Newsletter/Blog
Jamming in Paris
When searching for family activities for our Paris vacation this summer, I found a 3-hour chocolate and patisserie walking tour. My definition of heaven, even on a sweltering late June day. Happily, my husband and two twentysomething children were game. The tour...
Twitter Has Bigger Problems Than Its Rebrand to X
The closest I’ve come to liking Elon Musk was during his SNL opening monologue on May 8, 2021. But it was never that close. I admired his courage to appear on the show and willingness to mock himself. His performance humanized him. He was funny in some skits. Yet my...
Barbie’s Breakthrough Brand Building
Updated August 7, 2023 I didn’t have a Barbie doll when I was growing up. That was by design. I asked my mother about that recently. She objected to Barbie’s “unrealistic female form.” She said, "this is the kind of idealized female body which few girls would grow up...
How Your Brand Can Take a Stand Without Getting Panned
I didn’t have to convince my children to stay off their cell phones when they had friends over. My kids were in middle school before smart phones became common. But I was that parent who limited screen time during playdates. My challenge was mitigating Game Boy use. A...
How Crocs Cultivated Community to Thrive
On May 20, 1993, my then-boyfriend Dan and I watched the Cheers finale along with 84 million other Americans. Unlike most of them, we watched from bleacher seats in front of the Bull & Finch pub, the Boston bar that inspired the series. NBC was going to broadcast...