December 2007 Archives
I love the choice of image in this ad. Y'mean I'm supposed to conserve nature so bears can eat endangered wild salmon?
I just returned from a walking break that passed by this very spot, where I took a moment to think about what this must have looked like after the Civil War. Then I checked my RSS feed when I got back to the hotel and, quel coincidence, got the answer.
While boarding and getting off my planes yesterday, I noticed the walkways festooned with signs for mega-charities. Which somehow reminded me of this quote from last year:
"Advertising is a tax you pay for unremarkable thinking."
Traveling today, typing in front of the MacDonald's by LaGuardia USAirways Gate 5. To the left: a column with an outlet (hooray). To the right: my nifty Belkin retractable cable travel pack, which enabled me to upload this very photo.
Isn't the internet wonderful? My next project is to take a photo of myself every time I chew, and then after five years put them all up on YouTube in a music video.
You have been warned.
"Designed by Zara Traugott & Jodie Varenya Franco, Goddress clothing is perfect for yoga . . . and apres-yoga . . .supporting a sustainable lifestyle! All of our luxe knit fabrics are organic and hand dyed."
Wired News today has a year end feature story on sexy geeks from 2007. Click the link, though, and you'll find an error message informing you that sexy geeks = not found.
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From today's WWD, a description of how licensing Warholia has generated millions of dollars for The Andy Warhol Foundation, which in turn gives money to artists and funds The Andy Warhol Museum:
Started in 1987, the nonprofit foundation has given out more than $200 million in grants — both through cash and art. According to Hermann, this year the organization will donate $11 million to other art organizations through art sales, investments and endowments. Last year, Warhol's licenses generated more than $2 million. Previous partnerships include Burton snowboard apparel, Levi's, Seiko and Royal Elastics footwear by Gwen Stefani.
Back in the eighties--before (ulp!) most of my students were born--a popular advertising campaign for seatbelts featured the misadventures of Larry and Vince, a couple of crash test dummies. Click over to Osocio for a contemporary variant on this classic campaign, complete with hot crash dummy sex.
The folks who own the rights to Vince & Larry probably won't sue, but surely a lawyer or two deserves a few bucks to write a CYA memo just in case!
But what really stood out for me was the degree to which green was embedded into the film. Not green as in an ugly bridesmaid's dress, although that's there too. I mean green as in slacktivist eco-chic. Besides the not so subtle product placement for Seventh Generation, the guy in 27 Dresses who typifies Successful Male Hunk is the embodiment of sustainability. He's into eco-travel; he's committed to corporate social responsibility; he's a Big Brother; he's a vegetarian. Except for his taste in women he doesn't have a single frickin' flaw, and even that is arguably true to form.
One of my law class students asked me about certain popular arguments made by tax protestors. It's a subject well known to pretty much anyone who has ever clerked for a federal appeals court, because the courts get a fair number of these cases coming through every year and they always lose. Big.
The IRS explains why in its comprehensive new point-by-point refutation of the leading tax protestor arguments.
Everybody has their little secrets. Here's one of mine.
I read Women's Wear Daily.
Now you might be wondering, what in the world does that have to do with social enterprise?
A lot, actually.
Exhibit A: Today's page 10.
One story concerns the efforts of a couple leading industry trade associations (them's nonprofits, kids!) to impose new standards for models, a movement that grows out of concern for both the health of the models themselves and the negative cultural impact of portraying hyper-thinness as beauty.
The story below that also concerns standardization and nonprofit trade groups. This time the issue is environmental sustainability and the certification of organic products, one of many controversial issues that emerging as we move beyond trendy do-gooding slogans.
The story on page right, though, is perhaps the most interesting: a fashion line whose proceeds benefit a prostitutes' rights charity. Not only is the cause controversial, but it also chose a name that close resembles a mainstream label, which in turn triggered an intellectual property dispute.
Hey, it's a helluva lot more fun than Tax Notes Today.
Marshall McLuhan spoke of how electronic technology retrieved the media environment of tribal society. Among the most salient implications of the shift: the emergence of the information hunter-gatherer as the person most adapted to survival. This was one reason why McLuhan argued that why lecture-based education is obsolete--we should instead lead students in engaging their surroundings, "probing and exploring . . . for clues to the nature of the times they lived in, seeing worlds of significance in street lamps and automobiles."
