In 1845 Congress decided Tuesday would be the most convenient day of the week for Americans to vote and it hasn't changed. Of course, in 1845 we were an agrarian society that traveled by horse and buggy. Farmers needed a day to get to the county seat, a day to vote and a day to get home - without interfering with Friday, Saturday and Sunday, which were days of worship. As Wednesday was market day, only Tuesday was left. In spite of non-voters saying they're too busy to vote during the week, we still vote on Tuesday. Because we've changed Columbus Day, Presidents' Day and Martin Luther King, Jr.'s Day for the convenience of shoppers, maybe changing the day we vote should be ... put to a vote.
For decades the Nielson Company has estimated how many people are watching TV and advertisers have paid for airtime based on those estimates - but things have changed. Now that many households have a choice of 300 channels, Nielson's monitoring 12,000 households seems somewhat inadequate - especially when there's something better - the cable box. The cable box knows what every cable watcher watches. When you combine that information with what the supermarket computer knows when we use our club cards, you have what advertisers want to know - payoff on return of investment. You also know why Nielson may soon not rate in TV ratings.
For years runway models have been 6 feet tall, dangerously thin and very young. Now the call has gone out for "classic" models - models 40 and older. Why the change? Because women in the workforce - women with buying power - want to see themselves reflected on runways, in ads and in catalogs. In fact, a joint study done by Western Michigan University and Ohio State University found that older models are considered more credible by both older and younger customers. Maybe even the fashion industry can change. Maybe it's finally old enough to know better.
There have also been changes at the State Department and the Department of Homeland Security. Their employees have been asked to stop using Islamic references when condemning terrorist attacks. Because the government has linked the word "jihadist" with "Islamic extremist", very few Americans know that jihad is a positive word in the Islamic world. It's an internal struggle to be a better person. Not using Islamic references to condemn terrorist attacks could be jihad for government employees. |
