idea{logg}

getting into the motherhood

It's a show so simple in concept you wish you'd thought of it yourself.

Get moms to write in about their wackiest real life experiences and have funny girls Chelsea Handler, Jenny McCarthy, and Leah Remini act out a weekly favorite.

The result, InTheMotherhood.com is *BRILLIANT!*

The show/website's ability to harness corporate sponsorships through Suave and Sprint is destined to be a huge trend in on line media - somewhat akin to soap company sponsorships of daytime dramas way back before Erica Kane married her 12th husband (shameless All My Children humor). 

In The Motherhood has attracted more than 1000 stories posted each week, and the site has become one of the top mom themed destinations on the web. 

The wickedly funny show has gone through two "seasons" and has attracted more than 21 million views.  Webisodes are between 5 and 6 minutes in length and are viewable on suave.com, sprint.com and the Sprint Exclusive Entertainment (SEE) network, which allows mobile access to the content on select video-enabled Sprint phones.

Both Sprint and Suave have strong marketing efforts focused on moms.  

"In the Motherhood creates a unique platform to allow moms to share their stories with millions of other women. Our customers love the show, and our phones and services are the perfect fit to help mothers stay connected," said Anita Bajaj Newton, vice president, media and digital, Sprint in a recent press release.

“[Suave] is on a mission to help Mom remember the person she often forgets—herself, and to make herself and her beauty a priority again,” said Piyush Jain, Suave senior brand manager of her company's sponsorship of the show. 

MindShare Entertainment, a unit of the media services agency MindShare, developed the series about 20 months ago.  It’s a new world out there,” David Lang, the president of MindShare Entertainment, said. “It goes to show that great ideas and great creativity can come from anywhere.”

Mr. Lang said the online campaign was intended to reach busy mothers who use the Web to decompress and share stories. “The content is very honest and authentic for moms,” he said. “It’s not tied with a bow, it’s not saccharine sweet.” It shows grocery store tantrums, vacation mishaps, and other scenarios inspired by true stories submitted by Web users.

The show is now being developed for ABC, and I hope the broadcast version retains the edge and silliness of the net version, which strikes me as a vehicle more appropriate for HBO to sink their teeth into.  Certainly by making this into a network show it removes the interactivity that moms enjoy so much about the concept and transforms it into something else.  But lets wait and watch before kvetching!

For a taste, watch this episode below.  I have more episodes on my vodpod in the right hand column of this blog.

In The Motherhood Grocery Disaster - The funniest home videos are here

Want to instantly feel better about yourself? Watch this show ...

If for some reason you feel as though your life isn't going as well as you had planned, or that your parenting skills aren't up to snuff, or if you don't have a child and all those pics of Marcia Cross and Angelina Jolie with their adorable babies are getting you down, watch The Baby Borrowers tonight on NBC.

The producers of this show were truly inspired when they created this slice of pop culture.  Watch as the kids demonstrate over and over again why people in their teens (at least the ones on this show) aren't mentally or emotionally equipped to care for babies.  Be careful - you may be so disturbed that you won't trust the baby sitter any longer.  Thankfully the parents watch every moment from remote cameras, but the teens will still make you cringe.  Watch this clip for a preview.   

...driving the economy one lolipop at a time...

Guess what's recession proof these days?  Markets that are driven by people who don't know what the word recession means (that alone should tell us something about attitude).   

Earlier in the week we saw how the infant and young kid's clothing market is on an up-tick.  And now, goodies with sugar as a main ingredient are the new *it* item. 

(Which kinda makes it ironic that the company United States Sugar just sold a 187,000 acres and two refineries in Florida to the Federal Government recently in a land conservation deal - but that's seriously beside the point).

In terms of market trends, Mars,   recently bought out Wrigley's in an $80/share cash deal.  This makes it the largest confectionery company in the world - the buyout was financed by uber business trend harbinger, and official richest man in the world, Warren Buffet in April.  “Those of you who know me, know that I have been a big fan of Wrigley’s business model for many years, and I love their products,” Mr. Buffett said in a statement. 

Globally, the confectionery market grew 44 percent from 2002 to 2007, and my guess is that will continue to rise in not only candy, but well-branded lines of baked goods.  (See Bethanny Bakes launch and the surge of Sprinkles Cupcakes popping up all over).

So what's the upshot of this?  Markets driven by young children are hot!  Places like Dylan's Candy Bar and Sprinkles are where the new *in* crowd hangs.   

For more insight, check out Peter Alexander's report from the Today Show.

Los Angeles Times shines spotlight on kid's clothing trends.

The Los Angeles Times ran a story over the weekend spotlighting trends in the kid's clothing industry.

