Johnny Cash, Branding and Jesus
Fast Company's weblog had a good article last week about Johnny Cash and Rick Rubin's collaboration that has essentially become the

re-invigorating [of] a classic brand...

...He was talented enough to play it both ways. He was a hard livin’, old school tough guy. ... [then] a song or two later he could break out a spiritual, perhaps something like “Daddy Sang Bass.”

If anything, it proved he could do anything...

And there’s the business lesson: if your product is genuinely good, you don’t have to (and shouldn’t) worry about doing the cool thing. Cash knew about branding, even if it wasn’t called that at when he started.

Good insights into business and branding. Perhaps one of the reasons the "re-branding" of the Church has been in trouble in many areas is that the original "branding" has lost it's ability to keep the "cool" or better- the attractiveness. But the real message that we need to be looking at- the real brand- is not the church. It's Jesus. I have a hunch that He would be able to be just as cool today as he was before.

Which means, I'm afraid, a lot less popular than we think he should be. The Real Message of Jesus was not all that cool 2000 years ago.

Just a thought.

Update: I have been listening to the latest album, American V: A Hundred Highways again and again recently. The more I listen, the more I am impressed not just by Cash but by Rick Rubin's loving and caring arrangements. I'm not sure it's better than American IV: The Man Comes Around, but it is so different a style. It is truly a remarkable album.

Now, Here's A Brand Problem
This is a NO COMMENT.

New Restaurant Bears Hitler's Name
By AIJAZ ANSARI Associated Press Writer

BOMBAY, India (AP) -- When a restaurant called "Hitler's Cross" opened four days ago in a Bombay suburb, the city's small Jewish community was outraged, but there were few other objections.

Owner Puneet Sablok insisted then - and still does - that the name and theme of his new eatery is only meant to attract attention, with its posters of Adolf Hitler and swastikas.

"There is no intention to hurt anyone," Sablok said of his spacious restaurant, which serves pastries, pizza and salad in Navi Mumbai, a northern suburb of Bombay, which is also known as Mumbai
--Associated Press