“We’ve become accustomed to our economic dominance in the world, forgetting that it wasn’t reckless deals and get-rich-quick schemes that got us there; but hard work and smart ideas - quality products and wise investments. So we started taking shortcuts. We started living on credit, instead of building up savings. We saw businesses focus more on rebranding and repackaging than innovating and developing new ideas and products that improve our lives.”

Now, if only the press would snap a shot of Obama with a copy of the book. That would make for some high-profile product placement…

s+b named just two other marketing-related books to this year’s list - Groundswell and Always On. My thanks to the magazine and to Taylor for the close read!

Goodbye, Mary

(In the name of blocking voter fraud, a quick registration is required.)

Fake buzz for the iPhone in Poland

Sample quote: “We couldn’t have expected the same kind of fever as in the United States given that Apple’s products aren’t that well-known in Poland…”

Diagnosis: Sheesh. Another case of faking popularity to rebrand reality, much like flogs and WOMM.

Image is everything in Beijing

Sample quote: “The ruse even extended to getting the weather forecast right so as to simulate the same smog as on the night, and adding camera shake to simulate filming from a helicopter.”

Diagnosis: China takes the gold. Primetime lip-syncing, CGI fireworks, and police officers scolded for not smiling enough—and that’s just the Olympics. Socially, politically, you name it: China is the posterboy of OBD.

Comcast packs the courthouse

Sample quote: “Comcast admits to paying non-Comcast employees to hold spaces!”

Diagnosis: Despicable. Branders love saying, “The brand is in the mind of the consumer”—that is, unless consumers speak their minds against the brand. Then it’s time to pervert the public discourse by paying for mindless, mercinary “consumers.”

Meanwhile, another tip of the hat to the folks at Zappos. Thanks to Sharon R. and others in the Customer Loyalty department, those lemon-yellow Kool-Aid sneakers made it NY in time for the show. In case you haven’t traveled by air recently, Zappos is the online shoe retailer advertised at the bottom of countless TSA security tubs around the country (a subject discussed here a few weeks ago).

Finally, even if you disagree with comedian Bill Hicks, the bit below is funny stuff. The opening line: “If anyone here is in advertising or marketing, kill yourself.” It gets worse from there. Enjoy. (Thanks to Mark, a regular reader, for forwarding the link.)

Bill Hicks on Marketing

According to a well-reported piece in BusinessWeek today about marketing junk food to children online, there’s a growing call for greater government oversight. In 2006, food and beverage advertisers spent 37% of their $1.6-billion youth-marketing budgets targeting kids under 12. With 20% of 6-11 year-olds currently overweight, parents are pushing for further regulation (though the FTC has, to date, declined to get involved). The article does a great job of characterizing the debate from multiple angles, drawing perspective from parents, academics, children’s advocacy groups, government regulators, and a few anti-regulation sources. That said, there is one obvious voice missing: the marketers themselves. (McDonald’s declined to comment.) Call it sweet silence.

But seriously: any bold marketers of junk food, er, I mean “foods of minimal nutritional value” care to make their case? How about the software programmers behind the kid-sticky technicolor dreamscapes at sites like Wrigley’s Candystand and the “magical realm” over at Lucky Charms‘?

Colbert Report - Obsessive Branding Disorder
http://digg.com/comedy/Colbert_Report_Obsessive_Branding_Disorder