Underwear Fig Leaf Marketed To Protect Privacy At Airport

A guy from Las Vegas, Jeff Buske created a special kind of underwear with a strategically placed fig leaf design that protects travelers' privacy when undergoing medical or security screenings. Jeff Buske says his invention uses a powdered metal and the underwear's inserts are thin and conform to the body's contours, making it difficult to hide anything beneath them. The mix of tungsten and other metals do not set off metal detectors. There are also sports bras for women that have two fig leaves covering the breasts. The price of the product varies from $9 to $37.

I'm not sure how I feel about that, because I have never had problems with that. I don't look at it as invading my privacy, so I don't see the need for that product. And I am not sure how popular the product will get. I don't really see a bright future for it. There are definitely people who do care about it. Probably the inventor himself had issues with it, or he knew people who had. However I see a bigger success for that product in US market than in for example European market because of the difference in people's views and mentality. That's just my opinion. But I definitely give credit points to this guy for the creative idea.

Food Likes Mozart??

In Japan there is a growing business trend to play classical music to some food products like bananas, sake, noodles. For 20 years Ohara Shuzo, a sake brewery in Fukushima Prefecture, has been serenading their fermenting rice during the third stage of the brewing process. For an hour in the morning and one in the afternoon, maturing sake designated for the company’s “classical series” enjoys the vibrations of Mozart’s “Symphony 41” and “Piano Concerto 20” from their stainless-steal tanks. It wasn’t always this way. Experiments with jazz, Bach and Beethoven were initially conducted by the company, but they did not produce the “richer fragrance and a milder taste” that Mozart does, Ohara told the paper. While claims that music can benefit plants are nothing new, insisting the classical greats can improve the taste of everything from bananas to soy sauce certainly is. And it’s a growing business: Consumers in Japan can now pick up bananas, tomatoes, udon noodles and soy sauce that has a label on it saying that the product has been exposed to  classical music of Mozart.

I think it's a great idea to sell something. It's a great way to differentiate the product from competitors. In the same time there have been studies made proving the effect of music. So, I as a consumer who believes in the power of the sound, would totally buy those products that are discussed above.

Viral Marketing

About a month ago I read a news about wolves attacking people and police in the parking lots and on the streets in downtown Moscow. There even was a video of it. It was explained that due to the great fire that hit Moscow and its surrounding area in summer, there was not enough food for the wolves. So they trespassed the city to find food. The videos got a lot of attention. I thought it was really odd. Wolves in the middle of Moscow, really?? That's interesting how they made it there. It's pretty much the same as the idea of wolves in downtown Chicago or Washington. So, in a week or two the secret was revealed: it appeared it was part of a highly-focused ad campaign for Eristoff, a spirits-maker which is trying to launch itself onto the Russian market. The campaign's name is Wolf Is Back. It is a great example of viral marketing. It was a creative way to link a real issue in Russia to the advertisements for their vodka.

videos: wolves in the parking lot

wolves attacking police

the homepage for the camapaign

Interesting Phenomenon

So, I was looking through some news from back home and my eye was caught by this news from the economy section of the webpage. I thought it's an interesting phenomenon and will perfectly fit in here to write about it. The economy in Estonia goes through hard times right now like the rest of the world. Even though the whole country is struggling in the economy crisis there is an unexplained phenomenon: increased use of an expensive prescription medicine that is used to treat high cholesterol called Crestor. According to the statistics Agency its sales rose 30% within a year. The increase of usage is even more outstanding considering the fact that the overall use of medicines has decreased during the crisis and this trend applies to most drug groups. The explanation may be behind the company's Astrazeneca effective outreach work. Crestor is company's one of the main products. Last year AstraZeneca spent 1.6 million Euros on advertising their product. They also did a great job in promoting their products abroad by sending doctors in different countries to introduce the medicine.

What I can see is that people really value their health even in difficult times. They do not want to spare on their health. Many of us assume automatically that higher price means better quality and companies know that and benefit from it. But is it really true? Is there a positive correlation between the price and quality? I am not really sure about it. As trying to be a reasonable consumer I think before I buying something. I rather spend some more time on finding information and doing some resaerch and comparison than overpay. For example buying a flu medicine at CVS: there is this $20 brand and one shelf below I see $10 CVS brand medicine that serves the same purose. I automatically want to grab $20 drug, but now I have become more aware. I compare those both brands to see the difference. Usually there is no signifficant difference between them. So, I do not see the point in paying more just because the product has a well known brand, more expensive looking package etc.