| Reveries Magazine
Cool News of the Day
Friday August 15 2003
|
|
 |
 |
Bright Nights. So, yesterday in Cool News we wrote about lights. We'll try to be more careful today.
Slower Coasters. Theme parks including Busch, Disney, Universal, Paramount and Six Flags are swapping "faster, scarier" rides with tamer, friendlier ones, reports Paula Szuchman in The Wall Street Journal. The parks say it's a strategy to pull in more families with young children. "Some people don't want to get on a ride that's going to go over 200 feet in the air," says Jim Dannhauser of Six Flags. The ride-builders meanwhile trace the trend to September 11th, noting that "many parks put off orders for up to a year." Whatever the driver, thrill rides appear to be in a free fall, with the number of new coasters dropping from 46 in 2000 to just 19 this year, according to Amusement Business.
But what's rocking rollers is rolling 4-D Movies -- 13 new 4-D theaters have opened in U.S. parks, up from just five a year ago, says PriceWaterhouseCoopers. Not only are the theaters typically less expensive to build than are roller coasters, they are not nearly the insurance risk. And most kids love 'em: "I have no idea what 4-D means, but it's cool," says 9-year-old Connor Sofia. At Universal, it means "chairs that spurt water" when a character sneezes in "Shrek 4-D." At Paramount, it means "seats that move along with the three-dimensional action on the screen," featuring "SpongeBob Squarepants." At Universal, it means "soap bubbles floating around the theater," starring "Jimmy Neutron."
For 12-year-old Billy Pressmar it means boredom. "If I want this I can go to a real movie theater," he said, after watching the new "4-D Haunted Lighthouse" at Busch Gardens. It's not easy, it seems, to "find a balance between family and thrill." The parks also struggle with satisfying thrill-seekers, and they promise not to disappoint. Disney's Epcot is planning a new ride called Mission:Space, in which "centrifugal forces propel riders in a mock Mars shuttle." Universal is ramping up "two Revenge of the Mummy rides, indoor coasters with robotic skeletons and walls of real fire." Six Flags already has "Superman: Ultimate Flight, " in which riders are strapped "parallel to the ground to stimulate flight." Sounds like plenty 'o thrill, but not for Jorge Castellanos: "I was like, wow, that's it?" he says. "Now a coaster that goes underwater, that would be cool." Something like that is on the way, apparently, next year at Sea World.
|
|
 |
|
|
|
Slow Food. They "march under the banner of the snail, foregather in cells called conviviums and plot a revolution aimed at rolling back the industrial-food juggernaut and promoting small-scale farming and cooking," as described by Raymond Sokolov in The Wall Street Journal. They are members of the Slow Food movement, "a vast global conspiracy to wean us away from Quarter Pounders and back to a simpler, tastier, more convivial and, yes, slower kind of eating." Global, it is, yes. But distinctly anti-American, too: "It all started when the Italian journalist Carlo Petrini decided to attack the opening of the first McDonald's in Rome in 1986...Mr. Petrini organized Slow Food, http://.www.slowfood.it, as a sort of gastronomic Internationale with a 'manifesto' rhetorically indebted to the Communist Manifesto ("We are enslaved by speed...")."
Today, the Slow Food movement counts 75,000 members, including some Americans, http://slowfoodusa.org, "willing," as Mr. Sokolov puts it, "to forget about the irritating and unnecessary anti-Americanism explicit in a Euorpean movement with a mocking American name," Slow Food. He adds: "I just don't think Slow Food offers Americans anything they don't already have -- except a view of themselves through a distorting European lens. "For example, Mr, Sokolov notes, Slow Foodies are exporting the buzzword, "artisanal." That's the term they use to identify "the products of individual food producers, who flourish over here and prefer to call themselves cheesemakers, winemakers and growers of heirloom apples and tomatoes." (hey, no problem -- we love buzzwords here).
Eventually, we might even to see a snail (as "French" as that may be) next to restaurant menu items adhering to Slow Food principles -- whatever they may be. For example, the "best" way to make foie gras is "by the traditional machine-aided force-feeding" of the ducks. And then there's Rao's, a slow-food Italian restaurant in Harlem, N.Y.C., where only "regulars" are admitted -- "but anyone can buy Rao's mass-produced bottled pasta sauce in a supermarket." Ah, only in America! And, as Mr. Rokolov notes: "All over America, a network of small-scale farmers and greenmarkets have been offering an alternative culture of Slow Food-type food to millions of consumers who've never heard of Slow Food..." He, himself, is author of cookbook called Fading Feast, featuring "forgotten foodways." It was published in 1981 -- a half-decade before Carlo Petrini thunk up the Slow Food revolution.
