wallydownundy

Jim Croce knew what he was singing when he recorded “You Don’t Mess Around With Jim” in 1973:

“You don’t tug on superman’s cape

You don’t spit into the wind

You don’t pull the mask off that old lone ranger

And you don’t mess around with Jim”

Today Kraft Foods is facing the music after playing with Australia’s national snack spread – Vegemite. Following a marketing campaign to name a new, lighter Vegemite variant the company announced the winner yesterday. iSnack 2.0 is the name selected for the new Vegemite. It appears the selection was made following a whiz-bang marketing meeting involving creative geniuses paid by the hour. In other words, consumers hate it.

Writers from far afield as London have deplored the choice, as “Word of Mouth” at The Guardian comments:

“But to consider calling the Vegemite cheese spread “iSnack 2.0″… yes, that’s right … can only be the biggest steaming honker of an egregious publicity stunt in recorded history.”

Call me “Ishtar” but I do believe there were bigger failures – but you’d have to reach back to Edsel and “New Coke” to find one worse (Great article on New Coke: “It Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time“). Said Coke’s recalcitrant boss:

‘We did not understand the deep emotions of so many of our customers for Coca-Cola.’

— DONALD R. KEOUGH, Coca-Cola president (1985)

But that was so…1985. Back then we had to write ‘Letters to the Editor’ and mail complaints to Atlanta, Georgia. Maybe we opened a can in front of a grocer and let it run into the gutter – in front of local television news. Things moved slowly then.

Kraft came out with iSnack 2.0 on Sunday. Today is Tuesday. Already blogs are on fire with disappointment, and the company has been forced to defend its choice. Talk about good PR gone bad!

In today’s age of immediacy it doesn’t take long for creative types to rubbish the product on blogs, mass-email friends, Twitter on the name and post hate videos – like this one.

“You’ve come a long way, baby” was the tag line for Virginia Slim cigarettes, back in the days when tobacco companies spent big on full page magazine ads. (Apparently gaining the right to lung cancer and emphysema was seen as progress.) Yet today it’s the rallying cry for the continued appreciation of the Australian dollar. With the Reserve Bank signalling a rate rise in the near term, foreign exchange traders are piling into the Australian dollar. Combine that with a decline in the US dollar and the little Aussie battler is rising and rising. In an interview printed yesterday, Icap senior economist Adam Carr said:

“I think we will get above US90c when the RBA starts to tighten, and depending on the pace of that, we could be at parity next year.”

Parity means one Australian dollar has the same value as one US dollar.

This is a long way away from the days the Australian dollar bought US$0.60. Then our currency was called the “Pacific Peso”. That’s making a comparison between the purchasing power of the US dollar in Mexico with the equivalent power in Australia. Needless to say we had a lot of American tourists here. Sadly we were unable to provide souvenir sombreros or high quality agave tequila. Do an Akubra and Bundy count?

Today further signs of life emerge. Business confidence is at a six year high. Stocks rallied. Gold closed above US$1,000. The Australian Business section has a banner headline nearing screaming confidence:

It’s all up: stocks, gold, dollar

But reminders of past panics are never far behind. Just under the banner headline The Australian Business features a photo of a middle-aged man in T-shirt, jeans and tractor cap. One year later – it’s Dick Fuld, former CEO of Lehman Brothers. And while expects the 15 September anniversary to put him back in the headlines, I believe attention needs to turn to the real villain. US Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr. made the decision to let Lehman Brothers go under. In retrospect it was a mistake of global proportions. We’re all familiar with the aftermath:

Last year, as the credit crisis deepened, the US government and the Federal Reserve arranged life-saving mergers for investment banks Bear Stearns and Merrill Lynch, propped up the giant insurer American International Group and bailed out Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

But on September 15, they let the 158-year-old Lehman die in what was then the biggest bankruptcy in the US history.

The collapse drained what little confidence was left in global financial markets, triggering a meltdown.

