Fritinancy

New from me on Medium: Do we [heart] New York?

Yes, I’ve been MIA this week, but I have an excuse, or at least a story: I’ve been working on a piece for Medium about the new “We ❤️ NYC” campaign, unveiled on March 20.

Read it here: The [Heart] of the Matter.

That’s a friend link that will bypass the paywall; if you’d like to join Medium (so many benefits!), please use this referral link.

And here’s a blog bonus: I spotted this variation on “We ❤️ X” in a San Francisco Muni bus earlier this week.

We ❤️ Muni Operators, with a QR code inside the ❤️

 

Could this be the most productive snowclone in history?

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Thanks to T. Kent Jones, James I. Bowie, and Erin O’Connor for inspiration and data.

 

Going negative

Is it ever smart to choose a negative tagline? Some brands say “Positively yes!” Discover which ones, and how they went negative, in my latest story for Medium: “The Sneaky Power of a Negative Tagline.” Don’t forget to clap!

"Forsake your namesake"

Let the record show that I consume neither whisky (as it’s spelled in Scotland and Canada) nor whiskey (Ireland and the U.S.) and that, as fond as I am of my Irish and Irish-American friends, I am not a fan of St. Patrick’s Day, which in San Francisco, at least, might as well be called St. Inebriate’s Day. 

Still, for some reason I’ve been targeted on New Twitter by a promotion for Bushmills USA, the Jersey City arm of Old Bushmills Distillery of County Antrim, Northern Ireland. And the ad has been breaking my head.

Word of the week: Elevated

Suddenly, it seems, elevated is everywhere all at once.

New from me on Medium: All about Oscar

How did that gold-plated statuette get its name? I dive into the theories—is “Oscar” industry jargon for “oscillation”?—and pick a favorite, just in time for the 95th Academy Awards ceremony on March 12.

Read All about Oscar (friend link)