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. With Noted
I gather that this is real:
Godin himself discusses here. Alex, if you’re out there: I’m very tempted to buy this for you. You know you want it. Via Snarkhunting..
Your toilet is bourgeois
But of course there is solution: Buy something to make your toilet express more about who you are. You are a person who decorates the toilet. That’s who. Details about vinyl stickers with various cool images, at $20 per, are at Vital Industries on Etsy. Via BB.
Thirsty for … crayons?
I noticed this stuff on the shelf at my local Kroger yesterday. It raised a few questions for me. I don’t immediately associate crayons with something I’m supposed to swallow.
It seems particularly odd to brand an “all natural” fruit juice this way. What’s all-natural about crayons? I don’t have the slightest idea how they’re made (Wikipedia says the key ingredient is paraffin wax, “a petroleum product,” and maybe that’s true) but I’m pretty sure it’s a synthetic process that happens in a factory, and they’re not plucked fresh from a field.
Obviously, though, they’re going after kids with this, and there seems to be a feeling out there that a healthy drink for kids could be a big hit.
Apparently Crayons has no direct connection to Crayola, despite the fairly indisputable attempt to suggest that connection. A Seattle Times story on the company’s site says the founder “bought the Crayons trademark for use with food beverages” in 2003. He got it “from someone who had been tinkering with using it with juices on the East Coast.” But it’s “not the same as Crayola.” I guess maybe “crayon” is a generic term that pre-dates Crayola. (Side note: Refreshing my memory about Crayola packaging led me to a collector site with some cool old designs).
Anyway, the Seattle Times article says this beverage is in 2,000 supermarkets nationwide, but there was no sales data.
What this seems to be is a kind of case study in the power of recognizability and familiarity. I’m sure that the stuff caught my eye on the shelf because I recognized the word crayon. In my case, I wasn’t tempted to see what crayons taste like, or whatever, but I guess it does “engage” the shopper on some level. Maybe others — again, children seem to be the main target — will be curious enough to try a can, and if it’s good they’ll come back for more.
One would assume that this strategy has limits, and that the recognizable word has to be not only recognizable, but relevant to the category at hand. But maybe this simply stretches the definition of “relevance,” in that “crayon” is sort of a fun, happy, feel-good word. (Compared to, say, “nylon.”) Interesting experiment.
Bonus link: Metafilter “All you ever needed to know about crayons.”
Rolling Stones: The Kubrick
The exhibition Sympathy for the Devil: Art and Rock and Roll since 1967, at the Museum of Contemporary Art in Chicago, sounds pretty cool. But what about the collateral merch? Well how about a Rolling Stones Kubrick, eh?
The Rolling Stones lips logo is nearly as iconic as the group itself. Inspired by Kali, a Mother figure in Hinduism with large lips and Mick’s own mouth, it took artist John Pasche just one week to create it in 1970. Here, Medicom features the logo on their 100% (3″) and 400% (11″) Kubricks.
I have a secret wish that there are Kubrick fanatics who will respond to this by wondering who the Rolling Stones are. But of course that’s absurd: everybody knows they’re those older guys who do music for lots of TV commercials.
Yet another low-utility wristwatch
That’s right, it only has one hand. Courtesy of Coolhunting: “German watchmaker Klaus Botta’s design makes seconds and minutes irrelevant; with the Uno, be on time-ish.”
Earlier low-utility watches here, here, here, here, and here.
Funny — but keep it away from children
A peg-puzzle product titled “Branded,” from Atypyk: “Because it’s never too early to learn what’s important in life.” Via Counterfeit Chic.
Weirdly appealing: Rubber vase
It’s a vase. Made of rubber. Designed by Henriette Melchiorsen, at Scandinavian Design Center. Via Better Living Through Design.
Pleasing thing of the day: Paper dolls etc. by Wool and Water
This person’s work is pretty cool. Her name — I learn from Craft’s blog — is Amy Earle, a maker of paper dolls and other things. Here’s her blog, and here’s her “Wool and Water” Etsy store. Enjoyable.
Don’t Tase Britney (or whatever)
How small can an idea be, and still gain what at least appears to be cultural traction?
