Advertising

Moms Demand Action Through Ad Campaign

By Delphine Hirasuna | September 8, 2014September 15, 2014

Moms_Against_Violence1

Moms Demand Action, a gun-control group backed by former New York City mayor Michael Bloomberg, has launched an advertising campaign asking retail chains to refuse service to shoppers who openly carry assault rifles into their establishments. In response to retailer claims that doing that would violate their customers’ civil liberties, the ads point out that retailers have had no qualms about enforcing a ban on shirtless shoppers, eating ice cream cones and skateboarding. This series of ads targets Kroger, the largest grocery chain in the U.S. So far, nearly a half dozen national restaurants and stores have reversed course in response to Moms Demand Action advertising and publicity campaign. No word yet from Kroger.

Moms_Against_Violence2

Advertising

Aesthetic Bias Leads to Shameful Waste, Higher Prices, Poor Nutrition

By Delphine Hirasuna | July 29, 2014September 4, 2014

Take my word for it, my farming credentials are impeccable. I’ve grown up around commercial fruit and vegetable farmers my entire life, and I know that the tasty, tree/vine-ripened, organically safe stuff rarely make it onto the supermarket shelf because retailers want their produce uniform in size, unblemished and picked firm and barely ripe so they won’t spoil before sold. As a result, mega-tons of fruits and vegetables are rejected for purely cosmetic reasons. Millions of people are suffering from malnutrition and billions of dollars of food are tossed out because they don’t rise to the aesthetic standards of clueless urbanites who believe that beauty trumps taste. What’s equally sad is that many city-dwellers don’t know how a real tree-ripened apricot, peach or cherry should taste. Shame!

Packaging

Dog-Loving Photographer Creates Asian Elixir, Thanks to Lindsay Lohan

By Delphine Hirasuna | December 18, 2013September 4, 2014

Kombucha Dog is one of those “only in California live-your-passion” stories. According to the Kombucha Dog website, the beverage company was started in L.A. by Michael Faye, a successful commercial photographer who loved traveling the world on assignment, until he found that the photo business was beginning to require spending more time on the computer than on location. That’s when Faye sold his studio and set up DogIsArt, a dog portraiture business, combining his avid love of dogs with his professional talent.

The kombucha link comes in because Faye, who was raised as a strict vegetarian by a mother who even made her own yogurt, was strongly into the raw food movement and yoga. An early adopter of kombucha, Faye started drinking the fermented tea back in 2005, but had to stop when actress Lindsey Lohan failed an alcohol test. Lohan’s attorneys launched a “kombucha defense” saying that drinking lots of kombucha caused a false positive on the test. The controversy caused L.A. retailers to pull kombucha from the shelves, forcing Faye to experiment with brewing his own.

Humor

Real-Life Digital Stories from Google Analytics

By Delphine Hirasuna | January 16, 2013September 4, 2014

If real store personnel treated customers the way some online marketers do, this is what the experience may feel like to shoppers. Google Analytics produced this series of videos to demonstrate how online retailers are losing customers by bombarding them with too many annoying questions, offers and distractions. The videos simulate interactions with the landing page, site search and checkout. The skits are funny but too painfully true. Google Analytics implies there is hope; it directs online retailers to its blog site for improvement tips.