Z-Files

Mikhail Gorbachev died yesterday. In the West, he is remembered as a visionary who helped bring an end to the Cold War. In Russia, he is reviled as the man…

The image above is how Yeezy Gap clothing is being displayed in store. When Kanye West first saw the clothes displayed on hangers, he became upset and instead demanded that…

You may have heard about Blake Lemoine, the engineer Google recently fired for telling the Washington Post that a Google AI bot, LaMDA (Language Model for Dialog Applications), had become…

This is a very simple outdoor ad that is capturing some attention on Marketing Twitter. It’s for a new watch that has emerged from a partnership between Timex and the…

Unsplash/John Barkiple The book Nudge, by Thaler and Sunstein, introduced marketers and others to the idea of nudges. However, the hype around the book almost suggested nudges were like magic. …

A new study in the  Journal of Consumer Research study demonstrates just how well gamification – specifically, the tracking of streaks – can spur repeat behavior.If you are into Wordle…

Manu Ros / Unsplash The online debate over the benefits of purpose marketing continue with Andrew Tenzer’s column in Marketing Week.  It also is a useful discussion about research design.Tenzer…

Ben Koorengevel/Unsplash The Library of American Broadcasting at the University of Maryland has created a virtual exhibit that highlights the history of broadcast jingles. It’s called “The Lost Art of…

Sometimes brands want to reflect the emotions and associations people already have with a product category, but other times a brand can use those category insights to figure out where…

Minnie Zhou / Unsplash Most parents name their children after family members or famous people, or they simply find a name that just sounds nice coming off the tongue.  But…

Some marketing experts have been highly critical of San Pellgrino’s new can.Judged in isolation, the new can seems fine. As the article linked above states, the can, “transitions from a traditional barrel can…

James Forr of OZ recently spoke at the ARF’s AudiencexScience Conference about “The A-B-4Cs of Winning Advertising.” He discussed how using metaphor to illustrate a product attribute (even an otherwise…