by Abelardo de la Pena Jr.

Like many parents, I’ve dreaded the teen years, when sons and daughters start their experimental phases. My wife and I learned a lot of lessons with our older kids, so throughout 17-year-old Alicia’s life, we’ve encouraged openness. Let’s talk about it first. Please.

The moment of reckoning finally came this spring when she said she wanted to try … vegetarianism.

We weren’t too surprised. She’s never liked steak, pork or even eggs. She was going to have to give up her beloved In-N-Out cheeseburgers, though. Yet, sensing she was up to the challenge, we not only OK’d it, we agreed that the three of us wouldn’t eat meat or fish at home.

As an on-the-go family, we’ve always prepared plenty of easy-to-make dishes featuring verduras (vegetables), frijoles (beans) and granos (grains). This project has been a little harder for me. I miss my carne asada.

But it couldn’t hurt for me to limit my meat (and therefore, most likely, my calorie) intake. It also couldn’t hurt U.S. Latino high school students: 16.6% of them are obese, and 18.1% are overweight (CNN.com 10.24.09). Alicia’s not one of them. She just likes the ethics of meat-free eating and the authentic taste of products like Soyrizo. And to my surprise, so do I. More Latino consumers are now looking for flavorful stand-ins for traditional favorites like chorizo; getting healthy is all in the family.

-Compared to other groups, Mature consumers are most likely to shop online (77%), according to one recent report on lifestages and lifestyles.

-Great bennies, bonuses and bosses are some of the reasons Comcast was named the best place to work in Massachusettes from Boston Globe survey results. Other 2009 list-toppers include Harvard-Pilgrim Health Care, Edward Jones Financial and Google. [Consumerist]

-Speaking of Google, they’re hiring. Good news considering the bleak unemployment rate, but if you ever failed to guess how many jelly beans were in the jar you may think twice before applying.

-Two historical perspectives: words and water use.

by Rocio Zamora Arzola

WHAT’S HAPPENING

• Latino and white infants share a fairly equal level of cognitive skills — vocabulary, listening and problem-solving skills. But by the time they’re toddlers, Latino children are lagging in all three areas, according to a study led by researchers at UC Berkeley (LATimes.com 10.20.09) .
• The reasons? Larger Latino families and Hispanic-dominant mamás working full-time means there’s less individual time with each child. Also, Latina mothers tend to be less educated than their white counterparts, so they read fewer books and share fewer stories with their children. That’s fundamental for building a growing child’s skills.

WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS

• Although Latino families seek better education for their children, their traditional dependence on schools to provide the fundamentals is leaving Latino kids at a disadvantage. And in this economic environment, cutting work hours to spend more time with their children is out of the question for many Latina moms.
• Brands can partner with non-profit parent training programs to provide Latino parents with tools, resources and skills to fulfill their roles as the first and best teachers for their young children.

RESOURCES

• National Center for Education Statistics

• Early Head Start National Resource Center

-According to findings in Australian Science magazine, negative emotions can have a positive effect on decision making and clear thinking. Joie de Vivre gets another smackdown in Barbara Ehrenreich’s latest book where she shreds the powers and prowess of positive thinking, scolding Americans for being relentlessly upbeat.

-Lonely? A recent Pew study on social isolationism and technology found that the Internet and cell phones have actually made people more connected, despite previous studies that suggest we are all silos now. Related: David Brooks is worried that cellphones — or text messages, more specifically — are hurting your love life. Sentimental? Curmudgeon? Both? So, what what kind of text plan does Brooks have?

-At Iconoculture, we track not only tech natives, but also those who came before them. Is technology ageist? Today, we published an article about Florence Henderson’s FloH Club of computer support for seniors.

