google, google, everywhere.

"Basically, in the Information Economy, Google pretty much feels entitled to eat just about anyone's lunch."
• AdAge's Simon Dumenco sums up Google's quest to become obese with power.

Have you ever wished you could be in a million places at once to accomplish everything on your lifelong to-do list? Google's mastered this task. Damn. No point in extended commentary on the subject. Dumenco says it all.

Google needs to borrow the Energizer Bunny's tagline. It just keeps on going, and going, and going...

cheeky chiquita!

Chiquita Banana's branding recently got a facelift – ok, it just got a face – from Art Director, DJ Neff. In an interview with design:related, he tells the story of nailing the universal insight for the whole Chiquita campaign: "Further thinking led us to giving bananas personalities and how all bananas start out good but eventually go bad (and for consumers not to let that happen). "Don't Let Another Good Banana Go Bad" was the through line of our campaign and it was incorporated into all of our work."

I diverted from my intended career path (making ads in an ad agency) due to a loss of tolerance for the exhaustive creative process to nail that perfect idea (majored in Creative Advertising; all my friends are at portfolio school to be part of an art director/copywriter team). Neff's fresh perspective reminded me while I love innovative thinking and why advertising strategies fascinate me.

Great read.

I discovered this via Under Construction's Brand New – Opinions on Corporate and Brand Identity Work.

the politics of pitching.

Juxtaposed above are a tweet from JetBlue marketing VP, Marty St. George, and the introduction to an agency pitch-strike in Belgium.

AdAdge reported that St. George employed some #sneaky tactics to test agency awareness and publicize JetBlue's search for a new Agency of Record. Hey Twitter-haters, bet you're bashful now! Bite your tongue the next time you doubt the impact of social media on business. Agencies smart enough to include company execs among their tweet-roll, as opposed to solely corporate Twitter identities, got the inside scoop on the new opportunity to creatively dazzle JetBlue. The whole digitally covert ordeal just goes to show the lengths to which agencies have to stretch their innovations in pitching for new business. 

Meanwhile, Belgian ad agencies simultaneously flicked twenty metaphoric middle fingers at the not-so-innovative pitching process in the land of advertising and waffles. Last week I learned from PSFK that a group of ad agencies went on a digital strike to change the pitching process in Belgium. They stretched a letter across the twenty agency websites explaining their disgust for the disregard of new business competition rules.

Apparently US advertising is exploding with innovation while Belgium wants... more rules?? Too much syrup on those waffles.

no time for tick tock.

"2010 will be the year that social media-fueled technology and behavior is responsible for more content consumption choices than ever before. As the media landscape becomes increasingly fragmented, marketers will need to become more nimble than ever, and start getting on the leading edge of trends, as opposed to waiting for them to emerge."

• Ian Schafer of Deep Focus speaking at the SoDA 2010 Digital Marketing Outlook

There should be a designated 'social media hour' everyday where the world becomes a library-esque arena for uninterrupted concentration on the never ending stream of tweets, diggs, Facebook alerts, etc. How will we all keep up? Although I'm new to the game, I would say that now, more than ever, the lines between work and play are blurred. Social media has to be a life passion – not just a function of your job.

how'd that brand get there?

PSFK explored an Australian-based strategy agency's analysis of brand perception used to gain consumer insights. Storm Brand DNA's Brand Mapping is an alarming reality check about the diverse products and services individuals use on a daily basis just to get through the day.

Backtracking into the actionable past, the copious amount of brands makes you wonder how far a marketing or advertising scheme went to infiltrate your everyday routine without your conscious awareness. Even the most rudimentary functions, like splashing water on your face, put you in contact with a brand. What kind of faucet and countertop hardware are your bathroom sink made of? Where did you buy the bath mat you're standing on? Who are you paying for the water that's refreshing your face?

Yes, an hourly brand map is immensely interesting to dissect a person's identity. What would be even more intriguing is a strategy map behind all the brands that slipped into your routine without you even realizing it.

Take a look at that brand map to the left, again. I would venture to say at least three brands are missing from each hour. What say you?

the epitome of musical emotion.

If only it were all as "easy" as Ross & Rachel... when they weren't on a break. This scene is like sensory comfort food; you love it and feel all gushy but immediately regret watching after your relationship craving kicks in and you run the gamut of human emotion.

Oops. Where'd that come from?

Maybe the title of the blog should just be "etcetera."

obsolete home.

Do you still go to google.com? Google Chrome's uber-intuitive URL turned search bar has made the tech-giant's calming and simplistic landing page a distant memory for me. Even before Chrome's (beta for Mac) debut, Safari's Inquisitor and Firefox's Google search fields let me skip the google.com step.

Luckily my boss still goes to google.com so I caught a glimpse of the Olympic-celebratory art. I tweeted about the Google logos eons ago (in the Twitterverse, anyway) and people seem to love keeping track of history with this creative little blips on the internet's radar.

oompa loompas are pantones, too.

"If I had a child, I would force them to be an Oompa Loompa for Halloween. They would complain about the orange skin make-up. But they would photograph wonderfully."

Some color palettes are impossible to escape. Combinations that resonate with you can have unexpected influences. Fast Company's Sean Adams was bit by the Oompa Loompa retro-tones and infused it into his career color choices. Adams says the colors pumpkin, gold and chocolate colors "shouldn't" coordinate.

I think that's the beauty of taking color cues from pop-culture history. It inspires use of Pantones from the past! It carries the sensory experience of then into the visual now.

Or it's just oompa loompa doopa doopa de do.

never ending.

In any other color, I would say this is a plus sign. The red means Red Cross for me. Relief, aid, helping others, and most recently – Haiti. The plethora of ampersands (a favorite piece of punctuation) in this red cross automatically made me think of the endless to-do lists that will be made over the years to reinvigorate and rebuild Haiti and it's residents.

To be (shamefully) honest, I didn't follow the coverage as much as I would have liked to. I look forward to the positive coverage of progress in the future.

Yet another instance of subtle design elements being paramount to the meaning of an image.

thought-provoking type.

Just how flexible? This is why I love an author's backstory almost as much as their book story. Plot sensibility can be enhanced or terribly distorted. Take F. Scott Fitzgerald.

Image courtesy of welovetypography.com.

Don't you love when fonts make you think?

quality over quantity.

As a person constantly comparing media entities as brands and content aggregators, this comment on Forbes was surprisingly compelling to me.

Metaphor conversion: McDonald's are broadly-focused media outlets and cheeseburgers are their stories.

Plenty of online publishers function as powerhouses to pump out news stories in an almost mechanic way, but a plethora of headlines doesn't necessarily correlate to quality coverage. I've learned to appreciate niche blogs and media outlets for serving up a certain degree of expertise and savvy for specific subjects, resulting in more unique perspectives.

Bottom line: I don't want flimsy cheeseburgers from mechanic media when I can get a Kobe beef burger with the works from a niche news publisher.

Make sense? It does in my head.

revitalized pov.

I initially created Snarkentary to keep up my writing skills post-grad and stay on top of the new media game during my job hunt. After landing a spot on the marketing team at Gawker Media, my focus on all things internet shifted and the purpose of Snarkentary became partially irrelevant.

With a newfound interest in media trends and information aesthetics, and an increased passion for all things verbal and visual, I'm ready to dive back into the blogosphere. I'm still tweeting away, but sometimes 140 characters just doesn't cut it! So my returned to Snarkentary comes with a new approach: an overdose on design & media. Possibly with a dash of details on NYC shenanigans.

Let the overdose begin.