James Forr

Photo by Michael Locke Legendary architect Gin Wong died earlier this month. One of his landmark creations is the Beverly Hills Union 76 gas station, pictured above. This got us…

What does the depiction of women in stock photos mean about how we, as a society, think about the role of women? This fascinating article in the New York Times’…

A dispatch from the cultural front from science fiction author William Gibson, who discusses our current societal obsession with dystopia and the apocalypse. A few of his insights: ·         In…

Much of the US will witness a total solar eclipse next week. In this article a psychologist (and eclipse chaser) tries to explain why people react to eclipses with such…

In presentations, I occasionally use the O.J. Simpson murder trial as an example of how our mind creates meaning through mental shortcuts.  In closing arguments Simpson’s attorney, Johnnie Cochrane, famously…

Although it is rather ironic for the tech industry to be marketing nostalgia…here it is. In November, Nintendo released its Classic Edition, a 1980s throwback design. Two buzzworthy phones recently…

A couple of weeks ago I discussed Sir Kensington’s ketchup.  Now equal time for Heinz. This is a clever little piece of content creation. In Chicago, as you may know,…

You may have read a Malcolm Gladwell essay in which he compared the markets for mustard and ketchup.  There are all kinds of competitors in the mustard space. Ketchup?  Not…

The 2017 Cannes Creative Effectiveness Lions have been announced.  The Grand Prix Winner is the Art Institute of Chicago, and its “Van Gogh’s Bedrooms” campaign.   The Art Institute ran…

Courtesy of Mindhacks…a new map that shows racial bias throughout Europe as determined by Implicit Association Testing (IAT).  In this map, the red countries show higher levels of bias against…

Thanks to Jerry Olson for sharing this article about marketing to seniors. The author makes an interesting point – that efforts to combat the negative perceptions of aging can backfire…

A once iconic brand, Victoria’s Secret is really struggling – getting weaker by the day, as one analyst puts it. L Brands eliminated Victoria’s Secret’s swim wear and apparel lines,…