American Madness

“Home Depot: Ripping the Head off ‘Green’ and Spitting Down Its Neck.” Or at least that is what Home Depot seems to be doing with their new initiative Eco Options Marketing Campaign. Well, that was initially how I started this post off, before really reading through the article.

Quick test: which is the Eco-Friendly product? A wood-handled paintbrush or a plastic-panel paintbrush? Either way you answer, you are right!

Okay, so maybe I am being a little harsh- “At Home Depot, How Green Is That Chainsaw?” (posted earlier this week) is an article that discusses Home Depot’s new Eco-Friendly marketing push which includes over 2,000 of the products they sell.

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Campaign materials tend to be a dime a dozen and be of the typical “Vote Clinton” button or ‘picture of the candidate with their name and the election year’ variety. Way back in the 60’s Barry Goldwater had a clever campaign with Au H2O. Every now and then you’ll find a clever button or campaign premise, but not often. There’s little that you would really want to display beyond the election date.

That is what makes some of Barack Obama’s materials so refreshing. The 008 Movement is backing Obama and has produced some well-designed materials. I think NotCot asked the right question: “Is Barack Obama trying to appeal to the designer set? Or does he really appreciate the importance of design?”

The New York Times reported yesterday on a growing trend amongst restaurant chefs: lawsuits related recipes.

The focus is on Pearl Oyster Bar, owned by Rebecca Charles and Ed’s Lobster Bar owned by Ed McFarland, her former Sous Chef.

Charles claims that McFarland not only stole the look and feel of her establishment, but also stole her Caesar Salad recipe. According to the article, lawsuits like this one are becoming more common as restaurateurs and chefs have begun to view themselves more like CEO’s and their restaurants as businesses.

The common argument is over stolen recipes that are claimed to be proprietary (though at most restaurants no nondisclosure forms are signed) and between Pearl and Ed’s, Rebecca Charles is also suing because her former employee not only allegedly stole some recipes but also stole the look and feel of the restaurant.

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I first became aware of Canal+ (a French Television channel) about 6 months back. I came across these humorous commercials. They had people explaining movies to their friends like March of the Penguins (which was called March of the Emperors in France) and Brokeback Mountain.

Canal+’s new commercial “Double Sense” asks us to “Watch the news carefully.” It is an ad that I’d recommend checking out. It actually made me say “wow!” Nicely done commercial.

As many people know today is D-Day* for the long awaited iPhone, the next generation iPod that is also a phone, is being released today at 6pm. While I am sure lines have been forming for the last few days for the new AT&T phone (because it is a sure sign a product will be good when they sign on to America’s least reliable or used carrier) companies like T-Mobile, Sprint and Verizon are fearing the loss of some customers today.

In a bid to retain their customer base and maybe even gain a few new customers, Verizon issued a press release yesterday announcing: “Verizon Wireless Stores Open All Day June 29 For Customers To Test Drive The Nation’s Most Reliable Wireless Network, Purchase Any Of 18 Multi-Media Music Devices.” For the record, this is the same promotion that Verizon has been pushing in their television commercials for the last 2 months.

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So, last night I was watching The Daily Show and Michael Moore was on to plug his movie Sicko about the health care industry. He was a little annoyed actually, not about being on The Daily Show, not about the flight that he took that almost didn’t make it in on time, but about the fact that he was suppose to have an hour long slot on Larry King Live that evening but had been bumped for Paris Hilton.

Now, if I was Michael Moore, I’d have been pissed, in fact if I was a regular Larry King Live viewer I think I would have been pissed if I tuned in to watch Michael Moore and had to deal with the whining of Paris Hilton.

The New York Times had a piece today that did a nice job commenting on the absurdity of the entire thing, including the biding war between NBC and ABC for that first interview. I think Barbra Walters was correct in saying “The whole thing somehow was beneath me.” Maybe Larry King should have taken that route too. For the most part I have avoided taking much note of any of this, it wasn’t blog worthy to post about her incarceration, her first release, her re-incarceration or even her second release. When the news tries to turn her first interview into a media event it becomes ridiculous.

No wonder other countries have such low opinions about us. Tonight Larry King has Colin Powell as a guest (who I am sure is thrilled to be going on the night after Paris) and Friday night Michael Moore will finally get his shot… Well, after a special re-airing of last nights episode with Paris (seriously).

Another great shot from Peeps. I promise we are working on the way we post photos, just bare stick with us for now.

So you may have noticed that I reported yesterday that The Tsunami, Kobayashi, might not compete in this year’s Nathan’s Hot Dog Contest on July 4th.

Well, I was wrong, he is competing. According to his manager, Kobayashi will definitely be competing in the competition. He wants to honor his mother, who passed away in March. During his trip to the U.S. he will also be the draw in the Pizza Hut P’Zone Challenge, where folks get the honor of going head-to-head against The Tsunami in a pizza eating competition, as long as they can explain in 50 words or less why they feel that they should be chosen to go up against him.

Kobayashi has big plans while he is here, let’s hope that the rehab he has done with his jaw this week will be enough to make him a real competitor this year so we can see some serious records broken in the match-up between him and Joey Chestnut. There still remain the skeptics who question whether Kobayashi actually had any jaw injury or not and was just making an excuse in case he looses to Chestnut.

Seriously though, how do you become a competitive eater and still maintain six-pack abs?

I am an occasional tie wearer. I have come to terms with this fact, but for a while it deeply disturbed me. I felt like ties were the evil manifestation of Corporate America. While I have out grown this belief (for the most part), I still like subversive ties. Little details like an all black tie with what appear to be white polka dots, but are actually skulls and crossbones. Actually Lee Allison is a great place for ties like that; they’ve got your very typical corporate type prints with little details that make all the difference.
Another company making some nice looking, subversive ties is Cyberoptix Tie Lab with their hand silk screened ties. My favorite is the Concealed Weapon series, Walking Timebomb. A pocket watch screened onto the front of the time, with some sticks of dynamite screened on the back. They have others in the series (like the 40 Whacks- a locket of Lizzie Borden appears on the front and, you guessed it, a hatchet on the back) as well as some other nicely designed ties (I think Neck Noose is great). Always a nice way to stick it to the man.

We want to welcome Peeps to the American Madness team. We’ll be featuring his photos here on a regular basis so come back often to check out his work. Clicking on the picture will give you a larger image with the title, clicking on it again will give you an even larger shot (I am still working this out).

59th St Bridge by Peeps