The Slants and That Washington Football Team: Why “offensive” trademarks matter

January 8th 2016

While this post touches on culture, freedom and offense – and of course dance music – its hero is buried in the story as I imagine he’d prefer. Ron Coleman’s writing and good spirit has been an occasional inspiration and benefit of working on this blog. Arguing on constitutional grounds is a long and heavy climb. Congratulations to Ron and The Slants. Any friends of Ron have special standing here. Cheers.

Welcome to my world: John Travolta, Breitling, and random acts of branding

December 18th 2015

My friend Alan asked, “have you seen that watch ad with Travolta? There are so many real and inferred meanings in its hard to even know what its about.” Yep, from NASA to Idina Menzel, here’s a not too serious look at an ad we both have seen too much.

WTF Politics: Trump, Sanders and Frustration in America’s Two Tier Economy

December 4th 2015

While this starts as thinking about unlikely outsider political candidates – I think its really about how work structures our world, and so that our values need to structure work. It touches on lifespan, your wealth, celebrity air travel even my mom. Your thoughts cordially invited! ;>

Artless, slutty, orphan-hating ads in transit

November 10th 2015

Things can get crazy when ads end up on the subway. Here Suffolk University, Blue Cross and Bernie and Phyl’s all have put ads out there in ways that I suspect their print teams would have done more deftly.

eZ Systems: Brooklyn soundtrack and innovative fun

November 2nd 2015

I’m thrilled to be back in Brooklyn with my friends at eZ Systems to lead a half day innovation workshop. To get fired up, I’ve mixed a playlist and shared some photos I took in the industrial zone around out very cool conference neighborhood. Take a look.

Hillary Clinton’s testimony is a rorschach for all involved

October 24th 2015

The former Secretary of State’s testimony in Congress is like a national rorschach test – on to which journalists, readers and pundits seem ready to project their own narratives. As a public service, I’ve added helpful captions to explain what it would seem our former Secretary of State is being shown to say across a series of front pages.

Follow Friday: James Gardner for insight and authentic good ideas

October 23rd 2015

Friday’s a great day for a cool person alert. Meet my long-time friend and colleague, James A Gardner, who rocks social media because he’s very much the same way there as in real life. Arctic adverturer, manderian marketer and helpful accessbile guy – he’s good to know in any medium.

EMC’s sale should be a gut-check for Boston’s digital innovation economy

October 16th 2015

The purchase of Massachusetts-based EMC by Dell is reigniting questions about the Bay State’s ability to retain the talented people and fast growing firms it cultivates. Know how many Fortune 500 firms remain in the Bay State? Take a look.

Quitting time: the Wall Street Journal’s editorials are part of the the problem

June 23rd 2015

Friday, the Wall Street Journal rushed to suggest that the Charleston Shooting wasn’t really about race. No, instead, in a year where the sign “Black Lives Matter” has been everywhere, the Journal suggested this shows how far we’ve come. We’re at a moment of change – and my first change is to fire my newspaper which seems to be offering the rejoinder for inaction.

Truth: the concept of race is badly broken

June 21st 2015

The Cause Can’t Be The Cure We need to put the Confederate flag away as a sign of state. And we need to find our way through these discussions relying less on race as an organizing concept of cause or cure. I believe that war is a tragically ineffective way to end war.  We may […]