American Eagle soars in paradise
Perennial paradise clothing company American Eagle Outfitters is back at it for the summer season. Their new background is filled with palm trees:
And the images for the clothes and accessories are full of paradise icons:
Adolescents are bombarded with so many of these images. I won’t even get into the actual model profiles, but it looks like they’re well sunned and having fun in Kauai. I guarantee that the role of "place," and more specifically "perfect place," in the ongoing onslaught of perfect-person images will become more prominent in the coming years. That goal is part of the Rapidsea mission.
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Posted on April 16, 2008
Filed Under Growing Up, Fashion | Leave a Comment
Tax Day in the U.S.
If you’re still plugging away at your taxes, you might consider TurboTax if for no other reason than they give you this little "Retirement Distributions" icon:
Yet it still feels so far away.
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Posted on April 15, 2008
Filed Under Islands, Retirement, Business and Commerce | Leave a Comment
Crayola Crayon Color Names ~ Rain = Pain
In case you wanted more feeling from the images that are thrust in front of you and your kids every day, Crayola has taken steps to give it to you with its new color names. Three of them are relevant here: Best Friends, Fun in the Sun, and Super Happy. Here they are from their website announcement:
The purply "Orchid" color is now "Best Friends," which could be considered a step forward to not relating everything to flowers in tropical paradise. But then you have "Wild Tangerine," which is now "Fun in the Sun." Will we ever see "Suicidal in the Rain"? Oh well, we tried.
The most disturbing of all the colors is a bright yellow called "Super Happy." It used to be known as "Laser Lemon." I’ll miss the old name. You can’t be happy unless it’s sunny you know. I won’t even touch on "Happy Ever After." It used to be just "Turquoise Blue." Is that like a turquoise sea maybe?
Crayola is not new to paradise schemes. The most recent commercial for their "Color Surge" product has a kid making a bright yellow sun for a little indoor sunbathing in beach chairs with his dog (it notes: "Several packages used"). Towards the end, he lifts his sunglasses and tells his mom to stop blocking their rays.
At least they actually back up their paradise advertising by offering a chance to win a Royal Caribbean cruise.
What if we actually started showing really happy people in what we would normally consider downer settings? Would that help out our collective soul? Or is sunshine the only way to be happy?
You know that some day I know I’m going to have to eat my words. We’re going to learn that like Chernobyl’s radiation-eating fungus, we have to have gamma rays to thrive. Until that day, can we call purple what it is: purple?
ARGH! Joshua Radin just came on (I’m not even kidding) and the clouds just rolled in. RAIN = PAIN. :-| Solar-power signing off.
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Posted on April 11, 2008
Filed Under Plants and Flowers, Society, Sun, Growing Up, Cultural Symbols, Contests and Sweepstakes | Leave a Comment
Starbucks’ new old mermaid logo out in force
Starbucks has decided to stick it to the man by bringing back their old logo. It was an issue discussed here in September in the early days of their retro brand movement.
They may have given in by covering up her breasts with her hair, but they brought back the tails-at-her-ears, spread-siren pose. The new Starbucks logo is out in full force. They have the ages old mermaid/siren plastered all over cups, sleeves, and everything else in the stores. Here’s the hot sleeve (that’s that they should be called if they’re not):
For those of you who overhear talk about the single-color branding, be sure to point out that they are using white ink there too. Don’t stare too closely though. You might get accused of being dirty.
Read this post at DeadProgrammer, which talks about and shows examples of the origins of the logo. It appears that dirty is relative and that this IS the clean logo with or without the hair covering.
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Posted on April 10, 2008
Filed Under Mermaids, Sea and Oceans | Leave a Comment
Fish taco
I went to Utah at the end of March, and paradise food seems to be all the rage there, at least in the number of restaurants that claim some connection to beachy and/or islandy love.
My favorites, of course, were the Mexican fast food joints. For example, there is TacoTime, which is owned by Kahala Corp (yes, like the Hawaiian beach) of Scottsdale, Arizona. That’s where I found this nice display ad for Baja Fish Tacos on the beach (the deserty Mexican Riviera):
Taco Times are mostly located in Washington, Oregon, Idaho, and Utah as far as I can tell, but there are franchises as far away as in the Boraq Mall in Kawalli, Kuwait. I got soft tacos, not fish tacos, so I can’t comment on the image above other than to say I don’t like sand in my food.
Another restaurant that I tried in Utah was called Costa Vida, which also has franchises around the West (and elsewhere). They have a crazy surf theme to go along with their fast and deliciousness:
It’s hard to pass up an smothered burrito. The story behind this joint is that a husband and wife team created a successful business model and then split up. One spouse kept the old business, so the other started up anew with a different name but same model. Success. Delicious.
The other restaurants were too numerous to count really. Anyone ever eat at a Rumbi Island Grill?
Overall, Utah is worth the visit, and not just because there’s plenty of paradise food there.
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Posted on April 10, 2008
Filed Under Business and Commerce, Food and Drink, Beaches | Leave a Comment
Economic(s) Research Associates ~ Surf Experience
Economics Research Associates "is an international consulting firm working primarily in real estate, entertainment and leisure, and land use policy and planning." They are a competent and renowned firm.
For their website, they have a nice little transitional Flash opener on the website, which starts out with a guy standing on a surfboard with a gray background. Then the background swills with a wild and wasteful ocean, telling the story of experience:
From there it moves on to show the Houston skyline among other scenes. It ends with a man staring through binoculars from a skyscraper, presumably "focusing on results."
While I think it’s pretty cool that we’ve come far enough in the business world to show a tattooed shirtless surfer as the opening face of a serious consulting firm, what does the metaphor of having experience surfing turbid waters really say from the outset about a very competent firm?
It’s a cool picture, but so is every other happy ocean picture featured on Rapidsea. I can see it from the entertainment/leisure angle of their practice, but surely there are other types of projects other than paradisiacal resorts and beaches in that category.
Also, Economics Research Associates, if you’re reading this, your company’s name is spelled incorrectly in your title bar:
I assume there is supposed to be an "s" there.
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Posted on April 9, 2008
Filed Under Surfing, Business and Commerce | 1 Comment
Bridgestone ~ For drivers who want their cars to get washed up and stuck on the beach
The reflection concept in this ad is kind of interesting, but it leaves you scratching your head when you think about why you would want a nice Mercedes looking like it washed up on the beach without its tires. If it’s either Bridgestone or nothing, don’t show a car with nothing.
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Posted on April 8, 2008
Filed Under Automobiles, Internet Advertising, Advertising, Beaches | Leave a Comment
Jumping the fashion shark
Sorry for the post drought. I am on the second of two trips and also remodeling a small 200-year-old house. I have been collecting as much as ever, and more posts are on their way.
Luckily, my dear friend Kristin, as she lies in bed healing from surgery, dredged up one of the strangest fashion ads of all time, for which words escape us both:
Stella!?
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Posted on April 1, 2008
Filed Under Sharks, Fashion, Beaches | Leave a Comment
Margaritas that bite ~ Buffalo Wild Wings
Buffalo Wild Wings shows that there’s more than one way to slice a lime:
Corona knock off? Or another round of creative advertising?
The text reads: "Margarita Mayem - Five flavors. Frozen or on-the-rocks. Be warned. They bite."
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Posted on March 25, 2008
Filed Under Sharks, Fruity Slushy Beverages, Food and Drink | 1 Comment
Dangerous surfing?
Click on the beautiful image below to decide whether or not that surfer is planning on going back into the water:
Run?
The photo was captured by Felipe Antonio Caramori.
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Posted on March 21, 2008
Filed Under Surfing | Leave a Comment
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