-A glimpse into competition culture at the office.

by Stefania Revelli

WHAT’S HAPPENING

• For BlueCross BlueShield of Florida, the line between healthcare and retail continues to get fuzzier; this fall, the company has rolled out healthcare gift cards (MyFoxOrlando.com 10.07.09).
• Two different types of gift cards are available and can be picked up in Winn Dixie or CVS pharmacy stores. The $59 Blue Health Care card covers up to ten weeks of limited health insurance and can be used towards the purchase of plans (like GoBlue) for routine and preventive medical care (including doctor, dentist, pharmacy or lab work).
• The Family Blue Discount card ($19) gives users significant discounts on dental (10-50%), prescription (20%) and vision services (10-60%) for up to three months (BCBSFL.com 10.09).

WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS

• These days even those who have insurance could use more help in the health department. Innovative signs that affordability and healthcare can co-exist provides peace of mind when times are tough.
• A company that seemingly makes healthcare as easy, accessible and affordable to pick up as laundry detergent is a health hero for consumers.

RESOURCES

• BlueCross BlueShield of Florida
• WinnDixie
• CVS
  

-At Iconoculture, we still believe It Sucks to Fly, but trip planning might suck a little less since Expedia has dropped its fee for booking flights over the phone. Broadband-challenged consumers can now save a few bucks and spend some quality time on hold.

-What happens when blind justice stumbles into the ethereal abyss we call the Web? That is, Can The Rule of Law Exist in the Virtual World? Well … can it?? This is about more than forcing bloggers to reveal their advertising alliances, people.

-This interactive map shows voter turnout by block. Love thy neighbor, track thy neighbor, shame they neighbor, whatever.

-2010 is prophesied to be the year of the woman. Some evidence to the contrary: Women are voluntarily shrink-wrapping themselves in spandex to make for a $750 million market! Christina Hendricks et al wear actual girdles for up to 17 hours. I believe her when she says they’re “superuncomfortable” but at least she’s getting paid for it.

-”There is no reason to keep pretending that the Copyright Wars involve matters of morality or principle—they don’t and never have. The Copyright Wars and their predecessors have always been about one thing and one thing only—a fruitless effort to resist, to the end, the very nature of capitalism, which is a dynamic, creative force by which new innovations and business models replace old ones.” IP is so 2003.

-Kids’ books. Xers. Bad parenting. Rage. Helicopter parents.

-We’ve covered vertical gardens, upside-down gardens, roll-out-a-mat-and-just-add-water gardens … These crocheted containers bring the, erm, spoils of the garden inside and if you’re handy with a hook they’d be a good holiday gift in the spirit of deconsumption.

by Nissa Hanna

WHAT’S HAPPENING

• While self-gifting is all fine and good, it usually lacks one key element of gift giving: surprise. A new service, Surprise Gift For Me, is offering to be a personal wish list shopper so self-gifters can be pleasantly taken aback by their own presents.
• Here’s how it works: The giver/receiver lists three to five items that he’d like to get from himself, and notes the deets like the store, cost, size and brand. He authorizes Surprise Gift For Me to charge his credit card for the price of the product, plus shipping and handling.
• The service picks one of those items and sends it to him on his selected delivery date.

WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS

• Self-gifting has always been part of the holiday season, but as consumers cut back to make up for tighter budgets, personal presents have lost some of their allure. Services that offer the element of surprise bring back a sense of indulgence.
• That said, more practical shoppers prefer to avoid a middleman.

RESOURCES

• Surprise Gift For Me: There is no fee to use the service

by Cree McCree

WHAT’S HAPPENING

• Did you know M.I.T. ranks high in mattress dominoes? Potential M.I.T. students do. The university is among dozens of U.S. schools using student blogs to market campus life to high schoolers.
• Ivy League schools including Vassar, Wellesley and Yale have all joined the blogosphere. But the M.I.T. site is especially robust, with a dozen uncensored undergrad blogs on its admissions page.
• Some schools remain leery of giving students free rein. But for most, it’s a marketing plus.
• “We saw very quickly that prospective students were engaging with each other and building their own community,” says Ben Jones, former director of communications for M.I.T. admissions, who initiated the school’s first student blog at the dawn of the Facebook age (New York Times 10.1.09).

