MURKETING

Linkpile

No Consumed in this week’s mag, but buy the Sunday Times anyway, it’s always worth the money.

I am tired, so this is all I have, linkwise:

• How high will savings rate go?: It’s at 5.7 percent of disposable income. One economist predicts it will “continue to grow until it surpasse[s] the record high of 14.6 percent, set in May 1975.” That’s quite a prediction.
• For the ‘funemployed,’ unemployment is welcome: Lots of articles on this buzz-concept lately. “Buoyed by severance, savings, unemployment checks or their parents, the funemployed do not spend their days poring over job listings. They travel on the cheap for weeks. They head back to school or volunteer at the neighborhood soup kitchen. And at least till the bank account dries up, they’re content living for today.”

Links compiled via delicious, and repurposed here with plug-in Postalicious.

Linkpile

• Value Pack at Art by the Ferry: Artist group’s site-specific exploration of the concept of value. “The location, a closed pizza parlor at 70 Bay Street, Staten Island is quite consistent with the theme of the show.” June 6/7 and 13/14, 11 am – 6 pm.
• Kevin Cyr Illustrations.: Nice.
• Things That Look Like Other Things: Another Murketing Organization work in progress. Tell somebody why don’t you.
• HOR on PBR Fixed Gear Bike: “Not sure if it would be possible to create a more authentic vehicle. Possibly a Sparks Prius.” Funny.

Links compiled via delicious, and repurposed here with plug-in Postalicious.

Flickr Interlude

Oakland, originally uploaded by R. Walker.

Slight delay on Murketing.com activity owing to work-travel obligations. I’ll be back soon. Thank you for your patience.

Linkpile

• HBO Uses Real Brands To Target Fake Audience: “Familiar household brands such as Ecko, Geico, Harley-Davidson, MINI, Gillette and Monster.com, promote fictional products to a specific, nonexistent, target audience: vampires.” (Thx: Gladys S.!)
• The End of the (Virtual) World: “What we can learn about the bankruptcies of virtual worlds.”
• Objectified: Another review.
• Twitter Embroidery: Via Faythe Levine’s FB stream.
• Obscure Ad Icons: “A compendium of cool brand identities culled from what must be a spectacular collection of ephemera.”

Links compiled via delicious, and repurposed here with plug-in Postalicious.

Linkpile

• Scarcity is the father of low cost innovation: “Rural innovators are also coming in the limelight with their cost effective, grassroots solutions to everyday challenges.”
• Amazing WSJ story on Grape Nuts: “People eating advertising.”

That’s it? Yeah. That’s it.

Links compiled via delicious, and repurposed here with plug-in Postalicious.

Bill Clinton: Alpha shopper

The Times Mag‘s cover story this weekend, about Bill Clinton, opened with a scene of the former president shopping, in Peru.

The store owner showed him a selection of shoulder bags for women. Clinton selected one he thought would be great for his friend, Frank Giustra, the Canadian mining mogul, to give to Giustra’s girlfriend. Clinton said he likes picking out gifts for his friends’ wives and girlfriends.

I found that last point strange: Who buys gifts for their friends’ wives and girlfriends? I can’t imagine doing that. “Hey man, picked up this purse for your girlfriend. Trust me, she’ll like it.” I’m also trying to figure out how I’d react if a male friend of mine (or, for that matter, Bill Clinton) started buying presents for me to give my wife.

E thinks this might simply be normal behavior among people who have lots and lots of money. Or perhaps it’s  just part of Clinton’s, um, general interest in women.

It struck me as very odd behavior.