A Dragon in Sheep’s Clothing

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More ads:

• Tandy with DeskMate (and Bill Bixby?)
  
• Heathkit circa 1977
• Tandy ad with Bill Gates
• IMSAI single board control computer
• Apple Logo software for the Apple II (1983)
• Apple Lisa brochure - page 7
• Apple gift catalog 1983 - page 5 (latch-hook rug)

Love this ad. It tells parents that their kids need their own computer because at school they “may have to fend of packs of bully nerds to get some time on a computer.”

Suffolk snubs blog’s bid to get on list for news releases

The blog ‘Inside Suffolk Virginia‘ asked earlier this month to be added to the city’s e-mail list. The answer was no.

Read full article at The Virginian-Pilot

A reply to the City’s “no” from Inside Suffolk Virginia.

I’d love to hear more from both sides. I hope this one makes national news (or blogosphere).

Related posts on local blogs:

• Suffolk denying bloggers press releases
• Suffolk won’t release press releases to blogger
• The “New Media” apparently isn’t in Suffolk and Portsmouth Virginia

Much to my surprise, it looks near impossible to buy Act II Caramel Popcorn online. I found one source for Orville Redenbacher’s Caramel Popcorn via Amazon.com, but it’s too expensive. I’m just going to have to watch the sales at Kroger and stock up on Orville.

Wal-Mart was the only seller of Act II Caramel Popcorn around here, and they stopped carrying it a few months ago. The nice thing about Act II was that their box had 3 bags, whereas Orville’s has 2. Still, a good sale will make it worth it. And yes, Kroger is the only seller of Orville’s Caramel around here.

Both brands are by ConAgra foods, so I suspect there’s little difference. Orville’s probably use different popcorn, but the caramel wafer is the same.

I tried looking up caramel popcorn recipes, but most look too hard — i.e., take too long. I’m an instant gratifaction sort of girl when it comes to caramel. This one looks to be the easiest, but it doesn’t call for vanilla, corn or maple syrup, or baking soda like other recipes did. I’m loathe to try it because of that — just doesn’t sound as tasty.

BIG ouch.

Not only is it a bad branding move, it’s a bad design. Another application of a vague symbol which seems to be the hallmark of modern branding. Is that yellow thing:

• an asterisk,
• a sun,
• the light indicating this checkout lane is open,
• a right turn signal,
• a popped balloon,
• the stain left when I squashed a spider on my wall, or
• an ancient ice cream cone version of Stonehenge?

Head to The Origin of Brands blog for a great review.