A while back we noted a study that found that, in every nationally televised ad during the first 11 months of 2010, those featuring celebrity endorsements performed either below average or equal to it. Sort of counter-intuitive, right?

It gets stranger.

The Wall Street Journal reported yesterday that Abercrombie & Fitch has offered to pay cast members of “Jersey Shore” not to wear its product—because “[the] association is contrary to the aspirational nature of our brand, and may be distressing to many of our fans,” according to a statement. This from a company not exactly known for its taste and decorum.

Now if someone will just pay Lady Gaga to stay home.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: random thoughts  |  make a comment

Today is my mother’s 80th birthday. As a number of family members and friends gathered to celebrate over the weekend, we were reminded how a life well-lived can impact so many people. So, in honor of this day, I say “Thank you” to my mom. While there are countless personal reasons for doing so, I have a few professional ones as well:

• she never questioned my desire to pursue this silly career
• on weekends, when I occasionally returned home from college, her Laundromat was always open…
• …and when I arrived back at my apartment, I always had a bag full of groceries
• I’ve never received a lecture about the long hours I sometimes keep
• even 30 years later, she still hasn’t expressed her disappointment in me not becoming a doctor

Thanks for a lifetime of support, Mom!

posted by: CK Anderson  |  category: random thoughts  |  comments(1)

Excellent article on the state of restaurant website design. But the thing is, it’s not just restaurants. Some of the worst sites out there belong to universities and government agencies.

Bottom line? When you don’t have a basic understanding of what your customers actually want—and you stubbornly attempt to control every facet of the user “experience”—bad design inevitably follows.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: the design life  |  make a comment

Took the missus up to Crawford State Park on Saturday, whence we descended into the 41º depths of Gardner Cave, the third-longest limestone cavern in the state. Well worth the two-hour drive.

Also worth a look is the 2007 film In the Shadow of the Moon, a British documentary on the manned moon missions of the late 60s and early 70s. Michael Collins, Apollo 11 command module pilot, is a hoot.

Finally, Wheaton College English professor Alan Jacobs believes that readers are born, not made—and that, for the most part, we cannot be taught to love reading. I think he’s right.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: random thoughts  |  make a comment

Move is one of three short films shot over 44 days in 11 different countries. Learn and Eat complete the trilogy.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: random thoughts  |  make a comment

If you leave now, you just might make it to St-Hyacinthe, Quebec in time to see the world’s most beautiful cow. And who among us wouldn’t want to do that?

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: random thoughts  |  make a comment

Yes, it’s a real label. No, I don’t care to comment.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: the design life the writing life  |  make a comment

Sue Fondrie, associate professor of Curriculum and Instruction at the University of Wisconsin Oshkosh, is the winner of the 2011 Bulwer-Lytton Fiction Contest. The annual competition challenges entrants to compose bad opening sentences to imaginary novels.

Here’s Professor Fondrie’s winning entry:

Cheryl’s mind turned like the vanes of a wind-powered turbine, chopping her sparrow-like thoughts into bloody pieces that fell onto a growing pile of forgotten memories.

Brilliant, for sure—though I’m partial to the runner-up in the “Purple Prose” category:

The Los Angeles morning was heavy with smog, the word being a portmanteau of smoke and fog, though in LA the pollutants are typically vehicular emissions as opposed to actual smoke and fog, unlike 19^th-century London where the smoke from countless small coal fires often combined with fog off the Thames to produce true smog, though back then they were not clever enough to call it that.

Complete results can be found here.

posted by: Aaron Bragg  |  category: the writing life  |  comments(1)