Results tagged “commerce” from Uncivil Society
To complement your Jesus is a Yankees Fan t-shirt, here's a Yankees devotional copper icon featured in the fun new book version of Regretsy--Where DIY meets WTF.
Regretsy, as the title suggests, heaps a generous dollop of snark on the goofiest items from Etsy. But the site's about a lot more than having a laugh at others' expense--besides bringing to light some of the more offbeat expressions of human creativity, Regretsy has also raised thousands of dollars for charity--"profits from Regretsy merchandise are used to hire Etsy artists to create handmade products for various charities, or to directly benefit Etsy sellers in need."
Kissing a piece of paper for charity seems to have replaced the traditional kissing booth, which would today be seen less as a fun fundraiser than a hub for spreading the flu.
If the above vintage ad's strategy of prescribing carb-filled crackers to lose weight seems goofily retro (not to mention sexist), check out this new research on carbs as the dietary key to personal happiness.
My thoughts on the new encyclical here. An excerpt:
In a nutshell, when Caritas in Veritate--Love in Truth--takes aim at social systems that fetishize technology and do not respect the whole human person, it's targeting all forms of reductionistic secularism. Yes, banks and hedge funds are part of it, but so too are environmentalists and other social entrepreneurs who do not grasp that respect for the "human ecology" is the essential predicate for respecting the "environmental ecology." And in referring to respect for human life, the encyclical makes explicit reference to Humanae Vitae, the papal encyclical best known for essentially prohibiting artificial methods of birth control.
That's the rhetoric that gives away the game. The encyclical's repeated references to the need for a social system built on truth, respect for life, and the inclusion of the Church in its deliberations are squarely aimed at remaking social reform in the image of Church social ethics--most importantly, the eradication of the so-called "culture of death" exemplified by contraception, abortion, in vitro fertilization and what the encyclical considers to be the technocratic nightmare of bioethics.
The call for a central institutional authority to manage the economy--the vaunted United Nations with teeth--must be understood in context. According to the encyclical, such an authority would rise above "inhuman humanism" only if it incorporated the Church's voice in its institutional pronouncements. The strategy, in other words, is to circumvent the liberalizing forces of secular democracies by creating a central regulatory power where the Church could concentrate its influence to shut down what it believes to be unethical commerce and international development, such as sexually explicit or religiously offensive media, the distribution of condoms, grant aid for abortions and stem cell research.
UPDATE: Is Michael Jackson's charity a fake?
Originally posted on JustMeans:
I had at least three posts I was considering to put up today, but when I ducked into the nearest library while on a research quest the guards were heatedly discussing Michael Jackson. Their somber intonations that this is a historic day got me curious, so instead of jumping right to JustMeans--a great site, but like your typical social business hub admittedly not the best place to catch the latest celebrity gossip--I hit the usual suspects to discover that Michael Jackson had just died.
Since we live a culture pretty much defined by the cult of personality (Josef Stalin, social innovator!), I've decided to set aside my thoughts on The Philanthropist, American Apparel and social censorship for a day when most of us aren't fervently Twittering "Michael Jackson is dead" just in case someone hasn't noticed the other 50,000 tweets about the news.
Instead, I want to offer a few brief memorial reflections about Michael Jackson and social enterprise.
Jackson, as this book documents, was quite active in charity, at one point breaking the Guinness record for most charities supported by a pop star. And whatever one thinks of his various activities at Neverland Ranch, it's pretty clear that he saw his life there as a way of giving back to the community. Jackson also was involved in high profile benefit singles--and therein lies another less well known controversy.
As Jackson testified in a business-related trial, the donation of proceeds from the sale of a charity song did not mean, for Jackson, donating all of the profits. The money from the sale of CDs went to charity, but Jackson retained the song's copyright & personally kept the royalties. This caused a bit of dustup when the news media learned that a any time "We Are the World" or the 9/11 charity song "What More Can I Give?" get played on the radio, the proceeds go to not to charity but to the copyright holders, including Jackson himself.
The dustup over Jackson's alleged charitable profiteering provides an instructive example about social business for those of us in the social enterprise community. In our world, as in the music industry more generally, the idea of getting some personal returns from a charitable enterprise is not inherently problematic----musicians need to earn a living just like anyone else, even professional nonprofiteers. Besides Michael Jackson, John Lennon had some rather pointed things to say about this, astutely observing how various promoters & benefit workers profit from charitable work but expect musicians to give all their labor for free. Nonetheless, there's a popular impression that a charitable benefit should be wholly outside the realm of exchange, to the point that no one in the endeavor--not even the grunts--should get paid.
