Can award-winning advertising fix a broken business model?
No.
Let's take a closer look at Saturn.
In 2005, according to Nielsen Monitor-Plus, GM spent $215 million advertising its Saturn brand.
Saturn's profit that year: $0.
Saturn had a strong following of enthusiastic customers when it launched in 1990, but here's the problem: the cars never made a profit. Not even Goodby, Silverstein's award-winning advertising could fix an unprofitable business model. Advertising never can.
Here’s a look at the history of the Oil Age from its beginnings in the hills of western Pennsylvania in 1859 to its rise as the engine of global industrial economies. Notice the sharp increase in population (the yellow line) and the impending gap between world population and the prediction of future oil production. What comes after the end of the Oil Age?
I've been playing with Wordle. Above is a 'word cloud' from this blog's feed. It allows you to tweak your clouds with different fonts, layouts, and color schemes. And the images you create with Wordle are yours to use however you like. You can play with it here. Send me a link if you make something cool.
I think these two quotes work well together:
Fortune's Andy Serwer on CNN. June 11, 2008:
"Every year we’re paying 700 billion dollars to import oil into this country. That is many multitudes more than we are spending on the war in Iraq. The war on Iraq, 100 billion dollars. So, if you think about it, think about all the attention that we are spending on the war in Iraq in terms of whether we should be there or not or withdraw. And then think about this quite monster problem: 700 billion dollars a year of imported oil. You hear nothing. There is no debate. That 700 billion dollars, a little bit goes to our ‘friends’ and a lot of it goes to people who aren’t really our friends. It affects our foreign policy it affects everything, to me it’s a disgrace that we are not addressing it…. Now, our global foreign policy is connected to the energy problems we have in this country."
Deepak Chopra on CNN Money. June 10, 2008:
"There are 2.2 trillion dollars that circulate in the world’s markets every day. Of this 2.2 trillion, less than 2 percent goes to provide goods and services for humanity, the rest of it is speculation money, making money for people who have a lot of money. Money is how we exchange our values. When we were hunter-gatherers our wealth came from weapons. When we were an agricultural society the wealth came from agricultural products and animal husbandry. In the industrial age it came from machines and oil. In the information age it came from a microchip, which is nothing but a piece of dust with information in it. As we move from an information based culture to a knowledge based culture to a wisdom based culture, money should come from those source that nurture the ecosystem, that reverse global warming…"
I received an email today with these pictures. It's part of a book called Hungry Planet by Peter Menzel that presents a photographic study of families from around the world, revealing what people eat during the course of one week.
Chad: The Aboubakar family of Breidjing Camp
Food expenditure for one week: 685 CFA Francs or $1.23
Bhutan: The Namgay family of Shingkhey Village
Food expenditure for one week: 224.93 ngultrum or $5.03
Ecuador: The Ayme family of Tingo
Food expenditure for one week: $31.55
Egypt: The Ahmed family of Cairo
Food expenditure for one week: 387.85 Egyptian Pounds or $68.53
Poland: The Sobczynscy family of Konstancin-Jeziorna
Food expenditure for one week: 582.48 Zlotys or $151.27
Mexico: The Casales family of Cuernavaca
Food expenditure for one week: 1,862.78 Mexican Pesos or $189.09
Italy : The Manzo family of Sicily
Food expenditure for one week: 214.36 Euros or $260.1
Japan : The Ukita family of Kodaira City
Food expenditure for one week: 37,699 Yen or $317.25
Germany: The Melander family of Bargteheide
Food expenditure for one week: 375.39 Euros or $500.07
United States : The Revis family of North Carolina
Food expenditure for one week: $341.98
Ideas worth talking about. By Sam Karp.
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