Non-Obvious Strategy
The Non-Obvious Insights Show – Episode #232
In this episode, we talk about … Why the Republican National Convention was a flop (read the full article) The biggest secret about competing on Masterchef How magic helps introduce pioneering technology Empathetic cars that can cure your road rage The debate about whether New York is dead forever Why your next health screening may … Read more
Branding Lessons From the Shady History of the Oreo Cookie
I love a good branding story and the history of the Oreo cookie has plenty of fascinating hooks. The story starts with two feuding brothers, Joseph and Jacob Loose, who ran competing bakeries that came up with two cookies that were essentially the same: the Hydrox and the Oreo. For years the Hydrox dominated, until the 1950s when … Read more
The Non-Obvious Insights Show – Episode #231
In this episode, we talk about … Lessons in humble creativity from the best small agency in America Transparent toilets and they might actually work A stunning VR expose of factory farms filmed by an activist group Apple seeing challenges to their monopoly from Fortnite and others Time crystals and why they aren’t as cool … Read more
Non-Obvious Insights Show – Episode #230
Stories featured on the show this week: One thing that could eliminate fake news How Japan’s “culture of cute” traps women An inside look at how Iceland beat coronavirus Branding lessons from the shady history of the Oreo The 17th century technique for selling during a pandemic A sad new documentary about a surprising new … Read more
Trader Joe’s and the Slow Death of Brand Personality
Update – Two weeks after this post was originally published, Trader Joe’s issued a new statement sharing that they do not consider these brand names to be racist and instead will be keeping them intact. I believe brands should act in human ways and have a personality. In fact, I wrote a book on it … Read more
How Researchers Trained and Created AI With Psycopathic Tendencies
What happens when you train an AI algorithm only with murderous images from horror films or macabre photos from the Internet? A seriously disturbed AI, as researchers at the MIT Media Lab discovered. The AI, named “Norman” after the lead character from the horror film “Psycho,” reacted disturbingly in image association tests and exhibited severe tendencies toward … Read more
