Captivating Connections.

food shows are taking over.

Psh, please, I've been loving food shows (and Food Network!) for years.

"Holiday revelers might overindulge this weekend, but viewers are gorging on food television shows. Fox has made a cottage industry out of curmudgeonly Gordon Ramsay (Hell's Kitchen, Kitchen Nightmaresand next year's Master Chef). 

Networks not known as foodie havens have found solid ratings: Bravo's Top Chef and TLC's Cake Boss are their networks' top series, while others ranging from IFC to Planet Green are opening their cupboards to new food shows. CABLE TV 2009: Year's winners and losers And Scripps Networks, which saw prime-time ratings for its Food Network spike 29% this year to a new record, is turning its underachieving Fine Living Network into a 24-hour Cooking Channel next May. 

Scripps chief John Lansing says the sprouting of more food shows on other channels simply 'broadened interest in the category,' and much of the growth is coming from younger viewers. It's a long way from Julia Child— portrayed by Meryl Streep in summer's Julie & Julia — and her TV successors, Martha Stewart and Rachael Ray.

So why the surge in popularity? 

"Programmers say a recessionary trend toward home entertaining has driven the genre. 'Culturally right now, food is a comfort device,' says TLC chief Eileen O'Neill, who's peppered her network's schedule with shows about barbecue pitmasters, dwarf chocolatiers and that New Jersey cake guy, tapping more male viewers.

 The audience for Bravo's Top Chef, among the top-rated food shows, is the new norm. 'It tends to be people who enjoy eating and are interested in food (more than) people who want to do it themselves,'says programming chief Frances Berwick, who's prepping a spinoff built around desserts."

on the 12th day of christmas, the box office gave to me...

...a record breaking number (and a partridge in a peartree).

(Cut me some slack here, I'm a Heeb).

Anyways, you get the point: It was a record breaking holiday season for the film industry...

"There was enough Christmas cheer for nearly everyone at the domestic B.O., which tallied its biggest weekend in history as a number of films -- led by 20th Century's 3D juggernaut 'Avatar' -- benefited from moviegoers stuffing themselves silly.

Revenues for the frame reached an estimated $280 million, overtaking the $260 million earned the weekend 'The Dark Knight' opened in July 2008.

In another milestone, domestic ticket sales for 2009 jumped the $10 billion mark for the first time ever, capping a record-breaking year that is running 12% ahead of last year. Attendance is up more than 5%."

forget the new shopper. what about the new shop?

"Now, even though consumers' spending remains weak, many retailers must carry out changes in order to compete in the future.

That's the view of Michael Collins, a partner in the retail and consumer practice of corporate consultant Bain & Co. He says that after focusing on cost-cutting and other short-term measures to weather the recession, retail chains and the malls that house them must reposition themselves to please consumers who have new demands and new ways of shopping.

One major problem for many store chains: They are too big, with either too many locations or too much square footage. Retail experts generally believe that the U.S. now has more stores than consumer demand can support.

Beyond that, Mr. Collins says, many stores are simply too large following the emergence of online shopping as the primary place where many consumers do their browsing.

Store chains must also take steps to make their locations more enticing destinations—for many, aisle after aisle of tightly stacked merchandise is no longer a good use of space. Some retailers, notably Best Buy Co., are already trying to make this transition with plans for 'experience-based' areas, turning the centers of their stores into showcases where people can play with the latest gadgets.

The emergence of the Internet as a sales behemoth also poses a challenge for malls that charge rents based on a percentage of sales. They will have to determine how to account for items that were purchased by computer but picked up in stores, says Maggie Gilliam, president of Gilliam & Co., an independent research and advisory firm in New York.

In the short term, recent news suggests a continuing rebound for consumers and retailers, albeit a modest one. Last week, the U.S. Labor Department reported that overall personal income rose 0.4% and wages and salaries rose 0.3%, while savings rates stayed steady at 4.5%."

its all about the love (for marketers).

It's not even February, but you'd think it's almost Valentines Day with the ads coming out recently...

"How the word for the most profound of human emotions came to be so popular for peddling consumer goods has less to do with linguistics than psychology.

'There are left-brain and right-brain approaches to advertising,' said Linda Kaplan Thaler, chief executive of the Kaplan Thaler Group, part of the Publicis Groupe. 'For a long time, there was a left-brain approach' that highlighted 'rational reasons and good selling points, but in the last several years studies have shown that emotional attachments really are a crucial factor in purchasing decisions.'

Jerry Della Femina, chief executive of Della Femina Rothschild Jeary & Partners, is dubious about some love-themed ads.

'I wouldn’t have the nerve to walk into a client’s and say, ‘Here’s the campaign: everybody loves your product,’ ' said Mr. Della Femina, who has worked on Madison Avenue since the 1960s.

