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Entries in change (33)

Friday

Jun252010

Time to Rethink the American Dream?

This week, discouraging news was released about new-home sales in May: The number plummeted 33 percent from April. Now that the government-sponsored $8,000 tax credit for new homebuyers has expired, it seems potential purchasers have cooled their heels on what used to be the staple of the American Dream.

Occasional special credits and longstanding “permanent” tax write-offs such as the deduction of mortgage interest have placed an inherent advantage in owning a home versus renting. The mortgage companies and quasigovernmental housing agencies followed suit, marketing their version of the dream to young professionals by dangling carrots of several-hundred-thousand-dollar “starter homes” to young people with starting-salary incomes and no credit.

For years, marketers across a range of industries have relied on homeownership as a key component when promoting that dream. But should we—as marketers and as Americans—be finding out whether homeownership really matters to young people today or even rethinking its viability as a good investment for many people, young and old? Maybe young people are right not to buy. Is that aspect of the American Dream truly a reality—or even desirable—for them? Should it be?

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June 25, 2010 | by

Lesley Sillaman | | tagged

Age,

American Dream,

change,

economy,

ttrends |

The Consumers’ New Clothes (Sarah Ferguson, Take Note)

Originally posted on the Huffington Post.

I don’t need to tell you that the world has seen its share of change lately. We used to embrace change and make it happen (which entails pretty much everything before Sept. 11, 2001). Then we watched it from the sidelines (the Iraq and Afghanistan wars, the various financial crises), craved it (the 2008 U.S. presidential election) and circled back to watching—helplessly, it seems (losing patience with President Obama, the BP oil leak).

But now we’re creating change again. A New Consumerism is taking hold. People around the world are realizing their responsibility in current events and trying to take control of what they can. They’re making changes to simplify their finances, their consumption, their lives.

Unfortunately, Sarah Ferguson doesn’t seem to be one of those people

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June 24, 2010 | by

Marian Salzman | | tagged

brands,

change,

economy,

happiness,

trends |

Power from the People

Originally posted on huffingtonpost.com.

Look at the American political landscape today and you might begin to get the sinking feeling that the red state/blue state dichotomy is, on the one hand, just a bit of political show and, on the other, a pitiable piece of naiveté. We have to admit that if we want to paint the nation with an election-time metaphor, its color wouldn’t be blue, red or even my recently identified purple. It’s green—and not the green of environmental concerns, but the green of cold, hard cash.*

On Jan. 21, 2010, the U.S. Supreme Court virtually endorsed this green-tinted view of American politics in the case Citizens United v. Federal Election Commission. The court ruled in a 5-4 decision that corporations (and nonprofits and unions) can donate any amount of money to a political campaign—and at any time, including the previously banned “electioneering” period of 30 days before a primary and 60 days before a general election.

The court essentially opened the floodgates to corporate domination of campaign finance, staking the decision, which reverses six decades of both federal election law and First Amendment jurisprudence, on the notion that corporations are people, too.

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May 20, 2010 | by

Marian Salzman | | tagged

Connecticut,

Marketing,

Obama,

PR,

campaign,

change |