Two quickies referred to me by Helen Baxter (The Business Blog for Kiwi Creatives). One is Blackspot Shoes, designed to fight the likes of Nike by being socially responsible. From its introduction: ‘Earth-friendly, anti-sweatshop, cruelty free, and pro-grassroots, Blackspots are the only rough-and-ready shoes designed to give toxic megacorporations what they need the most: a swift kick in the brand.’ Down side: Blackspots is sometimes intercapitalized (BlackSpots). Even anti-brands need to have consistent branding if they are to work. Anti-brands are brands, too, as much as they don’t want to hear that.
   Connected to Blackspot is Adbusters, which most readers will be familiar with. They’re keeping an eye on Canwest, the parent company to TV3 and More FM here in New Zealand. The odd thing, as Helen relayed to me, is that these subsidiaries have decent people who don’t necessarily follow the head office’s directive. After briefly touching base with some TV3 folks last week—viz. anchor John Campbell and his producer and collaborator Carol Hirschfeld—this is true. Nevertheless, ‘Canwest Watch’ produces some food for thought about the top layer of management at TV3’s parent. You decide. Posted by Jack Yan, 13:50  permalink

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