Music Video: The XX "VCR"

I had a serious aversion to this band when it first came out. I think I was just trying to resist any sort of "recession" music. Now I crave it.

Tonight - Films that Move: Lemonade

Tonight is the Toronto premiere of Eric Proulx's debut film project, Lemonade.

"More than 130,000 advertising professionals have lost their jobs in this Great Recession. Lemonade is about what happens when people who were once paid to be creative in advertising are forced to be creative with their own lives."
More info here.


Get FREE tickets here.

Starbucks: Debranding

In an effort to go back to their original company manifesto of being a funky indie coffeeshop, Starbucks is set to open one of three unbranded stores in the chain's birthplace of Seattle. The first - to be called 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea - will serve alcohol, stock unbranded coffee and have space for running poetry evenings and open mic nights.

All is an experiment by head office to debrand and deglobalize... the question is why.

Pedestrian traffic has been down for Starbucks since the recession hit, and consumer tastes are changing to be more receptive to something that supports both the local community and the environment instead of a tie in with Chapters Indigo.

Head office's turn back to the funk is proving to be a hilarious Office Space esque quest for "flare". An excerpt from the Seattle Times:

'Sebastian Simsch, co-owner of Seattle Coffee Works near Pike Place Market, became frustrated last year after large groups of Starbucks employees kept crowding into his 300-square-foot store to look around. "I thought it was funny," he said. "We're this little store, and I thought Starbucks didn't need to learn from me."

During the third group's visit, Simsch let them know what he thought. "I said, 'If you want to buy something that's great, but just to look, that's not cool,' " he recounted. "I called the PR department and said, 'Never again.' " They did not come back, even after he moved into a much larger store next door.

Victrola Coffee Roasters saw the Starbucks people a lot more often. "They spent the last 12 months in our store up on 15th [Avenue] with these obnoxious folders that said, 'Observation,' " said Victrola owner Dan Ollis.

He thinks it's interesting that they spent all that time in his shop, which serves wine and beer, then applied for a liquor license to sell wine and beer at 15th Avenue Coffee and Tea.'

How's about leaving the local business to the local businesses and spending the debranding money and research on improving the existing brand instead? Consumers are well aware of being marketed to. If you want to appear more environmentally friendly, Starbucks, then let's try and do it properly. Have you heard of these?



Let's get them in your stores. I assure you that the public will be much more receptive to this than a weekly poetry reading.

And on the poetry reading rant, why don't we lift up our sleeves and move some chairs and use those funky chalkboards in your existing spaces to do so? Did we really need to print up "Observation binders" to think of this?

I am fully supportive of the debranding if it leads to more environmentally friendly rebranding of all Starbucks. For that, I say debrand away. Unfortunately, I don't believe the heart in this scenerio. Debranding in order to rebrand as being quirky and independent is only a scheme to be making more money and paving the way to exactly the same corporate trap they found themselves fall into in the first place. It's the Britney Spears syndrome. They won't be able to help themselves.


To see the Seattle Times article, click here.
Also, a great article from Marketing Mag here.

The Unicorn Awards

One horn to rule them all. Introducing the One Shot Film Festival, a recently launched online award fest to celebrate creativity in the midst of recession.
The premis? Budgets may be diminishing, markets may be crashing, but the OSFF aims to award the innovators who refuse to let the industry die.
Completely FREE to enter, the OSFF will award Gold, Silver and Bronze Unicorns to winning entrants. More info here.

Walking The High Line

It's official! New York is the super coolest.







Welcome to the High Line, a raised park in the sky! Built on an old freight train track constructed in Manhattan in the 1930's, the High Line opened on June 8th, 2009. For more info, click here.


All images courtesy of the High Line Blog.

Watch: The Story of Stuff

If you have a spare twenty minutes across the next week or so, give The Story of Stuff a go. This is an animated "short" about consumerist society, written and hosted by Annie Leonard. It's easy enough to understand if you're a baby to the term consumerist culture; similarly, it's invoking enough if you're already a sociological/ecological veteran. A great film to watch when we're in the midst of a recession - when our existing business structures are breaking down, what can we be doing to shift industries in a more humanitarian and environmentally friendly manner?

The film is produced by Free Range Studios, a production company built on the ethos of "Creativity with a Conscience"; namely providing creative branding, strategizing and execution for those on a mission to save the world. To view Free Range Studios, click here.

To view The Story of Stuff, click here.

Watch: One Week

I watched this film on the weekend, and I believe at some point in your life you should watch it too.
The idea is nothing new, but the execution is exemplary. It also has my husband [Josh Jackson] in it, so that's reason enough.



Happy Meditations.

R is for Recession

A very reassuring email has been circulating around the offices in Toronto.
Due to budget cuts, this is your new cubicle:





To view more of your new beautiful office, click here.

Those looking to upgrade their condos can find luxury living under a roof of one of these babies:



It even flat packs so you can take it to work!

Oscars, We Salute Thee

Ah, the Oscars. From Tina Fey falling in love with Steve Martin to Sean Penn shaming anti-gay protesters during his acceptance speech and The Curious Case of Benjamin Button [thankfully] not winning much, the 81st Academy Awards was a show not to be missed. The Oscars are back, baby, recession or not. Top marks go to host Hugh Jackman for his dancing skills while performing "The Reader", Gus Van Sant's sneaker + suit combo, and of course, Ben Stiller's hilarious take on Joaquin Phoenix:




We've even picked out next year's outfit for Goldie Hawn:


We still love you, GH.
Good show, Academy.