Celebrity Investments in Tech Start-ups: Fad or Future?

Once we get past the burning question on most people's lips - who gives a s...? - the amazing thing is that this is becoming a seriously debated issue.

Celebrity endorsements are as old as celebrity itself. The premise has always been that if someone who is known by more people than you are likes your stuff enough to buy it, advertising that fact ought to be good for more sales.

And what does the celebrity get? Some economic reward and, perhaps much more importantly in this case, some reputational burnishing. Young celebrities operate in a market where the speed of irrelevance and obsolescence is exponentially faster than it is in tech. Having your investment in some electronic-related product suggests you are savvy, hip and sort of smart. All good from a personal branding standpoint.

The product gets some attention, which is useful, particularly in the app space where new entries are appearing faster than zits after a candy bar. Oh, and the company that makes it gets some money, which is always helpful.

So is this good, bad, indifferent, a trend, a farce, a benefit, an outrage?

All of the above is the logical answer. But, in truth, with the wealth gap being what it is and the need for investment in new ideas so important, any redistribution of income to more productive uses is welcome. JL

Hunter Walk reports in GigaOm:

Some might snicker upon hearing that Disney singer/actress Selena Gomez has Angel- invested in a photo app but I think it’s great, and makes total sense. The trend of ‘celebrity angels’ doesn’t surprise me at all, and with correct expectations on both sides, it can provide great value to both sides. But this still leaves the question — why are we suddenly seeing celebrities become more involved in tech investing?

We forget that any celebrity under the age of 30 isn’t too different from any of us. They grew up in a world of mobile phones, game consoles and the Internet. While I might wax nostalgic about the first time i fired up a Mosaic browser, Ashton Kutcher has similar memories of his 2000 StarTAC and original AOL buddy list. They are digital natives who use technology as professionals and people

Where Is the Love? The Evolution of R&B Music

Music has been civilization's most powerful carrier of culture.

It's rhythms and lyrics evoke emotions emblematic of larger truths about societies and the people who comprise them. Among the most evocative musical movements of the post-WWII era has been rhythm and blues, or R&B. Tuneful, flirtatious and socially aware, it captured the opening of tolerant and transparent global forces that presaged the global economy of today.

But, as CNN reporter John Blake argues, those themes have largely disappeared from the current music scene. The question is whether this is because that very globalization has raised competitive pressures that undercut the excitement about and acceptance of the unfamiliar. The change suggests that relations have become more transactional but less truly interactive. The issue is whether that openness can be reinvigorated and if not, what the implications may be both for entertainment and the societies it serves. JL

John Blake reports in CNN:

When I was a teenager trying to figure out what the ladies liked, I would turn on the TV on Saturday afternoons to catch "The hippest trip in America." I loved the huge afros, the lapels that were so wide you could land a small plane on them, and the suave "Soul Train" host, Don Cornelius, who signed off each show by declaring, "We wish you love, peace ... and sooooulllll!" Yet when I listen to R&B today, I ask myself the same question Roberta Flack and Donny Hathaway posed in their classic 1972 duet: "Where is the Love?"

Listening to black music today is depressing. Songs on today's urban radio playlists are drained of romance, tenderness and seduction. And it's not just about the rise of hardcore hip-hop or rappers who denigrate women. Black people gave the world Motown, Barry White and "Let's Get It On." But we don't make love songs anymore. Why?

Tech Mega-Millionaire: 'The Rich Are Not Job Creators'

A tenet of the current policy debate about job creation is that we live in fear of being wrong.

We are afraid that if we change the tax structure it might make things worse. And we wring our hands about whether keeping the present system might have the same impact. We have spent years arguing about the minutiae of policy design and implementation. All the while forgetting that as a global economy progress has always been driven by experimentation. If history teaches us anything, especially with regard to economics, it is that policies and tax rates are made to be changed as circumstances warrant.

There was a time when tax rates were confiscatory. No more. There was also a time when manufacturing created jobs. No more. The rich may or may not be job creators right now. Research may determine that they either will or will not in the future. Whatever we decide - or refuse to decide -it should be based on our willingness to try new approaches until we find one that works. It will take time. Some ideas will not work. Some people will suffer. Just like they are doing right now. JL

Robert Frank reports in the Wall Street Journal:

The argument over whether the rich create jobs is ultimately unwinnable. Democrats point to the lousy job market and revived fortunes of the rich and argue that the rich just create wealth for themselves rather than employment for others. Republicans argue that the rich are the most productive, inventive and dynamic people in our economy. Taking their hard-earned investment capital would kill jobs, they argue.

