There is no escaping it, there really is no such thing as privacy. Just checkout sites like Zabasearch and Intellius – type in your name my friend. I recently showed these sites to a journalist friend from a very reputable bureau and she was stunned. Some new sites like Spokeo.com want to display all your online activity to anyone who has you in their address book. Others like Rapleaf.com track your social network behavior. Now you’re ex’s can spy on you from a creepy distance. Let’s not forget all this discussion about a national ID in 08. Some politicians have suggested that American’s rethink their definition of privacy. Damn, what are these people trying to do, look inside my pants or something?

Optimistically speaking however, 2008 will also be a time in which people will become more aware of things like privacy and personal liberties, which we all take for granted in the United States. This by itself will be a great accomplishment for our dummy masses. Good luck and good night.  Happy New Year

Tasteless joke, or marketing genius?

Redux Beverages LLC, from Las Vegas, is the same company that delivered us “Cocaine” energy drink, a product that was pulled off the shelves for FDA violations regarding its name. The brainchild behind these edgy-branded direct marketing schemes is a man with an impressive and respectable resume named Clegg Ivey. One day he just though it would be cool to name a soft drink “Cocaine.” Brawndo’s contents by the way: 200 milligrams of Caffeine, Taurine, Inositol, Guarana, and of course Electrolyes – no high fructose or corn sugar (huh?).

The hands that shook in order to make this deal happen include Omni Consumer Products Corporation, whose company slogan is: “We do what we must, because we can.” In other words, “we will b-slap you with our slogan if you front – and name our soft drink ‘Cocaine’, because we must.” Their website is suspiciously void of much information.

I lean towards marketing genius. Check out their shopping cart website which allows you to also join Brawndo on Facebook and MySpace. The underground buzz created by this movie, and now this drink are making people attempt Brawndo diets and blogging the experience. If Brawndo becomes the next Coke, we are headed one step closer to Mike Judge’s vision of the future.

Call it 8th grade humor, or just plain tipsy on cheap book-signing-wine, but upon looking at the signature table I couldn’t help to point out the admitted “dummies” all around, getting their Dummies book signed. Yes me included, but I ended up there by chance that night, I swear. It was held at my favorite club Temple.

It is typical that a green book signing would also take place in a club deemed to become the worlds first green nightclub. But they are not alone in this pursuit, a club in the Netherlands is making waves.

It is the green nightclub race of the decade. Temple’s club’s sustainability director, Mike Zuckerman also has plans install a power generating dance floor next year. He feels confident that they have found the person to do it. In the meantime, he is starting with something a little less ambitious which he calls a vertical garden shown here:

Elsa Wenzel at Cnet.com, whom I met outside of this book signing beat me to this story because it is her full time job to do so. She deemed this club the Chia nightclub in her Cnet Crave blog story. Look at the future vision of Temple nightclub in her entry and it will make sense.

This green night club business is great and all but it does nothing to offset the pollution created by those dj’s that fly millions of miles around the world year after year. Techno demi-god Richie Hawtin decided to do something about this problem and made an environmental pledge to his fans with this press release (PDF): Minimize Your Impact – by Richie Hawtin. I have not read any articles suggesting that others are following his footsteps, then again, Richie is always ahead of the curve on most things.

It is only a matter of time until we will all need to dance to keep the lights on.

The first time people look at any given ad, they don’t even see it.
The second time, they don’t notice it.
The third time, they are aware that it is there.
The fourth time, they have a fleeting sense that they’ve seen it somewhere before.
The fifth time, they actually read the ad.
The sixth time they thumb their nose at it.
The seventh time, they start to get a little irritated with it.
The eight time, they start to think, “Here’s that confounded ad again.”
The ninth time, they start to wonder if they’re missing out on something.
The tenth time, they ask their friends and neighbors if they’ve tried it.
The eleventh time, they wonder how the company is paying for all these ads.
The twelfth time, they start to think that it must be a good product.
The thirteenth time, they start to feel the product has value.
The fourteenth time, they start to remember wanting a product exactly like this for a long time.
The fifteenth time, they start to year for it because they can’t afford to buy it.
The sixteenth time, they accept the fact that they will buy it sometime in the future.
The seventeenth time, they make a note to buy the product.
The eighteenth time, they curse their poverty for not allowing them to buy this terrific product.
The nineteenth time, they count their money very carefully.
The twentieth time prospects see the ad, they buy what is offering.

The twenty-first time you see an Ad, WAKE UP!!!