One affair suggests private relationship issues. Several alleged affairs is a public debacle for Tiger Woods and his sponsors. It begs the question, why do businesses choose to tie themselves to the cult of celebrity? The answer is because there is such a cult of celebrity.

Society has obsessed over recognition of personality for centuries, although the context has altered over time. Recent decades has witnessed the shift away from notability for achievement or exalted position and more towards fame for fame itself. Those recently seeking fame/infamy as the intended outcome include the “Balloon Boy” and the White House trespassing Salahis. It’s Warhol’s 15 minutes on steroids.

The reason why companies tie themselves to particular celebrities is more nuanced than that, of course, especially for the stewards of those corporate brands that sponsor a particular personality. Brands need to communicate their core archetypal attributes, being those characteristics, attitudes, behaviors and, indeed, that personality that those companies wish their consumers to associate with and perceive in their brand. It is easier for a brand to express those traits by illustrating them through something or someone iconic, within which or whom those brand traits are readily witnessed. (more…)

What do you see when you sleep? Do you record your dreams? Are you integrating your conscious self with your unconscious psyche? In short, are you plumbing your dream world to find your soul?

The unconscious dreamworld of the acclaimed Swiss psychoanalyst, Carl Jung, is to be revealed publicly for the first time. The New York Times Magazine had a fine article last weekend about the forthcoming publication of Jung’s Red Book, a seemingly meticulous, revealing and graphically recorded tour through years of Jung’s personal dreams. This would be of interest generally given the comprehensive and aesthetically appealing work, but it is of deeper importance when one considers that Jung is one of the last century’s great psychologists and the founder of contemporary archetypal thinking.

There are, obviously, similarities between Jung’s Red Book and Federico Fellini’s Book of Dreams, which the Jungian analyst Ernst Bernhard, encouraged Fellini to maintain. Fellini duly noted and illustrated his own oneiric existence over thirty years and this exhibition at The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences informatively introduced that work. (more…)

As technologies, such as Amazon’s Kindle, change our behavior and engagement with reading, it also changes the way we perceive the act of reading. Inherent in this is the role of design. There are those design considerations that relate to the functional and emotional interaction with the device and technology itself. These devices have attempted to replicate certain aspects of a reader’s interaction with the physical book, such as allowing for a finger swipe to turn a page. A friend of mine actually tore the guts from a hard back book and used velcro to attach his Kindle inside. It was a revealing gesture, as well as a well executed one. (more…)

I almost exclusively watch T.V. shows online, either on hulu.com or a network’s Web site. I am never at home when shows are typically aired and I like the format of short 30 to 15 second ads rather than 2 minute blocks that interrupt the show you are watching. The commercial that was constantly on was a new advertising spot for Frito Lays’ healthy line of snack food.

This advertising is directed exclusively at women. The segments end with a little flag that says “only in a woman’s world.”

I have to admit when I first saw these commercials I was offended. I think that so often advertisers end up talking at women rather then developing a conversation with them. I also think that advertisers play to the typical stereotypes about men and women. See Stuart’s previous blog post “Men are stupid and women are scheming” here and then watch Webisode 7, where the husband is played as well meaning but stupid and the wife as harried yet indulgent. I don’t see myself in these ads. (more…)

The rapidity of adoption of a variety of innovative online tools has every marketer on their toes. Which is a good stance to take considering that we would also describe the current online landscape as one of shifting sands. A question facing many marketers is how to adjust their brand management strategy and media buy in the context of online developments?

A few figures from The Nielsen Company Online’s Global Online Media Landscape report illustrate the changes:

There has been a massive surge in the use of online video. The availability and ease of use of inexpensive personal video technologies, the number of online sharing sites and enhanced internet infrastructure capacity has enabled this growth. (more…)