Recommendations to Kmart for Survival

Peter over at PeterThink has a few ideas on what Kmart should do if it has any hope of surviving following it's emergence from bankruptcy:

• Name Change


• Become the Merchandising Mechanism for Personality Brands


• Create Community


• Create a "Third Place"


• Charge a Membership


• Partner Up


• Embed in Local Communities

New Trend in Hip Hop Radio? Hindi Music?

Anil Dash mentions an email he received from his cousin in California about the increase in Hindi music in Hip Hip radio station rotation. He wonders if it is a new thing but, according to comments in his post, it has been sweeping the nation over the past few months.

This comment sums it up:

"103.5 KTU has featured artist: Punjabi MC's song, "Beware of the Boys" as the #1 song for the past week. It is not sampling the instrumental, it's the straight Punjabi Bhangra with the Knight Rider techno beat cleverly mixed in.

This isn't unusual, the affluent young Indian population has integrated itself into the gangsta-rap and Hip Hop culture more so than any other race. So seeing commercialized rappers like Jay Z ride the Indian beats to tap the desi market was only expected.

I think NY's KTU is the first radio station to play a pure Indian song, without any English voiceovers to add a (if translated) nonsensical meaning to the song.

KTU recently just finished pumping Angelo Venuto's "Tiamo", sung entirely in Italian (and remixed by the Sicilian Assassins).

If you're on Kazaa, I recommend Tiamo and Punjabi MC to anyone with an open mind.

Posted by: Rajan on May 5, 2003 04:02 AM"
--------

2003 Ellie Award Winners

The awards are filtering in right now from the American Society of Magazine Editor's National Magazine Awards ceremony at the Waldorf Astoria. So far, some winners are Slate for General Excellence Online; Conde Naste Traveler for Photography; Details for Design; Sports Illustrated for Profile Writing; The New Yorker for Reporting; and Outside for Personal Service.

Check out Ad Age's minute by minute update here.
--------

Scared of the Implications of TiVo on Advertising?

Sure, TiVo has advertisers running scared thinking all ads will be skipped. But Tom Cotton, president of DDB Integrated Solutions, in a presentation to The Yankee Group's Connected Consumer Summit, says get over it and get used to it. But..adapt or die. Advertising needs to become more compelling and slide more into the categories of advertainment and viral citing some successful examples by Budweiser's Wassup campaign and the Terry Tate spots from Reebok.

Basically, embrace the new way consumers consume and stop trying to protect the old models because the old models are just that. Old.
--------

Radar Editor Gets the Stench

Seems the new Radar Magazine is pissing people off. The magazine named Marion Suge" Knight, founder of Death Row Records, one of it's monsters and most hated people.

The article said Knight "orchestrated the 1996 and '97 slayings of rappers Tupac Shakur and Biggie Smalls . . . At a 1995 Christmas party forced [Bad Boy record promoter] Mark Bell to drink a champagne glass of Knight's urine . . ."

So what did Suge do in response to this? Allegedly, he sent an excrement filled package to Maer Roshan with this letter:

"If dey waz to comes a time, when you didin hab a dime, an you a- - is on tha street like some wurfless monkey meat, I gives you a fresh treat, Dats I know you like to eat, for my next big hit, I give you corn from my [rhymes with �hit']."

Of course, Suge denies he sent the letter and a statement from his rep said, "Suge doesn't know Radar exists. This is just silly. We have nothing to do with this."

I guess Radar is, after all. da shit.
--------