Speaking of Kawaii Things...

On Saturday, I went to visit my friend Rockhopper. In addition to having lots of fun playing Wii Fit and watching Seinfeld episodes on DVD, we looked through some of her souvenirs from a trip to Japan earlier this year. Among the items was a mini origami notepad from the Osaka Aquarium. You can write notes on one side and then fold the paper into a penguin or sea otter. It really was too adorable for words.
And now let's segue to something that presents a somewhat twisted but very hilarious take on "kawaii-ness." I first learned about Meghan Murphy's Kawaii Not comics months ago at a happy hour gathering after work. One of the senior producers whipped out a very cute, animé-looking book and passed it around. We were each told to tear out one page and share it with everyone. We flipped through the pages amid much laughter, and it was immediately obvious that we all appreciated the "cute gone bad" humor of the 4-panel comic strips. I thought it was so funny that I had to buy a copy for myself (and one for my sister, too). If you like cute stuff with an edge, check out Murphy's Kawaii Not website. A new webcomic is posted every few days.

Musings on Marketing Trends

When the 100-calorie snack packs first came out a few years ago, I had no idea just how far this trend would go. My sister was the one who informed me that the trend had a name: forced portion control. (Sounds a bit serious, doesn't it?) It makes perfect marketing sense, of course, given America's obesity epidemic. At the time, however, I simply thought the packaging convenient, and on occasion, the light snacks surprisingly rivaled their original, full-caloried counterparts in tastiness. More recent walks through the grocery store, or indeed any store that peddles packaged foods, reveal just how widespread this trend has gone. It seems you can find anything in the 100-calorie form. My favorite is the mini soft drink can. I find it appealing, not because it's only 100 calories, but because of what I call the "kawaii factor." Kawaii is the Japanese word for "cute," and these little cans just look so darn cute!
It's not just food that takes advantage of the kawaii factor. Take a look at these movie images. Is not Wall-E a kawaii version of the Short Circuit robot?
And take a look at the evolution of the iPod nano between the 2nd and 3rd generations. The 3G nano definitely has the kawaii factor going on.
Of course, the 4G nano is back to a tall and slim design, so I guess the pendulum is swinging back to the other side. Regardless, Apple certainly leads the market in product design, packaging, and marketing.

Words and Whimsy

I don't relish the frequency with which I leave work after 7 these days, but it has allowed me to catch the radio show Says You on the commute home Tuesday nights. Described as "a game of words and whimsy, bluff and bluster," Says You features wordplay and language trivia that are as hilarious as they are fascinating.

Consider, if you will, the words presented in this week's Balderdash segment: stoush and nick-fidge. What definitions would you come up with for these terms? Can you imagine saying to someone, "They got into a big stoush today," or "Don't be a nick-fidge"? It turns out that stoush is Australian slang for a fight or argument. And a nick-fidge is someone who frequently gets into trouble. The vagaries of the English language never cease to amaze me.

Another portion of this week's show featured seemingly unconnected word pairs that share an etymological origin. For example: January/janitor, bugle/buffalo, porpoise/pork, Canary Island/canine, and musketeer/mosquito. I'll give you the first one. January and janitor both derive from the name of the Roman god Janus. Janus is the god of beginnings, and January is the first month of the year. Janus is also the god of doors, and the word janitor originally meant doorman! Cool, huh? Okay, maybe this only interests word geeks like me, but if you are reading this blog, chances are that you're a word geek, too. ;P Anyway, give the rest a try!

P.S. Says You airs on KCRW Tuesday evenings from 7:30 to 8:00.

Mystery Solved

I don't know about you, but during the Olympic Games, I kept seeing people dressed in white pants and blue-and-white polo shirts at the various venues. What made these people stand out to me was the word "BOB" emblazoned on their backs. Of course, I knew it had to be an acronym, but seeing all those BOBs, well, bobbing around tickled my funny bone. Especially since "Bob" is the codename I use at work when marketing, political, or other corporate reasons cause me to produce content that I don't believe in. Such a codename can come in quite handy. During frustrating times, I can tell a few select people, "I'm having a Bob moment." Having a codename and being able to make cryptic remarks are hallmarks of membership in an underground society. ;P Anyway, back to the uniformed BOBs. So, I finally did some sleuthing (i.e., ran a Google search), and it turns out that the acronym stands for Beijing Olympic Broadcasting. I should've known that it was something terribly mundane.