, which we invariably put directly into the recycling bin. When I’m trying to forget how wasteful this whole system is, I pretend like I am feeding a hungry recycling bin…

We’re all driving the same car. Sort of.

  It takes a great deal of effort to design and build a car. The Japanese get it done in about three years and the Americans in seven. So one way manufacturers reduce the amount of labor is by selling the same car twice, albeit slightly altered. This practice is called “badge engineering” and no,…

Sara Lee wants more meat

Sara Lee is trading in her bag of flour for a bottle of barbecue sauce. The company — once known for its homely breads and microwaveable cheesecakes — announced today that it is changing its name to Hillshire Brands Co., part of a larger move toward its Hillshire Farms brand of hotdogs, sausages and packaged…

Corn syrup tries to get sweet with the FDA

The FDA’s mighty gavel has swung, and manufacturers of corn-based sweeteners are left with a bitter taste in their mouths. The health agency has officially denied a petition by the Corn Refiner’s Association that sought to change the name of high fructose corn syrup — that controversial sweet stuff used in everything from soda and…

What Haitian bus drivers can teach us about branding

Buying stuff just ain’t what it used to be. More than ever, personality and genuineness feel like secondary values, and that influences the quality of the things we have to buy. Whatever is left of a beautiful idea once it emerges from the mass-marketing wringer is often a mere shell of its original self. Real art,…

Pedicures and PUNishment

There’s a scourge coursing through our nation’s beauty parlors. Like an infectious Jehri curl, the trend has spread its tackiness to the windows and neon signs of salons everywhere, trying to sell us cheap nail care with a cheeky attitude: Curl Up & Dye. Hairchitecture. Shear Hostility. Bangs For The Memories. Hand Job. Yes, the…

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