 Notes on what we buy, why we buy it, and how companies get us to keep buying more.
By Greg Beato |
Out of Focus Kodak changed the way we see, share, and remember the world. Then the world itself changed.
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We Need to Talk About Ronald While McDonald's remakes its menus, messages, and stores, the chain's iconic mascot is caught in limbo.
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Things Aren't Grrrrreat! Americans' taste for cereal is waning. Is the original industrialized fast food in trouble?
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Flights of Fancy How much is a flight out of Alamogordo, Nevada? The ticket price plus the government's $2,487 subsidy. That's the Essential Air Service for you!
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Getting Pumped We are always going to think gas is too expensive. The pump's tiny digital screen and its zooming numbers are going to make any price seem insane.
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Cover Story Is there a 21st-century cure for baldness? Sure: the 5,000-year-old toupee.
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Let's Talk About Specs You think some businesses just can't be replaced by the web, and then a site like ZenniOptical.com comes along.
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That Was Then The before-and-after photo is more than a century old. Thanks to the web, it's likely to be around for a lot longer.
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End of the Road Now that the market is dead, a eulogy for that old suburban staple, the station wagon.
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What a Doll! Barbie gets all the attention, of course. But on his 50th birthday, we celebrate Ken and the new paradigm of American masculinity he champions.
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Now What Is it Going to Take... Talking shop at the 2011 National Auto Dealers Association Convention and Expo.
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Dinner at 5:05, 7:20, 9:45... Movie attendance is dropping. For theaters, the logical solution is to start serving chicken Alfredo.
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Movin' on Down Tiny houses are seen as an antidote to rampant consumerism. What a crock!
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Character Study Heads up, Bugs: There's a war against cartoon characters who shill junk food.
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Many Happy Returns In this digital age, every stupid decision ends up haunting you. Except, of course, in the realm of retail.
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Budding Market Marijuana isn't legal, yet ads already make it seem as mundane as dish soap.
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Beating Around the Bush Commercials for the Tri-Phoria Personal Massager are as demure as TV gets.
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Punk'd in the Great Depression With Catalog No. 439, America shifted from necessity to the aggressively inessential.
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Cream, Sugar, and a High-Speed Connection Independent coffeehouses considered free Wi-Fi a benevolent gesture to their customers. Then Starbucks and McDonald's jumped in.
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| Five-Finger Discount What's more American than shoplifting? One out of 11 of your
fellow shoppers is guilty.
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Tipping Point You feel like an adult, going out to a restaurant and paying your own way. And then someone tells you how much you should tip.
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Printing Money What's black and white and will put you in the red? A boutique, limited-run newspaper!
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Fresh Grouper Groupon.com isn't all that novel. If you really wanted to change capitalism, you'd let buyers call the shots.
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Tube at the Tank Gas station television has so much potential as a medium, I'm surprised it sticks to weather and ads.
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The Things We Carry! The savvy thing about iPad accessories is how they try to render moot the question of whether to even get an iPad.
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Take My Card...Please! Everything ''print'' is changing, but can anything replace the 2 x 3.5 piece of paper that is the business card?
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Double Trouble When KFC comes out a chicken sandwich on a chicken bun, we're outraged. When a mom-and-pop diner does the same thing, we say, ''What a quaint slice of Americana.''
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Love Means Never Having to Say 404 Error Yes, this robot will put out for you. But more important, it will put up with you, and how many humans will do that?
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Just What I Never Wanted! Scroogenomics argues we waste $12 billion on gifts nobody wants. But if people got what they wanted, Christmas would be like any other day.
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Popular Products Vitaminwater wants YOU to help choose its next flavor! Because, of course, you have so much experience in flavor development.
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Work It! How can we bring together red and blue America? Marry fashion with industry.
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Final Wishes You want to be cremated? How quaint.
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| Saving Dough Doing away with free bread seems like a minor issue, but our collective self-worth is at stake!
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Driving Miss Lazy The first drive-through department store has opened in Illinois. What took so long?
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| Ticket Masters Woodstock's real legacy? The business model of making millions off free entertainment.
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Safe or Sorry? Ever wonder why people spend good money on extended warranties for TVs and cameras? Researchers at Carnegie Mellon did, too.
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Caked On If there's a recession, you wouldn't know it from the proliferation of extreme cakes on TV today.
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Drug Deals The FDA wants to reign in those drug commercials you see on TV. Were the terrifying 'possible side effects' not enough?
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Operators Are Standing By Billy Mays may have been grating, but his presence on the shifting TV landscape comforted.
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*This Blog Is an Advertisement First came the ads disguised as newspaper stories. Then it was TV newscasts. The latest fakery? Blogs.
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A Room of One's Own Men have long enjoyed having a refuge in the home. But what grown one wants a man cave?
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Paper Makes the Man Some people defend books. Some defend newspapers. Me, I'm going to defend expensive, off-white resume paper.
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Get Solvent Fast!!! It's hard to believe you can get rich through debt elimination, but who am I to argue with something I saw on TV?!
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Over the Top So you think a topless coffee shop sounds like a good idea? You'll be sorry!
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Crocs on the Rocks Sales of Crocs are plummeting. But how did we develop a passion for bright, anitfungal clogs in the first place?
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My Other Sofa Is a Bookcase Progress is a $4,750 coffee table that turns into a loveseat. Or at least knowing one exists.
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Buck Wild We think of the hunter's life as one of untamed authenticity. But take away his accouterment...
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Marking Time We've shunned books, newspapers, watches, and maps, but not calendars. Um...why not?
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A Little Something We want mystery in our lives, but we want it to be predictable. Enter SomethingStore.
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A Room With No View Porn has long been a staple of hotels like Marriott. But when groups like Focus on the Family won't stop calling...
By Greg Beato
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Sole Survivor Converse may turn 100 this year, but the All-Star remains the world's most functional shoe.
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The Death of Gadget Worship Sharper Image sold us stuff we never needed. Turns out, we don't need Sharper Image either.
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Get Closer New for the couple that has everything: the intimacy of a shared toilet.
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Vanslaughter Whatever happened to the van? How the icon stopped rocking at the Tokyo Motor Show.
By Greg Beato
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