The findingDulcinea Blog

Recession-Themed Shopping: Stimulate Your Taste Buds, Stimulate the Economy

The recession may be a bitter pill to swallow. But in the adversity inherent in an economic downturn comes opportunity for marketers looking to sweeten our lives with recession-themed products.

Among the products whose (figurative) stock is rising: FinancialCrunch.com, home of “Sweet Assets.” Mentioned in an earlier post on the findingDulcinea blog, the site allows consumers to slake their recession-tide cravings with a whole portfolio of confections including “Short Change,” a box of chocolate coins (above); “Nest Eggs,” a hollow milk chocolate egg filled with dark chocolate coins inside; and the “Stimulus Package,” guaranteed to provide happy returns.

Wash it all down with some bright green “Stimulus Soda.” The blue raspberry/pineapple-flavored concoction, which the makers dubbed “the nation’s first bailout brew,” tastes a bit like a Sweet Tart, according to NBC Chicago.

For weight-conscious folk looking to get a sour-sweet recession-themed punch, Design Glut’s Dow Jones handkerchiefs put the DJIA’s performance over the past five years right around your neck. Or place an online bid for some preppy-chic Lehman Brothers swag.

After all, bailout is the new black (or way to get into the black, at least).

Anne Szustek
Senior Writer

For sweet financial news during this recession, check out my daily column, Chin Up in the Downswing. To wrap your head around the subprime mortgage crisis, see our Web Guide to the Global Financial Crisis. To wrap your head in curlers, see either the year 1955 or findingDulcinea’s Web Guide to Beauty.

Toyota's "Saved By Zero" Flub: A Lesson in (Honda) Civics?

This autumn, America is standing united. Democrat or Republican, vegan or cattle rancher, yuppie or hipster, three words are binding the country tighter than duct tape on a college student’s wallet: “Saaaaa-ved by Zeeee-ro!”

Toyota’s current ad campaign, featuring a remake of the refrain of the 1983 hit by The Fixx, combined with the commercial’s heavy airtime, has inspired media critics and the public to cry for change (of the channel).

Zero-percent financing on 12 different Toyota models may indeed speak to some looking for a vehicle during this credit crunch. Yet several Facebook groups have joined thousands in rank against the commercial, calling for its demise.

But while Toyota’s “Saved by Zero” ad campaign is uniting America for change, some car dealerships have cut out that intermediary grassroots campaign phase and gone right to the source.

Earlier this year, a spokesperson sharing more than a few mannerisms with President-elect Barack Obama rallied the Dallas-Fort Worth-Arlington metroplex with a “Yes You Can!”—be approved at Central Kia.

Incoming presidents aren’t the only political figures to declare that citizens only need small change for a down payment on 2009 models. Even the most avid Revolutionary War buff is likely unaware that the Founding Fathers once took rap lessons from the likes of Vanilla Ice in order to inform the Tri-State viewing area of great Presidents Day leasing deals at New York-Long Island Honda.

That’s history I can believe in.

Anne Szustek
Senior Writer

For the full story behind Toyota’s ad campaign, see the findingDulcinea story “Viewers Fed Up with Toyota’s ‘Saved by Zero’ Ad.”