It really seems to me that we don’t provide enough access for disabled people to things we take for granted.

Well, hopefully this tool from Inclusion Solutions will be one more step in the right direction.

“Quick serves regularly serve more than 50 percent of their business through the drive thru. But according to the National Center for Health Statistics, there are an estimated 36 million deaf and hearing-disabled people in the U.S. who are left without that option.

The OrderAssist includes a button that hearing-impaired customers press, informing employees that they’ll be pulling forward and ordering at the window on a print-out menu. Most drive thrus “force [deaf] people to use a system that doesn’t work for them,” says Patrick Hughes Jr., founder and CEO of Inclusion Solutions.”

Pop Up Lifestyle™ is about providing for people in their comfort zones so they don’t have to go out of their way to get to your product, business or service. Perhaps you don’t even know how many of your differently abled customers are unable to “get to you”, or give up because it’s too hard.

Sorry cupcake fanatics, but I’m kinda over trawling through what seems like infinite articles on bacon and cupcakes.

I’m ready for a new food fads!

Well, apparently “artisan marshmallows” are forecasted to be the sweet food craze of 2012. Recently featured by ABC’s The Chew where they featured a whopping two-pound s’mores-flavoured marshmallow by Plush Puffs as part of their feature looking at “the newest sweet fashion.”

The Plush Puffs site reveals they’ve been getting a lot of media attention lately. They say their vision is: “To offer the highest quality, all natural, intensely flavored marshmallows ever. This is a marshmallow that is not only good enough to eat on its own, but amazing when melted in hot drinks, used in any number of recipes and/or roasting applications.  Each flavor is actually intensified when it is roasted. Quite simply: we want to provide a product that delights the senses.”

When you think of a food that’s a good Pacifiers™ example, marshmallows are a good fit. They make you recall childhood around a cozy campfire and yummy, warming cups of hot cocoa. The essence of this wave is things that soothe and comfort. When you bite down on these fluffy little pillows perhaps the Human Truth™ of Pacifiers™ happens to you: “Make the world go away.”™

“The NikeFuel is designed to progressively fill up its row of colorful LED’s as and when one gets closer to their targets. The Nike+ FuelBand is going to start taking pre-orders for $150”

The Nike+ FuelBand is designed for anyone who wants to be more active. It measures your daily activity and turns it all into NikeFuel. So you can set a goal for every day and then go out and beat it. “Life is a sport. Make it Count.”

The Body Warranty™ wave is about getting the most out of your body. In this wave we find people that want to strive beyond limits. The Human Truth™ is: “I want more out of my body than ever before.”™ This sport band is a way to track your achievements and goals which is motivating in itself. They got the timing of it’s release right because it’s right after the holidays when people are trying to keep their new years resolutions. Personally, for $150, I’d want it to do the exercising FOR ME…  I’ve never been described as “the athletic” type.  However, seeing how daily activity adds up would be very cool.

Check out the video here.

Anyway, this time Prada has reached back to the Fifties with classic American automobile inspired imagery. While I’m not on board with this, there’s no doubt it’s causing buzz. “With classic car details appearing on their leather handbags, shoes, eyewear and many of their textiles, the new collection has “gotten engines running.”

The Los Angeleno Rock-a-billies have been doing the punk version of this look for decades!

Well, Prada’s not the only luxury brand that’s looking backwards to go forward. Check out the Absolut Vodkas’ lovely art deco style bottles inspired by the heritage of Savile Row’s iconic pinstripe tailoring. The hand-blown, hand-cut and hand-engraved bottle design is way out of most people’s leagues. Only 800 of the clear crystal bottles and a very limited number of the black crystal bottles -only 10- have been made and are priced at $1500 and $10,000 respectively. Prices that only a pin-stripe suit wearing gangster could afford?

The Time Travel™ wave is about looking to the past for familiarity, and in this case: Inspiration. The Human Truth is “By using the past a sanctuary, I feel more connected to to others.”™

Perhaps it’s just personal preference, in fact -it is, but I’ve always been more impressed with products, brands and services that look forward instead of back. Whatever works I suppose!

Every whopper and fries will be hand-delivered to your door within 30 minutes or less using “new delivery packaging technology” engineered to keep your food warm from the grill to your gullet.”

Ok I’m gonna go against the grain here. Every article I’ve read about Burger King exploring home delivery has been fairly negative. Eg: “Just what this country needs: a Whopper and fries delivered to its front door.” or “disastrous for a country struggling with an ever-expanding collective waistline.”

Look, I know we have an obesity problem but I don’t think it rests solely the QSR industry to fix it.  There’s many factors at play – especially psychological and societal reasons. Furthermore, where’s the personal responsibility? You don’t have to dial that delivery line!

Here’s a recent study that found that the highest percentage of fast food customers are actually middle class families with fast paced and activity-packed lifestyles… Not the poor and unhealthy, as many people think is the case.

Here’s a blog I wrote about that.

This is a perfect example of Pop Up Lifestyle™. It’s literally fulfilling the Human Truth™ which is: “Meet me where I am.”™ You may think I’m not railing on this because I can be lazy sometimes and I love Whoppers. Fair enough. Like I said, you don’t have to dial the number. I personally wont dial it all the time, but for that “once in a while moment” when I don’t want to get dressed and leave my comfort zone- I’m all for it!

Ok whatever.  Lets look at some amazing advances in public transportation from “somewhere else”.