WHAT THIS MEANS TO BUSINESS

• Student-to-student marketing has always been a part of official campus tours. But unfiltered blogs can lure recruits while they’re still in the browsing stage, giving them a real sense of day-to-day campus life.
• Even before the recession hit, schools were using social networks to recruit. Now, faced with the double whammy of cash-strapped families and spiraling costs, they’re amping their marketing efforts. Blogs are a smart way to build their brand.

RESOURCES

• M.I.T. Admissions Web Portal & Community
  

by Robert van Alstyne

I recently attended the CMJ Music Marathon, a showcase for hundreds of on-the-rise independent music acts that essentially takes over the Lower East Side of Manhattan for a five-day stretch. In addition to the expected sight of lots of fashionistos in exceptionally tight pants, the festival stood out for what I wasn’t seeing.

I’d grown accustomed, over about the past five years, to seeing a significant chunk of concert attendees digitally capturing the experience. What began in the early 2000s as a few plucky digital-camera-toting superfans had gradually become a full-blown amateur paparazzi fest at many gigs. At particularly trendy shows here in the Twin Cities in recent years, it wasn’t uncommon to catch dozens of crowd members snapping pics on their smartphones or tweeting the band’s latest song choice. But more lately crowds seem to have fallen out of love with documentation.

The nearly picture-taking-free crowds I encountered at every CMJ gig I attended confirmed my suspicions. Consumers (particularly the Millennials who made up the majority of the goers) are getting over the urge to digitally chronicle every experience they have. They’re realizing that shoddy user-generated content isn’t worth anyone’s time, including their own.

Delivering effective in-the-moment mobile media means giving consumers content that deepens their experience (location-aware apps that unlock bonus content on mobile devices, high-quality multimedia mementos of the experience) rather than distancing them further. Now if only we could do something about those pants.

by Katie Elfering

• Twitter gets a lot of grief for letting people share the most mundane aspects of their lives (“I just ate a Pop-Tart”) or for being a tool that encourages self-promotion and narcissism. But lately, Twitter has started shaping up into an almost (gasp!) practical utility for consumers’ lives.
• One of the most obvious examples of this shift is the customer service that many brands have implemented on Twitter. JetBlue and Comcast have become 140-character service experts. Newer entries, like HyattConcierge, are taking off by offering specialized tools to help travelers on the go.
• Another oft-mentioned Twitter tool? The ability to report breaking news. From earthquakes to planes in the Hudson to the aftermath of elections in Iran, Twitter users are posting events the second they happen.
• But beyond brands and breaking news, cities and states are starting to see the value in using Twitter as an info disseminator. New York state’s transportation and travel service, 511NY, has Twitter feeds that alert NYC residents to traffic conditions and emergencies on the city’s subway and highway systems. @SF311 lets Bay Area residents send messages to the city government about city utility issues. And the Stolen Bike Boston Community Alert program uses Twitter to help catch bike thieves by posting descriptions of stolen bikes for citizens.
• Online classifieds? Try 140-character classifieds. iListMicro lets consumer swap and sell goods. Users tag tweets with “#ihave” or “#iwant” to get their listings added to the service.
• Even day-to-day activities are getting the Twitter touch. PackageTrack lets consumers track incoming deliveries from FedEx, UPS and the USPS. After users follow @packagetrack, it updates them each time a package status changes.
• Twitter tools can even keep consumers healthy and safe. After the recent rash of food recalls, the FDA set up a Twitter feed to keep concerned consumers up-to-date and (perhaps overly) informed about what’s safe to eat.
• Maybe the most useful Twitter tool in today’s economy? TwitterJobSearch, which uses crowdsourcing and link-crawling to track job openings. Twitterers can search for jobs in categories or by company and save desired gigs in a special account. 140-characters to find a career? Works for us.