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This is what I was thinking about in the shower this morning (unlike Raymond, I use my shower time for serious reflection). Scotch and apple juice.
Yesterday, when I went to the Giant, I again picked up a bottle of
"Simply Apple." It cost $3.99. This morning while I poured
some I thought , WTF? I can buy a gallon of the store brand for
the same price, and it tastes just as good (I chug cold liquids, so
taste is secondary). Why did I buy this again? There, on the counter,
was the top from the last bottle. I saved it. I saved it!
Because, I thought at the time, to replace other bottle caps with
it. Why? Because it's so damned ergonomically pleasing to
open. You don't twist it with a thumb and two girly fingers. You
wrap your hand around its girthful elegance and undo. That led me to the Scotch.
In his book "From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor,"
Jerry Del Femina recounted how Chivas Regal became THE prestige Scotch
whiskey in the U.S.. Chivas had been priced to compete with the
Johnny Walker brand, but was not selling. A new ad agency did two
things.
- They commissioned the design of a distinctive new bottle.
- They doubled the price.
It became the the second best selling brand almost overnight, largely
because of that bottle design, and snob appeal. While this isn't
a direct corollary to my apple juice, it doesn't have to be in my
shower.
ASIDE I: I am
not a big Scotch drinker, but several of my friends are. My BIL
was, I suspected, a snob drinker. I took an empty Chivas Bottle,
and filled it with whatever was cheapest at the liquor store.
When he'd came over I asked, "soda with your Scotch?"
He looks at the bottle and feigns, "are you kidding me?
Adulterate Chivas? I'll have mine neat." He takes a sip,
and with eyes closed goes, "Ahhhh - now that's Scotch."
ASIDE 2: I notice that the Wikipedia entry for Del Femina states:
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His
1971 book From Those Wonderful Folks Who Gave You Pearl Harbor was a
best-seller. The title refers to a tongue-in cheek slogan proposed for
the client Panasonic during a brainstorming session.
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The story is much more delicious than that. On his first morning
at a new agency he was told he had a meeting with Panasonic in two
hours, and needed something fast. Not knowing a thing about
Panasonic, other than they were a Japanese company selling televisions,
he went to the art department and came up with something like this
. An hour later he unveiled the copy to less than
enthusiastic Panasonic executives. But Del Femina became an icon
in the business as the story was told, and retold over Madison Ave
luncheon Martinis. I loved that book, and it did have an affect
on how I approached marketing.
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MoSup
suggested that she sure would like the Bissell cleaner they were
demonstrating on Home Shopping. That's her way of saying, "buy it
for me." Placed the order on the spot. Ladies and
gentlemen, I am here to tell you that this is the greatest money we
ever spent! We usually rent a grocery store cleaner, but they
pump out so much water that our orientals actually started to
shrink. This Bissell surface-sprays, then sucks up all the
water. It took a few days of using Woolite Pet Urine remover and
Windex, but I'll be damned if the den rug isn't bright as
hell, and utterly orderless now. 
<
One of the reasons for prior restraint may have been the concern over how a
Christian nation would react to the news? Hmmmm. Some theology might be under
pressure, just as Galileo terrified the church with his "earth
rotates around the sun," science. Overall, it would be of little
consequence, IMO. But, is that how Obama would view it? I don't
think so. He'd see it as an opportunity to fracture a formidable
road block to his statist religion. In other words, people wishing to
deliver a crushing blow to Western culture would revel in the
disclosure.
