This is a pretty hilarious scam. I know many of you have seen this, but I had to share. What is up with the FORTUNE brand? Such whores!

Dear Steve,
In current business conditions, most companies see a need for greater efficiency and effectiveness according to a study by Accenture Management Consulting, “The Innovator’s Advantage – using innovation and technology to improve business performance”.

As a producer for the Business and Technology Report on the “FORTUNE In-Flight Radio” Channel, I am personally extending an invitation for Portigal to be featured on our special in-flight radio broadcast of the “Leaders In Business Innovation” airing worldwide April 2007.

On this show, we will be interviewing corporate leaders of innovative businesses today and discussing topics surrounding: What tools, techniques and resources have helped in creating an innovative company? How has innovation delivered long-term value and competitive advantage to your organization? What systems are important for supporting innovation?

For helping us wrap-up the show and meet our invitational list deadline, we are offering our last two segments at a substantial discount- Instead of the normal rate card of $ 6,995, your discounted cost is only $2,995. This includes everything from scripting to production, placement of 3-minute interview on 2,880 flights to 700,000 thousand passengers, listing in Northwest World Traveler In-flight magazine, and rebroadcast rights for promotional uses.

We’d like to interview you for our show. The charge will be $2,995. Um, you want me to pay you? I guess that’d be an ad

, then, wouldn’t it?

• Welcome to the Internet, Mr. Gladwell
  nothing to see here…move along. Glawell inadvertently stirs up an intense reaction from a motivated blogger, many comments ensue on multiple blogs, forces are marshaled, and now the blog and the rules and commenting sadly make their way into the content
• The Empathy Belly Pregnancy Simulator (a pregnancy suit)
  Ford engineers are wearing this in order to design/test car designs for pregnant women
• “Third-Age Suit” Helps Ford to Understand Mature Drivers
  A 1999 press release, yet one of those morning shows profiled Ford for their user-centric approach today, including this suit. Good approach, good PR.

John Winsor describes a Starbucks promotion

… when he saw a guy starting to drive off with a Starbucks’ coffee cup on top of his car. [He] whistled at the guy who promptly thanked him and got out of the car to hand him a coupon to Starbucks.

No doubt this is effective; it made an impression on the warn-er, it made an impression on John, and the story is being spread.

But it’s deceptive. John suggests (if I read him properly) that this promotion and indeed Starbucks are great. I don’t know how I would react, but hearing the story makes me angry and resentful. The work of fending off scams – any situation where someone wants something from you that will have to give up if you aren’t careful – is mighty. I can’t trust the person who chats me up in a bar (not that this happens to me personally, of course) in case they are promoting booze or mobile phones. I can’t trust the phone calls or emails I get. And now I can’t trust the person who needs a little Good Samaritan assistance. If I help someone get their bag under their seat on the plane ride home tonight, will they offer me a flyer about Samsonite? Gah, I hope note.

Our culture mostly expects a clear delineation between content and promotion (with many many many exceptions); the people I’m talking to this week about how they learn what foods go with what wines are a great example: if Trader Joe’s puts up an end-cap with a chalkboard that describes the wine on display, that’s okay. Sure, Trader Joe’s was paid by the wine maker to do this, but it’s preferable than having this information on the bottle. There’s a comfort and credibility in context; even if we understand what’s going on behind the scenes. Breaking through that, as Starbucks is trying to do is notable, but personally uncomfortable.

Update: this has been going on for at least a year

I’m staying in a hotel in Anaheim that is just minutes from Disneyland. We can see the Matterhorn, as well as the famous monorail. All behind a barbed-wire fence. And plenty of parents of children. I saw several with these monkey-leashes. I thought that was a parenting trend that went out in the 70s. Maybe it’s back, with a new design that makes it fun and tolerable for everyone? The character and tail-as-leash creates more of a playful appearance (versus the BSDM imagery of the traditional harness). Do the kids feel any differently? Or do the parents feel better, especially with a reduction in the looks of disapproval that parents are always subject to when they raise their children in public?

• Technology for User Research
  Results from an online survey. Oh the irony. n = 78
• Jan Chipchase on the Trans-Siberian express.
  Mobile user researcher (in every sense of the it) slash cultural observer relates his experience on the newly-opened marvel that goes over mountains and the like.

Driving through an area called Little Saigon last night, we saw an advertisement for a radio station called The Fish. The poster showed a clean-cut white white family (odd, for that neighborhood) and the above slogan. Turns out to be a Christian radio station (ah, makes sense now!). It’s like other nationally-branded and clearly-differentiated radio stations (Alice, Jack-FM)…although in some cases the brand/format evolves organically, with operators in different markets copying each other, rather than a top-down roll-out. I believe The Fish is the latter.

I’m headed to Orange County for a few days. I’ve got some time in my schedule on Tuesday for breakfast or morning coffee. If you’re somewhere around Anaheim and want to try and connect, drop me a note.

Lilly posted (a different image of) this poster:

Originally uploaded by h0mee.

The URL in the poster redirects to their blog which, among other things, tells residents of the Mission in SF where they can the poster to put on their own street.

The poster is pretty dramatic, with an interesting do and don’t icon flow. Gives insight into the problems some communities are facing.

Judging by the cover of The Houdini Solution, inside-the box-thinking is the new out-of-the-box thinking. Whaaaaa? That’s so counter-counter-intuitive that it must be genius.

Right.

• NBA introduces fancy new ball, injuries and complaints ensue (what, no user testing?)
  Commissioner David Stern acknowledged they should have sought more input from players before introducing its new game ball. The lack of player input prompted one of the two unfair labor practice charges the union filed with the National Labor Relations Board (Thanks, Laura)