1st Haagen Dazs store in Delhi excludes Indians

I’m just going with Boing Boing on this one: The inaugural Delhi outlet of Haagen Dazs (A Danish phrase that means, "Made in New Jersey," apparently) opened with a "no Indians allowed" policy. The sign on the door read, "Access restricted only to holders of international passports." After a public hue and cry, the franchise [...]

Worst of the Worst: The List of 2009’s 10 worst lists

2009’s 10 worst … IPOs (The Street) Films (t5m) Economic Myths Reiterated by “The Media” (BusinessAndMedia)  Ads (BNET) Obsessions (Scene) Movies (Metromix) Odd, Overreaching ‘Decade’ Lists (AtlanticWire – and they went with 9 just to be different) Toys (W.A.T.C.H.) Sex Scenes (YourTango) iPhone Apps (Fortune) Tech Failures (ReadWriteWeb) Concept Cars (AskMen) Linux Distributions (DaniWeb) Countries [...]

Saving business magazines, Part 1

From my blog at Emedia Vitals Is there any reason for a weekly or monthly business magazine to still exist? Just as importantly, is there a business model that would support it? Yes. Every business publishing organization I have worked for should have been called Do-As-I-Say-Not-As-I-Do Inc. These tech and marketing magazines did a great [...]

Aussies hopping mad about kangaroo-flavored chips

The Aussies are not, by and large, nervous nellies. They can’t really afford to be. That’s what living with the all those wild fires, droughts, rampant New Zealanders and 10 of the most lethal animals on the planet will do for you. However, if you really need to make an Ozlander squirm sell a potato [...]

New unemployment claims rise to a one year low?

Initial Jobless Claims Average in US Falls to One-Year Low Bloomberg Unemployment claims jump unexpectedly CNNMoney.com They report and I can’t decide.

10 Worst Marketing Blunders of 2009

1) NBC GOES ALL LENO ALL THE TIME Edsel … New Coke … Lenovision. NBC has joined the immortals of marketing stupidity. This year the molting peacock network and president Jeff “Have They Fired Me Yet?” Zucker decided to turn five of the primest pieces of prime-time real estate — the hour between 10 and [...]

Government-sponsored journalism and other bad ideas

Is there anything more baffling or contradictory than the idea of government-subsidized journalism? This was just one of the ideas to crop up at the FTC’s nearly oxymoronic “government-sponsored journalism conference.” Journalism – unlike any other industry – has no reason for being once it is suckling on the Federal teat. If, as John Marshall [...]

GM CEO quits. Does that count as job creation?

Fritz Henderson, the man with the 2nd least desirable job in the US*, has quit or been pushed after failing to turn around the troubled automaker in less than 6 months. What? I don’t really know. He or an underling managed to screw up the sale of Opal, Saab, Saturn and any other part of [...]

Another damn blog by this guy? Can’t he just SHUT UP?

One more blog not to read if you are trying to avoid me. (Of course if you’re really trying to avoid me shouldn’t you have unfriended me by now?) In theory this blog is about aspects of "print media executives transitioning their business to emedia." In fact it is once again me making up random [...]