From carrie at stayfreemagazine.org Thu Jul 5 20:27:22 2001 From: carrie at stayfreemagazine.org (Carrie McLaren) Date: Thu, 5 Jul 2001 19:27:22 -0500 Subject: Stay Free! | 5 July 2001 Message-ID: Hello, the last two articles from issue #17 are now on the site: "The GOOD News About Branding" by Carrie McLaren In these days when the word "brand" has become a stand-in for any person, place or thing, speaking English can be a little depressing. We now have two kinds of nouns: common nouns and brands. "Apple" is no longer just something to eat, and "Yahoo!" is not what to shout when feeling celebratory. Every day brings more brands. The chalupa is a brand, as is Taco Bell, and of course parent company Pepsi is a brand, owned by Tricon International, a lesser-known brand, unless you're looking at global corporate giant brands. Ingredients can be brands. Nutrasweet. Intel Chips. Olestra. And pretty much every thing or place surrounding brands, from humans to mountain ranges to countries, is brandable. continued at: http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/17/branding.html "HIKING THE APPELATION TRAIL: JASON TORCHINSKY DEFENDS HIS BRAND" After finding a right-winger using his very own name, Stay Free's reporter persues appropriate legal action by Jason Torchinsky A rose by any other name would still smell as sweet, but a turd by the name of a rose would still smell like shit. This may not seem a particularly earth-shaking revelation, but it never hurts to remind ourselves how lucky we are that we have a different word for pretty much everything. It is also important to be reminded how words can become more than words; they can become commodities. The commercial world already understands this, and is very willing to defend their "rights" to certain words as much as possible. continued at: http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/17/index.html ELSEWHERE ON THE WEB: "MORE UNDERHANDED REPORTING FROM ABC NEWS" http://www.tompaine.com/news/2001/06/26/index.html Great story by my friend Marianne Manilov about John Stossel's shameless flacking for industry. This time, for a "20/20" special, Stossel goads 4th graders into making their environmental teachers look bad. STUDENT FORCED TO APOLOGIZE FOR McDONALDS COMMENT http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/education/A53881-2001Jun11.html Geez, you can't make this stuff up: When a Connecticut high school student gripes about having a McDonald's assembly held during schooltime, the principal forces him to read an apology over the intercom... in which he has to call himself a "bad student...that no teacher would really want in a classroom." see also: http://www.theday.com/news/ts-re.asp?NewsUID=4CDE300B-09CC-4B1E-924B-8649CC1DC3E6 "FOR BRAZILIAN WOMEN, CAESAREAN SECTIONS ARE SURPISINGLY POPULAR; TO SAVE TIME, MAKE MONEY, MANY DOCTORS OPERATE EVEN IF IT'S UNNECESSARY" http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/public/wsj_caesareans.html Okay, so the death rate among women who give birth by Caesarean is a lot higher than those who give birth vaginally. And babies born by Caesarean are more likely to suffer health problems. So why are Caesareans as common as dirt in Brazil? According to the Wall Street Journal, doctors in Brazil tell women that Caesarean sections will help preserve their "honeymoon virginas." Caesareans planned for Friday afternoon are nicknamed "beach Caesareans" so that doctors don't have to worry about delivering over the weekend. Incidentally, in web version of this article, the headline was changed to "Many Brazilian Women Don't Choose To Give Birth the Old-Fashioned Way." (Yeah, that old-fashioned, stay-alive way...) Subscribe to Stay Free! and get the latest magazine: http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/order.html NOTE TO SUBSCRIBERS: If you are getting this email, you're on the wrong list. Email me and I'll switch you to the special "paid" list. Thanks, carrie at stayfreemagazine.org From carrie at stayfreemagazine.org Tue Jul 31 13:36:26 2001 From: carrie at stayfreemagazine.org (Carrie McLaren) Date: Tue, 31 Jul 2001 12:36:26 -0500 Subject: Stay Free! | 31 July 2001 Message-ID: Subscribe and get the new issue of Stay Free! 100% unavailable online! ($10 / 3 issues) http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/order.html - - - - - - - - - - - - - Hello, Many thanks to SF subscribers and Onion staffers who came out for "field day" last weekend. Stay Free! ended up beating the Onion 4-3 (or so), in part due to our team's stellar crabwalking. * * * * Stay Free! isn't just about "bad news," so when a tobacco company is publicly attacked for marketing dog urine, you can count on us to let you know. The people behind the "Truth" youth antismoking campaign have unleased a new batch of commercials. In one radio spot, a prankster phones a tobacco company (in this case, Lorillard) and offers to sell him "quality dog urine." Confronting a confused receptionist, the caller tells her that "dog pee is full of urea, and that's one of the chemicals you guys put in cigarettes." Lorillard is (surprise surprise) trying to stop that ad, which is always a good sign. (The only anti-tobacco ads that tobacco companies protest are those that might actually work.) Listen in: "Dog Walker" (the urine ad) http://play.rbn.com/?dowjones/wsj/demand/wsj_vid/american_legacy_dogwalker.rm "Ammonia" (even better) http://play.rbn.com/?dowjones/wsj/demand/wsj_vid/american_legacy_ammonia.rm Truth TV spots: http://www.wholetruth.com * * * * You-can't-make-this-stuff-up Dept.: Philip Morris recently sent a report to the Czech Republic suggesting that the country could save well over $1 million in healthcare and pension costs due to smoking -- because people who smoke die early. http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4222888,00.html Philip Morris later apologizes: ("All of us at Philip Morris, no matter where we work, are extremely sorry") http://www.guardian.co.uk/Archive/Article/0,4273,4229037,00.html * * * * Speaking of Philip Morris and the Czech Republic, the company recently shot a commercial about its "philanthropic" efforts handing out Kraft macaroni & cheese in Kosovo. This was no piddling documentary, however. The dramatic, 30-second saga was filmed in the Czech Republic because "we wanted access to plenty of extras that look like they come from that part of the world." Also, the location "had to be big enough to accommodate a huge, fake refugee camp (built weeks in advance of the 4-day shoot)." As the Wall Street Journal reports, the production costs of this commercial alone dwarfs the amount Philip Morris spent on actual food donation. http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/public/philipmorris.html * * * * By now some of you have heard about the two college-bound goons who successfully sold themselves to a credit card company (www.chrisandluke.com). And now there's a couple auctioning off corporate "naming rights" to their baby. Anyway, this is as good a time as any to announce that I am auctioning off the naming rights to my colon. (it's been causing me a problems lately, and I'd like a company to blame.) If you know someone at a firm that may be interested, let them know...but they'll have to pay big for the privilege of naming my colon. -- carrie mclaren NOTE: If you are receiving this email and are a PAID subscriber, you are on the wrong list. Email me and I'll switch you.