Stocks plunged, credit markets froze and governments worldwide were forced into a massive round of bailouts and backstops for companies, particularly banks. (Source: The Australian)

Still, Paulson didn’t receive salary and entitlements exceeding US$500 million. Even if he did or did not get punched in the face at the Lehman Fitness Centre, we still need a scapegoat. His employees all “signed” a portrait of him and added comments that are far from kind

Happy Anniversary Dick Fuld – we’ll buy your gift with Australian dollars are we’re now getting more back for our buck.

It pains me to have friends visit from America. They’re full of bad news and disparaging comments about the economy. Real bites have been taken out of the workforce, retail sector, manufacturing, home ownership – you name it. And friends from Australia visiting the USA report discouraging signs – “For Rent” – in lots of storefront windows. It seems America is still in the throes of a historic recession.

Down here in sunny Australia we have yet to enter recession. This week the June GDP figures were released. Australia grew at a paltry 0.6% - however it grew. Next week the G20 finance ministers meet in London. Of the 33 developed economies in the world, only one never entered recession. For the next year growth of 3.25 is forecast.

(Back in June 2009 I wrote about first signs of our economy’s incredible performance: Like Keanu, Australia Dodges Recession).

It’s hard to summarise the reasons for this world-beating performance – unless you’re Michael Stutchbury. He’s the Economics Editor of The Australian and today he provides a masterly overview of why we fared so well.

If you want to understand why the nickname “The Lucky Country” still applies today, read this great article: “How We Beat The Recession“.

  (Thanks Mom Blogger for photo)

Now that summer is over in the Northern Hemisphere, millions of school children are returning to school. Along with pencil cases, summer memories and new backpacks many will be coming back to school with Swine Flu - also known as H1N1 Virus. Public health authorities are bracing for a significant outbreak. The World Health Organisation has not lowered the pandemic level. Currently we are at the highest level possible.

Against these incredible odds, like Tina Turner sings, “We Need a Hero!” Enter ELMO!

Yes, the red ragamuffin Sesame Street character with the annoying voice is featured in a series of advertisements in the USA. Elmo is teaching basic hygiene to prevent the spread of swine flu - wash hands, cover your mouth when you sneeze, etc. Elmo will be instrumental to reach children - and via them, their parents.

As Elmo has already taken on Potty Training and the Chicken Dance, countering Swine Flu should be a walk in the park. However if Swine Flu does spread widely I’d hate to see Elmo doing hospital visits in a HazMat suit.

The king is dead – long live the king.

That odd sentence puzzled me in childhood until I finally realized it was talking about two different people (one six feet under and the other newly-installed). And like a near-dead royal, the obituaries are already written for Facebook. (Did you know every newspaper keeps a draft obituary of most famous people so it can be quickly updated and printed?)

This week “The New York Times Magazine” included a feature article about the death of Facebook.

Things fall apart; the center cannot hold. Facebook, the online social grid, could not command loyalty forever. If you ask around, as I did, you’ll find quitters. One person shut down her account because she disliked how nosy it made her. Another thought the scene had turned desperate. A third feared stalkers. A fourth believed his privacy was compromised. A fifth disappeared without a word. (Source: VIRGINIA HEFFERNAN writing for The New York Times Magazine)

But – like Mark Twain’s famous quote – are the reports of death premature?

After all Facebook attracted 87.7 million unique visitors in the United States in July – and that’s just one country in one month.

True, the younger generation are fleeing. In all social media there’s a saying – “The kids leave when the parents arrive”. And now that 40 something’s are using Facebook to reconnect with the college class of 1985 it’s time for the kids to go. After all – 1985 is before they were born!

Facebook may be showing its age. The article in “The New York Times addresses a number of serious concerns, such as data ownership, privacy and marketing.

In bookstores now is the unauthorized story about the founding of Facebook. “The Accidental Billionaires” exposes the seamier side of stumbling into the world’s hottest social media site.

In time even Facebook will disappear. The Economist predicts an evolution away from sites with barriers. Why upload photos to Flickr then share them on Facebook before adding a video to YouTube? You should be able to manage all your on-line content in one place – and retain ownership. Maybe that’s what Facebook will morph into.

More likely a freshman in college somewhere is already developing this “must have” application. And while she may not be able to afford a Grande Frappuccino at Starbucks today, soon she’ll have riches beyond the market capitalization of Starbucks globally.