So, today at 1:35 pm when a LivingSocial notification hit my Inbox for a CVS deal – $20 value for $10 – I knew time was of the essences. By 2:23 pm, I was one of the 33,598 who had purchased the offer. Sure enough, less than 2 hours later the offer was sold out at 35,000 ‘PURCHASED.’

As a recipient of both Groupon.com and LivingSocial.com notification, I was curious to see the how the audiences of these two companies stack up. According to The Nielsen Company:

• Visitors to LivingSocial are 49% more likely than the average Internet consumer to earn $150,000 or more annually, compared to 30% more likely for Groupon’s visitors.
• LivingSocial’s audience also is more educated than Groupon’s, with 46% having a college degree, compared with 39% for Groupon.
• Groupon is favored by a higher percentage of consumers 35-64 years old (57% compared with 51% for LivingSocial).
• LivingSocial has a higher concentration of younger visitors, with those 21-34 years old making up 33% of its audience compared with 25% for Groupon and 21% across the entire web.
• Groupon’s customers tend to be from the Northeast and Living Social visitors are more often from the South and West.

With Google Offers and Facebook Deals launched in 2011, it will be interesting to see how this space evolves. In the meantime, this infographic by Online MBA shows an interesting comparison of the today’s four main players; LivingSocial, Groupon, Facebook Deals and Google Offers.

On a recent trip out shopping, my wife started to count the number of frozen yogurt storefronts that seem to be popping up in every mall and strip center in our area. We got to talking about what would be the next fad or bubble that would replace them when their time came due. Later that day we spotted something that might be strange enough to be that next fad: Cup of Corn.

The idea is that you buy a cup of corn niblets, top them with flavored butters, cheese, etc. and eat it with a spoon. This is not a side dish, but the actual snack.

We saw it at the higher end mall in our area and people were lined up to buy it. It might actually have enough of a shelf-life that it can sell franchised kiosks and be the next big thing for a few months this summer.It’s so new that it’s hard to find much on the internet about it, but it seems that it might be coming soon to a food court near you.

This year, GE worked with Budweiser to show how the turbines GE produces provide the power to make the beer and to keep it cold. It’s an interesting combination; not one you’d expect from either company. Another odd combination included Old Spice teaming up with both Charmin and Bounce. While you do see the Bounce Dyer Bar and Charmin Freshmates, Old Spice takes over the commercials saying “It’s so powerful it sells itself in other peoples’ commercials.” Interesting concepts but in all honesty, the Old Spice commercials scare me a little.

In my opinion, the best show of teamwork goes to OK Go and Chevy’s new Sonic, who produced a music video that was referenced in their Super Bowl commercial. In the 60 second spot, Chevy intrigues you with shots of “Sonic’s first music video” with OK Go along with “Sonic’s first skydive” and “Sonic’s first bungee”. I was most intrigued by the music video and checked out OK Go’s new video for their song “Needing/Getting” and have been obsessed ever since. The video took four days of filming, stunt driving lessons and over 1,100 custom-made instruments to make and it was all worth it. I’m intrigued to see how successful this was for Chevy’s newest product, but with over 9.5 million views on YouTube, it definitely gets the name out there.

Be sure to check out the Chevy Super Bowl ad and OK Go’s “Needing/Getting” video (below)!

When I moved to the great state of North Carolina, I learned an important lesson: Never talk about religion, politics, or college basketball in polite company. College hoops is taken seriously in these parts.

This is rivalry week in the Triangle, with Duke and UNC meet for the first of two (or three) times this season on Wednesday night. One the eve of what will certainly be an epic matchup, one of the nation’s leading political polling firms, Public Policy Polling, have released their annual UNC/Duke Poll.

Here are a few of the highlights:

• UNC is North Carolina’s most popular school, with 32% of respondents saying it’s their favorite college. Duke (19%) and NC State (18%) are in a tight battle for second place, with ECU claiming 8%, Wake Forest 6% and 17% saying “none of these” schools are their favorite.
• UNC also leads when voters are asked who they’ll be rooting for in Wednesday’s Duke-UNC men’s basketball matchup, 41-31.
• There’s a healthy amount of respect between the fanbases. 49% of UNC fans say they “respect” Duke while just 16% “hate Duke.” And 53% of Duke fans “respect” UNC with only 16% “hating” the Tar Heels.

With the recent death of Don Cornelius, a transcendent titan of the American cultural and racial conversation depicted each Saturday on his hugely influential Soul Train syndicated program, it’s no small thing to reflect on the fact that he, unlike Jobs, Zuckerberg, or Lady Gaga, was the first, and remarkably as an African-American in a white world, to unite the young adult community single-handedly and globally.

At the beginning, it brought together music, dance, fashion and culture that many viewers otherwise never would have seen and heard, myself included coming of age in the 1970’s in his hometown of Chicago.

It’s so easy now to feed our appetite for pop culture and music at the push of a button. Back then teenagers and style makers waited for Saturday afternoon for their destination hook up across America.

