Tag Archives: advertising

On having one’s unicorn-killing intellectual property stolen by Samsung, and celebrating the release of yet another Monkey Power Trio record

By Mark | February 17, 2013

I received a cryptic message a few days ago from an anonymous source, telling me that I had to immediately retain an attorney and protect my intellectual property from the evil Korean CEO of Samsung. I wrote it off as the ranting of a delusional reader, as it’s not uncommon for me to receive paranoid [...]

Posted in Art and Culture, Mark's Life, Monkey Power Trio, Special Projects, Uncategorized | Also tagged being ripped the fuck off, CHI&Partners, Fox Sports, Melissa Dettloff, Monkey Power Trio, Nathan DeYonker, Samsung, Samsung Galaxy, selling out, severed unicorn head superstore, unicorns, WCBN | 16 Comments

Reflecting on Pure Michigan

By Mark | January 13, 2013

It’s pretty rare in the world of blogging that you can actually land a punch, and rarer still that the punch you land will leave a mark. You flail away for hours a day, tiling at windmills, and writing your heart out, but, for whatever reason, things rarely break through. You have little victories. You [...]

Posted in Mark's Life, Marketing, Michigan, Politics, Uncategorized | Also tagged advertising campaign, Laura Kaeppeler, Marilyn, MEDC, Michigan Economic Development Corporation, Mike Finney, Miss America, perfect storm, Pure Michigan, right-to-work, Robert DeNiro, Syed Taj | 14 Comments

Boots Riley of The Coup… on Communism, Corporatism, hip-hop, and the need to beat down scabs

By Mark | November 28, 2012

Last night, I had the occasion to speak with world-renowned hip-hop provocateur Boots Riley on a wide range of subjects spanning from his childhood in Detroit, spent in a household of Communist organizers, to his current work, organizing people in his neighborhood as a member Occupy Oakland. And, of course, we touched on his equally [...]

Posted in Art and Culture, Civil Liberties, Corporate Crime, Detroit, Economics, Uncategorized, Ypsilanti | Also tagged 21 Grams, 9/11, Alex Rivera, American Splendor, anti-capitalist, at-risk youth, Barbara Ransby, Bill Maher, Boots Riley, California, Capitalism, civil rights, class, College of Ethnic Studies, Communism, Congress of Racial Equality, CORE, Danny Goldberg, dark comedy, fast food workers union, Five Million Ways to Kill a CEO, foreclosure defense, fundraisers, Greensboro, guillotine building workshop, Happiness, hip hop, ILWU, independent film, International Longshore and Warehouse Union, interviews, Japanther, Jeff Clark, K-Mart, Kev Choice, KKK, Ku Klux Klan, La Peña Cultural Center, labor history, labor movement, Led Zeppelin, Levi's, longshoremen, lunch counter sit-ins, Magic Clap, Me and Jesus the Pimp in a '79 Granada Last Night, militancy, NAACP, Nirvana, North Carolina, Oakland, Occupy Oakland, Occupy Sandy, Ohio Players, Oscar Grant, Ozone House, picket lines, police brutality, political hip hop, political organizing, Politically Incorrect, Port of Oakland, Progressive Labor Party, Prop 21, pull yourself up by your bootstraps, rap, revolution, rhetoric of violent revolution, San Francisco, San Francisco State, San Francisco State strike, scabs, SDS, sit-down strikes, Sleep Dealer, social justice, Sorry to Bother You, speaking truth to power, Street Sweeper Social Club, Students for a Democratic Society, sympathy strikes, Taft–Hartley Act, Ted Hope, The Coup, The Guillotine, The Ice Storm, threat of violence, unions, United Steelworkers, USW, Walmart, Walter Riley, Washtenaw Eviction and Foreclosure Defense, we need a revolution, WEFD, Woodruff's, work stoppage, World Trade Center | 25 Comments

Is the Bank of Ann Arbor’s “non-local banker campaign” a hypocritical, pointelss mess of faux-localism?

By Mark | October 21, 2012

For the past few months, those of us who live in and around Ann Arbor have been subjected to a relentlessly pervasive advertising campaign featuring a balding, sunken-chested, Clearasil-colored cartoon banker with an often furrowed brow, and standard issue “nerd” glasses. He started showing up on billboards a little over a month ago. At first, [...]

Posted in Ann Arbor, Marketing, Observations, Uncategorized | Also tagged advertising campaign, analingus, Bank of America, Bank of Ann Arbor, banking, Banksy, billboards, Bongz And Thongz, Clear Channel, cool, culture jamming, Dustin Krcatovich, Encore Records, FM Dust, GG Allin, Half Ass, hipster, hypocrisy, hypocrisy watch, Iggy Pop, illustration, J.J. Sedelmaier, Jeremy Wheeler, JPMorgan Chase, local business, local economy, localism, localwashing, Mani Osteria, Matthew Altruda, Mayer Hawthorne, Nate Higley, Nike, non-local banker, Saagara, Saturday Night Live, social media, Sonic Lunch, TV Funhouse, VG Kids, viral marketing, Wal-Mart, what's cool and what's not | 112 Comments

AnnArbor.com heroically pushes yet further into the post-journalism frontier, selling their front page to Pete Hoekstra for a desperate, ill-conceived Stabenow smear

By Mark | September 26, 2012

I’m tempted to express outrage, but, the truth is, it’s a weak campaign, and, as Hoekstra is polling a full 16 points behind Stabenow, I don’t think it really matters. In fact, I’m kind of happy to see team Hoekstra pissing away what’s left in their coffers like this. In fact, here’s hoping the folks [...]