SEAN TINER

Enjoy this cinematic collaboration between artist Igor Skaletsky and drummer Evgeniy Labich.

Fireworks, surfing and rock & roll? Sounds like just another typical Southern California Fourth of July. Quiksilver's dynamite surfing movie highlights the explosiveness of buzz and the potential for established companies to create waves of awareness for their brand through new media.

( LL Cool J by Tiner) In an effort to increase sales and appeal to a larger target audience, Sears has partnered with MTV to co-market the The American Mall. On August 11, children will have the option to wear clothing that appears in the musical, which was filmed in an actual Sears in Utah. Harmonic note for Sears, considering the stock is down 55% for the year and is labeled one of the year's worst managed companies by 24/7 Wall St . Why not partner with a cool company? After all, MTV is the same network behind Laguna Beach , The Hills , Life of Ryan and Rob and Big . But, can you imagine any of these characters or their core audience shopping at Sears? I mean, how " cool " is Sears? ... Then again, The American Mall's co-marketing will move MTV to a larger demographic. ....But how far to the periphery should a company move to attract an audience? ...Why not focus on its primary consumer and risk diluting its brand equity? Maybe MTV heard that the new "L...

“We're consumers. We are by-products of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, these things don't concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy's name on my underwear.” –Tyler Durden, Fight Club Hate them or love them. The recent "Feed the Pig," television commercials serve as a reminder about our current debt crisis. According to feedthepig.org , the average American credit card debt is over $4,000 and approximately 24% of a worker's salary goes towards paying of debt payments. "The latest and greatest" is a la mode this year, but it's always replaced by something bigger, better or cooler. Yeah, it's cool to raise eyebrows with new products, but it's a continual cycle that has us increasing the average debt. In the parting words of Tyler Durden, "advertising has us chasing cars and clothes, working jobs we hate so we can buy stuff don't need. We're the middle children o...

( Huntington Beach , photograph (C) Tiner /Epic Arts LLC) "Dear God, make me a bird. So I can fly far. Far far away from here." -Forest Gump The Movie Escape! Immediately after my brother passed away, I wanted to fly far far way. I wanted to escape the immediate pain of his memory and daily reminder of absence. For awhile, I did fly way. I ran , painted and continued going to college 3000 miles away from home ....all as a method to be a bird and fly away from the pain. ...far far away. Slowly, I learned that you cannot escape the pain of grief. ...Even with 6'5" wings ;). ...Eventually, your wings get tired and you cannot fly away forever. Overtime, I slowed down and allowed myself to grieve the loss of Mark . As painful as it was ...it made me more of a complete person and now the pain of his death is replaced by remembering the happiness of his life and continuing his memory through others . In the same way that I grieved the loss of my brother, Michelle Willi...