To showcase tradition and classic style, K-Swiss has teamed up with director Jake Davis for a short film series concentrating on classic individuals who are passionate about what they do. The series started in Japan and profiled a renowned barista, DJ/record shop owner, the public relations director of Bedwin, and the owner of Globe Specs boutique. Each of the subjects discusses style, their business, and their own fashion inspirations. Davis and K-Swiss have started a series on American style influencers as well, starting with a short on Southern prep designer Billy Reid. The global approach to covering style inspiration and incredibly minimal K-Swiss branding are making the series a hit with Gen Ys obsessed with the stories and heritage behind products.

Louis Vuitton’s new 100 Legendary Trunks app is a perfect example of a luxury brand doing it right; incorporating their history and heritage into a modern interface, while giving Ys a taste of the Louis Vuitton archive. Well it’s, almost perfect—the iPad app costs a whopping $19 (making it the single cheapest item sold by Louis Vuitton)! We would love to see more brands incorporate brand lifestyle and tradition this way… for free. 

I hadn’t fully known that we had arrived at the future until the Japanese maker of my blue jeans woke me up on my iPhone with an app that featured music by a grammy nominee that alternated based on the day’s weather forecast. But here we are. 

Uniqlo’s Wake Up app is surprisingly wonderful to use, with a gentle voice waking you up (accompanied by a piano crescendo) telling you what day it is, what time it is, and what the weather’s going to be like. Very interesting brand placement Uniqlo! I am now in bed with Uniqlo.

For someone who cherishes her subway pass, I am really a sucker for the automotive industry’s marketing campaigns these days. Chevrolet’s Then & Now centennial via crowdsourced photos? Chrysler’s Imported from Detroit? If they’ve convinced a twenty-something, subway-riding New Yorker that the essence of American freedom is in its ability to put the pedal to the metal, it has been no small miracle. 

Now Ford is segwaying into a focus on American innovativeness with the launching of their TechShop in Detroit, a fabrication studio/workshop open to the public. 

It’s impossible to browse Facebook without being bombarded by self-improvement ads—Bigger breasts! Smaller waistline! No more cellulite! As a counterpoint to these negative self-image ads, Dove has released the Ad Makeover Facebook app that allows users in Australia to “hack” Facebook and replace negative ads with self-esteem boosting messages, such as, “Your birthday suit suits you.” This uplifting app is part of Dove’s ‘Real Beauty’ campaign to promote positive female body image—and apparently mindful marketing.

Filed Under: Scoop Poop for Free Wi-Fi

Some dog owners just can’t be bothered to pick up after doggie’s doo doo—but what if something were offered in exchange…perhaps…free Wi-fi? That exchange of services if just what Mexican web portal Terra is doing in Mexico City parks to incentivize dogwalkers to put away their smartphones for a minute and deal with real…shit.  Ten parks will be equipped with special poop-weighing, Wi-Fi dispensing boxes that provide free internet access for everyone in the park based on the weight. More of a publicity and education effort than a long-term service, Terra shows that even shitty ideas can become good marketing. 

Burger King Netherlands gets a “tasty new look”; why do brands save all the cooler marketing for our neighbors across the pond? Also, this would have been perfect in Italian Vogue’s Haute Mess editorial. 

We love brands who have the confidence to make fun of themselves, as we told you a few did with the Shit X Say meme. Amour, a Canadian adult TV station, just put out three jokey ads that poke fun at cliche porno plots and end with “Fantasies happen, but only on Amour Adult TV.” Keep yourself in on the joke by starting the joke yourself- love it. 

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The idea of taste-testing car insurance may not be the most intuitive marketing direction, but Geico’s recent car insurance taste test ads are right on the mark. You like the taste of our rates right? Right. You like the taste of our competitiors’ rates? No, right? Tastes nasty. 

Cate Blanchett recently graced the cover of The Economist’s Intelligent Life issue, without any photoshopping or digital “enhancement”. We have written before about consumers’ preference for the un-airbrushed, the street-cred they give to brands or publications that go un-airbrushed, and all I can say, is my twenty-three year old face is very jealous of Blanchett’s forty-two year old face. Or as Elle Woods once said of Sally Fields “She’s like a PSA for SPF!”.

Etch A Sketch’s response ads to their unexpected involvement in recent political discourse are Brilliant. 

For their Spring 2012 Gala, New York City Ballet company decided to go back to the very recent renaissance of ballet- the release of Darren Aronofsky’s Black Swan. The Rodarte sisters have been asked to design the costumes of the performance, Natalie Portman will host, and her fiance Benjamin Millepied (who choreographed and preformed in Black Swan) will choreograph the otherwise French-themed evening. One can only hope that this will spark other ballet and theatrical companies to commission fashion designers of the day to design costumes as Coco Chanel used to do for the Russian Ballet! And with McQ’s last runway show collaboration with Punchdrunk theatre company, we see that fashion in turn is also commissioning theatre.

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