Mindfulness
Food for Thought
Vanity Fair announce on Thursday that Chipotle’s bags and cups will be featuring original writings by Jonathan Safran Foer (who pitched the idea to Steve Ells, Chipotle’s founder and C.E.O. years ago), Malcolm Gladwell, Toni Morrison, George Saunders, and Vanity Fair contributing editor Michael Lewis.
The burrito chain has branded the initiative “Cultivating Thought” and is comprised of a somewhat eclectic group of styles. According to Foer, he “wanted some that were essayistic, some fiction, some things that were funny, and somewhat thought provoking.”
“We live in a world in which there is shrinking space for literature and writing, and less time than ever for quiet reflection,” Foer said in a statement. “The idea of expanding the space and time, of creating a small pocket of thoughtfulness right in the middle of the busy day, was inspiring to me — particularly given the size and diversity of the audience, which is America itself.”
It’s not the first time Chipotle has used their packaging to tell stories, but usually it is to talk about things related to Chipotle – farmers or ingredients, for example. “These essays are unique in that they don’t have anything to do with us, and we gave the authors complete latitude to write about whatever they wanted to,” said communications director Chris Arnold.
Unfortunately our local store didn’t have the new bags or cups yet, so we will have to share an image from the internet and hope to read the stories in the near future.
Ironic
A video-poem about taking a break from social media and electronic devices has become a viral hit…
Something Big is Hoppening in NYC
April 1st marked the beginning of a big hunt for over 260 artist-designed eggs, which have been hidden throughout New York City’s boroughs. The eggs range from cute to strange and not typical egg shaped, and include contributions from artists in fashion, art and design.
Instead of a basket to collect chocolate goodies, the Fabergé Big Egg Hunt requires a free app that beeps when within a 20-foot range of one of the eggs, and once discovered by 10 people, the secret location of the eggs is revealed on an interactive map – plus hunters get chances to win prizes from Fabergé.
From April 18 – 25 the eggs will be on display at Rockefeller Center, before being auctioned off at Sotheby’s to raise money for “Studio in a School,” a nonprofit that brings arts programs to NYC schools and “Elephant Family,” an organization that protects Asian elephants.
Going Green
Do The Green Thing and The World Wildlife Fund are encouraging people to turn their lights off for Earth Hour on March 29th with a series of clever posters. The campaign is to inspire people to think and act differently in order to save the environment and live more sustainably.
Not My Season by Matthew Elliott
Share by Marion Deuchars
Little Devil by Paula Scher
Naresh Ramchandani, co-founder of Do The Green Thing and partner at Pentagram, stated in a press release: “Do The Green Thing has always looked to be a public service for the planet, working with world class creative talent to make brilliant inspiration, and feeding that inspiration to as many people as possible across the world to encourage them to be more sustainable in their everyday lives. … the 29 Posters are beautiful, playful, romantic, mischievous and provocative, and I hope they will inspire as many people as possible to be part of Earth Hour 2014.”
New posters are added daily until the 29th. You can see them all at dothegreenthing.tumblr.com
The Power of Brands & The Web
On the 25th birthday of the internet WHYY’s Radio Times with Marty Moss-Coane and guests Barbara Kahn, Americus Reed and James Surowiecki, had a great show about brand loyalty and consumer’s access to quality products thanks in part to the world wide web.
Nesting
Nest, the company founded by former Apple engineers Tony Fadell and Matt Rogers, made some big waves last week when news surfaced that the Palo Alto, California based manufacturer of new smart technology was bought by search giant Google for 3.2 billion dollars.
Then again it should not have been surprising at all. Since its launch in 2010 Nest has reinvented the thermostat and just recently debuted an ultra smart smoke & carbon-monoxite detector. Those are fairly boring pieces of technology, but Nest took them, made them smarter and had some fun along the way.
Back in November when the company launched the new smoke & carbon-monoxide detector they purchased an old fire engine from Craig’s list, pimped it all out and went around California promoting their latest product – pretty genius marketing on top of great product innovation.
In a blog entry from January 13, 2014 Tony Fadell, Nest’s founder and CEO states: “Nest will continue to be Nest, with its own distinct brand identity. We will continue to reimagine and reinvent the unloved products that proliferate in our homes, just as we have since we started. We are simply going to get our products into the hands of people around the world – faster.”
We have both products in our house and my technology-loving husband couldn’t wait to get his hands on them. The Thermostat has been saving us a bunch of “leaves” since we got it almost two years ago, but our smoke-/carbon-monoxide detector went off a few days ago for the first time, while I was making some toast, which got just a bit too crispy – aka burnt. I had left the room for a minute and not only did I get alerted by the other devices talking to each other across the house, that there was smoke in the kitchen, my husband got an in-app alert on his smart phone, complete with suggestions what to do in case of a fire.
After waving at the smoke alarm, like it instructed us to do in case of a false alarm, the device went off. Once the smoke settled we were informed once again via an in-app message, that the smoke was clearing. Pretty cool stuff.
Wig Out…
Long before we were all “tickled” by Elmo there were the Cabbage Patch Kids. The first toy to create a holiday shopping frenzy is a viral sensation once again. A child of the 80’s and mom-to-be from Georgia, created these super cute hats resembling Cabbage Patch Kids hair styles, changing real babies into doll faces.
We’re sure they will put a smile on your face too!
“Merry Christmas to All and to All a Good Flight”
With the holiday season in full swing, there is one company that sure knows what it means to get in the holiday spirit. In a new viral video making the rounds on social media, Canadian airline WestJet treats unsuspecting passengers to a little holiday cheer.
While waiting to board their flights, travelers told a virtual Santa Claus what was on their Christmas wishlist. Once they were on their planes, WestJet employees went to work gathering presents. When the passengers reached their destination, they were greeted with more than just their luggage at baggage claim. One by one down the conveyor belt came individually wrapped presents for each traveler.
The events were caught on hidden camera and turned into a video with a “Night Before Christmas” narration.
You can watch the heartwarming video here: