Kevin Rothermel

No Spoilers.

Brand Strategist
Professor, VCU Brandcenter

No Spoilers.

About / Contact / Archive

Archives for October 2008

Vote with your Dollars —How Companies Have Donated Politically

I've been meaning to post about GoodGuide for a few months now, ever since someone at work first emailed out the link. The basic gist of the website is that it helps you make more better purchasing decisions based on "what is important to you." It rates products on health, environment and social performance.

Anyways, I just went there for the first time in a while and noticed that they've created an embeddable app that maps out political leanings (Rep. or Dem.) of companies based on their donations. I've had to temporarily increase the size of my middle column … which is annoying, but I couldn't get it to fit otherwise.

See below:

Democratic

Republican


GoodGuide.com political contribution data for over 100 companies

View data for other companies at GoodGuide.com

Brand Fossils

Remember the 7-11 Simpson's movie promotion? Well, the donuts are still there.

Simpsonsdonut

Still doing their job of promoting the movie long after the end of that campaign.  Like a sugary Wall-E, sticking behind and continuing their mission long after their partners in communicating have gone.  Or like a Japanese World War II soldier who is still hiding in the hills of some remote island in the Pacific, awaiting orders from High Command to attack … or any number of other bad metaphors, really.  It would be interesting if they stuck around long enough to actually make more money than the movie did, with their unsettlingly surreal pink icing menacing me everytime I walk in and out of a 7-11 for the rest of my life (which is probably how long it would take to out earn the movie.)

About

Picture 6

Hi,

I'm a strategic planner at Eleven Inc. in San Francisco where I work on all kinds of strategic work, from traditional account planning to digital strategy, product innovation and business strategy. Prior to that I worked at Modernista in Boston.

I have an MS in Strategic Planning from VCU Adcenter (now the VCU Brandcenter) in Richmond Virginia and I received a BS in Marketing Management from Virginia Tech (after being distracted by other majors like Business Information Technology, Architecture, and Political Science).

I've been a drummer for way longer than I've been anything else. My current project is called Sentinel.

I also teach Account Planning at Academy of Art University in San Francisco, and have recently started working with social entrepreneurs Catapult Design.

Virginia Tech football is the best.  Except when it's the worst.

The Most Curmudgeonly McDonalds Of All

Mcdonalds1

"You don't eat food here, you consume it.  And then you get out…and we'll know if you don't, because we're watching you."

Mcdonalds2

"Refills are extra, your large bills are no good here, and if you want more than the one sauce we give you with your McNuggets, it's going to cost you the price of the sauce + tax (specified in our sauce-tax grid here)."

Mcdonalds3

"And if we don't like you, you ain't eating…"

"Now, what can we do you for?"