Now a millionaire entrepreneur has weighed in with his own twist on the debate. Rich people don’t create jobs, he says. Demand does.

Haunted by 1920s Hyperinflation: History Causing Current German Debt Crisis Dread

Belief systems are more powerful than information systems.

Germans understand that their prosperity may depend on being part of an economically healthy Europe. But they can not shake the cultural memory of hyperinflation and what it did to their country. Images of the rise of Naziism and the ensuing devastation of the Second World War appear indelibly stamped on the national consciousness.

The danger of lessons learned is that when applied to new realities, they may lead to decisions that produce a similar result for different reasons. There is, too, a moralistic aspect to the German debt aversion. Disdain for the budgetary self-indulgences of their euro brethren may be creating resentments based on the perceived unfairness of the fastidious bailing out the irresponsible. That the competitive policies of the fastidious may have created some of that irresponsible behavior is an aspect of the belief system many prefer not to consider.

The fact remains that hyperinflation is part of the modern German nation's foundation myth. Until they can be assured that steps have been taken to eliminate -or at least substaintially reduce that risk - reluctance to intervene further will persist. JL

Nicholas Kulish reports in the New York Times:

Norbert Schulze was not yet born when the hyperinflation of the 1920s deeply scarred the German psyche. But he still remembers the Reichsmark notes denominated in millions and billions that years later were tucked into a box with the family’s old black-and-white photographs.

Many economists say aggressive purchases of the sovereign bonds of heavily indebted states by the European Central Bank are the quickest and surest path to stabilizing the crisis. On Thursday, Mario Draghi, the bank’s president, laid the groundwork for bolder intervention in markets if certain conditions were met. To German ears those bond purchases, or anything that smacks of printing money, sound like a recipe for skyrocketing prices.

Corporate Credibility Lost: Coca-Cola China Says Beverage Not Poisonous

Let's start with the fact that someone died. And that someone was a child. Common sense dictates that a media-savvy - and ethical - corporation expresses sorrow and says it will investigate.

Claiming there was 'no product quality issue?'

Uh, does Coke remember what happened the last time it tried that gambit? That was in 1999 and some Belgian school children got sick from what may have been a tainted batch of CO2. Coke chose not only to deny responsibility but to blame the children. Result: several hundred million in lost profits, more than a billion in lost stock price, a derailed Orangina acquisition and, eventually, a fired CEO.

So, let's start with the supposition that having to deny your product is poisonous does not give you command of either the moral or tactical high ground. No matter what the culture and what the product, presuming your own innocence is not likely to win friends and influence regulators. That you are attempting to do this in a country with plenty of ethical lapses of its own, so that making yourself a foreign culprit to make an example of is a gift.

Product liability is a quality issue, an operational issue, a reputational and brand issue, and an ethical issue. There is nothing in the course of business it does not touch. Send the lawyers and flacks back to their desks and let a sentient adult take charge. Sheesh. JL

Stan Abrams reports in Business Insider:

Coca-Cola said Friday there was no “product quality issue” with its Pulpy Milky drinks, after a boy who had consumed the product died and three others fell ill.

Stores around the country pulled bottles of the fruit-flavoured milk drink from their shelves

Online Security's Weakest Link: Men

On the internet, no one knows you're a dog. But apparently they do know you're a doofus, especially if you're a guy.

Internet security is a growing concern. Between Chinese cyber warriors, Russian fraudsters and teenage hackers, every email account is a target. And it turns out that according to new research the easiest scam is also the oldest: pretend you're a woman interested in a man and guys start handing out all manner of confidential info. Women, on the other hand are more sensible, which is to say cautious.

Are we surprised? JL

Constantine von Hoffman reports in CIO:

Forget about bots, software flaws and hacking passwords, here’s a way to do some serious online crime without all that high tech bother: Pass yourself off as woman. From credit card scams to Facebook come-ons, guys are more likely to fall for a pair of virtually pretty eyes.

Last month cops in Russian busted 35 guys who pretended to be women online to scam foreign guys out of $156,000. "Acting as female residents of the republic, members of the criminal group carried out electronic correspondence with foreigners under the pretext of getting to know each other,” according to prosecutors. “In the course of their communications, they asked the foreigners to send money for the various needs of their 'beloveds.'" As the saying goes, “On the internet, no one knows you’re a dog.”

