Miscellaneous, etc.

I’ve developed a pre-occupation with advertising music lately, particularly folksy, female-vocal songs that accompany fashion commercials.  Call it a quirk.
Waiting to get snowed in on Saturday night, Tina and I took in a broad selection of horrid cable programming — though nothing was topped by Sunday’s all-day marathon of Cheerleader Nation, which seared our souls […]

Or so you would think:

Vancouver 2010: Where the main event is merchandising
The fact that I can’t remember a single Olympic mascot of the past speaks to the grand ambition of the Vancouver 2010 team, who have clearly consulted with a professional firm to a specific end: A kid-friendly, merchandise-begging, license-breeding, profit-generating set of adorable […]

Joe Fresh is Loblaws most recent effort to break out of the traditional supermarket mold, breaking into the bargain fashion market to fend off competition from retail competitors Wal-Mart.
Joseph Mimran is at the heart of it, the “dynamic force behind three of Canada’s greatest Canadian retail success stories - Alfred Sung, Club Monaco and Caban,” […]

Comrade Miller finally won in his quest to introduce two new taxes to the citizens of Toronto this week, making it 1% more expensive to buy a new house (unless you’re a first-time buyer), $60 more expensive to register for your car, and 64% easier for me to justify staying north of Steeles. He […]