Archive for the ‘Real Links’ Category

These are the sites, articles, and interesting online content we’re finding that have to do with Authenticity. Read on.

October 24th, 2008

“Synecdoche, New York (2008)” | The New York Times

Movie reviewer Manohla Dargis finds Charlie Kaufman’s directorial debut to be “about authenticity, including the search for an authentic self in an inauthentic world.” And Kaufman seems to have created a movie that itself seems authentic, particularly because it is “tethered to the here and now”.
October 22nd, 2008

“Science Comes to Selling” | The Wall Street Journal

A must-read book review of a must-read book, Buyology, which addresses the latest tool of advertising: “neuromarketing.” As reviewer Martin Lindstrom points out, “It [neuromarketing] disrupts identity itself . . . By coupling advertising’s tendency to humanize commodities and commodify humans, it joins other forces working to erode the authentically human.”
October 22nd, 2008

“Joe the Plumber and GOP ‘Authenticity’” | The Wall Street Journal

This Op-Ed piece brilliantly captures the most recent twist that the issue of authenticity has taken in the U.S. presidential race.
October 17th, 2008

“Disney’s splashy Hawai’i theme resort set to open in 2011″ | Honolulu Advisor

According to Jay Rasulo, chairman of Walt Disney Parks & Resorts, a new project to place a themed timeshare development on Hawai’i “is very true and authentic to who we are”.
October 16th, 2008

“Ask Robert Stephens” | Inc. Magazine

Immortal words of Chief Inspector Robert Stephens (you gotta’ love him!) of the Geek Squad: “advertising is the tax you pay for being unremarkable.”
October 16th, 2008

“Lucky Charms to Sell Jeans” | Marketing with Meaning

If you’ve ever seen a Lucky Brand Jeans store (such as at The Grove in LA), you know they exude authenticity. On his Marketing with Meaning blog, Bob Gilbreath explains a few of the reasons why the company gets it.
October 16th, 2008

“Juan Valdez sets sights on coffee fans in U.S.” | The Seattle Times

Given that Starbucks now effectively controls coffee consumption in the US and in many places around the world, the National Federation of Columbian Coffee Growers is getting into the business of placemaking, with over 100 Juan Valdez Cafes in Columbia, North and South America (we’ve been to ones in Seattle and New York), and Europe.
October 16th, 2008

“Japan’s New World Offers a Slice of the Past” | The New York Times

Learn what it takes to gain a patina of authenticity with age from “a quintessentially old-fashioned Japanese neighborhood” that now is “a slice of the authentic Osaka” — even though its an agglomeration of places modeled after New York and Paris, with a model of the Eiffel Tower in the middle. Sitting atop a facsimile of the Arc de Triomphe. We kid you not.
October 14th, 2008

“My Paparazzo: Hiring a Stalker Is Easy” | Wired Magazine

Want authentic pictures of your real life? Hire a paparazzo!
October 13th, 2008

“Dangerous Fakes” | BusinessWeek

Another cover story from BW on the danger of fakes — this time the danger not being to the companies whose genuine brands are getting ripped off, but to the safety and security of American fighting forces.