» Buzzfeed http://www.brandsareopinions.com Mon, 19 Dec 2011 04:41:42 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.1.3 Let’s Brighten the Midweek with Lovely Flowers http://www.brandsareopinions.com/lets-brighten-the-midweek-with-lovely-flowers/ http://www.brandsareopinions.com/lets-brighten-the-midweek-with-lovely-flowers/#comments Wed, 23 Mar 2011 05:02:04 +0000 Dennis Ryan http://www.brandsareopinions.com/?p=7674 Continue reading →]]> Now that the vernal equinox is behind us, we are officially in Spring. Yes, snow will still fall, dark clouds still shroud the blue sky and we’re still a few months away from flip-flops but officially, dammit, it’s Spring.

In honor of that, here are five beautiful, soul-lifting photographs of Dutch flower fields. If these make you as happy as they made me, check out another twenty photos on this Buzzfeed link. And let’s hear it for chlorophyll, xanthophyll, carotene, and my personal favorite, anthocyanin–YEAH! Color my world baby!

Dennis Ryan, OLSON, Advertising

 

Dennis Ryan, OLSON, Advertising

 

Dennis Ryan, OLSON, Advertising

 

Dennis Ryan, OLSON, Advertising

 

Dennis Ryan, OLSON, Advertising

.OLSON, OLSON, OLSON, OLSON, OLSNO, OLSON, OLSON..

By Dennis “Let’s get some color in this landscape” Ryan, CCO, OLSON

.OLSON, OLSON, OLSON, OLSON, OLSNO, OLSON, OLSON..

]]> http://www.brandsareopinions.com/lets-brighten-the-midweek-with-lovely-flowers/feed/ 2 Exhibit A: The Power of Visual Branding http://www.brandsareopinions.com/exhibit-a-the-power-of-visual-branding/ http://www.brandsareopinions.com/exhibit-a-the-power-of-visual-branding/#comments Mon, 15 Mar 2010 05:01:58 +0000 Dennis Ryan http://www.brandsareopinions.com/?p=4867 Continue reading →]]> Dennis Ryan Element 79 Chicago Advertising

Without his mustache, he’d still be a mass-murdering, psycho-racist, but he’d be so much less…Fuhrer (photoshop courtesy of Buzzfeed).

Another totally-unrelated random thought from this past weekend: if you don’t believe we lose valuable things in the ever-increasing, pell-mell pace of modern life, than why did you miss that lost Daylight Savings hour so much Sunday?  Hmm…

By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Element 79 — where today, we welcome back Monica Klasa–YEAH!


]]> http://www.brandsareopinions.com/exhibit-a-the-power-of-visual-branding/feed/ 1 Life Is A Test, And These Days It’s REALLY Multiple Choice http://www.brandsareopinions.com/these-complicated-times/ http://www.brandsareopinions.com/these-complicated-times/#comments Tue, 26 Jan 2010 06:21:23 +0000 Dennis Ryan http://www.brandsareopinions.com/?p=4411 Continue reading →]]> You know, about the time I realized that we were already four years into the US Mint’s ten year program of releasing five state quarters a year, I also concluded too much choice can really mess you up.  Convenience stores along the Indiana toll road have six full sections of soft drink options.  An October 2009 Netcraft website survey tallied up 230,443,449 websites.  Bruce Springsteen rather famously cited fifty-seven channels and nothing on, but that was back in the dark ages of 1992.  Today he’d be off at least by a factor of ten.

Too much choice can paralyze people.  It’s why so many of us use news and content aggregators to try to corral the vast internet into something usable.  It’s why high end clothing stores never feature racks of clothing.  And it well might explain why Roper insists 92% of our purchase decisions are driven by recommendation.  In a world of endless options, searching for the very best of anything can lead to an awful lot of spinning.

The graph above, which I first noticed on Buzzfeed after they picked it up from a charmingly offbeat blog called weathersealed, slams home the notion of too-much-choice in living color.  The ever-splintering shades chart the chronological expansion of Crayola colors, from the original eight in 1903 to today’s 120 shades.  If this doesn’t blow your mind, your world is too black and white.  I mean, just look at all those purples.

I would make some crack about today’s kids having it so easy.  But honestly, I’m not sure that’s true.

By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Element 79
]]> http://www.brandsareopinions.com/these-complicated-times/feed/ 0 File Under “Mixed Signals”–the Simmering Kids and Eyeglasses Controversy http://www.brandsareopinions.com/file-under-mixed-signals-the-incredibly-important-kids-and-eyeglasses-controversy/ http://www.brandsareopinions.com/file-under-mixed-signals-the-incredibly-important-kids-and-eyeglasses-controversy/#comments Wed, 20 Jan 2010 12:43:31 +0000 Dennis Ryan http://www.brandsareopinions.com/?p=4364 Continue reading →]]> In my daily scanning of internet ephemera that I justify under the catchall heading of ‘keeping tabs on the culture,’ two items popped up yesterday that my cerebral cortex couldn’t reconcile without massive cognitive dissonance.

First, an item posted on MediaPost’s Center for Media Research, presented a new study conducted by an eyewear client that found–perhaps not surprisingly–very positive benefits to wearing glasses.  Beyond the obvious enhancement of visual acuity, kids consider other glasses-wearing kids to be ‘smarter’ than non glasses wearing kids.  The 6-10 year olds surveyed also considered the glasses-wearers more honest but otherwise, didn’t judge them about their appearance positively or negatively.

Hmm…  All these findings constitute incredibly-favorable survey results for a seller of childrens’ eyewear, but that’s not what created the cognitive dissonance.  No, the problems arose when hours later, this concise item popped up on Buzzfeed, explaining that hipster glasses were officially no longer cool.

I can’t process both points of view and so, for the time being, my synapses will no longer be holding hands.

By Dennis Ryan, CCO, Element 79


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