Trends In The US

The recent summer surge in gas prices has finally trickled down to American teenagers. The tradition of aimlessly cruising on summer nights appears to be a rapidly disappearing ritual. This distinctly American practice was best captured in the 1970s hit, “American Graffiti.” With the downturn of summer employment opportunities and the upswing of gasoline prices, parents and teens alike are looking for alternatives to driving.

A recent article from the New York Times reports:

Perhaps the summer’s most visible change is occurring in the downtown strips of small towns where, for decades, cruising on Friday and Saturday nights has been a teenage rite of passage. It is a peculiarly American phenomenon — driving around in a big loop, listening to music, waving at one another and wasting gasoline.

“We’re not cruising around anymore, with gas costing $4.50 a gallon,” said Ewelina Smosna, a recent graduate of Taft High School in Chicago, as she hung out the other night at the Streets of Woodfield, an outdoor mall in Schaumburg. “We just park the car and walk around.”

NYT: As Gas Prices Rise, Teenagers’ Cruising Declines

With the threat of decreased consumer spending and a weak U.S. economy, fast food chains have had the most to gain from value-driven, price conscious consumers. Brands have employed a wide range of strategies to reach consumers during a time when every penny counts.

Aside from the ongoing dollar or value menu wars, chains have stepped up their efforts to match each other on both menu offerings and prices. Following the success of McDonald’s “Snack Wrap”, KFC has aggressively pushed its “Toasted Wrap” and “Snacker” while Wendy’s has responded with “Chicken Go Wraps”. And the food wars have not been limited to classic fast food fare; Quiznos is offering its own “$5 Large Deli Favorite Subs” to go head to head with Subway’s “$5 Footlong Subs”. But undercutting all competition in price is Taco Bell, with value menu items starting at $.79.

While some brands are trading down, others have adopted a premium positioning during this rough period, hoping to improve their margins. Wendy’s has used its latest tagline, “It’s waaaay better than fast food”, to push more expensive products like its “Premium Fish Fillet Sandwich” and “Hand-spun Frosty Shakes”. McDonald’s has done more than upgrade its menu. It has been in the process of giving most of its 14,000 U.S. stores a facelift, adding new decor, seating, plasma TVs, and even fireplaces in some locations. To shake things up even more, McDonald’s is rolling out McCafes at all U.S. locations, offering specialty coffee drinks and their take on lattes and cappuccinos.

Another strategy that has helped chains offset a decline in domestic sales is overseas expansion. McDonald’s announced last Monday that same-store sales globally increased 7.7 percent for May, beating analysts’ expectations. While sales were up 4.3 percent at U.S. locations, total sales were bolstered by a 9.6 percent rise in Europe and a 9.7 percent rise in the Asia/Pacific, Middle East and Africa division. Sales overseas for the chain have been outpacing domestic sales for some time now. A recent WSJ article highlights this strategy, as more U.S. chains like Burger King and Papa John’s International Inc. are looking to international expansion for growth.

So as gas prices rise and the tough times continue, not everyone in America is suffering. While restaurants and upscale coffeehouses may be feeling the pinch, it seems that the glory days for fast food restaurants have just begun.

-Contributed by Robert Hsu of Peep Insights

Fans of Japanese game shows, such as Human Tetris and Slip ’n’ Slide bowling, will be happy to know that American producers are planning on emulating them for US TV audiences. The New York Times reports that shows such as “I Survived a Japanese Game Show” and “Wipeout” recently made their debut on ABC.

Ones of the producers interviewed describes a particularly unique challenge from the show “Baby Go Boom”

Wearing baby bonnets and diapers, the competitors spin around in cribs until they’re dizzy. Then they try to cross a teeter-totter, get past spinning plates and overcome other obstacles without spilling a jug of milk that they carry. The team that manages to spill the least milk wins.

In Japan, these shows are known as batsu games, or punishment and humiliation games, and they celebrate the spirit of embarrassment and ability to laugh at oneself. As David Goldberg, the president of Endemol USA, put it, “The whole idea of watching people crash and burn — but not get hurt — is something that people seem to be drawn to.”

NYT: Japanese-Style Game Shows: Cash for Winners, Humiliation for Losers

Last week, on our way out of Minneapolis, we swung by the Walker Art Center and took a quick walk around one of its most recent additions, “Walker on the Green: Artist-Designed Mini Golf.” Across the way from the Minneapolis Sculpture Garden, the outdoor course features a dozen or so miniature golf holes designed by artists - some revisiting classic mini golf cliches (like the larger-than-life Paul Bunyan hole), others giving the retro game an avant-garde spin (like an intimidating plastic bottle and rope gauntlet).  We liked the interactivity and playfulness of the ‘collection’; while kids and adult putt-putted their way around the art, they talked about which holes (pieces) they liked, which ones were tough, which ones were ‘neat’ - a completely hands-on, and unique, exchange between the art piece and its spectator.

