The Cost of Cool

The other day I was shopping for shoes--much needed since my dog has eaten all of my shoes. Anyway I was in a discount store which shall remain unnamed because it's not relevant. Got some shoes for a good deal. The only mistake I made was bringing along my clothes crazy 5-year-old daughter. That was a mistake because this store has cute but, expensive kids' clothes even at the discount price.

Searching through the kids racks I found a Jim Morrison t-shirt. My first thought was that my daughter would look so cute wearing a shirt this cool. Of course my second thought was, "Why would I want my 5-year-old sporting Jim Morrison?" Then I looked at the price tag. Thirty dollars! Discounted! Fortunately she thought the shirt was only for boys and therefore not pretty.

Then I remembered hearing that Bob Marley's family has signed a deal with a marketing firm to license his name and image. It's not all that surprising since there are zillions of unlicensed Marley t-shirts and posters distributed without the Marley family's blessing. But do we really need Marley sunglasses and salad dressing (yes, they are actually considering salad dressing). Isn't this just gross capitalization of a man who stood for the complete opposite?

Of course it is. But the fact is that we will buy Bob Marley salad dressing and Jim Morrison t-shirts for tots, or at least someone will.

Ditching Ties to Save Energy

photo by holeymoon

Last week Mayor Hickenlooper caught my eye as he was ripping off his tie. It happened while I was walking through our family room. There was the Mayor on TV and all I heard was "Mayor Hickenlooper proposes a casual dress code to save businesses money on energy costs."

Sounded like a good idea but the snippet didn't give all the info. What the Mayor was actually talking about was his "Cool Biz" program. City buildings will raise their thermostats 4 degrees and adopt a casual dress code between Memorial Day and Labor Day. The Mayor is asking businesses to join in on the program. Coors Brewing Company and Qwest have signed on.

I don't have the numbers but I'd suspect that the kilowatt savings for Cool Biz might be significant if many buildings join in. But what about personal savings? Men's clothing is crazy expensive compared to women's clothing. But guys, you just don't buy clothes as often as women. A tie or suit jacket can easily last a couple of years. So business casual may not save you anything.

Any woman who has worked in an office can confirm that offices are freezing during the summer. Raising the temperature 4 degrees probably won't stop women from wearing sweaters and using space heaters even in the summer.

I'd like to think that Hick came up with the Cool Biz program all by himself, but it seems that Japan created Cool Biz. Yeah, not even the name is an original. Still Cool Biz shows creative problem solving. I'd bet that Mayor Hick had to settle on 4 degrees, coming down from some Hotter. And I love a guy who gets me and hopefully many others thinking. Yep, it nice to see the Mayor heating things up. Okay, I'll just stop.

To sign up for Cool Biz and learn more about the Mayor's cool ideas visit Greenprint Denver.