Just How Patriotic Are You?

...Enough to put out for your Presidential candidate of choice? Yowza.

The poster at left, featuring a set of anti-Palin Brooklyn girls, plays on the '60s-era image (at right) of Joan Baez and her sisters. The original slogan read, "Girls say yes to boys who say no" -- to the war, that is. And while in most cases vintage is a good thing, Salon.com was less supportive of the "obnoxiously retrograde" vote-for-sex concept. From the mouth of one:

The idea of any kind of political action being taken to impress the opposite sex -- or that guys would only vote a certain way if a woman promised sex at the end (that's also totally the only way you get them to pay for dinner, incidentally) -- sort of makes me want to drown myself.

As an addendum to that, I just wanted to say that's not the only way to get men to pay for dinner. Just smile and lean forward a lot. Once the check is paid, say thank you, yawn and run. You can actually squeeze a few dinners out of them this way.

But I digress. Among people my age, it seems like peer pressure has become a major component of this mostly private political decision. Obama's cool, but his campaign -- flashy, fresh and exciting -- just reeks of the Irresistible It factor. Some people take that sensation and make it playful, sexual; others show us the other side of the same fun, engagement-building (and logic-devoid) coin: what if you were publicly thrashed for choosing the "wrong" candidate?

Treehugger's Take on Working from Home

Why working from home makes sense for the globe and for you, plus tips on doing it with ease. (Experiential hint: don't do it from bed. You will turn into Jabba the Hutt.)

The end of the article grants a voyeuristic glimpse into other peoples' work-at-home environments. I'm partial to the set-ups of Alan in Portland and George in New York (shown above).

The dual screen workstation makes a big difference in terms of efficiency and OS desktop organization. And I highly recommend afternoon naps. Does wonders for morale.

And in Other News...

...it's Stuttering Awareness Day.

Remember When Good Looks Were Integral to Good Service?

And while we're on the topic of that-which-no-longer-is, remember when imagery compelled you to read the copy, and copy fed the visual mythology, and together they conceived a better product in your mind?

Sometimes I miss those discriminating days.

Are We All Just Chubbettes Obsessed with Movie Stars?

This afternoon I sat around on MySpace, hitting "Refresh" to see what ads I'd get. Must be a slow month in ad sales; every new banner was a weight loss pitch. Here they are, in order of how I received them:

And it isn't just MySpace that thinks my trunk could use less junk. Last month, Rachel Beckman of the Washington Post wrote an article about the "muffin top" ads that barrage her when she logs on to Facebook. I see them too. All that fleshy muffin-toppiness leaves nothing to the imagination:

So what's the deal, socnets?

A study from earlier this year found women are generally more concerned about weight than disease. And because I'm guessing this passel of tacky, over-obvious and insulting ads don't actually improve perceived site value (MySpace, whatever happened to your Cartier days?), there's just one explanation: women must actually click on these things.

I guess that's cool if you feel açai berry juice will really solve your deep-seated problems. But what about me? Why am I attacked with potshots of love handles five times per visit?

Does persistence ultimately persuade? Or maybe every chick just has a day where, in a rush of self-hatred, she finally wants to read Jen's fucking Weight Journal.

You May Long for the :30 Spot After This.

Obama buys 30-minute ad on network TV. That's a long time. Hope it's better than the McCain family's Rachael Ray appearance. Kiss the candidate!

Guess Who!

"Microsoft is classy, it's a timeless brand, and it means something to the world."

Give up? Answer here. I never saw that coming.

On Why I'm So Quiet

Later today I'm driving up to Vermont (pictured above) for Watershedapalooza, an annual meeting of Watershed Publishing minions. We'll review how to make spreadsheets, pet each other's dogs and smuggle the publisher's home-made maple syrup across various borders, among other Really Important Stuff.

Before Yammer, this was the only time any of us ever got in contact with each other (beyond the occasional email). Oddly, I'm looking forward to when 'palooza ends so I can see whether it changes our Yam dynamic.

Will it be like Twitter, where people (myself included) say dumb shit like "@yournamehere OMG so good meeting you finally! =D"? Or will we be more subdued, knowing now -- and for certain -- that the only way to ingratiate ourselves with the COO is by playing World of Warcraft?

It could go either way, and I'm tingling in anticipation. Also, I haven't dealt with someone on a professional basis for months, so maybe I should get a trim. Because seriously, I'm giving these dudes a run for their money. Or their moonshine, or whatever it is rednecks use for currency.

From the Front Lines of Bad-Ass Cascadilla St.

My landlord has become passionately embroiled in an effort to keep the city of Ithaca from turning the park across the street into a full-sized basketball court, complete with floodlights.

Because there's nothing better to do, people are getting really emotional about it. Landlord walked up and down the street, circulating a petition against it. His work's won some press, not least because there are people that believe protesting the installation is a racist act, I guess against the black kids that use the (constricting?) basketball courts that are already there.

Well, hell. You say a thing like that and it starts to be true. Sometime over the weekend, people crept up and down Cascadilla, slashing tires at random. We were scandalized: it's like being in Boyz n the Hood, except anticlimactic and painfully suburban.

Never mind that this house is chock-full of minorities. Given our selfish, irrational despise of jumbo basketball courts, we apathetically await burning crosses on the lawn ... or maybe a really mean chalk drawing on the pavement.

Seeding Branded Videos

My friend Josh Warner of Feed Company wrote an awesome How-To for MarketingVOX this week. It provides tips for seeding branded videos. This isn't just a topic he knows well; it's one he's exhaustively passionate about. (Seriously. We'll be sitting over lunch, and he'll whip out his iPhone and go "Look at this, look at this, look at this." And it'll be wacky stuff, like ants doing battle, or breakdancing bees, or ... you know, some dude leaping into his own pants.)

The article provides useful examples of both successful and unsuccessful campaigns, in addition to a few handy guidelines for incorporating your brand in a web video.

I'm trying to make a point of publishing more material like this: helpful tools that don't just evangelize, but provide an actionable starting-point for marketers inexperienced in these areas. Let me know if you ever want to collabo, or if you have something you think we should syndicate.

Gandhi Day

Yesterday on the BBC's day in pictures:

Children dress up as Indian independence leader Mahatma Gandhi during a peace rally in Amritsar on the eve of his 139th birthday.

Almost as fun as the Ernest Hemingway lookalike contest. Far more sober, though: the kids bear the slight scowls of perpetually hungry sages. See friendlier shot of Gandhi.

Roll Your Smokes for a Treat

Explanation here.