Burning Israeli flags. Bombing Iran. Protests outside of a U.S. Embassy. No, it’s not the latest headlines ripped off the Internet, but art (in this case Showtime’s “Homeland”) holding up a mirror (a little too close for comfort) revealing worry lines like tripwires—hard to see, never mind cross. By far one of [...]

    Imagine this: It’s Wednesday, Nov. 7th 2012 and Mitt Romney just lost the election. Since he ain’t goin’ to Disneyworld, what should he be thinking? What went wrong? One big word jumps to mind — branding. Brands stand for something and Mr. Romney never gave a clear, consistent brand message. He was, from [...]

To peer back in time via AMC’s hit show “Mad Men” is like gazing into an old GAF Viewmaster. The advertising world it nostalgically depicts, often referred to as the “creative revolution,” is frozen in a Purgatorial time warp. Each cultural meme of the show – from the Brylcreemed hair to the mod clothes donned [...]

While 2011 saw the proliferation of social media, blogs, Tweets and an explosion of devices to carry forth all the digitized infotainment, it also reflected the ever-existing divide that separates us.  Not unlike Google+, that was launched this year to rival Facebook and their demarcated circles, cloistering friends and acquaintences, the social divide that played [...]

It’s a good thing Gertrude Stein never said, “A phone is a phone is a phone.” Clearly, these days, her tautology would be a disconnect, received like a dropped call. The mobile devices we’re so dependent on, attached like an extension of our brains, are so much more. Ultimately, they allow everything to be knowable. [...]

We consumers get very attached to our brands.  We bond and even form relationships.  So when a brand suddenly changes direction, without fair warning, it can be like a spouse springing some kind of big news on you. Imagine coming home and finding your husband or wife decided to take up smoking? Or they completely [...]

As a philosophy major, I was attracted to the business of brands because they bring about the post-modern day quest to tackle one of the oldest philosophical conundrums by asking the question, “What is real?” Is the product the reality, or is it the brand? Is what exists on the store shelves the brand, or [...]

On the rapid road of mobile technology, it was only a relatively short time ago in business communications, when replying to practically any e-missive an auto sign-off, “sent from my BlackBerry” carried timely caché. BlackBerry held the brand mantle of work. The tagged reply implied, “I am busily rushing between important meetings and in transit, [...]

Last month, it was President Obama’s birth certificate. Now it’s proof of Osama bin Laden’s death. When will this administration learn? In an online, always-plugged-in world – in which citizens are armed with camera phones, text is a verb, and scoops can be published in a nanosecond – news cannot be withheld. A photograph of [...]

A number of Republican aspirants to the White House in 2012 are garnering millions of media impressions by leveraging Fox News and other media outlets to fuel their ambitious goals. They don’t realize it, but they are in danger of celebrity self-immolation. Celebrityhood provides a quick way to ignite a candidacy and a fast track [...]