400 Points Aint What It Used To Be

The bars and restaurants in New York were overflowing last night. Happy times are here again. At least for one day. It has been a while. And it is by no means clear this will last, but there was clearly a desperate yearning in the air for some sort of big rally after four years of losses, opprobrium and worry.

The problem, as the following report makes clear, is that 490 points doesnt buy what it used to. Not unlike the rest of life. Markets have become more volatile due to uncertainty, fueled in part by slackening regulation. As a result, highers are higher, but declines are also faster and sharper. It's exciting, but not necessarily more profitable.

In this environment, boring is good. There is a reason why the old Chinese curse reads, 'may my enemies live in interesting times.' JL

Whitney Kisling and Inyoun Hwang report in Bloomberg:

What does today’s stock rally equal in past markets? About half as much.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average (INDU) reached 12,045.68, up 490.05 points from yesterday’s close. Adjusting for the market’s volatility in 2011, the gain is equal to about 240 points in the first nine years of the last decade, Bloomberg data show. Europe’s sovereign debt crisis has fueled some of the biggest stock swings ever during the last four months. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index has moved 1.7 percent on average each day, compared with 0.8 percent before September 2008, when Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. collapsed, according to data compiled by Bloomberg.

“It feels like a good day, but whether or not it’s sustainable is another thing,”

'Customers Are the Product:' Has Data Mining Gone Too Far?

Drinking from a firehose has entered the popular lexicon. It captures the challenge - and frequently, the futility - of trying to make sense of all the data available for businesses.

The problem, from a managerial, legal and ethical standpoint is where the lines will be drawn - if they ever are. Facebook's wrist slaps notwithstanding, big traditional businesses are increasingly finding that when it comes to market research and promotion, the customer is, quite literally, the product. By this we mean that by providing so much information about themselves in the name of convenience, and sometimes, for fun and potential profit, they are arming businesses with a wealth of data that can be mined for insights about how to better sell to those self-same customers.

There is nothing inherently wrong with this, assuming that customers agree to the usage. And that is the rub. Because customers dont always pay attention, dont always understand and are not always attuned to potential implications. Business is taking a legalistic approach, which is its wont. But we are getting to a point where the usage is becoming so comprehensive and intrusive that, if not more inclined to self-edit, they will find this wonderful new toy taken away from them by politicians responding to an angry electorate. JL
Knowledge Wharton's Managing Technology reports:

In a world of endless information sharing, consumers have become the product. Platforms such as Google, Facebook, Foursquare and Twitter are the new factory floor, and online users, who leave digital crumbs as they browse the web and tap into social networks, generate data that can be bought and sold. Every tweet tweeted, badge unlocked, website searched and "Like" button clicked adds to the growing inventory of user information. Data miners then sort it, package it, market it -- and companies use it to better target customers.

"Even traditional companies have discovered they can generate totally new lines of business by collecting and using their customers' information,"

Do the Math: Video Games Increasingly Popular University Learning Tool

Anything beats trying to stay awake in lectures.

The potential 'gamification' of technology has been talked about for several years. But the reality is getting closer. Training is already built around it in numerous disciplines so the seque to formal education was a matter of degree. The theory is that it enhances focus and results suggest it is working. Bill Gates'foundation is also looking at ways of using games as a homework tool so that class time can be reserved for discussion and experimentation.

It does suggest a moment of silence is appropriate for all those students who, over the years, have been chastised for their inability to sit still and pay attention. JL

MaryBeth Marklein reports in USA Today:

At some point, engineering professor Brianno Coller realized he didn't like slogging through dry math problems as an instructor any more than he had as a student. So he thought about what could liven things up — animation! interactivity! — and it hit him: video games.

He designed one, and now his third-year students at Northern Illinois University in DeKalb build virtual race cars, complete with roaring engines and screeching tires, that must maneuver an increasingly challenging course. Along the way, they're exposed to computational math, a basic building block of engineering.

Subsidized School Meal Requests Up 17% This Year

It is not surprising that demand for subsidized lunches and breakfasts has increased in the third year of a recession. What is remarkable is how all-encompassing that increase has become.

All fifty states report increased demand. In some states, the increase is over 25%. The government, which uses statistics about school lunch subsidies to track poverty, first noted the demand because it was growing most in areas that previous census results had classified as solidly middle class.

