It was another interesting week in the world of ideas, marketing, culture and politics. Where to begin? How about with a smart new ad campaign from P&G:

Dawn Does Ducks — The new P&G commercial for Dawn dishwashing liquid actually brought a tear to my cynical eye. Yep, a crusty old marketing guy like me should not be taken in by P&G’s marketing people, but I was. The commercial shows how Dawn has been used for years as the preferred way to clean birds and other animals caught in oil spills. And, this was one advertising claim that is actually true. Dawn is the best at this particular job. I am surprised P&G did not use this idea earlier. It is a winner. For each bottle of Dawn purchased during this campaign, P&G is donating a dollar to a program that rescues birds, etc.. But, you have to  register at a website for the donation to be made (and then P&G  has your email address for life!). There is always a catch when it comes to marketers. Still a pretty good marketing effort.

Autumn Arises — Now that I live in the SF Bay Area, I don’t really get to enjoy my favorite season so much anymore. That would be the fall. I just love the crisp air, the colors, the smell of burning leaves (well, not so much on that). Since I really don’t get any of those pleasures in the Bay Area (where it can get beastly warm in autumn), how do I know when the fall actually hits? Easy. When the Spirit Halloween Stores spring up all over the place. You first notice the Spirit stores from their billboards on the 101. Then the stores themselves arise all of sudden. They are the original pop up stores, sprouting in failed retail locations throughout the Bay Area — and there are more of those locations then ever after the past year and a half of crushing recession. The nearest store to me is a new one. It took over the former Circuit City store near my favorite Trade Joe’s. It’s like they say about cockroaches. They will be the only survivors after a Nuclear disaster. Similarly, the Spirit Halloween Stores are some of the only survivors after the Great Recession of 08/09. Ah progress!

Twitter Gets $100M With No Revenues — The irrational exuberance that is Silicon Valley’s Facebook/Google envy continues unabated. The latest manifestation of this is the $100M investment in Twitter, valuing the microblogging site at a cool $1B. The gents behind Twitter are apparently in no rush to generate revenues for Twitter. They don’t want to "ruin" the user experience. Why should they rush? They have millions in the bank and they just got $100M more. I really wonder if we will look back at Twitter several years hence as a giant Hula Hoop. I am not kidding. We should not all just believe this post Dot Com fairy tale just because some VCs are jumping in and the media are all over it like white on rice. History is a funny thing. It can veer in strange, wondrous ways that are frequently unexpected and unintended. Don’t forget WebVan, or more recently, the famous Krispy Kreme bubble. Business Week recently asked the same thing about Twitter’s rich new valuation. Are they really worth it? No one really knows at this point.

Boss Turns 60 – I love Bruce Springsteen. Who doesn’t? Well, plenty of young people don’t. I remember dating a much younger woman a few years ago after my divorce (yes, even I can be pretty shallow on that front) and I made the mistake of having a Bruce CD playing in my car. I thought it would be cool to pick her up with "Thunder Road" blaring from the speakers, but she thought it was just kind of lame. Her comment about the Bruce Springsteen song was, "Isn’t he that old guy who screams a lot?" Never saw her again. I did celebrate Bruce’s 60th birthday this week. I think what I loved most about this milestone was the fact that my musical hero the Boss was actually older than me. Check out the link above to see Springsteen on the front cover of the AARP Magazine. Go Bruce!

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