By Foster Kamer 5/14/12 3:17pm

FASHION FIGHT

Manniquin Joy Post

Marc Jacobs vs. The Street Artist, Round 3: The Mannequins Get Involved

On the night of the Met Ball, the Marc Jacobs boutique in SoHo was vandalized by a French street artist named Kidult, just like Supreme, Louis Vuitton, and Hermes had done to them. The next morning, Marc Jacobs made light of it by turning it into a canny social media (and thus: marketing) joke. After that, Marc Jacobs and Company decided to turn it into a $689 T-Shirt, and moreover, turn an indictment of capitalism into an indictment of street art.

Needless to say, Kidult is pissed. Read More

By Foster Kamer 4/10/12 1:30pm

RADVERTISING

133555005

The Buffett Rule: A Slice of Advertising and Marketing Genius

President Barack Obama is set to roll out his backing of The Buffett Rule, which will be at the center of his campaign, reports the Financial Times. The Buffett Rule is being pitched as a “simple principle” of American tax codes inspired by Warren Buffet’s now-famous claim that his secretary pays a higher tax rate than himself because of the voodoo implicit in capital gains tax rates and the like that benefit the country’s top earners. It is brilliant, if only for already being one of the most well-branded pieces of politics in the history of legislation. Think about this less as a political play, or a piece of propaganda, and more one of brilliant advertising work.

Consider: Read More

By Thomas Golianopoulos 11/21/11 5:50pm

Marketing

Courtesy Getty Images

How Jay-Z Met H.P.: Blame Hip Hop Branding Wizard Steve Stoute

Over the summer, Steve Stoute, the CEO of the brand-marketing firm Translation, went to Wimbledon with his friend and business partner, the rapper Jay-Z, to cheer on Rafael Nadal during the Spaniard’s fourth-round battle with Juan Martín Del Potro. With the match tied in the third set, BBC cameras spotted them. “The man is still here,” said BBC tennis analyst Boris Becker in his heavy German accent. “The Jigga Man, that’s what they call him—Shawn Carter.”

Where most viewers saw a star-sighting. Mr. Stoute saw a “tanning moment.”

Mr. Stoute, in his recent book The Tanning of America: How Hip-Hop Created a Culture That Rewrote the Rules of the New Economy (2011, Gotham Books), defined “tanning” as “the catalytic force majeure that went beyond musical boundaries and into the psyche of young America.” That’s a pretty thick slice of marketing-speak, but the gist of it is simple: hip-hop has radically changed culture and corporate America.

And Mr. Stoute has had a central role in the transformation. Read More

By Aaron Gell 1:09am

Interview

Living Dolls! The Lennon Sisters Do Toy Fair

In a booth on the third floor of the Javits Center, Janet and Kathy Lennon, the youngest two of the singing Lennon Sisters, the wholesome, bouffant-wearing quartet of Lawrence Welk Show fame (still periodically spoofed on Saturday Night Live), were recalling the shooting death of their father at the hands of a delusional stalker.

“It Read More