I know as much about marketing as the internet knows about decorum and civility, but that’s exactly why I enjoyed this video – it helped me learn about what a brand is.
Via Daring Fireball
Tag: marketing
All About Lego
And if you’re wondering why Lego, of all things – it is because I and my daughter are learning about Democritus and atoms:
Why is Lego the most ingenious toy in the world?
Gaarder, Jostein. Sophie’s World: A Novel About the History of Philosophy (p. 42). Orion. Kindle Edition
For a start, Sophie was not at all sure she agreed that it was. It was years since she had played with the little plastic blocks. Moreover she could not for the life of her see what Lego could possibly have to do with philosophy.
But she was a dutiful student. Rummaging on the top shelf of her closet, she found a bag full of Lego blocks of all shapes and sizes.
For the first time in ages she began to build with them. As she worked, some ideas began to occur to her about the blocks.
They are easy to assemble, she thought. Even though they are all different, they all fit together. They are also unbreakable. She couldn’t ever remember having seen a broken Lego block. All her blocks looked as bright and new as the day they were bought, many years ago. The best thing about them was that with Lego she could construct any kind of object. And then she could separate the blocks and construct something new.
What more could one ask of a toy? Sophie decided that Lego really could be called the most ingenious toy in the world. But what it had to do with philosophy was beyond her.
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Links for 18th April, 2019
- “According to the Wall Street Journal, Mickey Mouse and his gang (including Minnie, Goofy, Pluto, and Donald Duck) sold $3 billion in merchandise in 2018, a figure that includes both adult and children’s products. Shockingly, that is only about half of what Mickey made in 2004, when Disney heavily pushed out products in celebration of his 75th birthday.”
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The Fast Company on the gift that (literally) keeps on giving for Disney. But you should also read Ben Thompson to understand that this is planned – way back when.
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.. - “American involvement in military and economic capacity building could facilitate or overlap with India’s interests in its neighbourhood – to some extent. Delhi has traditionally been skeptical, if not suspicious, of extra-regional actors’ activities and influence in its neighbourhood. Its resistance to such activity on the part of the U.S. has historically only been tempered when Delhi has had even greater concern about a Chinese presence. Now, with increasing Chinese activity in the region and limited Indian capacity to compete alone, Delhi once again seems more willing to work with – and perhaps begrudgingly accept or welcome greater interest from – partners like Japan and the U.S.”
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A useful article to read to understand Indo-American relations today, and also how to think about these two countries and the Indo-Pacific region in light of the gorilla (or is it the panda) in the room.
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.. - “The world loves meat, but that love puts pressure on the world. The United Nations has estimated that livestock are responsible for 14.5 percent of the greenhouse gas emissions that are trapping heat in the atmosphere. Project Drawdown, a group of scientists pursuing climate solutions, puts the figure at 18 to 20 percent, and some studies have suggested even that’s way too low. In any case, meat is a significant contributor to the climate crisis, and as millions of families in India and China join the meat-eating middle class, its contributions could soar.”
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An interesting article that helps you understand the players (politicians, firms and individuals) involved in the race to produce plant based meat.
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.. - “The report finds 54.4% of girls had access to menstrual hygienic management tools. However, in terms of wealth quintiles, we see massive variation. While 71.6% of the surveyed girls in the upper wealth quintile report access to MHM tools only 42.6% of girls in the lower wealth quintile report similar access. When inquired about reasons for not using MHM tools, about three-fifths of the surveyed girls reported that they couldn’t afford them and since the government does not provide them, they choose to stick to traditional methods.”
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A useful, and interesting survey about the aspirations of teenaged girls in India.
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.. - “Readers today are unlikely to confuse an adolescent with an armload of brushwood used for fences and hedges. Still, the magazine’s copy editors dutifully hyphenate “teen-ager” even as we half-heartedly enforce the ban on “balding”—the editor William Shawn preferred “partly or partially bald”—without knowing exactly what is wrong with it.”
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Grammar nerds and readers or this blog: rejoice.