Clarity First
A notebook about how we work and learn and love and live.

Do you want people to look, or to buy?

While sex might be attention-grabbing, it dosen’t seem especially good at getting people to remember the objects being sold.
Article: Understanding Sex in Advertising

Hone your storytelling craft.

Storytelling tips and best practices from the NPR Training team. With articles like A good lead is everything — here’s how to write one, and 5 things to do when programming Facebook, storytellers can hone their chops no matter their medium.
Website: NPR Training

Ikea and Apple are teaming up to help shoppers visualize how furniture will look in their homes.

IKEA has confirmed it’s developing an augmented reality shopping app with Apple. Making its debut in the fall, the AR app will give customers a preview of how furniture will fit into their homes before ordering and building.
Article: Apple Powers IKEA Augmented Reality App

Reframe your problem to solve it creatively.

When you’re stuck on a problem, it often helps to look at it from another perspective. But, sometimes this is easier said than done. Here’s a cool tool.
Article: The Reframing Matrix. Generating Different Perspectives

The belief that we are the same one moment to the next, or one year to the next, is a delusion. 

That sense of self that you’re so concerned about defending? It’s not defendable, because it’s not real.
Article: Science and Buddhism Agree: There Is No “You” There

Companies’ actions must be authentic and true to their honest values.

The annual Harris Poll Reputation Quotient quantifies reputation ratings for the 100 most visible companies in the U.S., as perceived by the general public. It provides a glimpse at how companies are stacking up in the changing corporate reputation landscape.
Article: Consumers Split on Companies’ Social Responsibility Motivations

Sexism is alive and well in classrooms all across the country.

Title IX turned 45 this week. We need it now more than ever.
Article: It’s Title IX’s 45th Birthday.

Playlist

When Radiohead made OK Computer in 1997, Thom Yorke said that he wanted “to make a record that you could sit down and eat to in a nice restaurant, a record that would be cool and be part of the furniture.” Twenty years later that record is still a part of my furniture. Last week the band released OK NOT OK 1997-2017, a deluxe re-issue of this seminal work. Amongst the B-sides and previously unreleased material is this beautiful song: I Promise.

Images of the week

Given that Google is sending roving cameras to every corner of the earth, it goes without saying that every so often they’re going to inadvertently capture some pretty interesting images. The smaller one was shot in Arequipa, Peru, the larger in Sun City, AZ, USA.
Article: Incredible Photographs Captured via Google Street View

What’s Clarity First?

If you’re new to Clarity First, it’s the weekly newsletter by Clarity, the consultancy that helps mission-driven companies use their brand – their purpose, values, and stories – as powerful tools for transformation. Learn more.

If you get value from Clarity First, please pass it on, or, better yet, think of us when your organization needs to understand its story.