The fact that this expectation exists does not, of course, mean that we have abide by it, but for those of us who don't have the luxury of being international superstars this perspective can pose some difficult problems, from loss of needed donor support to the occasional legislative crackdown.
But more about that another day. For now, a moment of silence for a man who, like so many of us, gave as much as he felt that he could.
An Iranian woman in Austin, Texas embodies the role of communications media in mobilizing protests against the hijacked election.
Via Copyranter, a classic example of a sexist ad promoting the interests of a trade association. Don't want to be turned down? Be like rice, which "never intrudes. Never gets in the way."
Also worth checking out for folks interested in sexist ads, this blog dedicated to sexist marketing--and, of course, Sarah Haskins' Target Women.
Below: UK candy bar Yorkie--"IT'S NOT FOR GIRLS!"
By Michael Linser for Our Gods Wear Spandex
The Dieline is a killer packaging design site that offers a wealth of useful examples for social-enterprise-types who want to learn about effective branding. Case in point: this behind-the-scenes look at how White Space came up with the bottle design for Thatcher's Organic Artisan Liqueurs, "handmade liqueurs distilled in small batches from sustainably farmed organic ingredients to create honestly great cocktails." Check out The Dieline post for the scoop.
Do do-gooders have a responsibility not to grab free content from commercial providers? Just a question that popped up after I read this comment on a post about circumventing the WSJ's firewall:
My father was laid off from the WSJ 4 months ago, we've moved from our modest 3 bedroom home to small 2 room place, and my parents are always fighting now.
Let businesses try to figure their model out without helping the general public steal from them. In the end, it hurts real people no matter how harmless you think your post may be.
Via News From Me, a 1950s game show appearance by legendary comics writer Leo Dorfman features a revealing discussion about comics + society, from their popularity among soldiers in WWII to their suitability for children just a decade later.
The heroic myth takes on a new form. A commenter explains:
Ganesha is seen as the Remover of Obstacles, so anyone or anything that takes action to remove obstacles can be seen as exhibiting an aspect of the divine, in the form of Ganesh. The people who made this statue are saying that the heroic nature that we admire in the fictitious character of Spider-Man is an expression of the divine within us all, and should be honored. Also, it’s FUN. Bravo!
Thanks, Deborah Elizabeth Finn!
As I learned while watching a baseball game yesterday, "Think Green" is the slogan--and the website--of the Waste Management corporation, "the leading provider of comprehensive waste and environmental services in North America."
An interesting resonance: in today's NY Times, a woman who was once the super in her apartment building reflects on the Roto-Rooter guy:
Occasionally, there was a bright spot amid the drudgery. One Saturday morning, while my friends were sleeping or indulging in free kayaking, I was in the basement with the Roto-Rooter guy, standing in two inches of backed-up sewage.
And here’s the thing: The Roto-Rooter guy was really great. Instead of being bitter and cranky about having to do such a noxious, malodorous job, he was telling me how fascinating it was, how much he loved what he did. He had a passion for the history and the future of waste treatment, and had read widely on the subject.
Although my expertise with sewage was limited to fixing a running toilet with a straightened paper clip, the Roto-Rooter guy had innovative ideas about overhauling the entire system of waste management worldwide.
Yes, self-professed social entrepreneurs are nice. But sometimes you can learn a lot more by paying attention to a normal person with an ordinary job.
A reflection by Jonathan Bland.
Note the windows. Design transparency was a key part of the growth of confidence in franchised fast food--sent the message that the place was sanitary and the food, healthy.
The memory of The Jungle was still fresh.
Kenneth Cole's AWEARNESS blog--"raising awareness" as an extension of corporate identity marketing.
One of the charitable thrift stores near my apartment has apparently found comic books to be a reliable source of income--they're regularly featured in the store window & prominently displayed for sale right by the front door.
Thrift Shop Horrors today highlights a different NYC thrift store that boasts of a sizable comic book & magazine section. However, the shop hasn't figured out that a comic's condition can be a selling point:
Broadway has nonprofit and for-profit theaters.
Guess which one is the first to go green?
More about the company here.
Everything that advertises must converge at Rome's St. Regis Hotel, where the press junket for Angels & Demons meets cute with The Papal Foundation, also convened there at . . . where else? . . . Le Grand Bar!
Via Nikki Finke.
I'm just beginning to catch up from a week of being waylaid by the flu or somesuch nasty thing, so my thoughts today will be brief. Suffice it to say that I believe such stories expose as much about our perception of charity as they do concerning charitable organizations.
The following is a particularly interesting exchange from the comment thread. Note the attitude toward business activity--the underlying assumption is that charity is by nature noncommercial, such that commercial activity is equated with deception & self-enrichment:
