Author: David

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Doom, Gloom, and Just a Little Zoom

The Rolling Stones’ newly-released “Doom and Gloom” does not break musical ground, and, frankly, that’s a good thing. The song plays to the group’s strengths – dominating drumbeats, straightforward production values, and a catchy, ringtone-worthy opening riff – while simultaneously repackaging lyrics for a Millenial audience. The result is a somewhat unexceptional, but nonetheless catchy and enjoyable track that ranks among the Stones’s A- work.
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The Facebook Ad

Facebook posted its first ad this morning, depicting, among other things, chairs, airplanes and bridges – in short, the things that connect us. The minute-and-a-half long spot, produced by Wieden+Kennedy, places gentle violin strings over images that are both urban and rural, developed and developing, young and old – all of them rather banal. The … Continue reading The Facebook Ad

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Brushstrokes

There seems to be nothing new under the sun – er, fire, that is.  Mercedes-Benz just unveiled a fiery brushstroke design that its marketing gurus have dubbed “Aesthetics S.” Interestingly, the whole fiery car outline motif seems to have been begun by Infiniti last year, under the marketing tagline of “Inspired Performance.”  Compare the designs … Continue reading Brushstrokes

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The Shack Could Come Back

RadioShack is an interesting sort of place. Much like your local CVS, Radio Shack sells a broad assortment of items at considerable markups, aiming at customers more interested in convenience than cost. “The Shack” has a pretty varied shelf, selling big ticket items like TVs and smartphones, as well as more mundane doodads like cables and chargers. Understandably, the business is rapidly shrinking, thanks to online behemoths like Amazon (which even has its own branded line of peripherals) and the reasonable variety of electronics now found in Costco, Walmart, and Target, wherein RadioShack operates the “Bullseye Mobile” counter.

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The Second Coming of Microsoft

For years, Microsoft was regarded as the elephant in the computer room.  It was big, it was boring, and it was impossible to go one conversation without begrudgingly mentioning the computer behemoth.  But now, with the meteoric rise of Apple, things look a little different – and possibly more favorable, for the world’s largest software company and its decisive push into hardware.
For nearly ten years, Apple has had a lock on hardware, creating gorgeous aluminum-and-round-edged devices that impressed techies and average users alike. Apple excelled at crafting dependable software that worked with – and only with – their devices.  And in quick succession, Cupertino pushed out the iPod, iPod touch, iPhone, and iPad – each one not so much inventing a field as re-imagining it, tying it into Apple’s expanding, if heavily curated, ecosystem of music, TV, movies and apps.

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