The quality of the meals being offered may be open to debate but the US is fortunate to be able to have both the economic wherewithal and political will to continue to provide them - so far. JL

Sam Dillon reports in the New York Times:

Millions of American schoolchildren are receiving free or low-cost meals for the first time as their parents, many once solidly middle class, have lost jobs or homes during the economic crisis, qualifying their families for the decades-old safety-net program.

The number of students receiving subsidized lunches rose to 21 million last school year from 18 million in 2006-7, a 17 percent increase, according to an analysis by The New York Times of data from the Department of Agriculture, which administers the meals program.

Is Working At Start-Ups Bad for Your Health?

Suck it up, stop whining and cash in. You're part of history. Revel in it.

That is the pervasive ethos in the tech start-up universe. You're smart, you're working on the coolest stuff imaginable with brilliant colleagues and if it gets a little rough at times, well, who said getting rich and famous was gonna be easy?

The issue is that this culture, with its free food, foosball tables and beer is hardly the laid-back experience of legend. The promise of big money requires hard work. The failure rate is high and the pressure to deliver significant returns to financially focused investors is enormous. The reputation for fun workplaces masks a more stressful reality. And that stress may be leading to a spate of health-related illnesses, even suicides.

In fact, abusive leaders abound, frequently in their twenties with little management experience and few social graces. Code-writers push themselves for the sake of the pay-out, competition and pride. Diets are as sketchy as the humor and exercise is frequently an afterthought. The result is an increasing rash of health issues. Some stress is useful. Too much is deadly. JL

Rebecca Rosen reports in The Atlantic:

There's something rotten in the start-up industry. That's the sentiment coursing through a series of soul-searching posts and discussions over the past two weeks, spurred by the suicide of Ilya Zhitomirskiy, one of the co-founders of Diaspora, at age 22. The particularities of Zhitomirskiy's death are the terrain of his family's private grief, but the generalities of the effects of start-up culture -- the pressure to always put on a happy face, the hours, and the feeling of always being on the brink of failure -- on the health of its actors are more widely relevant.

But is it worth it? Are those pressures an inherent part of the beauty of building something entirely new? Are the critics just whiners?

Digital Music : The Other Eurozone Crisis

How can we possibly compare digital music to the euro crisis? Isnt the collapse of western civilization the most riveting of current affairs?

Well, if you happened by your local Wal-mart this past weekend and took a photo, you just answered your own question. Digital music is interesting in this context because the industry, like the EU, was near collapse. And while still not healthy compared to its younger self (and who is?), it has survived. It is also arguably the most significant carrier of popular culture and therefore a potentially valuable proxy for supposedly weightier questions about how Europe and the US will solve - or not solve - at least some of their economic problems.

The core issue is that Europe has too many services chasing too few customers. But the owners of said services continue to run at a loss at least in part because of the conflict between national and European policies. Beginning to sound familiar? JL

Mark Mulligan reports in Paid Content:

Much of the contemporary debate about digital music’s financials centers around perceived inequities in artist pay outs, particularly from streaming services.

However there are two equally worrying issues: the sustainability of the stores and services themselves and the class divide that has grown between the US and European digital music markets.

The Battle to Decide Which Company is Greenest

Measures begin to deteriorate as soon as they are announced.

This occurs primarily because companies quickly begin to figure out how to manage the inputs that determine the outputs. But the problem for corporations these days is keeping up. There are over 100 groups evaluating what it means to be green. And all of them want answers to their questions. Fail to respond and you could end up on a list of polluters or environmental enemies despite the billions you can document investing in green initiatives.

The importance of these trends has to due with cost and convergence. The rise of energy prices has driven the global economy to focus on eliminating costs from the supply chain. Since so many of those costs are related to fuel, businesses can get a 'twofer' (two for the price of one) by cutting energy usage and, therefore, emissions. Secondly, as the importance to financial results of what were previously regarded as ESG factors (environment, social and governance), analysts have begun to converge on value drivers with multiple impacts. The result is increasingly awareness - and agreement - about what should be measured and managed.