The answer is incredibly small. So small that we don’t even bother to attach a name to the person at the center of such an idea. We just call these people “[fill-in-the-blank] guy.” The two present examples are “Leave Britney Alone Guy,” and “Don’t Tase Me Guy.” In keeping with the rules of the game, I will not bother with actual names here, since it doesn’t matter.
Leave Britney Alone Guy is, of course, some guy. He made a YouTube video in which he offered a “tear-filled defense of Britney Spears.” Allegedly, he has a “large Net audience” that has made him “a darling of the mainstream media.” Also, he now has “a development deal.” Variety.com says: “Plan is to develop a docusoap built around Crocker, a 19-year-old who lives with his grandparents in Tennessee.”
Meanwhile, there’s Don’t Tase Me Guy. Again, this is some guy. This guy apparently said “Don’t tase me, bro,” while being tased at a John Kerry event. In an example of the kind of current-event product-making (“spinning products off events, or even off what the historian Daniel Boorstin called pseudo-events”) that I wrote about a while back in this Consumed, someone is selling related T-shirts. I would say the main change since that June 2006 column is that the threshold for just how pseudo an event can be before someone pronounces it a phenomenon and at least attempts to commodize it, continues to get lower.
[Update: I missed this earlier, but Adfreak prefers a different Tase Guy T.]
I should disclose that I haven’t bothered to watch any of the related YouTube videos; I’m operating on the Snakes on a Plane theory that once you “get” the phrase, you don’t have to bother with whatever cultural artifact the phrase supposedly refers to. I suggest you do the same. If you waste time actually watching Leave Britney Alone Guy, you may be several minutes late in hearing about Whoever Comes Next Guy.
A brand of imaginary brands
A collection of unique shirt designs which are inspired and pay homage to some of the most memorable places, corporations and companies in 20th century fiction – from the sunny shores of Amity Island (Jaws) to the frozen climes of Outpost #31 (The Thing).
Definitely my kind of thing. Above, of course, HAL, from 2001. Plus Tyrell Replicants (Blade Runner), Polymer Records (Spinal Tap), Mighty Mick’s Boxing (Rocky), etc.
Via Coudal.
Previous imaginary brand notes here.
A useless watch that’s so useless it’s not even a watch
I’ve been at pains to make clear that my interest in useless watches is not a de facto interest in bracelets. A useless watch and a bracelet are not the same thing.
That said, this item blurs the line. I’d say it’s a bracelet that comments on useless watches. And since it’s sold at the MoMa store, it must be, if not “art,” then “Good Design.” Via Better Living Through Design.
Earlier notes on low-utility watches here, here, here, and here.
Communicate with other members of your household via toast
Those of you who recall the Consumed about toasters and “innovation” may be interested in this:
This toaster by Sasha Tseng incorporates a little message board where one can read quick notes. The message also gets “toasted” into the toast itself so it gives new meaning to “read while you eat”.
Via BB.
(Red) remixed
Wendy Dembo writes:
Last year when the Gap came out with their (red) campaign, the first word that popped into my head, was insu(red)/uninsu(red). They did a few kind of ironic shirts like bo(red) and ti(red), but I wondered why they didn’t make an uninsu(red) shirt.
With insurance looking like it’s going to be the touch point for the 2008 Presidential election, I thought that making these shirts could hopefully get some uninsured kids to think about their need for health insurance, perhaps even the need for universal health care.
She got Jeff Staple to execute the shirts, which are on sale at the Reed Space in New York.
It’s interesting to see something in the brand underground realm using the visual remix strategy to address a political issue. It will also be interesting to see what sort of reaction it ends up getting.
Another low-utility watch
This an Abacus watch. According to the Josh Spear site: “Ignoring the fact that you may miss appointments by a few minutes thanks to the, um, interpretive visuals delivered by the watch, this thing may represent the most immature representation of time since the cuckoo clock, a fact further solidified by the watch’s refusal to tell time until the wearer is perfectly still.” It costs about $150, here.
Product of the day
Tattoo Bandage Assortment. Perfect for Amy Winehouse, or whatever self-cutting tattoo fan you love. Via BB.
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Kim Fellner's book 
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