Selfies are all the rage. The word was added to the dictionary last year for crying out loud. Children, teens and even some misguided adults have jumped on the selfie bandwagon. But cozying up to your friends, or maybe even strangers, for a selfie could be bad for your health and your hair. [More]
fads
Have Silly Bandz Peaked?
By 9.29.10
Now that adults are using them to flirt, it stands to reason that the shaped rubber band sensation Silly Bandz might be on the wane among its original core user group: actual children. [More]
Why Is There A Dollar Sign In This Jewly Bandz Chanukah Set?
By 9.16.10
The makers of Jewly Bandz, a Jewish-themed knockoff of those Silly Bandz things that kids today are into, are having to do some explaining after the Internet noticed that, along with recognizably Jewish icons like a menorah and a dreidel, there is also a dollar sign included in its Chanukah Set. [More]
Artisanal Is The New Organic
By 7.13.10
There’s a burgeoning artisanal market in the U.S., where goods made by hand or in small batches–and marketed with lots of footnotes and descriptions of quality–are growing increasingly more popular. But why, and is it just a hipster lifestyle ingredient or an actual shift in the larger population? [More]
72 Kooz Bandz For $2.99
By 7.8.10
These silly shaped rubberbands are apparently all the rage among elementary schoolers right now, and kids.woot has a deal to get a 72-pack of Kooz Bandz for $2.99 + $5 shipping. [More]
Food Tampering Craze Hits Calgary As Copycats Join In
By 4.5.10
Maybe Calgary’s residents didn’t like being eclipsed by the Olympics, or maybe there’s just an awfully high number of bored crooks living there. Either way, the city has now reported 11 cases of food tampering, mostly involving shards of metal inserted into food items, in grocery stores across the city since January. [More]
Make Your Own Zhu Zhu The Fad Robot Hamster Toy
By 12.16.09
If you have kids, you’re probably biting your nails down to the quick worrying how you’re going to find–much less pay for–this year’s super hot fad toy, Zhu Zhu the Robot Hamster. But don’t be so stupid! The thing about fad toys like Zhu Zhu is that they’re about 30% fun, 30% marketing, and 40% media hype. You can bypass all that nonsense and make your own in less than 20 minutes, and for a fraction of the cost. [More]
Relax, Toy Hamsters Not Metalloid Death Bringers After All
By 12.8.09
You can dig up that bag of Zhu Zhus from your backyard and re-wrap them for the kids again. The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has said that the robot hamsters are not loaded with too much antimony after all, despite claims made by the website GoodGuide. [More]
Police Called To Quell Fight Over Toy Hamsters
By 11.27.09
People in Indiana really want those trendy little robot hamsters that are the designated fad toy of 2009. Police were called to two Toys R Us stores, one in Indianapolis and one in Greenwood, on Friday after fights broke out among toy shoppers. [More]
Snapple's Acai Drink Just Pear Juice And Corn Syrup
By 1.23.09
Of all the ridiculous Acai schemes we’ve seen involving overpriced miracle elixirs, Snapple wins hands down—their Acai Blackberry drink is high fructose corn syrup, pear juice, and “natural flavors,” which Consumerist reader LS points out could be “a spoonful of blackberry jam from Aunt Sally’s root cellar and a puff of acai-laced breath from the health food girl in accounting.” Or more likely, just some flavoring extracts from a company similar to this one.
The Crocs Fad Is Over?! Profits Down, Will Close 1 Factory
By 4.18.08
Like Zubaz pants before them, Crocs seem to be well on their way to assuming their rightful place of honor in the bad fad hall of fame as the company slashed its sales forecast and announced that it would be closing a plant in Quebec due to decreased traffic in its US stores.
Shopdropping: The Anti-Shoplifting
By 12.26.07
Have you heard about shopdropping? It’s the big new fad among burgeoning anarchists who, instead of stealing, spread havoc by smuggling unwelcome items into stores. