by Abelardo de la Peña Jr. WHAT’S HAPPENING Once the second fastest-growing Latino group in New York City, some Ecuadorians are either returning to their home country or giving the possibility serious consideration. And Ecuador is putting out the welcome mat, with financial incentives as a lure. Ecuador’s immigration agency, Senami, sees the recession as [...]
by Cree McCree WHAT’S HAPPENING Old-fashioned gout is back, and that’s not a good thing. Once the scourge of aristocrats bloated with fatty foods, the painful arthritis affliction is now stalking America’s overweight middle class. As many as six million Americans suffer from the disabling joint disease, which has doubled in incidence over the past [...]
by Hans Eisenbeis WHAT’S HAPPENING A June 2009 academic study from the University of Chicago looks very closely at the factors which influence some Americans with negative equity to walk away from their homes, even if they could afford to continue making mortgage payments. The mathematical tipping point: The researchers found that homeowners whose negative [...]
by Nissa Hanna WHAT’S HAPPENING Paper or fabric? House-Wear chose the former as the material for its Paper Wear clothing collection. Artist Laura Sansone created the avant-garde label that uses Tyvek (yep, like the mailing envelopes) as the material for pants, dresses, jackets and some home accessories (Inhabitat.com 5.17.09). So, why Tyvek? It’s strong, soft [...]
by Josh Kimball The economy continues cascading. Unemployment’s ugly, retail sales are rank, the housing market is still homely. But there’s one reliable metric in America; one number that, year over year, keeps right on growing — our waist size. Lost, as our attention focuses on more immediate events, is an unsettling phenomenon that isn’t [...]
by Abelardo de la Peña Jr. WHAT’S HAPPENING If you’re happy and you know it, say “¡Orale!” (Hooray). A study shows that bicultural teens who actively embrace their Latino culture, and whose parents become more involved in U.S. culture, are happier and healthier. The findings of a study by the University of North Carolina’s Latino [...]
by Nissa Hanna WHAT’S HAPPENING Watch out, single-line barcodes; GS1 DataBars will soon hit store shelves to help customers save money and prevent them from purchasing expired goods. The torqued DataBars pack extra info into two lines of barcodes, so stores can offer coupons with multiple product discounts. For example, one coupon could offer deals [...]
Posted in Consumer Trend, Retail
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Tagged Boomers, Consumer trends, coupons, Gen Xers, GS1 DataBars, Iconoculture, Iconowatch, Matures, Millennials, Nissa Hanna
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by Paul Katz WHAT’S HAPPENING Smart billboards that can tell apart the men from the ladies are on the way. Singapore’s Agency for Science, Technology, and Research has developed facial recognition software that can separate the sexes and then program a digital board to display gender-specific ads (CNET.com 6.17.09). The software is in Beta but [...]
Posted in Consumer Trend, Media
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Tagged Boomers, Consumer trends, Gen Xers, Iconoculture, Iconowatch, interactive advertising, Matures, Millennials, Paul Katz, smart billboards
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by Rob van Alstyne WHAT’S HAPPENING 18-year-old Zion Badash has created a tiny device with huge carbon-footprint impact: a wheel-shaped auto add-on dubbed the Z5 that improves air flow to engines and increases combustion efficiency (The Jerusalem Post 3.15.09). Made of a special alloy and with a suggested retail price of $208, the Z5 has [...]
Posted in Consumer Trend, Transportation
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Tagged auto efficiency, Boomers, Consumer trends, Gen Xers, Iconoculture, Iconowatch, Millennials, Rob van Alstyne, Z5, Zion Badash
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by Charlotte Beal Why beat around the bush? If we may say, Iconoculture has been hitting home runs in the trend department lately — getting out ahead of the curve on consumer culture before our clients knew what hit ‘em. In the food world, everyone’s buzzing about “taco trucks 2.0″ — Kogi Korean tacos and [...]
by Rocio Zamora Arzola WHAT’S HAPPENING How do you get Spanish-speaking Latinos to care about the 2010 Census count? By inserting a Census taker as a character in Telemundo’s Spanish-language soap Más Sabe el Diablo (The Devil Knows More). It’s about a thief falling in love with his lawyer, who’s engaged to the man he [...]
by Josh Kimball WHAT’S HAPPENING Earthaid.net gives consumers a one-stop spot online to see how much juice their homes are using. The new service helps consumers monitor their home’s patterns, then pays them when they save energy. Using the motto “Smart for Your Wallet. Smart for the World,” Earth Aid Enterprises also sells Earth Aid [...]
by Tim Barlow WHAT’S HAPPENING Indie foodies are bringing their preference for counter culture to the world of food service in Los Angeles (LATimes.com 6.10.09). Often crossovers from, or co-dependents with, the independent music scene, these entreé-preneurs work off-the-grid to cater small events like dinner parties, rock shows and art openings Working predominately with raw, [...]
by Hans Eisenbeis WHAT’S HAPPENING Some downsized older Boomers are taking early retirement, opting for a steady Social Security check instead of stressing about finding a new job. How are their young Millennial colleagues handling joblessness? Many are indulging in escapism — literally. The Wall Street Journal reports that post-grads are skipping out on the [...]
by Becky Sun At the risk of sounding like one more blog, tweet or Facebook status update lamenting Michael Jackson’s death, this week’s newsletter is Iconoculture’s tribute to the King of Pop. I am an American Gen Xer, and MJ supplied the soundtrack to my adolescence. During high school band camp, my then boyfriend, who [...]
