No Turn On Red

Social Shopping is an emerging field and E-Commerce Times has a great post that explains what is is, provides a rundown of different social shopping services, and opportunities for retailer involvement within the field.

With social media transforming the way we work and interact, there becomes less of a distinction between the time we spend on and off the clock, so to say. Steve Bendt provides a great look into the ramifications of wage laws in the United States and the impact they have on retailers who look to use social media to connect with their customers.

Get Elastic is talking about the viral marketing video campaign from Office Max that ties in to their Back to School “Penny” marketing. I really like this campaign. It is a series of fun videos that ties in well with the overall brand position for Officemax for this season. Good job by Officemax, I think.

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A racy advert for JC Penney has been making it’s way around the internet over the past few days. The ad, which won a prize at this weekend’s Cannes Lions Awards, features two teens practicing putting their clothes back on quickly before heading down to the basement for a romp. Problem is, it may not be a legitimate JC Penney ad.

Because the spot is so well made, and because someone had to enter it it at Cannes, JC Penney is blaming its ad agency, Saatchi & Saatchi. The ad agency, in turn, is pointing the finger at production company, Epoch Films of New York, which is indeed the listed entrant. There is speculation “the video may have been filmed after hours by a producer at Epoch who was working on the Penney ads for Saatchi.”

A commercial like this won’t land with the core demographic of JCP’s shoppers. But on the flip side, teens are too smart for a commercial like this. It fails on both fronts. It pisses off their core and doesn’t the brand’s desirability with teens.

This video is spreading quickly through blogs, social networks, and Twitter. The retailer will need to work quickly to counter it’s message. This is a great opportunity for them to use social media effectively and distance themselves from the video. I’d like to see the retailer working with bloggers to get their message out there. Otherwise, the video is going to continue to spread and fewer eyeballs are going to see their retraction.

Of course, this is a moot point if the retailer, in any way, authorized this advertisement. Then it’s even more of a tangled mess and the only way to resolve it is with honesty and transparency.

It will be interesting to watch how this develops over the next few days and how the retailer responds.

The advert in question is below. As a warning, it does show people dressing and undressing, so it might be slightly NSFW:

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I thought this was funny.

Last night, I went out to my driveway to pick up the new copy of the free local weekly paper. When picking it up, I noticed it seemed a bit heavier than normal. Much heavier, in fact.

Did they add a new section? Nope. Just fifty advertisements for the new Verizon Fios service!

Guess they really want me to sign up? Or maybe they want me to give them out?

(Or maybe a machine messed up at the printing plant and stuff them all in there, mistakenly? I guess that’s it.)

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Hadn’t seen this video yet, but it’s from a BART train in San Fransico showing Target’s pretty wild new advertising there:

Pretty awesome effect they’re using there.

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In case you didn’t get the BTS memo, the trends for this season are as follows:

You may finish shopping now.

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Welcome to my life, I’m the bad guy again.

Half past eleven in the morning and I’m walking out of the store office onto the sales floor. In front of the door is the hallway to the bathrooms with the water fountains. As soon as I open the doors, I spy a young girl, around five, and a woman I assume to be her grandmother. Before I can take two steps from the door and before I can even tell what the young girl is doing, the grandmother says my biggest pet peeve of all time:

SEE I TOLD YOU THAT THE MAN WAS GOING TO COME OUT TO YELL AT YOU IF YOU DON’T STOP PLAYING WITH THE WATER FOUNTAIN.

What, now?

I hear a variation of this statement at least once a week.

YOU’RE GOING TO GET WATER ALL OVER THE FLOOR IF YOU DON’T KNOCK THAT SHIT OFF AND THAT MAN IS GOING TO YELL AT YOU AND YOU ARE GOING TO GET US KICKED OUT OF THE STORE.

By now I’m used to being the bad guy. I have apparently come out to yell at the kid running through the misses department, I’ve come out to yell at the kid climbing on the bed, I’ve come out to yell at the kid sitting patiently but singing too loudly, and I’ve been told that I’ve come out to ask the mother and her son to leave the store because he’s not getting the hot wheels truck he keeps begging for.

Truth is, I’m just walking through the store, oblivious to what is going on and trying to do my job. As soon as some parent or grandparent sees me, they use me as the scapegoat to reprimand their child.

I walk by a mom lecturing her son on why he’s not getting a toy he wants when she sees me, the store worker, and proceeds to tell him, “That man is the manager (I’m not) just told me (I’ve never talked to you before) that he’s going to take that toy back (I’m not) and not sell it to you if you don’t behave.”

Believe me, kid, I’m just an innocent bystander. I’m not going to cut into our income and not sell you a toy just because you’re misbehaving. I don’t care about you that much.

Maybe this is because I’m not a parent, but why do some parents feel the need to lie at their kid and make me the bad guy? Can’t they just ask/tell the kid to stop doing whatever it is that they’re doing wrong without lying and telling them that I’m coming to yell at them when I’m doing nothing of the sort? I just don’t want to be the bad guy, wrapped up in these lies and deceit. I want the kids to like me and enjoy shopping at the store as much as their parents do. I’m not out to get anyone!

Again, I’m not a parent. I’m not even really criticizing the parenting skills of others. I just don’t want to be personally involved in the lies you tell your kid.

I’m not a monster, I’m just a retail worker.

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They finally imploded the C-8 building in Asbury Park, as I talked about last week. Here is the video I took, via youtube:

I took a ride down, getting down to Asbury Park before six this morning. It was a wild scene to watch unfold – a ton of people came out to watch, including a lot of the NYC news media and a few of the local radio stations. There was an eight block area blocked off, so I was in the grassy park area near Kingsley between Fifth and Sunset. I was able to get as close and they would allow and I had a good view of the implosion.

For those that aren’t familar with Asbury Park, this construction on this building started in the mid to late 80’s. After 12 of the 16 stories of the building were up, the developer went bankrupt and the land had sat in tax/governmental/political limbo until a few years ago. After the area near Cookman Ave and Main Street had undergone redevelopment, development finally began on the oceanfront area. However, this building still stood as a reminder of what the city once was and overshadowed all of the good going on in the area.

The implosion of the building is a very monumental step forward in the redevelopment. The eyesore is gone and I am very interested in how the city is going to unfold after this.

Here is a recent article from the Asbury Park Press talking about the past and future of the building. And here is another quick article on the Asbury Park Press website about today’s events.

And finally, here are photos I’d like to share. The first is a photo I found that I took on March 29, 2002 that shows how the C-8 building used to look. The rest of the photos are from today’s events.

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I think one of the greatest, yet creepiest, commercials of recent memory all involve Burger King’s “King”. Especially the new one where the King wakes up in his bed, rubs his eyes and looks at the crowd in his bedroom. Because of my fondness for the King (and the fact that I am still mad that I didn’t buy a King mask for Halloween), I find this video especially funny. The King flipping off all of the BK competitors to the tune of the Safety Dance? Hilarious.

Link via Church of the Customer.

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The Wal-Mart Effect: How the World’s Most Powerful Company Really Works — and how It’s Transforming the American Economy

by Charles Fishman

Wal-Mart isn’t just a store, or a huge company, or a phenomenon anymore. Wal-Mart shapes where we shop, the products we buy, and the prices we pay—even for those of us who never shop there. It reaches deep inside the operations of the companies that supply it and changes not only what they sell, but also changes how those products are packaged and presented, what the lives of the factory workers who make the products are like—it even sometimes changes the countries where those factories are located. Wal-Mart reaches around the globe, shaping the work and the lives of people who make toys in China, or raise salmon in Chile, or sew shirts in Bangladesh, even though they may never visit a Wal-Mart store in their lives.

– excerpt from the book via walmarteffectbook.com

With 93% of American households shopping at Wal-Mart each year, with over 3,800 stores, with over 1.6 million direct employees, and with over $300 billion in sales, it is hard to imagine the magnitude in which one store can permeate many aspects of our daily lives. This book delves into the “Wal-Mart Effect”; what are the ramifications from one corporation on their employees, their business partners, people who shop there, and consumers and people in general?

With a very good look at the history of Wal-Mart – from meager beginnings in Arkansas in the 1960’s to the international behemoth it is today, Charles Fishman examines how Wal-Mart’s commitment to their costumers has both positively and negatively impacted the world at large. “Always Low Prices. Always.” means that at some point money is going to be saved, no matter what. Through gray area strongarmed tactics, Wal-Mart is able to squeeze every last penny out of a supplier, forcing them to cut costs as much as possible. When they can no longer cut costs enough to meet Wal-Mart’s needs, it is time for Wal-Mart to move on to another supplier — overseas if needed — in order to meet consumer demand.

How ironic is it that the very people Wal-Mart has put out of business, through high pressure demand for low low low prices, are the very people who must now shop at Wal-Mart because they can no longer afford to pay $2 more for grocieries at a competitor of Wal-Mart’s.

This book examines the changing face of our society as traced through the history of Wal-Mart. As this book points out, asking “Is Wal-Mart bad for America?” is like asking “Are cars bad for America?” Eventually the scale of some things can get so large that public policy reform is needed in order to keep things functioning. This book discusses that, as well as the complexities of the backlash against Wal-Mart across the country.

I highly recommend this book to anyone. I think it is a must read if you a currently involved in the retail industry. Beyond that, I think, for consumers, it paints a very interesting picture of the stores that we shop in today, whether or not that store is Wal-Mart. It all ties in and it all effects us equally.

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How can we trust WNBC and their weather forecasts if they can’t even get all of the clocks set correctly?

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