SDHO Redirect

Warning: the video contained in this post is unpleasant. I wouldn’t say horrific, but watching it was certainly not the brightest moment of my day.

It was October 2004. Like the much of the country, I was eating, drinking, and breathing the presidential election. But I hadn’t given two seconds’ thought to the U.S. House race. That is, until I saw the first television ad for the race, one from the Teresa Daly campaign. It featured her, if I recall correctly, blathering about internet porn — she was probably not quite as singular as my memory would have me believe, but that’s all remember her talking about. To top that off, Daly had virtually no political experience to speak of…

It’s a lot like the old sort of tyranny only appealing to early adopters and way more Web 2.0. The tyranny to which I refer is brand-tyranny. Moreover, Google’s brand-tyranny.

For about a year now, I’ve been following the fight against Federated Department Stores‘ plans to consolidate 11 department store chains into their Macy’s brand. The fight is over — and lost…