But he is not surprised that such pitches are approved. 'Is a client going to say, when that’s presented, ‘No, nobody loves us’ '? asked Mr. Della Femina. 'Of course not — they’re going to say, ‘Everybody loves us.’ '"

is there good news for holiday shopping?

"The nation’s stores appear to have fared better this holiday shopping season than last year, according to early figures reported on Sunday. Major retailing categories had modest sales increases, while others fell slightly but still showed improvement."

However.....

"Despite that promising news, some consumers interviewed in stores over the weekend said they were exchanging their Christmas presents for everyday necessities and were continuing to curb their spending — suggesting that America’s retailers were still recovering from the deep economic recession.

Over all, retail sales from November through Dec. 24 rose 3.6 percent from last year, according to SpendingPulse, an information service of MasterCard Advisors that estimates sales for all forms of payment, including cash, checks and credit cards.

That number — which does not include sales of automobiles and gasoline — was helped this year by an extra shopping day between Thanksgiving and Christmas. Adjusting the results for that extra day cuts the retailing industry’s sales increase to about 1 percent, in line with what many retailing professionals expected.

While the numbers do not suggest a turnaround for the industry, they signal an improvement over last year’s 2.3 percent sales decline."

merry xmas everyone!

and happy merry!!

no more 3+ hour tarmac vacations.

Finally!

"The Transportation Department, responding to tarmac horror stories, orders airlines on Monday to let passengers stuck in stranded airplanes to deplane after three hours.

With its new regulations, the Obama administration is sending an unequivocal message to airlines that it won't tolerate the delays experienced by some passengers, such as an overnight ordeal in Rochester, Minn., last summer.

Under the new regulations, airlines operating domestic flights will be able only to keep passengers on board for three hours before they must be allowed to disembark a delayed flight. The regulation provides exceptions only for safety or security or if air traffic control advises the pilot in command that returning to the terminal would disrupt airport operations."

a fight to the finish.

"Many Americans have put off shopping for gifts and are taking a pragmatic approach to the holidays, according to a Consumer Reports holiday shopping poll.

As of Dec. 6, 40% of adults said that they have yet to hit the stores for gifts. Only 12% said they have finished their holiday shopping and nearly one-third (30%) do not anticipate finishing until Dec. 23 or later. About 13% shoppers indicate they will not finish until Dec. 24.

On average, people say they will be spending $699 on holiday gifts, $41 less than last year. Over the past three holiday shopping seasons, the average amount shoppers plan to spend on gifts has declined steadily, according to the poll. In 2008, shoppers anticipated spending $740, on average, down from $763 in 2007.

'Consumers are spending a bit less, focusing on more practical gifts, and vowing to take on less debt and pay it off sooner,' said Tod Marks, senior editor and shopping expert for Consumer Reports, in a statement."

consumer electronics ride again.

According to AdAge, "consumer electronics are tried-and-true annual holiday-sales drivers. But this holiday, thanks to a long year of price drops and the influence of the one super-retailer's aggressive marketing plans, consumer electronics have become the main draw of the season."

are music games sales down?

Apparently, yes.

"According to data from market analyst NPD Group, sales of these games haven't met expectations. The Beatles game, while selling a respectable 800,000 units of its various versions so far, missed the 1 million mark analysts expected in just the first month after its September 9 debut. 'Guitar Hero 5' sold 500,000 units in its first month, compared with the 1.4 million 'Guitar Hero III' moved two years ago in its first month.

'DJ Hero,' the game that was meant to expand the category into the hip-hop genre, moved 123,000 units in the first few days after its late-October release, and analysts at Cowen & Co. slashed their sales forecast for the game from 1.6 million this year to 600,000.

So what happened to this once-promising category, which so many in the music industry looked to for much-needed revenue? According to Pachter, the answer is: Too many games with too much music in too short a time."

what's the deal with the new frugality?

Is it here to stay?

'People beginning to live within their means could well be the silver lining of the recession. If people...embrace change and maintain better financial habits, they will benefit in the long term, and the economy will, too.

'There will be good things that come out of this recession,' said Marcia Tillotson, a financial adviser at Wells Fargo Advisors.' Many people had not been conscious of what their lifestyle cost. Now, all of a sudden, they have become conscious of how they spend their money.'

The question is, will the panic and uncertainty of the financial crisis shape a generation and an economy in the deep mold of the Depression? Or will our pledges of prudence have all the heft of a New Year's diet resolution?

'You have to feel the pain before you really make a change,' said Gerri Detweiler, a personal finance adviser for Credit.com. 'The longer it takes for the economy to feel normal again, it is likely to have a longer-term effect on our spending habits, and the more ingrained these habits of thrift will become.'

Wiser habits in each household, experts say, will eventually help strengthen an economy that still shows vulnerabilities.

'The economy really represents decisions made by tens of millions of people every day,' said Bernard Baumohl, the chief global economist at the Economic Outlook Group.

He expects that a retooled economy will be fueled less by consumer spending."