Forty years later the academic mainstream is finally catching up. Neuroanthropology has the scoop on the latest re Cavemen in the Classroom.
That's the theme of a, um, viral marketing campaign for SF Connect, which aims to inspire people to volunteer in San Francisco. In typical California fashion, the effort imbues its dash of naughtiness with new agey spiritual affirmation--volunteering makes you truly attractive by giving you higher self-esteem and inner beauty.
Here in New York, we jump to right to the point. Leading Page Six on Christmas Day, this inspiring tale of how volunteering for nonprofits can help a guy get laid:
"SCORING a gorgeous chick can be as easy as visiting your nearest flophouse. In "Dr. Z on Scoring - How to Pick Up, Seduce and Hook Up With Hot Women," out in February from Fireside Books, Victoria Zdrock suggests guys "up your philanthropist score by becoming a volunteer at a homeless shelter or a hospice. The women that work there are naturally giving, caring, and friendly even to the scruffiest of men. And kindness is one of the qualities women most look for in a male. Be sure to have a good sob story handy about the times you were 'down on your luck' and now want to 'pay back' the community. Next thing you know, you'll be enjoying soup in her kitchen." Zdrock, a columnist for Penthouse, also says men on the make should hit women's conventions. "Contrary to your instinctual aversion to women's lib, National Organization for Women meetings are the perfect breeding ground for available horny women," she writes. "Liberated women are much more likely to cast away outdated notions of courtship and chivalry . . . and you just might get laid on the first date." Merry Christmas!"
Gawker raises a telling question about the work of anti-commercial artist Packard Jennings, featured in today's New York Times article on anarchist shop-dropping:
if you find yourself in San Francisco in January, he'll have a new show at Catharine Clark Gallery. (But how will he disrupt his own commodification in the gallery???)
No, this isn't about latte lotharios who hit on coffee-drinking women sitting alone, although that can be interesting to watch. Rather, it's part of a new strategy for battling depression in twenty-somethings:
Realizing that primitive societies like the Kaluli of Papua New Guinea experience virtually no depression, Stephen Ilardi, an associate professor of psychology at the University of Kansas, is now testing a cave-man-esque approach to treatment with promising results. His 14-week Therapeutic Lifestyle Change program entails large doses of simulated hunter-gatherer living in people suffering from prolonged, unremitting depression. Participants sign up for 35 minutes of aerobic exercise (running, walking briskly, biking) three days a week, at least 30 minutes of daily sunlight or exposure from a light box that emits 10,000 lux, eight hours of sleep per night, and a daily fish oil supplement containing 1,000 mg of the fatty acid EPA and 500 mg of the fatty acid DHA.
They also get plenty of time surrounded by the “clan,” in the form of frequent social gatherings with family members, Starbucks dates with friends, and volunteer work. “Hunter-gatherers almost never had time alone,” says Ilardi; even a generation or two ago, people grew up supported by extended family and much more engaged with their community. Too much time in isolation, he says, means “opportunities to ruminate,” the modern scourge.
As the always thought-provoking Neuroanthropology blog observes,
Comparing a Starbucks date to life as a cave-man seems absurd. But it certainly sounds like a healthier and more holistic treatment than what goes on in traditional psychiatric institutions.
A provocative meditation from the Washington Times' Belief Blog:
"It's hard to describe this massive combo of embroidery, applique, beadwork and photography, put together by 130 Xhosa villagers in the small South African coastal hamlet of Hamburg.
The Keiskamma is the name of a river. It is modeled after Matthias Grunewald's Issenheim altarpiece of 1515, created in response to the horrific diseases of the 16th century. . . It has some of the grimmest imagery imaginable about the crucifixion. It is very Christo-centric and is world-renowned for its graphic detail.
The Keiskamma piece, also about 22 feet wide and 13 feet tall, depicts the horrors of AIDS in Africa. The altarpiece, which is directly behind the high altar at Saint Mark's, shows scenes from village life. It opens like a cupboard to reveal not Christ and His saints, but an AIDS widow, a prophet who dances on the sand dunes, some of the respected village women. The anonymous widow, not Christ, is at the center. Istead of Mary Magdalene and St. John, there are AIDS orphans. The embroidery is truly stunning and it's definitely a work of art, but...something is missing.
