The royal wedding took place early this morning, and a surprising number of people in our studio said they stayed up to watch it. That surprising number is 1.
But even if we haven
The royal wedding took place early this morning, and a surprising number of people in our studio said they stayed up to watch it. That surprising number is 1.
But even if we haven
Since the early twentieth century, Conspicuous Consumption has driven a multi-billion dollar glut of unnecessary stuff. But in the midst of a vicious recession, conspicuous consumption has been a little less conspicuous as those of us with jobs and discretionary spending money try not to rub it in. What is a luxury goods manufacturer to do?
Businesses, take heart. This week, Freakonomics host Steve Dubner unveiled a new term that could introduce a second wind into the luxury market: Conspicuous Conservation.
CONTINUE »
Our favorite champion of American innovation, Stephen Colbert, brings us another Bad Idea this week with the concept of shame-o-vation. In a nutshell: instead of using innovation to uncover unmet user needs, why not use shame-o-vation to uncover previously UNKNOWN user needs?
| The Colbert Report | Mon – Thurs 11:30pm / 10:30c | |||
| The Word – Buy and Cellulite | ||||
|
||||
Today’s bad idea is so inspired and sophisticated that we found ourselves questioning whether it was actually so bad that it’s good. Meet Alie & Georgia, experimental cocktail connoisseurs whose work is described by Technorati as “deliciously revolting.” Their most famous concoctions include the McNuggetini, the Ham Daiquiri, the Bloody Bacon and Cheese, Drunken Donuts and the Coconut Blurry Curry. Cocktails like these achieve a level of ‘bad’ that is at once both upsetting and intriguing. Often, the creators themselves can’t even stomach the taste. For those of you looking to cure your St. Patrick’s Day hangover with a little hair of the dog, jump in for a few recipes sure to be so disgusting that you’ll forget all about what you did last night.
Maybe you
Is indecision getting in the way of your life? Do you waste hours of your life mulling over decisions like:
Q:
With the ongoing flu season, who really wants Bernard to blow out those candles on his birthday cake at the company party? I’ll have my slice sans spit, please.
You no longer have to worry about seeming like a stiffy germophobe at Bernard’s party when you bring BLOZ! With fun and colorful graphics, BLOZ! is a can of air that will bring life to the party while blowing out your candles for you. The playful graphics will prevent your coworkers from becoming alarmed by your unnatural obsession with your immune system. BLOZ! emits a gentle air stream that is just enough to extinguish a candle flame, and not quite enough to send frosting flying off the cake.
Ah, love! It’s that time of year when angry TV football coaches send hapless men to Proflowers.com and Super Husbands protect their wives from blizzards with diamond necklaces. It’s enough to make the attached among us feel a bit queasy. But what about those of us still looking for a special someone?
While some single people relish a free pass on Valentine’s Day, for many the holiday is the loneliest day of the year. How can singles get in on the love?
Accessories for Lonely Men, by artist Noam Toran, attracted headlines in 2008, just as the number of unmarried Americans reached 45% of the adult population. These electronic girlfriend simulators alleviate masculine loneliness by suggesting the presence of a woman in the house. A Sheet Thief winds the bedclothes up on the other side of the bed while you’re sleeping while a Heavy Breather breaths hot air down the user’s neck. In the morning, the Hair Alarm Clock swings hair across the user’s face to wake him. On those quiet evenings that become too predictable, he can pick an argument with the Plate Thrower, a rapid-fire plate launcher.
But loneliness is hitting women even harder than men. Women make up 53.4% of the population of the unmarried population. For the first time in American history, there are more single women than married women. In honor of all of the women who have meaningful lives and successful careers, but sometimes want come home at night and experience the companionship of another person, SKD introduces Accessories for Lonely Women: products and services banish the more painful symptoms of solitude.
Just in time for the Super Bowl, we
Chopsticks With Cooling Fan
Ohayo Gozaimasu!
Here at SKD, we consider ourselves to be quite the connoisseurs of bad ideas. But this Friday, we would like to take a moment to recognize the founders of this movement, and pay homage to the Japanese art of Chind?gu.
Kenji Kawakami, a Japanese inventor, coined the term Chind?gu. It refers to the Japanese art of inventing everyday gadgets that appear (on the surface) to be an ingenious solution to a problem. The beauty of Chind?gu is that anyone who attempts to use these inventions undoubtedly runs into many new problems, which renders the idea, in essence, useless. This concept is often at the core of SKD