While African-Americans saw beautiful images of themselves on television for the first time, Cornelius not only exposed his growing audience to emerging musical genres, R&B, soul, disco, and hip-hop, but also helped those artists cross over from their respective black and white audiences–while indescribably funked out, outrageously outfitted dancers made their moves never seen before.  Don Cornelius pulled down many barriers and kept them down for decades, a dance party that never quit.

One has to wonder in this digitized age whether it’s possible to build a cultural phenomenon from the ground up as Cornelius did. As I see it, it wasn’t until Soul Train hit the throttle–the first show to cater to the musical tastes of blacks–their music, dance, fashion and style, that mainstream America finally woke up, astonished, realizing the world would never be the same.

A great new book out entitled “Pantone, The 20th Century in Color” incorporates beautiful color plates with accompanying narrative by authors Leatrice Eiseman and Keith Recker that describe the last 100 years in the evolution of the color spectrum through the lens of the groundbreaking 1963 Pantone color system developed by Lawrence Hebert of Pantone.

The system codified the color spectrum, so that a certain shade of a color can be uniformly agreed upon and unknowingly revolutionized the world of graphic design. One can think back to any decade of the past century and certain colors and hues are easily associated with each time period. Serving as more than a mere color index, the book succeeds in describing the evolution of colors’ social imprint on culture, illustrated through advertisments, product design, fashion and general day-to-day life across generations.

Just close your eyes and visualize the 50s, 60s, 70s or 80s–it’s easy. That’s what’s so great about this book. From a historical perspective, filtered through the nuance of aesthetics, we have each period literally ‘colored in’ for us. Beautiful and simple.

According to Tina Brown, editor of Newsweek and The Daily Beast, the magazine’s structure and design will pay homage to 1960s America but its content will remain culturally relevant, including a cover story on the series and a feature on the role of advertising in America’s culture. In addition, Newsweek has issued a call to clients and creative agencies for ’60s-inspired creative that has the look and feel of a vintage print ad but contains modern products and messages.

We’ll have to wait ’til March to see the final print product and for the season premiere of the show but until then we can dream about the output. What type of products or creative would you like to see in the Mad Men-inspired issue of <i.Newsweek? Which agencies or clients do you think will or should contribute to the issue?

As featured in this months issue of WIRED, Desktop Jellyfish Tank pros: “Most hypnotic office/dorm room/studio decoration ever. Brainlessly simple setup and care.” The cons: “Stoned friends will never leave now. Air pump motor is about as loud as a refrigerator. Life expectancy of a moon jelly is only a year; new ones cost $50 each.”

The words“geek” and “nerd” are often used interchangeably, despite the clear differences between them. Finally, a comprehensive infographic that explains the distinctions, both broad and subtle, between the two. Click the above image for the entire infographic, as this is just an excerpted portion. Enjoy.

Whether or not you agree with author Amanda Marcotte’s interpretation of bias in the Chicago Tribune article, there’s a cautionary tale in her reaction to the Tribune’s reporting that’s worth paying attention to.  Marcotte discredits its findings because there isn’t enough data presented to back them up. In looking at the case presented, she saw contradictory and inconsistent application of information, and figured that a gender bias was the culprit.

While this may or may not be the case, it’s a good reminder to reporters and researchers alike: go ahead and use context, use that background knowledge. But don’t let these things define your work – research needs to be based in what the data says, not what you want it to mean.

It’s 2012 and the Iraq war is officially over. The cost? High in human toll, money spent and energy expended. Worth the effort? Arguably, yet to be determined. The net effect, other than a new government, well…

Iraqi youth have gone “punky” it seems, the direct effect of their socialization with American troops. A quarter of Iraquis have been born since the U.S. first invaded Iraq in March 2003, with almost half the total population under the age of twenty. A near majority of the population have spent their highly impressionable years in the presence of an occupying force. Though I haven’t personally walked the streets of Baghdad, I’m sure the troops cut a wide and colorful path in the day-to-day life of humble neighborhoods.

“Punky” youth are those that take on the persona of American hip-hop kids from a few years back, replete with baggy hoodies, closely croppped hair fading under back-turned baseball caps, and large fake gold chains. Kind of the fashion cue many an American GI took during their civilian youth in the years leading up to their military life, before being dropped into the ancient lands of the Fertile Crescent. 

Punky Iraqis see rapping as a ticket to New York, while they woof down greasy ersatz cheeseburgers and breakdance in city squares. These “hustlers,” another term they claim as their own, realize that to speak like a “gangsta” they need to learn English before they can develop their own rap banter. So, the children of Sadr City wait for months for a place in English classes, in hopes to one day board a plane to the U.S. to visit the home of Lil’ Wayne or at least eat a slice of real New York pizza.

And so, after nearly a decade, young people’s minds in Iraq open to a world beyond, even though the price of admission may be a poorly inked Ghostface Killah tattoo.