Do People Make Places?
[Originally posted on Forbes.com.] In our ever more digitized and virtual world, the centers of power are shifting. It’s not about establishment capitals anymore but innovative up-and-comers, where a critical mass of creativity is bringing about rapid-fire change, along with a good quality of life and a sense of like-minded community. Some cities have been [...]
Fearing Fear Itself
[Originally posted on the Huffington Post.] In this election year, I’ve been on fear watch. Folks are fearful of everything from 2012 theories to GMOs to student loans taking over as the No. 1 source of pain for college grads everywhere. A few years ago, I talked at length about the cult of anger our [...]
Is Mark Zuckerberg Today’s Country Joe?
Originally posted on Euro RSCG Worldwide’s Prosumer Report microsite. In recent months, Euro RSCG has commented on how the revolution is not just being televised, but tweeted about, updated on Facebook, and uploaded to YouTube. In our trends preview for 2011, I touched on the new face of anger and how most of us are [...]
Power from the People
Originally posted on the Huffington Post. Look at the American political landscape today and you might begin to get the sinking feeling that the red state/blue state dichotomy is, on the one hand, just a bit of political show and, on the other, a pitiable piece of naiveté. We have to admit that if we [...]
Why Purple Will Be the New Blue
Originally posted on the Huffington Post. Ten years ago, I predicted that blue would be the new green. When I released my annual trends forecast for 2000, I pointed to the power of Millennium Blue. I meant it figuratively—our concern with all things environmental would morph into heightened awareness about the world’s water supply (and, [...]
The Mind and Mood of Connecticut
This is the sixth in a series of six. When Euro RSCG Worldwide PR and Euro RSCG Life decided to put a finger on the pulse of the nation, we commissioned two surveys: one of the United States in general, and one of Connecticut. Connecticut is one of the strangest states in the Union—precisely because [...]
Where Does the Future Lie?
This is the fifth in a series of six. When Barack Obama swept into power, he promised the American people change. Consciously or not, Americans are experiencing a wholesale change, even if its sources are not the landmark legislation and brand-new institutional ideas that, some believed, would quickly usher in a new era. Although there [...]
Social Media in America
This is the fourth in a series of six. During the protracted health-care debate, it quickly became clear that the media put a premium on accessing information: Even C-SPAN, the cable industry’s nonstop outlet for televised government affairs, had to challenge the Obama administration to open the doors to the process. In the meantime, Americans [...]
American Politics: Back on the Couch
This is the second in a series of six. “If cousin Pookie would vote, get off the couch and register some folks and go to the polls, we might have a different kind of politics.” So said candidate Barack Obama in a 2007 speech. It was this quintessential message about activism that helped send him [...]
In Health Care, Is Transparency Enough?
In his recent live exchange with Republican lawmakers, President Obama was criticized for failing to follow through on his promise to make the debate over health-care reform transparent by televising negotiations on C-SPAN. Though he did admit it was a “legitimate criticism,” President Obama also pointed out some of the logistical hurdles that can arise with efforts [...]
Rethinking the Presidency
Originally posted on the Huffington Post. President Obama’s latest poll numbers may be decent—a New York Times/CBS News poll found that he has higher approval ratings than the GOP, and that more Americans blame Congress, George W. Bush and Wall Street for our problems than they do him—but we hoped for better than decent from [...]
Generation Real-Time
Originally posted on the Huffington Post. A few years ago I was publicly fretting over the arrival of millennials—young people in the generation after X—in the workplace. I described how these new adults would bring with them a sense of entitlement, a need for constant praise, a habit of multitasking to the point of distraction [...]
Walk Black, Talk White?
After watching Disney’s first black princess waltz across the big screen in The Princess and the Frogover the weekend, I couldn’t help but realize that while the bayou’s rich flavor comes through in both the songs and dialect of the characters onscreen, there was little reference to or acknowledgement of Princess Tiana’s race aside from her [...]
Change We Can Believe In?
If I had to pick a single symbol of American politics in 2010, it would be the Tea Party, the movement of vitriolic conservative protests that started on tax day last year. Inspired by the Boston Tea Party (“no taxation without representation”), it criticizes big government, the stimulus package, increases in the national debt and [...]
Is Connecticut the New Illinois?
A little over a year ago, I was arguing that Illinois was the new trend capital. Trendspotters like me had looked at New York and L.A. to death, and the time had come to look at the Midwest. Illinois is, after all, the state that gave us Oprah and Obama. Its residents ranked high in donating [...]
Reflecting on the Aughts
As marketers and trend watchers, we like to name things. But this decade was a tough one to label. Commentators dithered for years about what to call it—the ohs, the zeros—but by the end of this year, a dominant name had emerged: the Aughts, a reflection of many people’s feeling that we accomplished little. (The [...]
Copenhagen: A Missed Opportunity for the Planet
Copenhagen was a failure. Despite going into it with fairly measured expectations, the agreement, or lack of it, is a massive disappointment and a costly missed opportunity for the planet. What we needed from the Copenhagen summit was a global, binding and fair climate agreement, and we came out of it with none of those [...]
What the Future Holds
We approach next year having lived through the worst economic meltdown since the crash of the 1930s and are now navigating the waves that this has sent through every aspect of life—social, political, ecological. One phenomenon will weave through all of them: social media. It will be the greatest driver of all trends worldwide next [...]
Obama’s First Anniversary
Today is the first Election Day since Obama’s tremendous victory last November. This time, his own office isn’t in question, but he’s still campaigning. He has been stumping and fundraising for candidates from Virginia to Connecticut, while burnishing his own brand. His most important theme is hope (the term is a Clintonism, but Obama has [...]
Mr. Obama Goes to Connecticut
Last Friday night I went to see President Obama speak in Stamford, Conn. He was there for a fundraiser for Sen. Chris Dodd, but that’s not why I went. I wanted to hear the president speak because I believe the business of public relations professionals is campaigns—and who better to teach the art of campaigning? [...]
When Is Local Too Local?
creativecommons.org/by unhindered by talentEarlier this week I read an article in The Advocate of Stamford, Conn., about a mayoral candidate describing his plans to bolster funding for the police force. He said he wants to develop SWAT teams and hostage negotiators, then referred to several major corporate offices in Stamford and said, “I think we’re [...]
Losing the Gold
creativecommons.org/by b0janglesAnd the silver and the bronze. Like most Americans, I was stunned that Chicago didn’t even finish in the top three for the 2016 Summer Olympics. The city was knocked out in the first round with only 18 of 94 votes. It makes me wonder, What will this mean for American bravado? Chicago’s loss [...]
Is the News Cooling Off?
Back in August, it seemed the only thing hotter than New York City was the news. All summer, hard news and pop culture blurred—what was a hotter global story lately than the death of Michael Jackson, the King of Pop? Our culture has even turned journalists into pop personalities, speculating on their love lives and [...]
What Happened to the Political Media Revolution?
creativecommons.org/by the breakthroughI blogged back in July about how one of the biggest winners at the 2009 Cannes Lions International Advertising Festival was a brand the whole world has quickly grown to love: Barack Obama. Actually, it was his presidential campaign, headed by strategist David Plouffe, that won two major awards. He received the Cannes [...]
