Malibu is Burning: Recent Comments

Comment on It's the Industry, Stupid: Why Lackluster Restaurant Service is Now the Norm

How to Get Your Food Spit In — Sun, 10 Feb 2008 06:23:56 GMT

I couldn't agree more with you. If a restaurant isn't up to your standards, walk away. You are protecting yourself from terrible service, stress, and unsafe food. If the service is bad, think about the things you CAN'T see going on in the back of the house.

Comment on Here Comes the Sun

Native Angeleno — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 09:34:01 GMT

Please don't write anymore weather reports...the east is infested with liberal democrats and you'll just encourage more of them to relocate here, and God knows we're over-populated with them now! Until the massive invasion of liberals from the east and midwest, Los Angeles was a sensible Conservative Republican city. Now look at the depths we've sunk to! Northern California too! Why, Berkeley wants to banish the Marine Recruiting Office! I'll bet they'd beg the Marines to come back if the Japanese ever decide to do another surprise attack on us!

Comment on Don't Patronize Me: Why Gender Marketing Won't Work with Wine at the Corporate Level

Marissa — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 10:41:42 GMT

First, thank you for your comment. I appreciate your reading my blog and responding to it. You're the first representative of a winery that's done so.

You say that women have a more natural approach with wine, caring less about an expert's point of view. Why not simply repackage any of the thousands of other superlative French wines in a pretty pink bottle?

By creating a wine specifically for women's tastes you insult the palates of male wine drinkers and wine professionals as well as female wine drinkers who have the ability to choose their own wine. You imply that these women need help picking a wine that will appeal to their superior sense of smell and taste. I'm sure every other winery in the history of the world thinks their wine is suitable for discerning tastes, both male and female.

Rereading your comment, I can't help but wonder: are men's palates too unrefined for your wines?

Comment on Don't Patronize Me: Why Gender Marketing Won't Work with Wine at the Corporate Level

Yanis Taieb — Wed, 06 Feb 2008 10:25:51 GMT

Marketing is not only a question of presentation or communication. Base of marketing is to supply suitable products to targeted group of consumers.

Sublimelle approach is based on the fact that women have a different sense of wines than men. Last experience was made by GAULT et MILLAU (may 2007) showing that there were some clear divergences in women and men preferences in term of wines.
First of all women have naturally a better sense of smell and taste as it has been proven by numerous experiences and scientific ressearchs. This enables them to better distinguish the varieties of aromas in wines. As a result of this, women tend to prefer delicate wines, with a large range of aromas, subtes, harmonious and silky.
Women have also a more natural approach with wines as they less care about expert point of view drink out of any snobism.

Sublimelle wines have been carefully choosen to answer to these needs in a wine world dominated by producted mainly marketed by men for men.

Comment on It's the Industry, Stupid: Why Lackluster Restaurant Service is Now the Norm

Marissa — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 11:48:28 GMT

Well said. And especially now, such high-quality food is made available to us in supermarkets. It'll be interesting to see how the face of dining changes over the next few years.

Comment on It's the Industry, Stupid: Why Lackluster Restaurant Service is Now the Norm

Dean Reynolds — Tue, 05 Feb 2008 11:44:25 GMT

I didn't know all of those things you allude to, although I admit to not giving them much thought before reading your article. I'm not much of a restaurant diner for two reasons, I don't like the pretentiousness at the better ones, and due to the fact that when I want a fine meal, which is everyday, I prepare it myself.

For the price of one upscale restaurant meal for two, with wine, one can buy a few good cookbooks and set up an extremely well stocked spice shelf. By preparing homemade chicken, fish, and beef stocks and freezing them for future use, one can prepare anything Wolfgang, Mario, or Emeril do at their restaurants, and just as well, and you can dine in your underwear!

Comment on Join the Olive Revolution

Demongers Copperfield — Fri, 01 Feb 2008 17:42:05 GMT

Now, who makes the GIN?

Comment on Don't Patronize Me: Why Gender Marketing Won't Work with Wine at the Corporate Level

Marissa — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 10:25:07 GMT

I agree that men have manipulated women in the fashion and beauty industries, and that this has severely impacted the perception of women on a global level. I can't claim to have the power to overturn generations' worth of marketing and advertising in those industries, and even if I could, I wouldn't want to bear that burden. However, the world of food and wine is a completely different matter, one that doesn't have much to do with shaving, makeup or revealing outfits. From the dawn of time, women have played an integral role in food and beverage. During the 50s and the ascent of TV dinners, men have successfully marketed time-saving devices to appeal to a busy mom's lifestyle.

