Who’s to blame when you do your job TOO well?

With the growing trend of iCrime—where iPods have become such a “must have” item that kids/teens are willing to beat the crap out of each other for them—a philosophical question has been raised. Do companies that have done TOO good a job of making their product the “latest and greatest” (Apple in this case) share some responsibility for any resulting “negative brand evangelism”?

“Nike’s not in the business of keeping media companies alive, we’re in the business of connecting with consumers.”

I am going to post the link to the article where I found this quote. I think it’s one of the most helpful and insightful articles I have read in quite a while. The title is “Multiscreen Madman” and it’s from the New York Times (yes, one of my favorite sources of information). This article features an interview with Robert Rasmussen, executive creative director of the Nike account at R/GA, AKQA chief creative officer Lars Bastholm and Barbarian Group CEO Benjamin Palmer.

Motrin’s giving me a headache.

You know, even when I was a young girl I felt different. I wasn’t into the same things as a lot of the other little girls—skipping about in their little dresses and pigtails. I was a loner. I enjoyed reading and writing my own little stories; I could spend hours drawing and not even care whether I saw another human face (other than the one I’d just sketched). I always thought I was a bit of an odd-ball—not that there’s anything wrong with that! So from my somewhat unique vantage point, it’s interesting to me to see how this whole ‘Motrin’ debacle has been playing out.