Jane Genova: Speechwriter - Ghostwriter

Talbots: Remember when we Hillary Clinton pant suit mid-level professionals shopped there?

Retailer Talbots had cast a spell on us Baby Boomer women.  We were the first generation to climb the corporate ladder.  And shopping here for professional clothes and the casual outfits we needed for those company retreats was always mistake-proof. 

I went to pitch in my Talbots navy blue pants suit and the midlevel female executive in charge of that account told me that she had the same pants suit in black.  Yeah, back then we were Hillary Clinton kind of women.

Then Talbots lost its way.  I deconstruct what happened in my post today for financial information powerhouse Motley Fool.   Here you can read all about it.

Mass Market: Don Draper would be writing SuperBowl ads today

There is a mass market.  It comes together for sports.  It surges for the SuperBowl. 

BUSINESS INSIDER reports that, on the average, 30-second spots sold for SuperBowl 2012 @$3.5 million each, which was up from last year.  When Don Draper of "Mad Men" was writing the ads for it - that was the first SuperBowl in 1967 - air time had cost $40,000.

But the mass market is shrinking for the President's State of the Union, where the drama is predictable.  The camera tracks the big political names coming in, listening, and beaming or frowning, depending on their party affiliation.  According to Nielsen, reports "Media Decoder" in THE NEW YORK TIMES, the audience for this year's address was about 37.8 million, down from 42.8 million last year, and 52.3 million the year before.

In addition to stale performance art, the State of the Union in this presidential campaign year carried too much sales baggage.  Watching it was much like sitting through an infomercial.

 

"Criminal Minds" - Prentiss has to mourn her own death

Time has passed since Prentiss was almost killed and then she went into hiding.  The team assumed she had died.  She seems to be functioning well but Hotchner and the therapist aren't too sure. 

The therapist tells her she hasn't as yet mourned her own death.  Hotchner details to her how she is overcompensating, primarily to run from accepting the trauma as having happened, processing the pain, and then going on.  Finally Prentiss falls apart or, as she puts it to Hotchner, is having a bad day.

This crisis is generated by the Piano Man case they are working on.  A real nut job he rapes them and then rapes them again.  He enjoys having them live in fear.  The new twist is that he has started to kill them.  He killed one and is moving on to the second, Regina.  She connects the dots and kidnaps him.  She is ready to kill him when the team arrives.  When she is supposed to be debriefed by Prentiss, she turns the table on her.  All those memories of Doyle returning to kill her and almost getting that done flood Prentiss with feelings.

Does Prentiss have the strength to get on the other side of this emotional upheaval?  That's what we will find out in the next couple of weeks.

State of the Union: On-demand Facebook makes waiting for professional commentators yesterday

Web and mobile technology might not only be eating the jobs of those well-paid Establishment journalists.  A social network like Facebook might also be putting out to pasture those even better paid television political commentators who deconstruct public addresses after they are over.

As Jennifer Moore reports in ALL FACEBOOK, commentary about the State of the Union were posted on Facebook in real time.  And that's exactly how human beings experience the world: in the moment.

Think about it.  Does an employer wait until after interviewing an applicant to collect and process impressions about suitability?  Of course not.  Fox News leader Roger Ailes hit his first big communications homerun in noting and broadcasting that first and lasting impressions are made in real time in the first few minutes, or even moments.

Diane Sawyer: Little Miss Perfect gets spanked by meteorologist

 In the career jungle of television, Diane Sawyer has remained Little Miss Perfect.  She didn't even age in a way that demanded a face lift like some TV personalities and if she did get one, well, it was perfect.

Perfectly she took on the role of the first female news anchor who succeeded.  Perfectly she does the right affect without ever over-doing it.

Well Little Miss Perfect got spanked by a man of science.  He is James Spann, a meteorologist.  He took Sawyer to task for describing with her usual her earnestness that the tornado hit Alabama "without warning."  He disagreed.  He pointed out that there had been days of warning that the twister was on its way and about 20 to 30 minutes warning that it would be in town very shortly.

Given that Spann is making this an issue, it's unlikely it will go away without a hit to the Sawyer brand. 

Starbucks: Brand extension from mojo to mellow

Brand extension is always a risk.  Google dallied with clean energy.   Then got out.  Given Google, it knew how to enter and exit without too much fall-out.

The stronger the brand, the more the world, ranging from investors to marketing experts, watch.  So, there are plenty of folks observing Starbucks's migration from mojo to mellow.  After 2 P.M., there's not a whole lot of demand for coffee. 

Yesterday, Starbucks announced that is introducing wine, beer, and some appropriate finger food in select locations.  You might frame this as the second phase of road-testing the concept. 

I deconstruct what I see as smart in this move for the the financial information powerhouse Motley Fool.  Here you can read all about it.

Wal-Mart: Healthy, low-cost "Seafood Snackers"

Wal-Mart has made it impossible not to eat healthy. 

Today in its store in urban New Haven, Connecticut, I came upon "Seafood Snackers."  The packet of 4 crab-flavored 6-inch rods of some kind of seafood sells for a buck.  Chow down the whole packet and there are only 80 calories, no fat, and 6 grams of protein.

I bought a bunch.  The taste is good.  With Salsa it's wonderful.  Question: do I dare serve "Seafood Snackers" when the crowd comes over to watch the SuperBowl?

 

Outsized Bosses Out: Team in

Follow the experts on corporate governance and it seems that those old-line high profile seemingly tyrannical bosses are going the way of the lifetime job with benefits.  The team is in, even at the top of the food chain.

I deconstruct this trend for financial information powerhouse Motley Fool.  Here you can read all about it.

Downton Abbey: Bates is back

Amidst all the horror of the war, there was joy at Downton Abbey.  The earl asked Bates to return and he did.  He will also be able to bully his wife into giving him a divorce and that means he can marry Anna.  Mathew and Jim who had been missing in action show up safe.  During the time no one knew if they were dead or alive, Mary displayed her feelings for him.  She is moving on to marry a rich man she does not love.

But there is still silliness.  Her sister has fallen in love with a servant.  Will she run off with him during these crazy times of war? We wonder about that.  She is the only family member who is a free spirit.

Joe Paterno, Dead: For decades we will ask what "killed" him

Football coaching legend Joe Paterno is dead.  He was 85.  We will be asking for decades if Paterno died from the scandal of alleged sex abuse by a subordinate at Penn State or because of lung cancer.

Whatever.  It was the stuff of Shakespearean tragedy to watch a powerful figure be taken so low by scandal so late in his career.  The institution he served - Penn State - fired him.