Is the Coffee Really That Good?

There is a saying in marketing about what it takes to sell a product. Sell the sizzle, not the bacon. That, it seems, is what marketers focus on these days — the perception, not the actual product, quality of it or how it will actually help the customer. A few days ago, my wife and son stopped off at Starbucks to get hot chocolate. That seemingly innocuous event became the lead in to the placement of the last piece of straw onto the back of a far too laden pack animal. Now, I am no real fan of Starbucks – although I used to be. I do happen to believe that way back when they were not a huge, dense corporate monster and Howard Shultz’ vision of atmosphere and good coffee was still alive, they were a great company and their shops were great places...

Laundry Forensics

Jerry Seinfeld has a bit about what happens to the missing socks in the laundry. They had to go somewhere right? That’s the law of conservation of matter and energy. But for some reason, they disappear. Never to be seen again. We have a bundle of socks tied together in our laundry basket. It rides along every time the laundry is done and never does anything but sit there. The intention is to, at some point in the future, match them up with their mates once they come home to roost, but that hope is never realized. So what is there for this lonely bundle of singles to do? No matches to any of the socks exist. But there are close to 10 of them in there that have accumulated over the last few years. My question is, why do we keep ‘em? Shouldn’t there...

All Your Base Are Belong to Marketers

So wake up, open your eyes and realize that most of the shit they’re peddling you don’t need, won’t use and are just spending money on because they told you you should. Use your brain. Stop consuming like a lemming. Be a human.