“Walker on the Green” got us thinking about public art and its role in engaging and interacting with its viewers. Coincidentally, we came across an interesting post from Jason Fried at 37Signals’ Signal vs. Noise about the contrasting approaches to public art he witnessed in Seattle and his home, Chicago. Having visited Seattle’s new Olympic Sculpture Park on a recent trip, Jason was surprised and a bit put-off by the numerous signs surrounding the public sculptures that pleaded visitors, “PLEASE DO NOT TOUCH,” and that “even the lightest touch harms the art… help the art survive.” Jason compared this to Chicago’s public art, which includes (among others) an oversized face which spouts water on nearby visitors and Millenium Park’s Cloud Gate, an enormous reflective lima bean which is constantly surrounded by people of every age, touching and playing with it, walking through it and running around it. Jason reflected upon this different approach to public space art he saw in Seattle, and was left with a feeling of separation, disappointment:

Public art in a public outdoor space in the middle of public paths and public lawns yet you can’t touch it. The only interaction is visual. It’s standoffish. It feels like a missed opportunity.

After the mini-golf experience, we walked over to the famous Spoonbridge and Cherry centerpiece of the Sculpture Garden - a spoon resting on its back with a cherry on its tip. Naturally, the enormous piece was accompanied with a sign that read, “Please Do Not Climb” - doing so would be dangerous (and a liability). So we stood there and admired the fantastical sculpture from afar spout water from its cherry’s stem, sweating through our clothes on a hot summer’s day, imagining what it’d be like to climb across that big white spoon and feel the splash of its water-spouting cherry.

PUMA have just released a series of short films exploring bike culture. Produced by Daniel Leeb of Cinecyle Productions, The I-Cycle Film Series consists of five surprisingly well made videos documenting five different influencers and the contributions they’ve made to the bike community. Each video is about 5 minutes long and explores the importance of biking and why these advocates personally love moving on two wheels.

Unfortunately, the videos can’t be embedded, but you can check them all out here. Features include:

Matthew McGuinness, cofounder of The 62, a Brooklyn-based art collective who started Re-Bicycle
George Bliss, the man behind New York’s Pedicabs
Brendt Barbur, founder of The Bicycle Film Festival
Matthew Modine, actor and founder of Bicycle-For-A-Day
Antonio Bertone, PUMA’s CMO

I-Cycle Film Series

Keeping in line with our series of ad manipulation posts, Wooster Collective directs us to Specter, an artist putting up two dimensional works installed in windows, door frames and advertisements that change the visual appearance of the structure. Boarded up windows are completely wheat pasted over to make it look like the room is filled with pallets, plain doors lead into grand entrances, and even a few cockroaches have managed to find a way onto McDonald’s sandwiches.

Specter

Last week, speaking on behalf of Streative in Madrid, I had the opportunity to share a stage with PSFK friend Heron Preston. I had a few minutes to catch up with Heron offstage and asked him to give this Londoner his New York point of view on the American youth. Here’s what he said:

What are the most interesting things about Youth Culture in NYC at the moment?

Heron: The kids don’t need rules… They don’t follow shit and they make their own thing up… Basically they do what they want to do and they throw away history, forgetting about the past and thinking the whole city is theirs… Also, they forget what came before them, or just don’t wanna know, so they act like they’re the boss and the world revolves around them…

Have you noticed any kind of antithesis to this whole digital youth thing?

Heron: I guess so, I’ve noticed - with photography - that the real art of that is coming back, that it’s not about digital images - it’s about photography again. The kids are just taking it back to analogue - film is a good place to see that kind of stuff, the antithesis.

Name me 3 teen tribes you’re interested in, in NYC.

Heron: You know your Ghetto Gays - we have the kind of Homothugs, who vogue at house parties - they’re wild… Also, the fashion/art oriented kids, they have fascinating lifestyles… Finally, the Rich Girls - they just don’t have a fucking worry in the world… And any worry they may pretend to have is just artificial… They’re taking trips every weekend, you know - flying to Paris from New York just for a party or shopping. They also have these amazing houses in the city, and they party really hard - it’s all real fucking fun…

Story originally published on Ruby Pseudo Wants a Word

One of the latest examples of Buckminster Fuller’s iconic geodesic domes, The Fly’s Eye Dome, has been re-assembled at La Guardia Place in New York. The Center for Architecture New York teamed up with the Buckminster Fuller Institute, Max Protetch Gallery and some local institutions to put this prototype from the late 1970’s on temporary display.

In addition, they are hosting an exhibition with over four hundred volumes of books by and about the great American visionary, inventor, theorist, and unofficial inventor of the minivan.

Fuller left planet earth 25 years ago but if it weren’t for the charmingly weathered look, the structure could easily be mistaken as one of the pieces from the recent ‘Design and the Elastic Mind’ exhibition at the MoMA.

The Whitney Museum has a show coming up as well on June 26, and in addition to the Fly’s Eye Dome, there are a number of other events planned throughout June in New York City.

A new documentary entitled “Dust And Illusions” by Olivier Bonin, features an in-depth look a the history of Burning Man. After four years of research, filming and in-depth interviews with people involved in the Burning Man community, this film explores how the anarchic festival is coming to terms with it’s own popularization.

What started out as a small gathering on the beach of San Francisco has evolved into a fully functioning city in the Nevada Desert. And with nearly 50,000 attendees last year, many participants are concerned that the event’s mainstream appeal will jeopardize the festival’s utopia vision.

While the documentary is still in the post-production phase, it is set to be released in early 2009. However, there will be a special preview screening at CELLspace in San Francisco this Saturday, June 28th.

Check out the trailer below:

[via Laughing Squid]