Support Education
This is the fifth in a series of 10 posts about different aspects of CEO branding. At every level, the future of America depends on raising the educational level of the whole population. Gone are the mass-production jobs that allowed low-skilled people to get work in a factory operating a machine and earn a pretty [...]
A Lost Generation?
As the 10th anniversary of Sept. 11 approaches, we remember those who died, we try to give voice to the collective emotions we felt then and still carry today, and we consider how the decade since the attacks has shaped us. But it is especially enlightening to realize what it all means to today’s 20-somethings, [...]
On Thumbs-upmanship
Originally posted on the Huffington Post. I recently spotted a stat on Ad Age about how today’s millennials (68 percent of them) ask friends for their opinion before they try a restaurant. I’ve done a lot of research on the Y set and know they are very codependent (why do anything solo except perhaps an [...]
Where Is the Value in a Four-Year Education?
Originally posted on the Huffington Post. I just want to say one word to you. Just one word. Value. Okay, that wasn’t exactly how it went. But just as our view of plastics has changed significantly since the era of The Graduate, the American dream of the 1960s—marriage, a family, a house in the suburbs [...]
Tina Brown’s New (Old) Venture
On Monday, the new, redesigned version of Newsweek, the first with Tina Brown’s editor-in-chief stamp on it, debuted on newsstands. On NPR this week, Brown talked about how her career has come full circle, saying, “It was ironic, because I had abandoned print, having spent a life in print, and gone into the digital world. [...]
Cheryl Tan on Fashion and Food
It’s New York Mercedes-Benz Fashion Week, and around this time in previous years you could usually find fashion writer Cheryl Tan sifting through many invitations to runway shows at her desks at InStyle or The Wall Street Journal and updating her Facebook status about where she was and what she was seeing. Since leaving her [...]
Tapping Minitrends
This is the 11th in a series of 12 posts expounding on the 2011 forecasts in the annual trends report from Salzman, president of Euro RSCG Worldwide PR and an internationally respected trendspotter. How does a trend get legs? Some trends start small and grow elephantine as if by force of nature, like the rise [...]
Elizabeth Edwards, They Hardly Knew You
Not even in death can Elizabeth Edwards escape the label of a woman wronged by a philandering husband. In the tributes and obituaries published since her passing this week, major media outlets continually define Edwards through her husband’s actions, despite her long list of personal accomplishments. The New York Times spent 40 words describing Edwards [...]
Booting Up
This is the fifth in a series of 12 posts expounding on the 2011 forecasts in the annual trends report from Salzman, president of Euro RSCG Worldwide PR and an internationally respected trendspotter. Watch out in 2011 for the return of skin-thickening boot camps to toughen up kids and employees for the rigors of the [...]
To Stay Connected…or Not to Stay Connected?
I’ve recently returned from parents’ weekend at Penn State University, where my oldest daughter is a freshman. In the seven weeks since she left home, we’ve Skyped a few times, texted and had the occasional phone call. (The phone calls generally come at random times as she’s crisscrossing the massive campus.) I’ve tried mightily to [...]
Time to Rethink the American Dream?
This week, discouraging news was released about new-home sales in May: The number plummeted 33 percent from April. Now that the government-sponsored $8,000 tax credit for new homebuyers has expired, it seems potential purchasers have cooled their heels on what used to be the staple of the American Dream. Occasional special credits and longstanding “permanent” [...]
