The Shirt Off His Back

Welcome back to a new academic year. Of course, you can’t start the school year without the prerequisite “improper t-shirt scandal.” This year it comes not from a student, but from a store.

Following numerous complaints from outraged parents, J.C. Penney has stopped selling a t-shirt that jokingly prioritized beauty over brains. Of special interest is the role social media played in accelerating the shirt’s disappearance from the retailer’s Web site.

In the old days, Mom would call the principal. Now, a Tweet leads to a Facebook post and…well you get the picture. You just can’t get the shirt. Read about it here.

Love Nothing

In the world of nonverbal communication, an Australian Open official made Russian tennis player Ekaterina Makarova leave the court because a logo on her dress was deemed too large.

After a short break, the 22-year-old returned to the court in an identical dress, sans logo. Capitalism usually wins out and, as the match progressed, logos began to find their way back onto Makarova’s outfit.

Read the whole story here.

Arch Nemesis

The roots of culture run deep, and change is sometimes hard to swallow. Italians are currently debating whether McDonald’s new McItaly sandwich is a much-needed economic boost or an insulto to the country’s Slow Food culture.
Read the story here.

See me. Feel me. Touch me. Read me.

The trend toward hyper-local news continued this week as Seattle-based Fisher Communications announced the launch of 38 neighborhood news Web sites.

Fisher operates radio and TV stations in Oregon, Seattle and Idaho. The company said the new "hyper-local" sites combine reporting from its stations with online Web templates. As with many hyper-local outlets, much of the content is user-generated.

Hyper-local sites are one of the latest attempts by traditional media outlets to recapture lost ad revenues, as more advertising dollars are spent on new technologies.