Clicks are not only destructive of the brand, all they do is help advertisers to beat down the price of advertising. In addition, it causes content to go for the lowest common denominator. “We are telling advertisers,” he said, “the worse content, the more you should pay.” MORE HERE

ATLANTA – The Coke bottle will go. After 12 years, more than 1,000 home run celebrations and countless family ballpark memories, the 42-foot-tall Coca-Cola Contour bottle standing high above left field will be retired from Coca-Cola Sky Field at Turner Field on July 2. A new one will replace it.MORE HERE

An Ad Age piece by Al Ries on value pricing reminds us how crummy and proletarian the airline business has become, and how un-important branding is to particularly our American airlines. The story is called Variable Pricing is the Ultimate Brand-Destroyer. Reis’ point is that because of value pricing, consumersMORE HERE

PARIS – Yes, we all love the independent bookstore. And amazingly, it is still around. Here in Sarasota, Florida we have any number of them, some small with just paperbacks, others larger with antique and collectible books. What got me thinking about them was the closure of Brentano’s in Paris,MORE HERE

SARASOTA – Out on the Siesta Key beach yesterday, employees of Sarasota County’s Parks and Recreation Department were handing out race pennants that they were keeping in a Votomatic ballot box. The Votomatic became famous after the 2000 Presidential election in Florida, and the Smithsonian’s National Museum of American HistoryMORE HERE

CHICAGO – The recent addition of the storied Cannon brand to Sears, Roebuck (NYSE: SHLD) is further evidence that the chain has a smart brand strategy. Cannon is now appearing in revamped home decorating sections in Sears, and they are making full use of the power of the brand toMORE HERE

We found a bit of McCormick-Deering history in Palmetto, Florida at their Manatee County agricultural museum. Here, a Farmall tractor. BrandlandUSA.com is the website of business and travel writer and editor Garland Pollard. Contact him at GarlandPollard.comMORE HERE

Bob Seelert, the author of Start with the Answer: And Other Wisdom for Aspiring Leaders gives some advice to BrandlandUSA readers with an excerpt from his new book. We are glad to reprint it, as there is some good stuff there and  they were gracious enough to let us haveMORE HERE