Daniel Lubetzky

Matthew Crawford wrote a really interesting article, The Case For Working with Your Hands, in The New York Times Magazine, about the overlooked intellectual rigor required when making physical things.

It could not come at a better time, as we are becoming more virtual, digital, commodified, and dissociated from nature – and from the simplicity of tangible output. Whether it is the Internet, financial derivatives, chicken mcnuggets or "nutrition" bars made with stuff you can’t decipher or pronounce, society is on a trajectory to twist and pretend away from simple realness.

KIND, by the way, is a counter-cultural effort to reconnect with the goodness of real, authentic, transparent wholesome natural unadulterated ingredients you can see and pronounce.  The philosophy underlying everything we do is to stick to authenticity: a) avoid pretentious wannabe names that betray the reality of the products we make with allegorical cute titles; b) avoid fillers; c) avoid artificial ingredients and artificial sweeteners; d) avoid overprocessing and emulsification; and just in general stick to wholesome ingredients you can see and pronounce.™

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Cathy Arnst wrote a compelling article in BusinessWeek here, about the Food Industry’s complicity in fostering obesity in society.  While individuals ultimately have to be responsible for their actions, misleading advertising and claims definitely contribute to this epidemic, as I have written in the past (ie, Corn Refiners Assoc lying re HFCS, COKE lying about soft drinks – and claiming it is all natural, dilution of "natural" claims because of so much deception by big food cos, etc.).

Now Arnst brought forward many studies and sources – from Dr. David Kessler to a study in the health journal The Milbank Quarterly – that compare Big Tobacco’s dirty tricks to how large food companies are behaving….

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Here is a funny commercial:

Check out the below!

A while back I blogged about a hilarious controversy pitting two churches against each other – on the question whether Dogs go to heaven.  Each affirmed they did – or didn’t – in church signs.  I actually thought these were real – and I guess a few commentators did also.

Well, it turns out I was fooled by this ultra-cool website that can help you generate Church Signs!  http://www.churchsigngenerator.com/

How creative is that?!

Stuart Elliot covered a very creative campaign by, gulp, ConAgra Foods, with their Healthy Choice line.  Never mind that it may be an oxymoron to brand a frozen meal line, "Healthy Choice", but they found a way to use humor to attract consumers.  Julia Louis-Dreyfus appears in ads that are like skits of her actually evaluating appearing on these ads – questioning the product, and then in the process learning about it. EXTREMELY CREATIVE. Bold.  Probably will pay off nicely.

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Jon Stewart’s interview of Jim Cramer earlier tonight was a stunning indictment of the financial sector, the insider chicaneries of Wall Street, the complicity of financial networks like CNBC, and the overall sad state of affairs of corporate America.  See art.

It is scary that the best reporting out there comes from a comedy show, while regular networks and publications have effectively sold out to corporate sponsors.  One starts sounding like a conspiracy theorist or left wing radical, but when you listen to this stuff, it confirms some of the scarier theories!  Just like you are not paranoid if you really are being followed, so too is the case that you are not wrong to suspect Wall Street’s transparency and integrity and to assume insiders are rigging it against ordinary investors.

Here are a couple of samples of good reporting:

Very cool and creative ad from Microsoft – a print ad that looks like a newspaper article that got marked-over… with a handful of words left uncrossed, which you are prompted to follow…

Some ad campaign ideas by OneVoice Israel to encourage people in the moderate but traditionally passive majority to remember that not voting is a proxy for those from the extremes to speak for them…

The caption translates to "it’s ok, don’t vote.  They will vote for you."

I was very proud to support Obama’s Presidential campaign from the primaries all the way to his historic victory.

And like most of the nation and the world, I have high hopes for his leadership and administration.

It is from this vantage point that I am so enormously turned off by all the emails I keep getting from the Obama "campaign" asking me for more money!  What are they going to do with this money? 

I am sure I am not the only one getting these emails.  So many Americans are struggling to make ends meet during the recession and the Obama campaign is still asking them for more money?! After having exponentially surpassed all fund-raising records?

Isn’t there some financial-demagogic addiction going on here? I am sure it’s not Obama himself, but whoever ran the fundraising racket must still be getting some percentage points and is so inebriated with how much the campaign raised that he or she may want to stop.  Did they not get the memo?  The election is over.  Their guy won! It’s time to move on.

This aggressive fundraiser is relentless and resorts to the cheapest steps to continue.  You want to attend the inauguration? Send us $500.  You want to attend a ball? Send us $1,000.  You want to enter a drawing to see if you get tickets? Send us $25.  And buy all your commemorative materials today from us.  An Obama hat for $15, a sweat-shirt for $35 or a commemorative Obama plate made in China.

This is turning Obama the historical transformative figure into Obama the QVC late-night cheesy infomercial money-machine.

There is too much at stake.  Our world desperately needs real leadership.  Hope someone in the Obama team realizes it is high time to be a little dignified.

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Here is just one of a couple dozen emails I have received over the last month:

Dear Friend,

Over the next five days, hundreds of thousands of people will be coming to Washington, D.C. to celebrate this historic inauguration.
Once they arrive, our small supply of official Inaugural collectibles and memorabilia is going to go fast.
This is your last chance to secure your piece of history while items are guaranteed in stock.
Visit the official Inaugural Store today and get commemorative merchandise to celebrate the historic Inauguration of President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden.
Don’t miss your chance to get official collectibles bearing the Inaugural Seal, clothing and accessories from the Runway to Change line, or special Inaugural pieces by graphic artist Shepard Fairey.
These are limited edition items produced in small quantities — and as visitors begin to arrive in Washington, D.C. demand will grow rapidly.
Visit the official online Inaugural Store today:
http://www.pic2009.org/limitedsupply
Commemorate this once in a generation event with your own piece of history.
Thank you,
The Presidential Inaugural Committee

Steven Heydt from Elite Island Resorts came up with a creative promotion that not only aligns investors’ depressed moods to the plus of a vacation in his chain, but also landed them broad media coverage, like this story in the New York Times.

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