Tim Manners, editor
|
|
|
|
|
|
Today's Headlines. Behind eBay's Buzz, Nissan's Graffit Ads, Lamborghini's Profits, Passionada's Strategy, Olympics in China, G.Q.'s Makeover, David Beats Goliath, Kids & Wireless, Videogame Athletes, High-End Shoppers, Seattle Chocolates, Vanilla's Price, Dalai Lama Ads, Japan's Manga Invasion, Donald Duck v. Spider-Man, Nascar's Diversity, Guerilla Promotions, Acquaculture, Artspreneurs, Big G's Art Culture, Yahoo's Yodelers, Fat-Free Music, Hollywood is Calling, Drinkers Earn More. To read the stories: http://reveries.com/extratexture
|
|
|
Staples v. Kmart. That some people understand the truth about integrated marketing, and others do not, is apparent in two back-to-school campaigns launched late last month -- both of which take an "integrated" approach by employing a consistent tagline in all communications. One is from Staples, and the other is from Kmart -- both are reviewed by Peter Breen of the In-Store Marketing Institute: http://reveries.com/reverb/essays/storecheck/breen1.html
|
|
|
|
|
|
Highly-Effective Retailers. What are their habits? Dennis Moore, senior vice president of Marketing Management Analytics (MMA) provides lessons learned from retailers who really know how to mix their media for maximum return on their marketing investments, in a free, 30-minute webinar to be presented on August 25th (12 p.m. EDT). To register, please visit: http://reveries.com/reverb/webinars/retailers.html
|
|
|
The A.N.A. Bookstore. Comprised of 335 of the top marketing companies in the country, who together spend billions on advertising and marketing services, the Association of National Advertisers is the industry's most comprehensive resource for marketing excellence. To learn how A.N.A. marketers drive business results through brand building and increased marketing effectiveness, visit the A.N.A. bookstore. Written by marketing practitioners, A.N.A. publications cover diverse topics including R.O.I., Agency Relations, Marketing Management, and Promotions. If you desire marketing communications insight from industry insiders visit us at: http://www.ana.net/bookstore/index.cfm
|
|
|
AAAA Account Planning Conference. The American Association of Advertising Agencies' 2003 Account Planning Conference, to be held on Sept. 8-10 in Boca Raton, Fla., will focus on "Making the Practical Magical." A series of workshops and forums will help veteran and novice account planners alike sharpen skills and inspire spirits. Speakers include U.S. Poet Laureate Robert Pinsky, Jeff Goodby and Simon Anholt. For more information or to register, call Michelle James at 212-850-0850 or visit http://www.aaaa.org to register online.
Association of Directory Marketing. Attend the ADM's annual conference at the Fairmont Scottsdale Princess, Scottsdale, AZ, September 14-17, 2003. Directory advertising professionals will leave with a better set of tools to attain sales, profit and professional goals. Speakers include: Patrick Lencioni, author of best seller Five Dysfunctions of a Team; Don Schultz, professor emeritus of Northwestern University, an expert on integrated marketing communications; and Terry Jones, Travelocity.com founder, on the digital marketplace. For details, visit http://www.admworks.org/Conference/2003Invitation.pdf.
ARF Week of Workshops. September 22 - 25, New York. Catch up on the latest in marketing and media effectiveness issues with sessions on Advertising Effectiveness, Pharmaceutical Research, Web Effectiveness, Mixed Media Strategies, Qualitative Research, Youth & Hispanic Marketing, and Marketing ROI. For registration information, contact Kelly at the ARF at 212-751-5656 ext. 217 or http://thearf.org/Webpages/WoW_2003/schedule.htm#wow
Marketing Creativity Idea Lab. September 29-October 1, 2003 at The Allerton Crowne Plaza in Chicago, will provide actionable solutions that bridge the gap between creativity and business revenue. IIR's 7th annual event will feature new case studies from S.C. Johnson and Son, Inc., Michigan Technological University, MeadWestvaco, Mattel UK and Ireland, Bank of America, Hershey's, The National Wildlife Federation, The First Years, The Leukemia & Lymphoma Society and many others. For more information please visit: http://www.iirusa.com/creativity
Conference Board. The 2003 Marketing Conference. The Big Fat Silver Lining: Blockbuster Lessons for Challenging Times. October 1-2, 2003. New York City. Pre-Conference Seminar: September 30, 2003. Speakers will present case studies, offer insights and address the issues that face all marketers in companies large and small. As usual, we will present an array of corporate speakers -- and their advisors -- whose markets and companies present them with the same challenges as you face. Call: 212.339.0345 or visit:www.conference-board.org/marketing.htm
Future Trends. Attend the 8th annual "Future Trends: Visionary Information for Business Now," November 17-19, Palms Hotel, South Beach, Florida. Uncover the latest emerging consumer trends, the tools and techniques that companies use to track and discover them, and how to translate trend data and qualitative information into actionable strategy. For more information, please visit: http://www.iirusa.com/futuretrends. Register by September 1st and save $200.
|
|
|
the Syndicate. Link Cool News of the Day to your Web site. Please visit: http://www.reveries.com/coolnews/syndicate.html for more information.
MarketingHub. An online database of marketing experts, organized by category and topic of expertise. To search for some of marketing's best and brightest http://marketinghub.com
Mail Dog is the easiest, most fully featured, do-it-yourself permission marketing solution in the yard. The Dog equips you with all of the tools you'll need to stage and manage your own permission-based marketing campaigns. take the mail dog for a walk
PromotionLINK A free monthly newsletter providing a quick overview of
consumer tie-in promotional and sponsorships programs. find a sponsorship partner
|
|
|
|
|