The next step will probably be some sort of transnational agreement on environment, sustainability and health measures. The Global Reporting Initiative (GRI) has had such measures in place for years but their acceptance has been only quietly acknowledged. The demand - and need - for broadly accepted metrics may drive the UN, OECD or other organization to take the lead. Opposition to government regulation has been ascendant recently in the US and Europe, but the arguments for combining may prove too pragmatic to ignore. JL

Karen Weise reports in BusinessWeek:

Every year, Suzanne Fallender’s corporate responsibility office at Intel receives dozens of requests from sustainability analysts and nonprofits looking to rate the company on its water usage, carbon emissions, workforce diversity, and scores of other factors. While some queries can be answered quickly from Intel’s annual sustainability report, others require further research, so Fallender prioritizes a core list of about a dozen requests and responds to the rest when she can get to them. “There are many, many ratings out there,” she says. “More every year.”

Investors and the public are demanding increasingly detailed information on nonfinancial metrics that define sustainability. Companies that take the lead in the field, the thinking goes, are likely to continue churning out profits in an era of growing global competition, climate change, and diminishing resources.

Cross-Border 'Megapolitan' Areas Emerging to Compete Globally

Join or die.

The message is generally delivered in less apocalyptic tones but the implication is clear: technology and globalization are putting a premium on scale. Regions, cities and other areas that wish to remain - or become - competitive in that environment must put aside traditional enmities and focus on what works when the challenge is coming from across the world rather than across the road. The issue is two-fold: marshalling regional resources to provide a global platform and reducing costs by combining, where possible, in order to provide more efficient services.

This is, to some extent, a validation of the planning ethos that lost favor during the heady days of the real estate boom. With investment in tangible assets declining in relative comparison to intangibles, the emphasis must now be on rethinking what constitutes a managable geographical area.

Opposition comes from those whose jobs and power are tied to smaller regional constructs. But budget pressures and commercial demand are already forcing government agencies to rethink their mission and purpose. Business, too, must redefine how it organizes itself in this context. The scale of cities like Beijing, Mumbai and Sao Paolo makes it clear that traditional solutions will not work. Such legacy entities were conceived at a time when the pace of urbanization was unimaginable. Reality has rendered imagination moot. JL

Haya el Nasser reports in USA Today:

Michael Crow, president of Arizona State University outside of Phoenix, last month ventured into potentially hostile territory 120 miles south in Tucson, home of the University of Arizona, to address 600 civic and business leaders.

His message was jaw-dropping: Put aside the rivalry between the universities and the metropolitan areas and join forces to form one giant urban powerhouse to compete globally with an economy larger than that of the United Arab Emirates.

Malls Announce Plans to Track Shoppers' Phones, Then Stop When US Senator Threatens Investigation

Convenience may have trounced privacy in the battle for consumers' affections, but there are, apparently, limits.

The announcement by two large regional shopping malls that they would track shoppers' mobile phones was quickly reversed when a powerful US Senator raised the specter of an investigation and public hearings.

It is not yet clear whether this action was a vain attempt to push back an incoming tsunami of mobile marketing or the first serious attempt to establish limits on what sort of commercial phone tracking is acceptable. The goal for merchants - and many consumers - if to have easy access to the latest deals and other marketing goodies. The problem is that there are no limitis or restrictions on what can be done with the numbers once they are secured. Selling the information to third parties without vetting, or using them for ongoing promotions with no consumer option to cancel are among the concerns raised.

The legal implications are not yet clear because the absence of rules and widespread consumer disregard for any rights they may ostensibly have make the practice a policy muddle. In a contentious election year it is not clear that any politician wants to get in the middle of an issue in which consumer interest has not yet gelled. This means it is unlikely to be resolved for another year, but one senses that in late 2012 or early 2013, this could become a front burner issue. JL

Annalyn Celensky reports in CNN:

Two malls are axing their plans to track shoppers' cell phones, after a U.S. senator raised privacy concerns over the weekend.

As CNNMoney first reported last week, the Promenade Temecula in southern California and Short Pump Town Center in Richmond, Va., launched a survey on Black Friday, tracking shoppers' movements by monitoring the signals from their cell phones.

Wall Street Pay Hits a Wall: Bonuses Could Drop 30% to 2008 Financial Crisis Levels

Our culture celebrates risk as the embodiment of the capitalist ethos.

Entrepreneurs and investors stake their money on an idea because they believe in the concept and in themselves, understanding that they could win or lose but embracing the opportunity nonetheless.

At least that is how the fairy tale version goes.

In reality, we have come to equate high risk with high reward. Losses? Those are for suckers, like the people who actually pay their taxes. Instead, the wired hire smart, skilled lawyers and lobbyists to make sure the rules of the game assure that risk always delivers them a reward and that government takes the hit for losses. Because, the justification goes, to permit economic punishment for the risk takers could destroy the sytem.

