Another Queer Jewish Buddhist

Recession? What recession? Consumers line up for high priced pseudo-japanese kitsch in Soho.

Okay, I love the Shibuya kawaii aesthetic as much as the next Giant Robot subscriber, but I was shocked, shocked to find a line of eager shoppers a block long yesterday on Spring Street in Soho for the opening of the NYC branch of Tokidoki.

Oddly enough, I was on my way home after spending the afternoon working freelance at a Japanese agency where I sometimes find myself writing English language copy based on copy that's been translated from Japanese but that doesn't quite rise to colloquial English yet.

It was an amazing day. After all, it hit 70°F only 4 days after it had been a horrific 15° with a wind-chill that made me seriously consider snow bird status. So the streets were filled with New Yorkers throwing off the cabin fever of the winter, checking out the street art on West Broadway, and the shoes on sale at 90% off at a shop that, like so many, was going out of business.
I had never heard of Tokidoki. But the crowd felt insinctively familiar. And the line, well, what New Yorker can resist a line. So I went over to check it out. In the window were Hello Kitty handbags. Soccer balls with Tokidoki designs. And inside was the founder and head designer of Tokidoki herself, the very Italian Simone Legno. Hence the crowds of admirers hungry for expensive totems of faux-asian coolness.

I have to admit though, I loved the stuff. Just like I love all the tchatckes you can find on Takeshita Doori. Of course, the stuff on Takeshita Doori doesn't command the prices Tokidoki does. Still, I had $150 to throw away, I'd love one of the soccer balls. However, given today's economic news, it's just not an investment I am willing to make. I'm just in shock there are still so many who can and will buy one.

Gay Athletes, Oral Sex and Advertising

There's a provocative headline to introduce this rather amusing print ad for a gay bar in Prague. The Gym Sports Bar down on 8th Avenue in Chelsea has never done anything this playful. Of course given the history that many gay bars in NYC are basically still run by organized crime, it's no surprise the ads are simply about the beef, with hardly any playfulness at all (btw that's no reflection on the ownership of Gym Bar, which I've been to all of once and decided, uh, this is why I hate straight bars, why have a gay bar like this?).

Kudos to EuroRSCG for this ad, posted, as usual, at adsoftheworld, where the ad posted next to it, presented an even more amusing juxtaposition as you can see below. Perhaps the guy eating the Snickers bar needs more practice taking it all. All the more interesting is that the ad is for Snickers — the controversy surrounded that homophobic advertising debacle was chronicled over at joemygod.

The Larry Craig Defense Strategy

This little bit of advertising for the Sony PSP is a visual trope that appears again and again in advertising -- and could be used by Larry Craig's defense lawyer though I suspect the former Senator has never had his hands on a video game.

I've seen this visual gag for shoes, for watches...recently a team at my agency came up with the idea for another product entirely, and would have shown it had I not pointed out that this is overdone, trite...but there is no question it is effective. I find it particularly interesting that heterosexual men (regardless of where they fall in the Kinsey scale) in advertising come up with this situation again and again. And I leave it to you to consider or contribute to what it might mean: