In 1994, there were 537 craft breweries in America. Now there are 2,768. Thank you, Jimmy Carter?

Cool profile on NPR this morning about the rise in craft brewing — although this has been covered for a few years now, it’s great to see stories of this ilk. I almost always order craft, and I can’t tell… Continue Reading

Wal-Mart tried a video games trade-in strategy in 2009. It didn’t work. With CExchange, will it work now?

This seems like an interesting plan: Wal-Mart is now going to accept video game trade-ins in 3,100 or so of their 4,835 U.S. stores. It’s interesting because normally when you trade-in a video game — say, at GameStop — you use… Continue Reading

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Why is the NCAA Tournament called ‘March Madness?’

This Thursday used to represent my favorite day of the year. It still probably does in some respect, although I didn’t follow college hoops super closely this year, so I’m a little out of the game. But it’s essentially wall-to-wall… Continue Reading

What can we learn about consuming pop culture from the TED ‘Ads Worth Spreading’ list?

TED just released “Ads Worth Spreading” (here’s the full list) as part of a big week for ’em (the 30th Anniversary of TED is right now in Vancouver). There are no trophies for winning, and ultimately you need to fall… Continue Reading

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The annual spending on men’s wear is up 70 percent since 1998. Here we go…

Check out the chart above, via here. There are other charts of interest in said post, but essentially, here’s a quick takeaway: around 1998, the total market for menswear was about $270 billion. This year? It’s going to approach $500 billion.… Continue Reading

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HBO’s Girls is renewed for Season 4. Adam Driver thinks he’s coming back. But would the show be better if Hannah and Adam were broken up?

Connect these dots for a second: 1. HBO has ordered a Season 4 of Girls. 2. Adam Driver believes he’s coming back: I don’t know. I leave that in the hands of people smarter than me, and definitely more articulate. [Laughs] But yeah,… Continue Reading

Lena Dunham, of Girls fame, is hosting Saturday Night Live tonight. How’s this going to go?

Theoretically, this has the possibility to shut down the Internet for a few 20-second stretches. We don’t know a ton about it so far — she is hanging out with the girls in the cast, though. girl pile in Studio… Continue Reading

PBR and hipsters: maybe the best marketing is to avoid the big marketing, eh?

Check out that chart above, by way of Quartz here. PBR — which essentially barely advertises — is literally crushing the major light-beer brands, most of whom spend millions advertising. That makes no sense, though — right? We take these MBAs and we pay… Continue Reading