“China has made a momentous step forward for public transportation by unveiling the world’s largest bus – the Youngman JNP6250G. The megabus Superliner is 13 meters longer than regular city buses, and it can transport up to 300 passengers in a single trip. A fleet of the new buses will make up the Bus Rapid Transit service in both Beijing and Hangzhou, where populations are high and urban living creates great demand for public transportation systems. The sprawling bus is 82 feet long, and its top speed is only around 50 mph. While other methods of green transportation are faster, the megabus hardly crawls down the highway. Inside, the megabus is much more comfortable and also more wheelchair friendly. The aisles are widened for navigability, and a pavement level step makes wheelchair boarding much easier and faster. 40 regular seats line the bus, and five doors make it easy to enter and exit the vehicle.”

London has also upgraded their iconic red double deckers:

“The new version of the iconic bus features two staircases and three doors – enabling travelers to once again hop on and off whenever they want! Apparently the new bus will also be fuel efficient, saving 15% more energy than the existing hybrid buses and 40% more than the conventional diesel versions.”

I LOVE the asymmetrical design of these big reds!! The designer Thomas Heatherwick said:

“It has been 50 years since a bus was last designed and commissioned specifically for London. This has been a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity for a team to look again at the opportunities for a new open-platform bus. It has been an honor to be asked by London’s transport authority to take an integrated approach and design everything that you see and experience from the outside down to the tiniest details of the interior.”

Green Hot™ is, of course, about protecting the planet. I think it’s great that design that also looks “hot” is often part of the equation these days.

But then I checked out the site and thought whoa! They REALLY want this product to seem manly, which led me to Guys and Dolls™ which is about the extremes of the sexes: “Give me my power tools!” “Give me my power frills!”™

Then I read: “SEX. Get more of it” and saw pic of a swimsuit clad woman being thrown over a dudes shoulder as her scantily clad butt is featured with the tag line: “Swagger. Do it because you can.”

That settled it. Definitely going in Suggestive Selling™.

The Suggestive Selling™ wave is about unashamedly appealing to the reproductive instinct on a visual level. The Human Truth™ is: “I can’t help looking at what’s hot.”™

With other copy like: “Are you a modern warrior? A macho man who could punch a hole in a cement wall while simultaneously banging three girls at the same time?”

They ain’t playin’!

There’s even a part of the site that explains “Peacocking- The Pick Up Artist’s Secret Weapon.” Which is essentially dressing in an eye-catching way in order to attract attention and spark conversation with women. Yes, Alpha Nail is definitely at home in the Suggestive Selling™ wave.

Look, I know there are incredibly varying studies out there about the links to the effects of gaming and a propensity for violence.  For example, you couldn’t get more contradictory that this one with the headline “Violent Video Games Alter Men’s Brains” and “Violent games don’t compel gamers to commit violent acts, researchers say.”

But regardless of those studies this really reeks of grooming our kids and young adults for service. Ask former Army paratrooper and author D.B. Grady, who took aim at the peripherals move, telling AdFreak: “There is something vulgar about the Army dropping all pretense and stamping its logo on [gaming accessories]. I can’t think of a single redeeming aspect to these products, and have to believe them to be some kind of elaborate practical joke. Otherwise even the most cynical of military critics will in some way be proven right.”

On top of this, there’s also the “Army Experience Center” with it’s hip and modern, with giant plasma screen televisions, brushed stainless steel fixtures, interactive displays, helicopter and Humvee simulators, a gaming area and cafe, nestled in a philadelphia mall across from Dave & Busters.

The Shielding™ wave is often filled with things that could be deemed as over reactions to perceived threats, but in this case I think the Human Truth rings true: “It’s not paranoia if somethings really out to get you.” It seems the US Army makes no bones about the fact they are “out to get” our teens.  One could totally argue that the point of marketing and branding is to increase attention and retention at all costs.   I just can’t help but feel the same way that “hard selling” junk food to kids and the commercialization of childhood makes me feel… It’s too strong.

“U.S. Census data projects that the last of the Baby Boomers will turn 65 in 2029, making up 16% of the total population. And now a suit — called AGNES (Age Gain Now Empathy System) — created by researchers at MIT’s AgeLab, can simulate old age. The suit can be worn by students, product developers and engineers for the sake of better design. Heavy helmets, neck braces and yellow-tinged glasses create the feeling of achey joints, limited mobility and blurred vision.”

The people who wear the AGNES suit get to feel what it’s like to have limited mobility in order to have a true understanding of the needs of our aged population.

Tesco is putting these kind of insights into effect by developing “Seniors Supermarkets”:

“The slow-tempo music fills the air as customers edge their way across the nonslip floor towards the extra-wide aisles. The shop’s overhead lighting is brighter, the shelves fitted with steps and there’s even the chance of a relaxing massage to ease away any trolley rage. This is the Seniors Supermarket – a European success story set to revolutionise the way silver shoppers buy their groceries.”

The Living Vicariously™ wave is about having an experience that doesn’t have drastic consequences. I’m sure after wearing these suits for a while, the students are very glad they can take them off …something I bet our senior citizens wish they could do.

They have a way of tracking your reading speed.  Whaaa? Yes, check out the video here.

“Booktrack represents a new chapter in the evolution of storytelling, and an industry “first” in publishing, by creating synchronized soundtracks for e-books that dramatically boost the reader’s imagination and engagement.”

Just like I find it hard to write while there is a lot of noise around me, I enjoy reading in a quiet environment. However, one can’t always make that happen – especially on public transport, for example. Booktracks is targeting the senses in order to put you in a little sound bubble -that immerses you in the world of your book. Sensory Appeal™ is all about taking aim the senses. This wave has ideas that involve textures, colors, tastes and sounds. The Human Truth™ is: “I want a new sensation.”™ Booktracks and their “Hi Def immersive experience” is a great example of this…  one I’d love to try.