Rohit Bhargava's Blog, page 54

The Non-Obvious Insights Show – Episode #232

In this episode, we talk about …

Why the Republican National Convention was a flop (read the full article)
The biggest secret about competing on Masterchef
How magic helps introduce pioneering technology
Empathetic cars that can cure your road rage
The debate about whether New York is dead forever
Why your next health screening may be via selfie
An ancient species that will haunt your dreams
A new survey that says Generation X has lost hope for the future
And another selection for my Non-Obviou...

8 Things You Can Learn From Both U.S. Political Conventions About Persuasion

Over the past two weeks, I actively watched both the Republican and Democratic Political Conventions and actively ignored the mostly useless commentary from cable news political pundits. My aim was to hear and experience the original talks and segments from both conventions without the biased real-time analysis. I was watching not only the live and pre-recorded talks, but also the structure of each of the events, who spoke, how the pieces were integrated and what the overall experience was.

Th...

Branding Lessons From the Shady History of the Oreo Cookie

I love a good branding story and the history of the Oreo cookie has plenty of fascinating hooks. The story starts with two feuding brothers, Joseph and Jacob Loose, who ran competing bakeries that came up with two cookies that were essentially the same: the Hydrox and the Oreo. For years the Hydrox dominated, until the 1950s when the brand Hydrox began to sound like many cleaning supplies on the market while the Oreo made two big strategic choices that propelled it to become “milk’s favorite coo...

The Non-Obvious Insights Show – Episode #231

In this episode, we talk about …

Lessons in humble creativity from the best small agency in America
Transparent toilets and they might actually work
A stunning VR expose of factory farms filmed by an activist group
Apple seeing challenges to their monopoly from Fortnite and others
Time crystals and why they aren’t as cool as they sound … yet
Insights about female voting patterns over the past 100 years
Teacher shortages and how to rethink education in a pandemic
A curious new database of recipe...

How Japan’s “Culture of Cute” Traps Japanese Women

Last year I went to Japan for the first time and experienced the inescapable presence of “Kawaii” culture. It is a word that describes the overwhelming cuteness of icons, mascots and media that focus on pastel colors, large rounded imagery and anime characters with big eyes and (often) short skirts. In many cases, it overlaps with how women are portrayed in Japan – a fact that writer Alyssa Pearl Fusek writes critically about in this article. Here’s an excerpt:

“There is “weakness,” “transience,...

Non-Obvious Insights Show – Episode #230

Stories featured on the show this week:

One thing that could eliminate fake news
How Japan’s “culture of cute” traps women
An inside look at how Iceland beat coronavirus
Branding lessons from the shady history of the Oreo
The 17th century technique for selling during a pandemic
A sad new documentary about a surprising new ocean species
Plus, another selection for the Non-Obvious Book Release of the Week!

Stories mentioned this week:

Why Jonathan Swan’s Interview With President Trump Is So Goo...

Problemshifting and the Myth of Food Shortages

Every few months, there are stories about an impending food crisis. From the death of the humble banana, to the loss of fertile farming land to doomsday stories of outbreaks at food production plants, there are plenty of things to be afraid of. Yet the truth, proven by facts and data, is that the world is growing more than enough food to feed all of us, it’s just in the wrong places, too expensive or inaccessible. Rather than worrying about not having enough food, a segment from NPR this week po...

Watch Netflix Content Faster or Slower on Your Mobile Device

I spend a lot of time writing my books. For Non-Obvious Megatrends, my team of editors and I went through fourteen rounds of editing and obsessed over every word in every section to share the insights as succinctly as possible without losing the nuance of all the research we had amassed from ten years of collecting trend insights. Despite all that effort, I know that the vast majority of people who bought the book will only ever skim it or read part of it.

While I always hope they read more, I k...

Coca-Cola Imagines the Future of Refreshment with “Coca-Cola Coffee”

I spent four years in a place that acclimatizes you to believe there is nothing strange about having a Diet Coke for Breakfast. I’m speaking, of course, of my time living in Atlanta doing an Undergraduate degree at Emory University which is sometimes known, thanks to it’s large endowment from the brand, as “Coca-Cola University.” Yet this habit of drinking a can of Coke at breakfast or lunch or really anytime apart from maybe while having popcorn in a movie theater is never really a choice I und...

Why More People Should Skip the Hustle and Take the Paycheck

Hollywood and just about any other creative industry is filled with success stories of people to took big risks to find that “performance of a lifetime.” To some degree, these are what make awards like the Oscars so watchable. That actor who lost (or gained) 50 pounds in service of a great role, or the one who continually reinvented herself for each new character is celebrated. What about the actor who stays in the same role for two decades, without continually seeking something better?

There ar...