If you were using Tumblr yesterday, chances are you happened upon the PIPA/ SOPA protest requesting you to black out your blog for the day. An interesting move for the brand to take rather than blacking out Tumblr itself, to show its support in asking hundreds of thousands of blogs to shut down for the day. So far in support, Wikipedia held to its promise to black out and direct users to information where they could contact their state representatives (below), and Google has changed its logo to a black bar code theme for the day…

This is a very interesting moment for Gen Y’s relationship to both the internet (which could fundamentally change should either SOPA or PIPA pass), but more importantly, to activism itself. One could say that the Occupy movements could just be the beginning of a long strain of activism being sparked within this generation; an activism that isn’t electoral, but very democratically/ socially oriented. We are keeping our eyes open for brands that understand this moment. 

So brilliant! We know that fans of Cougartown have to defend their love of the show due to the sitcom’s ridiculous title, but for the network to acknowledge it as well??? That’s brave and attention grabbing marketing! 

(via stamos)

As the Weird Rap movement becomes more  widely mainstream, we see the same synth heavy, ethereal, dark experimentalism in up and coming R&B artists like Odd Future member Frank Ocean and more recently, The Weeknd. With lyrics like

“Open your hand

Take a glass

Don’t be scared, I’m right here

Even though, you don’t roll

Trust me girl

You gonna wanna be high for this”

In one of his most popular singles High for This, The Weeknd delivers what at first seems to be dreamy courtship rap, which quickly presents itself as frightening, off putting experimental lyricism that we can recognize from Odd Future. Keep an eye on this artist, if this isn’t a marker of acsent to fame itself, he’s already collaborating with Drake on his third album Echoes of Silence, available for free on his website.

I’m not sure if anyone else has noticed this… but Town & Country is cool again. Really, actually, cool. Hats off to Jay Fielden, who after only one year as editor in chief, has refined, and re-defined the magazine’s la belle vie ethos into a sharply current, tongue-in-cheek beacon of lifestyle literature (think Simon Doonan to Barney’s). This month, for example, features a center story on the monstrously popular show Downton Abbey (Restoration Drama), a piece on a warehouse lot of rare vintage roadsters in South Central LA, and a collection of perfectly on point Style Spy collages (the below follows the evolving resortwear trend in a showcase of raffia used in the Spring 2012 collections of Tom Ford, and Tory Burch), and a perfect showcase on the current pajama as day and evening wear, entitled Sleep No More (a nod to the Punchdrunk Macbeth revival in Manhattan this past fall).

An article in Gothamist covered NBC’s Law & Order: SVU hosted a “Mockupation” over the weekend as they opened an Occupy Wall Street set to actual Occupy Wall Street protestors. The show meant to cast a sympathetic light on the movement, but was shut down by NYPD when the set became all too close to replicating an actual protest. Protestors chanted “NYPD doesn’t respect Law & Order” as they were carried away.

We’ve said it before, Gen Ys respond to brands that support local culture. Which is why Tory Burch’s Loveletter to New York video in T Magazine this week came as a breeze of fresh air to see Tory herself happily strolling around the Upper East Side, opening the ancient gates of the Frick, talking us through her own New York story.

Breaks like these from brands are exhilarating. They allow us to be swept up all at once by the brand’s history (or instant history, a sort of brand history through association), and in our own lives within a city’s history. This, for me and for my Y peers, is the way to advertise.

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Trendera just went to Austin! One of our favorite spots we visited in The Weird City was Hotel Saint Cecilia, a favorite of local legend of director Roberto Rodriguez (which would explain its unparalleled exclusivity). The hotel not only had a functioning vinyl record library with a record player in every room, but upon check in each guest got a hand written (chicken scratch!) note welcoming them with homemade cookies.  Immaculately decorated, the hotel lounge (above) showcased a lovely taxidermic white peacock, while the lap pool instead showcased an enormous “SOUL” neon light. The hotel gift shop/ front desk showcases goods from local artisan/ etsy (below) seller Jen Pearson (below, a fire kit) which we have written about on this very blog before! What a place.

 In a sweeping year of practically perfect marketing, Chevrolet approached 100 years gracefully with this video of old photographs of Chevys through the years placed on top of modern day locations, in the same style popularized by blogs like Dear Photograph that we’ve been telling you about. The spot,Then and Now, debuted during Game 1 last Wednesday of the World Series. The video perfectly picks up a rising blog style and matches it to their own brand history; only falling short of giving recognition, or partnering with, the aforementioned blog. Altogether still another win for Chevy. 

We’ve written about Dear Photograph in the past, but it continues to grow in popularity and poignancy. For those who haven’t seen it, Dear Photograph is an incredibly touching blog where users submit photographs of photographs held over the place they were taken, decades before, along with messages written  to people in the picture (sometimes the long-gone subject, sometimes a childhood version of their children, or of themselves). One particularly moving example of this blog’s gravitas are the submission for the September 11th ten year anniversary (below).

I am left wishing we could do this digitally, by holding up our smartphones. Reinserting place, and history, into the continuously placeless, globalized world seems to be an emerging preoccupation for Ys. 

When I heard CEO Jay Finch pitch SocStock (short for Social Stock) by Common Equity at Applied Brilliance’s 2011 event, I thought two things- first that I had never heard such a Gen Y-meets-finance proposal, and second that Brooklyn is about to face total take over. Never have I heard of such a timely tech launch.

So how does SocStock work? Say a local business that you love- perhaps a sandwich shop that makes things that taste like heaven- is hypothetically trying to expand and needs a new oven to keep up with demand of their immaculate sandwich The Singing Angels. Instead of applying for a small business loan that they might not get, The Sandwich Shop would ask their loyal patrons to invest something like $100 each of SocStock to be able to buy a new oven and keep up with demand. I, the loyal customer, would go to SocStock’s website, buy $100 worth of SocStock via my PayPal account, and would be reimbursed over the coming months with what could be behind the scenes tours, sandwich-making classes, or even discounted or store-credited Singing Angels sandwiches. 

As an alternative for small businesses applying for small business loans that are virtually impossible to come by these days as banks continue to constrict, it’s simply Brilliant. 

Missoni for Target is already sold out! The Target website is down because they have so many hits! How will the masses get their Missoni?!!

In case you haven’t read our previous post on the Missoni for Target collection, Missoni for Target launched this morning and already Targets around the country are sold out. Influencers everywhere are at their wits’ end. God only knows if they will restock as fast as the flood of demand for the record-breaking collaboration.

An article today in Lifehacker demonstrates how to create your own, surprisingly effective, Wifi Extender with an empty aluminum can. Apparently, you really only have to cut the can, (clean and dry the body and cap of the can) and attach to you modem with silly putty. Anyone who is siphoning off someone else’s wifi in their apartment- you can now get a better signal to watch Netflix with! Nearly a perfect article for Gen Y- how to recycle your way into better wifi.