Is Keiskamma devotional and does it belong in a cathedral? That part continues to bother me as I witness folks go up after Sunday services and sit for presentations about the altarpiece, where AIDS is substituted for the passion of Christ. Seeing the Issenheim altarpiece, one definitely learns that a sacrifice has taken place to appease the wrath of God. With the Keiskamma piece, there's no divinity involved. The message is community empowerment, transformation and hope.
I never thought I'd see an altarpiece with no cross. But that day has arrived.
-- Julia Duin, assistant national editor/religion, The Washington Times"
More pictures here.
In the nineteenth century, a loose network of educators, journalists and other prominent community leaders laid the groundwork for modern sociology and social reform. These revolutionary thinkers challenged the atomistic assumptions of traditional charity. Instead, they called for a more critical analysis of social systems, one that analyzed the complex roots of social problems and called for applied theory over more simplistic and unquestioned forms of giving.
But those aren't the people mentioned in the title of this post, who apparently were a feverish delusion induced by reading too many books.
No, critical social analysis was discovered just a few years ago by a group of disruptive change agents. And now it even has its own website.
Who knew?
(Image via CrunchGear)
Here's another look at the irony of the seasonal protest against the commercialization of Christmas, as the Denver Post not-so-coincidentally publishes a survey of the burgeoning Christian retail market. The tagline: "Evangelical buying power is growing, and more companies are answering the call of the almighty ... dollar."
The backbone of Christian retail remains the 2,050 stores that are members of the Colorado Springs-based CBA, which was formerly the Christian Booksellers Association.
In 2006, there was a 15 percent rise in the number of CBA retail locations, and sales through the stores and the Christian Retail Channel rose to $4.63 billion, a 16 percent rise compared with 2000, Anderson said.
At Heart & Home Christian Store in Arvada, one of 33 Christian retailers in Colorado, a shopper can find nativity scenes and ornaments.
They can also buy inscribed license-plate frames —"In case of Rapture, this car's yours"— and David and Goliath dolls.
There is an archaeological-themed game called "Lost Bible Treasures," with replica relics kids can dig up. . . .
The store carries family-friendly video games and a doll called "Faith," whose chief accessory is a tiny Bible.
Near the home-schooling texts is a board game called "Champions of Faith" and the "Chronicles of Narnia" ice castle. . . .
Last Christmas' big hit was "Dance Praise," an interactive DVD featuring Christian music, replete with dance-steps floor pad . . . .
While Christian DVDs may be a part of a natural progression from Christian books, now there appears to be no limits to the types of Christian products.
Haroz Vintners of Norcross, Ga., is offering wine, called The Grapes of Galilee, produced in the Holy Land where Jesus is said to have turned water into wine.
Drudge today featured a story about a man protested the commercialization of Christmas by displaying an image of Santa on a cross:
"Santa has been perverted from who he started out to be," Conrad said. "Now he's the person being used by corporations to get us to buy more stuff."
Which struck me as an ironic thing to say, since, as even Snopes concedes, an old Coca-Cola ad campaign "had a great deal to do with establishing Santa Claus as a ubiquitous Christmas figure in America." This article from the Toronto Star has more, with some particularly interesting observations on how our commercial Christmas emerged out of the Industrial Revolution, mass education and the modern domestic ideal.
Which gives rise to the question: What next?
Applicatory preaching for social venturers over at Gift Hub.
The Pin Up Dolls aren't the girls in the picture, but a reference to the designer--namely, Pin Upshaw's Pin Up Dolls Boutique in Second Life. Click the pic for details on the silent auction benefit and read Pin's blog for more about the fashion.
If you want to write a screenplay and you're stuck for a plot, you can always trot out the shopworn "big bad profit-seeking corporation threatens to evict humble do-gooders" motif. Or you could be really trendy and flip it: big bad charity threatens to evict humble entrepreneurs.
We've already mentioned here the eviction of CBGB by its landlord homeless shelter. Today brings a couple more stories:
- Carnegie Hall cites charitable mission in evicting artist tenants
- Charitable status gives elite school right to evict rent-controlled tenants
Among the victims in noted in these articles: a celebrated photographer and, um, a lawyer.
Y'know, it says something about the diminishing reputation of charitable landowners in this city that they're making even lawyers seem sympathetic. As one scholar said in response to the recent decision to approve Columbia's West Harlem expansion:
“The record of this commission is that their allegiance is only to other wealthy people,” Michael Henry Adams, an architectural historian, told Newsday. “I guess the rest of us can just go to hell and die.”
