business

the origins of campaign ads…

In business, film & television, politics on 30 July 2008 with 1 comment

One of the joys of the Mad Men’s first season is watching the brewing relationship between ad agencies and politics, as Sterling Cooper wrestles with marketing for Nixon.
Interestingly, the first presidential ad was made by Disney in 1952 for Eisenhower. From the “Sociological Images” blog by way of Rob Walker:

Eisenhower was skeptical about using television [...]

summer reading connects to the shock doctrine

In business, grad school, politics, reading on 6 July 2008 with no comments

After years of sitting on my “should read” list, I’m finally reading Naomi Klein’s No Logo. Granted I’m only 40 pages in, but I’ve already had a revelatory moment that given that the tactics of branding and marketing changed in the early 1990s, I have little to no context about how the world looked before [...]

my really expensive book/film/art club

In business, design, grad school, personal on 25 May 2008 with no comments

I just got my summer DMBA reading/watching/sketching list from Nathan. For years I’ve been taking about getting folks together to watch and discuss films… now it looks like it might just happen with my future classmates. We will join an online community sometime this week and hopefully begin to get to know each other online, [...]

etsy’s transparency and community

In business, net culture on 1 May 2008 with no comments

Etsy made buying handmade goods online easy and awesome. Meanwhile they’ve nurtured a kickass community of sellers and buyers who are invested in one another and the site. I’ve admired how they communicate business decisions to their stakeholders through their blogs and town halls. I love that there’s this new breed of companies (flickr, [...]