Naturally, it being based in Los Angeles, the article had a decided celebrity slant.

The article, written by Emili Vesilind, details how some parents style their children based on the much photographed mini-duds of celebrity kids like Kingston Stefani and Suri Cruise.

Of hard sales numbers the paper reports:  "...while women's national apparel sales have followed the economy downward, kids' clothing sales have dipped less profoundly, according to retail research company NDP Group. And sales for infant-toddler clothes are the only clothing sector that's significantly up, from $14.7 million in March and April 2007 to $15.3 million in the same period this year".

It's a fun piece with a great slide show of kid's looks pulled from a variety of companies.   I was quite surprised to read that Suri Cruise actually had a pair of custom Christian Louboutin shoes made for her recently.

The Katie Couric Channel

If you haven't discovered it yet, be sure to visit Katie Couric's channel on YouTube.  Above is a behind the scenes video of Katie visiting the Today Show, Good Morning America, and the Early Show to launch Stand Up for Cancer. 

There's also an interesting video of Katie meeting with a group of mom bloggers, and one of her interviewing John McCain and his mother.  Great stuff!

Petunia reaches out to the children of Haiti

Twice a year, our client Petunia Pickle Bottom, holds an incredible Outlet Sale of Certified Seconds and Discontinued Classics from their line of gorgeous diaper bags.  A portion of the proceeds from each sale is earmarked for donation to local and global children’s Charity groups.

This year, the Petunia sale was so successful that the company was able to donate more than $6,500 to the remarkable Hands & Feet Project. 

Hands & Feet is a non-profit children's village located in Jacmel, Haiti.  The project's mission it is to care for the many children orphaned by political violence and disease in that country. 

Korie Conant of Petunia relates,“We met with Hands and Feet co-founder Mark Stuart and were impressed with how he and his organization are truly making a difference. Each orphan at the Hands & Feet project is given a new life with medical attention, education, and a nurturing environment. We are honored that we might have a hand in changing a child’s life for the better through our donation.”

The Hands & Feet Project started in 2004 with only a parcel of land and a passion to make a difference.  Mark Stuart and his band Audio Adrenaline embarked on the construction of facilities to care for the physical, emotional and spiritual needs of orphans in Haiti.  Hands & Feet now cares for more than 34 children, from 2-months to 9-years old and has plans to open another home in Nicaragua. By connecting world-renowned bands with each new site opening, the goal of Hands & Feet is to promote a call for help by utilizing the influence of pop culture to bring about awareness, compassion and aid to children in need around the world.

Sarah Jessica's hat debuts in London

Sarah Jessica Parker and her amazing Philip Treacy hat made their debut in London yesterday.  As you can see in this photo, the duo were all the rage, signing autographs and posing for cameras.  Love it or hate it, the hat made a grand statement about embracing British fashion - as well as their love of the unusual photo-op (see Bodacious Book Launch, & Foodie Photo Call. 

It also most likely gave Philip Treacy exposure like never before as those of us across the pond got a taste of his work.  Read more about SJP and her recent fashion statements on Bloomacious.com.

Schweppe's is bursting; Adida's is Pink

I came across Debbie Millman's very intriguing eponymously named blog this morning and was really knocked out by these two promotional video/ads from Schweppes's and Adidas.  Millman, who is the President of the Design division at Sterling Brands, a brand identity firm in New York, is also a gifted painter.  Her work, and the art of others makes the site interesting and a breath of fresh air.   

Naturally I love the creativity of these videos, the way they get you to think about their products in a new light.  They lift the notion of viral video to a new level and put art into pop culture without being too esoteric.   

Branding in a Fishbowl: Makeup artists step up

This article, It's Your Makeup Artist's Autograph I Want, in the New York Times caught my eye.

The story, about the growing celebrity of makeup artists, demonstrates that we're long past Andy Warhol's maxim of everyone having 15 minutes of personal fame... (it's up to at least a half an hour at this point).  This is the era of the personal brand, where the personalities of the people behind the products are just as integral to the marketing of a brand as the product itself. 

Now, it's unclear whether the trend discussed in this story is really a New York and Los Angeles phenomenon, and if women in Kansas and Ohio are also focused in on the doings of Pat McGrath (shown here with a model), but it does further the notion of promoting personality.  With all the blogs, websites, pod-casts and video stations devoted to the minutia of every market segment (cosmetics being carefully documented with each product roll-out and spokes-model hiring) it's easy to see the wave of things to come.   

