triggerhappymedia

Yahoo! Briefcase is Closing- Action Required, said the email. And so I have about 300 documents and presentations to go through. Most are years old. While the Briefcase has become redundant, I am finding some really cool stuff in my files.

For example, the Meet the World ad campaign designed for defunct Portuguese political magazine Grande Reportagem:

European Union

Angola

Brazil

Burkina Faso

China

Columbia

Somalia

USA

______________________________
Trigger: Meet the World

Whole Foods grocery stores are not the organic promised land that they claim to be. Last fall’s Swallow It Whole art show examined why not, and why it matters.

Researching the piece I wrote for the exhibition catalog was an eye-opening experience. Here’s an excerpt from “Whole Foods and the Business of Half-Truths”:

“The Whole Foods shopping experience – the hardwood floors and soft lighting, the sterile seafood and meat cases, the linear presentation of both in and out of season fruits and vegetables, the individually wrapped servings priced by weight - hardly imitates how the food is found in nature. Whole Foods customers will only find evidence of the pasture, grove, and sea in pictures (such as the farming landscapes painted on the walls, and the illustrations of green fields and happy animals on the food labels). Nature is dirty and sometimes unpleasant, but the absence of these less appealing qualities lends to the upmarket feel of the store. The use of pictures to represent the real deal also serves as a great distraction- most products sold in Whole Foods are no closer to their original source than those found in conventional supermarkets.

On a national level, Whole Foods cannot rely on small suppliers to meet large-scale demands; they must utilize a contracted workforce, factory farms, processing plants, and fossil fuels for transport. As a result, the conditions that define an organic, local, or environmentally-friendly product are not entirely clear.

What Whole Foods does provide is a distinctive brand to customers who value their philosophy, but do not necessarily question how they pursue it. For this reason, business continues to flourish. And Whole Foods is, above all, just a business.”

Robert Kenner’s upcoming documentary Food, Inc. takes a deeper look.

Thanks to the urgent action I took to save some frequent flier miles, I’m back on my weekly dose of New York Magazine- this time delivered to me in the comfort of my own home. Hallelujah.

It took about six weeks, but the first issue’s arrival was marked by a happy dance that would fall in the lowbrow + despicable quadrant of an Approval Matrix.

_______________________
Trigger: New York Mag

Over the weekend Glendale, AZ, hosted an Arab American Festival, “a Non-political, Non-religious, Non-profit Organization established to build community pride […] targeted to all Americans to create an awareness of the diverse ethnic groups while having fun.”

The main sponsors? Yes, the CIA, FBI, and the Office of the Director of National Intelligence hosted a career fair thinly disguised by falafel stands and live music.

It was their way to reach out the Arab-American community, to say Uncle Sam is sorry for thinking that you all are dirty plotting terrorists; but if you know anyone who is, we’d sure love to have you come work for us!

___________________________
Trigger: Arab American Festival

A full-sized van with curtains drawn across every window might as well have a yellow Paedophile on Board sign at the back. Several park for hours at a time where Thompson Street meets Canal.

“Hey lady,” the tiny woman with a walkie-talkie bulging from her front pocket called to me. “You want handbag?”

They see me every day now. One afternoon a policeman showed me his dog’s picture on his camera phone, and now the van people give me the stink eye. But I didn’t care about the cop’s Shih Tzu, and I certainly don’t about the knockoff purse trade.

Popular brands hang along the hollowed out interior where tourists are brought in two or three at a time. The doors make that distinct scraping sound as they slide shut, usually leaving the husband or boyfriend standing outside unhappily. The give away is that he’s sometimes holding the old purse, the embarrassing old bag without a brand-name logo - but Made in China nonetheless.

_________________________________________
Trigger: New Counterfeiting Strategy @ Racked

_________________________________
Trigger: nice salt shaker from Fishs Eddy

Exploring how my hometown of Phoenix, Arizona, has changed in the last ten years.

Wide open spaces no more.

No longer satisfied with multi-acre estate homes, the well-off are now actually choosing to live in the mall. Residents of the Waterfront at Scottsdale Fashion Square and Kierland Commons were keen to invest in million-dollar condominiums situated above huge shopping plazas.

The only logical reason for this phenomenon is that the city’s super rich were determined to have both the urban feel of condo-style living and the suburban comfort of having a Gap nearby. When the Arizona Republic asked one young couple why they purchased a Waterfront unit for more than the price of a single-family home, they were sure of their decision: why do we need a sprawling back yard for our daughter to play in when we live just steps away from a toy store?

________________________________________________
Trigger: “Home buyers trade in houses for mall living” by Lisa Nicita

The copy for the latest Louis Vuitton ad reads: A journey brings us face to face with ourselves. Berlin Wall. Returning from a conference. Mikhail Gorbachev and Louis Vuitton are proud to support Green Cross International.

For Louis Vuitton, this campaign is meant to convey the rich heritage of the company. It’s also a bit of green marketing (which is oh so fashionable even if there isn’t a clear connection between the product and green initiatives). Gorbachev is the Chairman of the Board for Green Cross International, an organization comitted to environmental issues.

Photographer Annie Leibovitz captures Gorbachev in what can only be called chic discomfort, and the message is confusing. If the former leader of the Communist Soviet Union has a Louis Vuitton bag, should I want one, too?

________________________________
Trigger:”Grobachev Made Me Buy It” by Eric Wilson
Site: NY Times

________________________________
Trigger: What the Duck

____________________________
Trigger: Ads of the World