Hello and welcome to my blog!

My name is Patrick Di Chiro, and I am the founder and CEO of THUNDER FACTORY, an integrated marketing firm headquartered in San Francisco. In this blog, I examine the convergence of marketing with technology, culture, politics and the global economy. If you like what you see, please spread [...]

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And what a week it was. Herein are some observations, random and not so much, about the week just past in the intersecting worlds of news, culture and marketing:

D-Day Anniversary — Yesterday was the 65th anniversary of D-Day and the beginning of the end of the War to End All Wars WW II (too bad [...]

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Oh the glory and wonder of cheesy advertising!
I am not talking about just the usual groaners, like TV spots for toilet tissue or even the mini masterpieces from Billy Mays — the OxyClean, MendIt and Big City Sliders pitchman. I am talking high cheese here. The real stinky stuff.
For that you need to turn to [...]

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I am sure you heard the blockbuster technology news this week that Microsoft is trying yet again to take on search giant/monopolist Google with a new search engine called "Bing."
We shall see if we end up respecting — or "disrespecting — this Bing.
The Microsoft marketing people are trying to conjure up a fanciful image [...]

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In my previous post, I launched a contest to come up with ideas on how to save newspapers — and more specifically, professional journalism. My probably Quixotic effort is called the "Saving Private Newspapers" Business Model Contest.
So far I have received a few good ideas (thanks, Athena!), with most of them coming in conversations off [...]

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