As a publicist working with consumer brands like beauty, and baby, I have always felt that product comes first.  Package design, market positioning, and product performance are keys to successful branding - however in this day and age a charismatic CEO helps the effort immensely.   Blame it on the paparazzi and our fascination with the doings of celebrities when they're off the clock.  It's gotten to the point that even snaps of Jennifer Aniston at the grocery store have grown tedious.  We now want insight into everyone's personal lives ... there's more and more swimmers inside the fishbowl and fewer of us benignly watching from a safe distance.  Fantastic looks aren't a requirement as they were some years ago for getting ink and airtime.  Being knowledgeable, speaking well on camera, and the ability to tell a joke go just as far these days.

Call it hyper-market-democratization, Fishbowl Marketing, or Deep Branding....it sure livens things up!   

Hire a publicist - yes! Hire your own paparazzi? Hummm...

Ever look at those paparazzi shots of Britney and Paris and say "hey I'd love it if someone was following me around documenting my every move!"?

Well as the Today Show reports, now you can!  And to be perfectly honest, most of us know that while many of those "surprise" paparazzi shots we see in the magazines may look candid, many are very much staged. 

Celebrity Sighting: Nicole Richie, Joel Madden and Harlow in Orbit with Harlow

Naturally we were super thrilled when Nicole Richie mentioned how much she loves her Orbit Infant System last week in People Magazine. 

Now, images of the couple with their Orbit have cropped up on celebrity blogs and websites like daffodils in the Spring. 

On PopSugar, we hear that Nicole's cover story sold more than 1.8 million copies. 

Well loved and read CelebrityBabyScoop.com is also covering the story.

On Babble.com, FameCrawler ponders who will win the battle of the baby cover features, with J Lo expected to be featured soon.

E! covered the story in yesterday's photo gallery.

Growingyourbaby.com also did a nice post about the couple.   

Avril Lavigne and the tale of the diaper bag shopping spree

E! News is reporting that Avril Lavigne spent the day on monday with hubbie Deryck Whibley shopping for diaper bags.  And while it sounds like she picked up quite a few throughout the day, we want to point out that the super great Scout Bag that the couple picked out from Petit Tresor works equally as well for general computer and gadget toting as for diaper toting.

The Scout Bag from Petunia is a very dashing men's diaper bag that comes in either black or brown leather (Rubicon Rucksack), or green or gray heathered felt (Journey Pack).

Uber celebrity gossip columnist, Marc Malkin posits the idea that perhaps the angst filled singer was merely shopping for a friend.  Imagine!

Lavigne and Whibley have been dogged by pregnancy rumors for several weeks now. 

mid-life chocohologie

I've been musing over this NYT's Modern Love essay for the past couple days.

The article, entitled "A Valley of Misery between peaks of Joy" discusses the happiness arc of people around the world.

To paraphrase the article:

"...researchers had compiled data on two million people from around the world and determined that the average earthling’s happiness chart was in the shape of a U, with the trough representing the decades-long downer of middle age and the narrow tips being twin emotional highs of youth and old age.......when it comes to tales from my fellow mid-lifers, I most often find myself reading about regret and claustrophobia, fantasies surreptitiously indulged, old flames cyberstalked...."

Come on now, really?  My Mother always told me that life begins at 40, but I believe it doesn't get going these days till 50.  Personally, my 20's were a continuous scramble to come up with rent money while trying to get through college, internships, and an insatiable appetite for going to clubs.  (My excuse is the scientific fact that human brains aren't fully developed until late 20's). That was no happiness peak for me...

So who are these miserable mid-lifers?  Oh, naturally, the ones trapped in bad, or at least boring, marriages the article goes on.  Which leads me to a point I'd like to make, tomorrow being Valentine's Day and all.   When the temptation to stay in a bad relationship gnaws at you, with the rationale that being alone on Valentine's Day is somehow worse than being with someone that's really not right for you, shake yourself out of it.  Think of the day as a celebration of avoiding regret and claustrophobia....

A lovely box of chocolates from the world famous Knipschildt Chocolatier and a copy of the visually indulgent Marie Antoinette is a great way to enjoy V-day, with or without a significant other. 

BTW, this Fritz Knipschildt Chocolatier fellow makes his chocolates much as they do in the film Chocolat, (another great V-day film) with spices, ginger, chile peppers, and if you want to spend the big bucks, real truffles (those are a $250 a bite treat that topped Forbes most expensive chocolate list recently).

His little works of art can be found at Dean & Deluca, Whole Foods, Balducci's and online.

Knipschildt also operates Chocopologie, a chocolate cafe (!!!!) and retail store in Norwalk, Connecticut.  Are you serious???  Sounds like my new second home and a place that will be very busy tomorrow.

BTW - the New York Times Modern Love is hosting a college essay contest that looks exciting.  All you 20 something kids working your way through your first happiness peak should get your 2000 words in before your decades long mid-life crisis sets in.