It appears that this year, at least, those who believe in that false idol of never ending prosperity are about to learn that the free market aint free. There will be much sonorous doom-saying from talking heads, and portentous finger wagging about bankers moving to Zurich while America loses the global competition with whomever.

But in truth, the economy moves in cycles. Most businesses - at least those outside of finance - suffer lean years as well as fat. That is how it works. The past twenty years were an artificial construct, about as reliable as a New Orleans levee. Anyone with a minimal grounding in economics understood that the trend was simply unsustainable. Reversion to the mean is even more powerful than the high priced former officials who play fixer in Washington.

Wall Street will be back, as will its extraordinary bonuses. But maybe the occasional de-monetized risk will remind everyone how lucky they are to have the rewards when they come. JL

Brett Philbin and Melissa Korn report in the Wall Street Journal:

Financial-services workers are bracing for an icy dive into a shallow year-end bonus pool.

Employees at big Wall Street firms could see annual compensation sink 27% to 30% from a year earlier to the lowest level since the 2008 financial crisis, according to a closely watched compensation study due out today (November 28). Bonuses, which constitute a substantial part of many finance workers' pay, are on track to plunge 35% to 40%, on average

Symbolic Logic: Apple's New $1 Billion, 500, 000 Sq Ft Data Center Added 50 Jobs to the Economy

It's so big it can be seen from space. It cost $1 billion to build. And its opening added exactly 50 new jobs to the nation's economy.

So this building in rural western North Carolina symbolizes the problem the world is confronting. Technology and globalization are providing new opportunities for business as new products are developed and new markets are opened. But those very same factors limit the number of jobs being created - to replace the ones being lost to progress.

This does not mean that a New Era Luddite movement is upon us. But it does suggest that business must be realistic about income levels and consumer demand for the economy of the future in which they are investing now. Henry Ford understood that he had to make his innovation affordable.

It will take a while - perhaps as much as a generation - for the economy to adapt to the technology both driving and constraining it. Governments and their political leaders must also come to terms with this reality. Talk of austerity may be morally satisfying, but it may reflect ignorance of the implications for those who tout it. JL

Henry Blodget comments in Business Insider:

Optimists argue that the solution to the US's sky-high unemployment and income inequality is more companies like Apple--the resurgent tech company that has revolutionized the digital industry and become one of the most valuable companies in the world.

Apple has not not only created amazing, beloved products. It has created enormous profits, vast shareholder wealth, and more than 60,000 jobs. And it is true that having more companies like Apple would certainly help the US. But we would need a lot more companies like Apple to make a dent in our unemployment and inequality problems

This Holiday Season, Accessorize With...Pepper Spray: A Market Primer

It could be this year's Cabbage Patch doll, or Wii game system or large screen TV. A new tech system or toy? Nope, we're talking about pepper spray, America's new, must-have holiday accessory.

It's rise to fame started just over a week ago with the casual but ever so direct spraying of student protesters at a University of California campus. But it achieved rock-star status on Black Friday with the news that a shopper had used it to keep interlopers away from the products she wanted in a Los Angeles-area Wal-mart. Then reports surfaced that Wal-mart security had found it to be an effective crowd control device elsewhere in the country.

Humor aside (no one has been badly injured - yet), the product is freely available over the counter in most states, which means you dont need a permit or license to buy it. It comes in various compounds - chemical or water-based -, various concentrations, various sized-canisters and in attractive designer colors (there is a pink canister...). The problem is that the long-term impact is not particularly well-researched or documented. And the fact that certain political broadcasters supporting its use on fractious crowds referred to it as a 'vegetable' not unlike pizza sauce or ketchup (but we digress) has not provided helpful clarity.

Can manufacturers keep up with the demand spurred by viral videos? Will kill-joy politicians step in and try to regulate it? Stay tuned - but better order yours now while supplies last. JL

Rupal Parekh reports in Advertising Age:

Lt. John Pike's casual dousing of students at a sit-in on U.C. Davis campus in pepper spray was met by the public with both horror and hilarity (of the gallows humor sort). While many decried the incident, it also sparked mockery, most notably via a highly-frequented Tumblr page. A Twitter handle has cropped up too, unsurprisingly. And the real John Pike has even been targeted by the hacking group Anonymous, which created a video about the him containing personal information.