While the full extent of Mr. Assange’s leaks are yet to be known, there is no question Wikileaks has been a game changer. And brands ought to take notice.

There can be no debate we live in an increasingly transparent world. It’s only a matter of time until the hacker community that supported Wikileaks, and its many copycats, begin leaking corporate secrets.

For some well-behaved companies this won’t be a big deal. But, for others, it will prove disastrous. i.e. pharma companies might have to deal with the full extent of their lab research being publicly available (vs. the edited down legal disclaimers placed on their commercials.)

If the US military and State Department can’t keep their secrets safe, it’s a near certainty major multi-national corporations housing dirty secrets will be next. -PA

Recently, I was on my way back from a business trip in Vermont. I arrived at the near empty airport, checked in at a kiosk and grabbed the familiar, flimsy boarding pass. I only had one small bag, so I walked straight to the TSA checkpoint. Upon entry the TSA agent scoped out my small Ziploc bag full of toiletries. The medium-sized tube of Malin + Goetz sage styling cream was of suspicion. With further inspection the 4 ounce tube was confiscated. I assured the agent that this tube is only half full, and that it no longer contained the 4 ounces of styling cream that it said on the label. He rebuked me saying, “It doesn’t matter. I go by what the label says.”

Introducing…

Tube Stickers™

4 ounce tubes and bottles filled with liquids are not allowed through TSA checkpoints in airports. But why can’t you carry on 4 ounce bottles, that have less than 4 ounces left inside? There is one simple reason. They are still labeled 4 ounces. With Tube Stickers™, after you’ve used a squirt of your carry-on liquids or gels, you can label them their current and honest size. -TN

As sibling rivalry forms the backbone of my existence, I am slightly obsessed with birth order and how this dictates who / what we turn out to be. It affects everyone and is the perfect intersection of nature vs. nurture; instinctive survival combined with how much attention mummy gave me.

They say the eldest are socially dominant, highly intellectual and extremely conscientious. Unfortunately, they’re also less open to new ideas, sensitive to criticism, prone to perfectionism and people pleasing. Perfect career: Lawyer.

Youngest children unsurprisingly tend to be dependent, selfish and hard to discipline. But they’re also considered to be the life of the party – fun, confident, and comfortable entertaining others. Perfect career: Stand up comedian.

Middle children are often competitive in nature, making them natural entrepreneurs later in life. Eager for parental praise they often develop musical, sporting or academic gifts. Perfect career: Owner of semi-pro softball league

And then there’s the only child. They are regularly spoiled and have a hard time when they don’t get their own way. They’re often mature for their age, wowing people with their vocabulary and their comfort in adult circles. Plus, all that self-entertaining fosters creativity. Perfect career: Writer-slash-actor-slash-director

So where does the Amalgamated group fair in this theory?

I think we could all take a pretty accurate guess about some individuals at 145 West 30th but in order to ensure this is a credible, objective and scientific study, I asked everyone on Survey monkey.
Of all the people in the office today:

46.7% Oldest
6.7% Middle
40.0% Youngest
6.7% Only

So, in conclusion, Amalgamated is nearly half Comedian and half Lawyer with a few people trying to impress in-between. That sounds just about right. -LS

7:42 sunset

If you can’t see something, change your perspective… and maybe it will appear. On March 12, I did just that. I watched the sun set, then jumped in my dad’s J-3 Piper Cub and watched it rise up and set again. It was a slight change of perspective that actually made the whole world move backwards for 6 minutes. -TN

7:48 sunset

We call Amalgamated’s lounge area and “solarium” the Tenderloin. The name has a lot of history to it. The Tenderloin was an entertainment and red-light district in the heart of the New York City borough of Manhattan during the late 19th and early 20th centuries. The area originally ran from 23rd Street to 42nd Street and from Fifth Avenue to Seventh Avenue, but by the turn of the century it had expanded northward to 57th or 62nd Street and west to Eighth Avenue, encompassing parts of what is now the Flatiron District, NoMad, Chelsea, Clinton, the Garment District and the Theatre District.

