Cocktail Hour: June 8, 2012

While in the US, we only have pant suits and the endless array of blue and red ties to be bored with, the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth has brought out the hat-wearing swagger of the British. Pantone and Leo Burnett London even honored the Monarch with a custom palette of colors including Lilac Snow, Primrose Yellow and Ice Green. In her honor, let’s pull out the pastels for our weekend festivities. You might want to leave the hat at home — after a few sips of our special cocktail hour drink (see below), balance and being mistaken for a reindeer may create some uncomfortable encounters.

Ladies’ Night

Should the ladies at your get-together need a subject to discuss, this should do the trick. The New York Times took a line from Jezebel and led an article discussing the sexual discrimination suit by Ellen Pao of venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers with the graph, “MEN invented the Internet. And not just any men. Men with pocket protectors. Men who idolized Mr. Spock and cried when Steve Jobs died. Nerds. Geeks. Give them their due. Without men, we would never know what our friends were doing five minutes ago.” The article, while attempting to discuss the lawsuit, teemed with discussion points on the role of women and sexuality in the male-dominated tech world. Some women couldn’t make it through the article without throwing down their frying pans (resulting in the sinking of their perfect soufflés) and others realized the opening lines for what they were. Either way, women took to their keyboards and responded to the debate:

Women in Tech Debates: Paying Respect To The Real Issues At Hand With A Bit Of Journalistic Integrity - Kate Brodock in Forbes

NYT-“MEN invented the internet” - Xeni Jardin in Boing Boing

Women, Support Women - Emily Eldridge in The Agency Post

Chat It Up

In case your cocktail hour needs some marketing-specific, less controversial discussion topics, here’s a few that will make people think you spent your whole week researching new trends and data:

• In less than three months, Twitter’s mobile ad revenue has overtaken desktop advertising, and more than 60 percent of users access the site via a mobile device. Costolo’s comments on mobile revenue comes on the heels of Facebook’s announcement to advertisers that it now has a mobile-ad product — sponsored stories that can be purchased individually.
• Microsoft announced that it would launch Internet Explorer 10 with Do Not Track as the default setting. While developers have had a long hate of the Microsoft browser, now advertisers can join in on the IE bashing. The author argues that setting a default for web browsing versus allowing the user to determine what data they want websites to be able to track is a step away from greater user control and privacy.
• How much of your management’s time is spent focused on reviewing and adapting its current strategy? Without a sharp focus on the companies unique proposition, principles and ability to adapt, every company is in danger of becoming the MySpace of its industry.

Did you hear (or see)?

• Twitter redesigns its bird
• Augmented reality app reveals graffitied messages on Rijksmuseum artworks
• Woman fights a heat wave in gorgeous, fantasy-style commercial for Perrier

This Week’s Choice Cocktail

With a hat-tip to the Queen and our British brothers and sisters, we’ve selected a bloody marvelous drink to cheers your mates with:

Pimm’s and Lemonade (for the whole crowd):

• Fill pitcher with 6 ounces of Pimm’s
• 1 sliced orange
• 1 apple, chopped
• 3 sliced strawberries
• 1/2 cucumber sliced
• Mint leaves
• Fill pitcher with cold lemonade

Please drink responsibly. Fake British accents may be an unintended side effect of this drink.

Get away from the computer screen, enjoy your weekend and let us know what you would have added to our list of great reads this week.

Cheers!