David Lidsky's Blog, page 4582

Eye Candy: Nike's World Cup "Stadium"

Maybe Adidas is winning the buzz war with Nike during this summer's Wold Cup. But Nike certainly is trying, with everything from an interactive skyscraper projection to a World Cup pop up "Stadium" installed on New York's Lower East Side.

Stadium NYC, designed by architect Rafael de Cárdenas, is a temporary space that will stay up through the fall. The walls and furniture are made of humble peg board. Seating comes from "modular cells," whose form is echoed by the flashy, florescent...

PG&E Takes Stand Against Anti-Global Warming Bill

Pacific Gas & Electric has the distinction of being both reviled and beloved by clean energy enthusiasts. The San Francisco-based utility generated ill will recently when it tried (and failed) to push through Proposition 16, a measure that would have required two-thirds majority support from voters before local governments could create or grow municipal utilities (read: PG&E didn't want any competition from solar-happy municipalities).

Now PG&E is cozying up with the same environmentalists...

Boy Scouts Updating with New Merit Badges, Including Invention

The Boy Scouts of America do good, we all know that. And now they do invention. The 100-year-old organization--it celebrated its centenary on Feb 8 of this year--has teamed up with MIT's Lemelson program, founded by the father of modern invention in America, Jerome H. Lemelson, to provide a new merit badge: that of invention. Sounds like a subtle rebrand to me--and if rebranding is good enough for the BSA's sisters, then it's good enough for them.

As well as providing the chance for scouts to...

How Much Is Bogusky Worth to MDC?

Is Crispin Porter + Bogusky a small source of profit for MDC, or a large one? After reading my article from yesterday (Why MDC Will Never Love an Ad Man Like It Loved Alex Bogusky), MDC CEO Miles Nadal e-mailed to dispute figures I'd been given by Deutsche Bank analyst Matt Chesler.

Nadal says that CP+B represents between 25% and 28% of his company's profits (and revenues, which we never commented on). When I called Chesler to clarify, he lowered his original number from 75% to between 50...

Prince Claims Internet Is Dead, Lady Gaga Disproves It

Yesterday Lady Gaga hit 11 million followers on her Facebook page (congratulations, number 11,000,001, you get a two-minute shopping cart dash round her wardrobe.) Stefani Joanne Angelina Germanotta, as she is known to her Mom and Dad, is not the first artist who uses social media and the Internet to push her product to consumers, but she's the consumate performer of the medium. So it's worth comparing her to Prince, who yesterday proclaimed the Internet to be "dead."

Rumors of the Internet's...

Infographic of the Day: PTSD's Grim Toll At Home

It's no secret that post-traumatic stress disorder has ravaged the lives of troops returning from the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, in ways that range from subtle to catastrophic. But there may be no more stark example of the disease's effects than the violent crimes committed by soldiers returning home, which is the subject a documentary, War Crimes, which airs tonight on Current TV at 10pm.

Coinciding with the show, GOOD and MGMT.design have created an infographic of the 43 murders...

Wanted: Digital Bath Faucets For Just-Right Water, Every Time

A design that Goldilocks and treehuggers can both love.

Twitter Enters E-Commerce Space with Sales Offer System, 'Earlybird'

Twitter, which once had everybody and their dog wondering how it was going to make money, seems to be doing okay at last. Better than okay, probably: It's just announced a new scheme for e-commerce dubbed "earlybird." 

The idea as Twitter's blog explains it: "@earlybird Exclusive Offers are special time-bound deals, sneak-peeks, and events that are promoted by the official Twitter @earlybird account". Which means that Twitter's opening a very simple e-store that has a single advertising...

Renault Unveils the Ultra-Slick DeZir Gullwing Coupe EV

Watch out Tesla, Fisker, and Mercedes-Benz. French automaker Renault is angling for a share of the luxury electric vehicle market with the DeZir coupe, an electric two-seater concept car with a Kevlar body and tubular steel frame.

The vehicle, set to make its official debut at the Paris auto show in October, has a top speed of 112 mph, and a range of 100 miles. DeZir also has 150 horsepower, and 167 lb-ft of torque--not all that impressive, but the lightweight vehicle can zoom to 62mph in...

UPS Expands Carbon Offsetting Program Internationally, But Does It Make Sense?

UPS recently became the first small package carrier to offer carbon offsets to customers. Now the shipping company is upping the ante by expanding its carbon neutral shipping program internationally to over 35 countries. The service is cheap, ranging from 5 cents to 75 cents, and easy, too--it requires customers to just check a box during the online shipping process. But does it make sense?

UPS claims that its carbon offsets take all steps of the shipping process into account, including air...