A few things that I’ve seen in the news lately that I wanted to call attention to:

Here in tranquil New England, there’s apparently a problem with t-shirts illustrating Sesame Street characters as gangsters.  What’s really funny about this is that someone came to this blog based on a search for these shirts.  Is nothing sacred?

Dan Brown joked that his book couldn’t undermine the entire Catholic Church.  He may have underestimated the power of the DaVinci code and the marketing juggernaut its become.

You know we’re officially living in the age of electronics when an online game where reality is re-created ends up creating a game that becomes so popular it ends up becoming tangible reality.  Welcome to the Matrix?  Or are we out of it? Even Neo would be confused by this.

In a much more basic down-to-earth story, USA Today tells the tale of how "premium beers" are declining and how some companies are trying to counter it with new marketing.  I use the quotation marks around premium beer not because I’m quoting the article, but because I think the funniest part of this article is that they think that Budweiser and MGD are premium beers.  Funny, or horrifying – one of the two.

Speaking of beer, I hope I get an update on this in a few months, but apparently Budweiser is going to be sold at the soccer World Cup in Germany, and the Krauts aren’t none too happy.  I can’t blame them!  I hope they all drink Riesling instead.

I’m not sure what to say about this, other than I think that "My Bling Bling" is the funniest name for anything I’ve ever heard.  Do you think that Barbie and Bratz are gonna rumble or what?  My money is on Barbie, since I think she’s a mean bitch deep down inside and is really pissed off over having no room for a stomach or intestinal tract in her body for 50 years.

Apple hooked up with Nike to introduce a neat bit of technology that targets those who use their iPods while exercising.  In a counter move of sorts, Bill Gates finally gets fed up not controlling 100% of an electronics market and is gonna do his own thing with MTV using Windows Media Player.   Let’s hope they stabilize WMP and make it a bit – no, A LOT – more intuitive to use before they take over the world.

Who says innovation is dead?  Here’s a company who wants to trademark the smell of pizza.  Umm… In Lithuania.

Another example of how technology has affected not only marketing but everyday life.  I think it is ironic that a show called "24" that has everything happening in real-time ends up being the TV show that is watched time-delayed most often.

Last but not least…  HEY! Nas declared hip-hop dead.  Has he been reading my blog?

I haven’t been around much to do much blogging, but as I have a fairly quiet couple of weeks coming up, I’m hoping that I can make up for lost time.   To begin with, I wanted to a share a few interesting links I came across recently.

Google launched Google Trends, which is simply fun rather than useful for most people.  My favorite is that the first example they give is "Red Sox, Yankees."

For my birthday a few weeks ago I was given a mesquite flavored cologne, which drew a good laugh out of everyone.  Little did we know that the perfume manufacturers of the world were dreaming up Play-Doh brand fragrance.

As a marketer, sometimes you hear about marketing efforts that make you wish you were a part of them.  The other times, you’re glad you’re not, like this debacle for Mission Impossible 3.

Speaking of marketing, Wal-Mart continues its quest to dominate all aspects of our culture, including the smiley face.

Clearly marketing is the true one power in our world today, and musicans are starting to realize it, as they whore themselves out.  Good for them!  Its still better than listening to Britney hawk Pepsi with crappy music.

Barbecue means beer, right?  Of course.  So why not be straight forward about it?

Last but not least: if you need further proof that the world is shrinking and that we are living in a global economy, here it is.