With all the excitement over GiveWell, more traditional approaches to nonprofit accountability can easily get lost in the shuffle. F'r instance, Crain's review of the largest NYC-area nonprofits. It has the metrics you're probably used to by now, including a charity's bete noire: how much income goes to programs vs. operations. The magazine also surveys executive salaries. Below, a chart with the top five:
The guy from the Met really stands out, doesn't he? Perhaps next time I'll taking advantage of the (all-too-little-known) fact that the Met's admission charge is merely just a suggested donation.
Remember the controversial ransom note ad campaign run by NYU? You know, from two days ago?
NYU killed it. Too much bad buzz.
Below, the one that used to be by my office, snapped a few minutes after I wrote my earlier post.
I can see why the University pulled this; it's not clear from the copy whether the poster is an ad for a child care center or the VH1 bio of the Olsen twins.
Seriously, this is indeed a chart from the 1913 New York Times, but its true significance isn't funny at all. This chart is an artifact from what is arguably the darkest moment in the history of twentieth-century charity: the eugenics movement, in which the nation's leading schools, churches, hospitals and foundations joined with government leaders to eradicate people deemed to be defective. Hitler didn't devise the Final Solution on his own; the blueprint for genocide was drafted by American philanthropy.
Ave Maria School of Law is selling the naming rights to its new building.
If your last name's Lucifer or Bastardo, now's your chance to have some fun.
Sometimes it pays to be deceptive. Below: a disaster preparedness mobile billboard in San Francisco from the Red Cross. The theme: "What do we have to do to get your attention?"
And for their next trick, the Red Cross will make your money disappear!
No, really. For Festivus jewelry and other socially conscious goodies, hie thee to the Festivus Market in New Orleans:
Festivus is a holiday market for the rest of us! Staged each December, we provide a human-scale alternative to the loneliness of on-line shopping or the hassle of big box holiday parking lots by featuring the best of local cottage industries whose business reflects our core values of ecology, fair trade, craftsmanship and personal customer service. 12 noon to 4 pm on the first 3 Sundays of December.
Pictured above: a homemade donation card inspired by the classic Seinfeld episode "The Strike." In this episode, George Costanza tries to get out of giving Christmas gifts at work by giving them a card acknowledging a Human Fund donation in their name. The hitch: the Human Fund does not exist; it's all just a scam George is pulling to avoid having to shell out any cash.
The scheme seems to work until the company decides to give its annual $20,000 charitable gift to the Fund. As George's boss explains when handing him the check,
I'm suppose to find a charity and throw some of the company's money at it. They all seem the same to me, so, what's the difference?
When the company's accountant discovers that the Human Fund does not exist, the jig is up--which prompts George to claim that he perpetrated the fraud to avoid religious persecution for celebrating Festivus.
It's all good fun--and a reminder that someone's always gonna try to get away with something, no matter how many rules we impose.
Speaking of embedded giving, what better way to describe the intersection between Bill Clinton's charitable endeavors and Hillary's campaign for president?
The Times today traces a bit of the network overlap, but the real story lies in the reputation effect of Bill Clinton's conveniently timed mass media push for social entrepreneurship.
C'mon, we're all adults here. Just as a commercial business strategically builds builds trust by leveraging the goodwill of the charities it supports, Bill Clinton is just the latest in a long tradition of politicians seeking to win over voters by aligning themselves with good works.
Nonsense like this . . .
As the presidential campaign got under way, foundation officials began working to ensure that none of their enterprises would have political repercussions for Mrs. Clinton.
is just another example of why it's important to distinguish between law and the rhetoric of design. Done well--and Bill Clinton is a master of PR--charity can be used for political ends with nary a complaint, but the key phrase here is "done well." It's going to work only if you know what you are doing and how it will look.
However, tell yourself that you're safe because you're within the current limits of the law and you're begging for corrective discipline. For example, in 1969 Congress imposed stringent limits on private foundations because of their perceived entanglement with political activity. What they had been doing had been legal, but it provoked a negative response and so as of 1970 it was not.
The same fate may yet lie in store for public charities if their political entanglement seems too overt. After all, you know what they say:
Politics makes strange embed-fellows.
Nowhere is safe. Tonight I turned on my TV for dinner-time brainwash and got Clash of the Choirs,
And for our next lesson in realistic metrics, a Minnesota coalition a