Links for September 25, 2016

Beyond Spam

It turns out that the challenge for Hormel among teens and twentysomethings wasn’t fruits or vegetables or even snacks; it was smartphones. Apple Inc.’s iPhone had just come out, and nearly every student [anthropologist Tanya] Rodriguez saw eating was doing so with one hand, swiping through texts and social media accounts. She reported what she observed, then hit the road for Hormel, poking around people’s pantries, scoping out regional grocery stores, and eating incessantly… She hunkered down with a financially strapped woman who was having a “staycation” in Kansas by pitching a tent in her backyard. The menu: Top Ramen, sauce from Chinese takeout packets, and Skippy peanut butter. “It was absolutely delicious,” Rodriguez says.

Hormel executives and scientists generally don’t hang out in backyard tents. “We forget that food is sometimes one of the most emotional parts of our life,” Aakre explains. “She is really able to sense that emotional connection and the role that food plays for people. You will never find that in any focus group.”


Greg Berlanti Knows the Secret to Superhero TV

It’s been a rough year at the movies for DC Comics. Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice and Suicide Squad opened to abysmal reviews, leaving DC parent company Warner Bros. scrambling to figure out a new strategy for the cineplex. But that kind of panic is absent on the small screen, where DC superheroes are actually having a particularly vital moment, thanks largely to producer Greg Berlanti.


;-) (without glitch) by Tangerine Dream – Tangerine Dream covers Survive’s theme to Stranger Things, which was influenced by Tangerine Dream.