The portion of my generation that cares about food, however, has experienced a gender-blind revolution in cuisine, one that focuses on high-quality, fresh ingredients and classic cooking techniques. By straying away from processed and artificial foods, and by fostering a genderless gastronomic community, we have rebelled against past tradition.

This isn't a women vs. men issue. It is, however, an issue of food and beverage becoming included in discussions about culture. Yes, we've been bamboozled through several generations into thinking we need to shave, dress attractively and wear makeup, so much so that it's become a given part of worldwide culture. But women fall into two very general categories: those who care about wine and those who don't.

Women that care about wine can find their own bottles without the help of advertising, be it grape juice or a forty-year old Burgundy. Women that don't care about wine won't respond to advertisements, because they're creatures of habit that already have a wine or two that they like to drink. They may experiment, a bottle or two here or there that's different from the norm, but this is a response that even a well-seasoned ad exec will agree is insufficient.

Comment on Don't Patronize Me: Why Gender Marketing Won't Work with Wine at the Corporate Level

Demongers Copperfield — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 09:36:14 GMT

As a retired advertizing executive, I respect your passionate prose, but you're wrong, my dear. You see, we in advertizing have been manipulating you girls since the beginning of time. Stop and think about this for a few minutes.

Do you think men would risk their valuable feet and ankles that are so needed to perform heroic feats on the battlefield, as well as athletic fields, by wearing STILLETTO HEELS to make their legs look longer? Of course not. But you girls do.

Would a man, (a real man) spend an extra ten or fifteen minutes in the shower wasting precious water during a drought, shaving "unsightly" hair off his legs so that they'll look like they did when he was eleven years old? Never! A man wants to take his shower, get clean, and get out of that shower.

Grown up girls, on the other hand, must keep unsightly hair off their legs so their high heel money that makes legs look longer and shaplier, as they looked when they were pre-pubescent, won't be wasted.

Do you think a man would wear kilts to work? Would he bare his legs in the office to stimulate women's fantasies about what's under the kilts? Not in a million years! But grown girls do, every day of the week. And here's the ultimate irony...they then complain when men stare at their legs!

You girls have invented the concept of "sexual harassment" because you resent being hit on in the office as if you're a streetwalker! Want to be left alone at work? Stop wearing makeup! Do you think a man would spend an hour in front of the mirror trying to make himself look more beautiful to the opposite sex? Not on your life! But you girls do every day of the week putting on billions of dollars of artificial colors that we sell you to make your faces look more "natural."

I could go on and on about the frivolous items we in advertizing manipulate you grown girls into buying. Would a man wear a sleeveless blouse to the office? Absolutely not, but you girls do...the better for us to peek inside to see what's there! Panty hose? Well you must make those bare, well shaven legs look smoother, musn't you? And those ruby red lips you must display, even on the floor of the United States Senate!

Girls, every aspect of your lives have been manipulated by we in advertizing. The very concept of femininity is one of our inventions. Why, femininity is so artificial even men can look as beautiful and indistiguishable from a woman through the use of the same makeup you apply every day of your lives. So why rebel at the small manipulation of your palates? We have shaped every other aspect of your lives, haven't we?

If you want to rebel, throw away your razors! Out with your skirts, dresses, and sleeveless blouses. To the trash heap with your high heel shoes, and stop putting all those artificial colors on your faces! When you do all of this then maybe, just maybe, will we in advertizing stop trying to make you look so silly in the workplace. Bet you can't.

Comment on Don't Patronize Me: Why Gender Marketing Won't Work with Wine at the Corporate Level

Andrea Learned — Wed, 30 Jan 2008 07:33:13 GMT

The wine industry is a traditionally male-dominated and male-focused one that wants to feel like it is trying to reach women - and so, the first attempts of any brand are usually "pink thinking," based on these bizarre assumptions. You hit the nail on the head. Women who want to drink and enjoy wine will want to be treated with respect and given great information (surprisingly, just like men who drink wine...). Women who'd respond to this pitch you've written about are not women who'd be long term good customers or referrers for any brand. Marketers make marketing to women so much hard than it needs to be. It is great to get your twenty-something perspective on this, as I think your generation will finally be calling it like it is (with regard to marketing to women and a whole lot more...)