Police Captain Andrew S. “Clubber” Williams gave the area its name in 1876, when he was transferred to a police precinct in the heart of the district. Referring to the increased payoffs he would get for police protection of both legitimate and illegitimate businesses there, Williams said, “I’ve been having chuck steak ever since I’ve been on the force, and now I’m going to have a bit of tenderloin.” – TN

What takes Mother Nature millions of years to create, New York City creates in several hours. These temporary transforming mountains line our streets. In the city context, these snow banks, aged and polished by delivery truck exhaust, appear grotesque- but paired with a gorgeous sky from Battery Park, they become a daydream escape. -TN

The Tenderloin Ridge, located on 7th Ave and 30th St across from the Police Castle.

Left: Mount Bowery, located near the only deciduous evergreen tree on Bowery and Houston.

Right: FDR Crag, located on the bike path parallel to the FDR, North of the Williamsburg Bridge.

-Visit the Flicker page

Market innovation has long been dominated by the world view of engineers and economists; build a better mousetrap and the world will take notice. This functional point of view certainly has merit. But, because it is the only way that we approach innovation, the better-mousetraps approach has had the effect of eclipsing a very different innovation world view… champion a better ideology and the world will take notice as well. The market power that can be garnered by advancing innovative ideology has long been understood outside the business world. For politicians, artists, and social activists, innovative ideology is the name of the game. Think about Gloria Steinhem or Ann Coulter, Martin Luther King or Nelson Mandela, John Wayne or Bono, Ronald Reagan or Hugo Chavez, Greenpeace or Focus on the Family. In fact, the phrase “build a better mousetrap” would not be so familiar if its author, Ralph Waldo Emerson, had not advanced an immensely influential ideology – his romantic spin on American individualism. These individuals and groups all became immensely influential by advancing innovative ideology. – DC & DH

Every now and then, a D-lister is plucked from obscurity and thrust back into pop culture thanks to a semi-ironic ad campaign. Neil Patrick Harris was in an Old Spice commercial before he took off in How I Met Your Mother. Betty White in Snickers. Erik Estrada in, well, everything. The list goes on.

Here are my nominees for the next ex-star we should see hawking some product on TV:

Fred Savage. Was America’s golden boy until puberty.

Val Kilmer. Last thing I heard was he running for New Mexico State Legislature.

Steve Gutenberg. Who doesn’t love the Goot?

Bronson Pinchot. Is America ready to say hello to the lovable exchange student once again? I think so.

Tiffany. Before there was Britney, there was Tiffany.

Rudy from The Cosby Show. I don’t even know her real name, but I liked her then and I’m guessing I’ll like her now.

Dave Coulier. Remember Uncle Joey? Of course, you do. – NK

Carmax made an unexpected appearance at the Oscars last night, as Rico Rodriguez, star of ABC’s Modern Family, referenced our Carmax Super Bowl Spot, “Kid in a Candy Store,” with a joke of his own. Check it out.

It was 3:30 something on a very cold Friday when I decided I needed a cup of coffee. More than the coffee, I needed to take a walk. The whole thing took about 15 minutes. In those 15 minutes, I learned 12 things.

Before I left, I asked if I could get anyone anything. Lizzie, our new Account Director from Australia, said that she wanted a “white” coffee. I had never heard that one before. Turns out it means coffee with milk (1), which makes perfect sense because in the US we call coffee without milk “black.” Case in point, when our intern, Travis, told me how he wanted his coffee. He said he likes his coffee “black” (2).

While waiting for the elevator, I read a sign that said the maximum occupancy of our office is 57 persons (3) and that one of our copywriters, Nick, is our floor’s fire marshal (4). The sign said that the fire marshal’s job is to make sure no one is left in the office in the event of a fire (5). I made a mental note to never piss Nick off (6) and got in the elevator.

I hadn’t been in a Starbucks in a long time. They have a new size (7) called Trenta (8). It’s comically large (9). I ordered three coffees, one black and two white. I also got a cookie (ok, maybe that was the real reason I went to Starbucks.)

On the walk back to the office, I overheard a conversation between two guys walking in front of me. One was wearing a heavy winter coat; the other, only a t-shirt. The jacketed friend said, “It’s supposed to be even colder tomorrow (10), are you going to wear shorts?” The friend in the t-shirt said he planned to stay inside all day (11), so yes (12).

When I got back to the office, I chose one of the things I had learned (#5, fire marshals) and wrote an ad about it.

You never know where inspiration will come from. –HF