DAILY BRIEFING
In a week when your employee of three months said that his job is harder than he expected — even though he gets free housing, great benefits, a huge staff and lots of missiles — this also happened:
How’s this for a source of fiber: Coca-Cola. That’s what the company is marketing in Japan, selling a Coca-Cola Plus with fiber as sort of a health drink for people over 40. It would go well with celery dipped in sugar. Speaking of Japan and ridiculousness, the New
York Times reported that Japanese jeweler Ginza Tanaka is offering a solid gold Darth Vader mask for about $1.4 million. It celebrates the 40th anniversary of“Star Wars” and will go on sale on — you guessed it — May the 4th, honoring a pun from a long time ago in a galaxy ... oh, never mind.
Nordstrom got dragged through the mud on social media for selling a pair of dirty-looking jeans for $425. The company’s website said the jeans have a “cakedon muddy coating” to embody “rugged, Americana workwear.” But some on social media, including Mike Rowe of the TV show “Dirty Jobs,” said the jeans mocked blue-collar workers.
It’s a marketer’s world. We just live in it. ESPN’s Darren Rovell tweeted that Charmin delivered a dump truck’s worth of toilet paper toa University of Michigan football player before the NFL draft. The player? Jake Butt, of course.
Meanwhile, even the Bronx Zoo knows how catchy names can catch on. Two Eastern hellbenders are at the zoo — they’re giant salamanders — but they’re also known by more colorful names, like “devil dogs,” “snot otters” or “old lasagna sides.”