I swear that I’m not making this up. The Daily, the first publication created exclusively for the iPad, published an article about the shady world of “raw” milk smuggling. Members of the Amish and Mennonite communities pay a driver to haul gallons of raw— which essentially means unpasterized— milk to New York, where consumers shell out $6 a gallon to get the product. Though it’s touted for its health benefits and superior taste, the FDA condemns raw milk and 12 states have outlawed its consumption outright.
Singer/Songwriter Amos Lee sold the most albums last week with his Mission Bell, but set a new low for the music industry by only selling 40,000 copies. Unfortunately, Lee’s is the latest in a string of record-breaking albums, in terms of the fewest sold to still top the chart.
Two weeks ago, Cake set the previous low mark when they moved 44,000 copies of Showroom of Compassion to top the chart. Before that, Taylor Swift set the low mark when her chart-topping album Speak Now only sold 52,000 to top the charts (before that, the album had sold well over a million copies). In second place was Iron and Wine’s Kiss Each Other Clean, which sold 39,000 copies. Both Iron and Wine’s and Lee’s albums set individual records for the artists, nearly tripling their previous debuts.
Many people wouldn’t think of rappers as marketing gurus, but Wiz Khalifa might change that impression. The Pittsburgh-based rapper released his hit single “Black and Yellow” in September 2010. Please note the logos of Pittsburgh’s three major sports teams:
Pittsburgh Steelers
Pittsburgh Penguins
Pittsburgh Pirates
What do the three teams have in common? Their primary colors are “Black and Yellow” “Black and Yellow” “Black and Yellow.” That, by itself, is fairly remarkable. Most cities have tremendous variation in the colors of their sports teams, but Pittsburgh bucks that trend. Khalifa’s single was released last fall and saw its popularity rise with every Steelers victory. By now, fans have adopted the hit song as the official anthem of the team (now destined for the Super Bowl). Khalifa performed the song before kickoff for the NFC championship.
“I’m sure he will be loved by Steelers fans forever,” said Dan Charvas, author of A History of Hip Hop. At the very least, “he might get paid off of this forever.”
The music video also shows marketing intelligence. It features Pittsburgh landmarks and could easily pass as a modern tourism video for the city. With this song, Khalifa cements himself as a Pittsburgh legend, while launching a mainstream career at the same time. Sounds like a pretty genius strategy to me.
PS: Green Bay released a similar colors song, called “Green and Yellow,” to support their team before the Super Bowl. This young rapper is pretty good. For Wisconsin.
Update: Rapper Lil’ Wayne has joined the Green Bay side. His version of “Green and Yellow” \”Green and Yellow\”
NFL Quarterbacks Matt Hasselbeck and Jon Kitna will spend Super Bowl Sunday leading a crusade against internet pornography, as part of a day called “National Porn Sunday.”
They will advocate on behalf of an organization called XXX Church, which pledges to help people dealing with pornography addiction. Hasselbeck swears he has never had a problem with pornography, but has still signed up for the church’s X3watch service.
“If I go to a site that’s questionable, a teammate gets an email and my wife gets an email,” Hasselbeck told CNN. “I thought about adding my mom too but decided against that.”
Pastor Craig Gross runs the program, and says he started the program in early 2000s after meeting dozens of teens dealing with addiction to internet pornography. Through his work, Gross has made efforts to reach out to the pornography community. He says that the Bible tells him that pornography is a “sexual sin.”
Through his outreach efforts, Gross made an unlikely friend: adult film superstar Ron Jeremy.
“If you’re a really religious Christian and you follow the letter of the law with the bible, you should not watch porn – I agree with Craig on that one,” Jeremy said. “I like what Craig does. He tries to keep people out who don’t belong in porn and don’t belong watching porn. It’s not healthy for them – maybe they’re getting addicted to it.”
Quarterback Matt Hasselbeck will help fight internet pornography addiction
Not Intent on Arriving 