Hasta La Creative!

(TrendHunter.com) The David Prat by Sylvain Norget image series is captured within a modern loft interior. The fresh-faced model sits at home while dressed in an impeccably collared shirt and tailored suit set….

Congress has been getting up in Apple’s face about its offshore tax havens, but is it a problem for the brand?

I think it is, because a brand is the sum of a company’s parts. A brand is what a company believes and what a company does; therefore, Apple’s brand is tarnished via its tax avoidance problem, whether the moves are technically legal or not.

According to CNET, “Congressional investigators released a report last week documenting how Apple had reduced its tax bill by tens of billions of dollars through the use of a legal, albeit complicated, network of offshore subsidiaries. The report said that between 2009 and 2012, Apple had at least $74 billion in offshore cash that went untaxed.”

Tim Cook replied, “We don’t depend on tax gimmicks. We don’t move intellectual property offshore and use it to sell our products back to the United States to avoid taxes… We don’t stash money on some Caribbean island.”

True. Ireland is nowhere near Cuba or Jamaica.

Richard Harvey, a Villanova University law professor, told the hearing that his analysis showed Apple shifted 64 per cent of its 2011 income into Ireland into a “shell corporation” which had “no employees, no real activity, basically an entity on paper.”

As far as I am concerned, Apple has more than tax issues on its hands. “Designed in California” isn’t all that Apple can be. “Designed and manufactured in California” is more like it, especially given that Apple has already established a premium price point.

Apple was created to change the world, and their products have a role in this. But Apple can actually change the world by rejecting offshore assembly of its products. As Samsung and others come on strong, I don’t think Apple’s prices, nor their market share, will hold for much longer. Manufacturing in American changes that for good.

The post Offshore Tax Shelters A Problem For Apple, But Not The Only One appeared first on AdPulp.

(TrendHunter.com) The top trends this week were strongly design-focused, including timber iPad covers and similarly striking products.

On the art front, a purposely unsettling sculpture by Adel Abdessemed caught…

(TrendHunter.com) The Harper’s Bazaar China ‘Hot n’ Cold’ editorial focuses on one of the best things about summer: the return of the ice cream truck. Giving it a high fashion twist, the theme is…

Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., a target of attacks from Republicans, faces fresh complaints over the Justice Department’s campaign against leaks to journalists.

An experiment to make music with television. A guitar hooked to the TV in a way that its notes modulate the sound of MTV shows. Check these short films with famous brazilian guitar players:

Advertising Agency: Loducca, Sao Paulo, Brazil
Creative Team: Rafael Barbosa, Raphael Franzini, Thiago Bocatto
Creative Directors: Guga Ketzer, Cássio Moron, Fábio Saboya, Sérgio Mugnaini
Accounts: Fernão Cosi, Fabiane Veiga, Tatiana Moliterno, Renato Nose, Gabriela Ruffo
Executive Producer: Ana Luisa André
RTV: Claudia Stancev
Production Co: Collecting Smiles
Director: Alexandre Sorriso / Collecting Smiles
Director of Photography: Alexandre Sorriso, Rinaldo Lima
Editors: Leonardo Gusmão, Alexandre Sorriso
Post-Production: Leonardo Gusmão, Ricardo Lopes
Audio Production Co: SuperSonica
Client: Wagner Gorab, Ana Penteado, Eduardo Zanelli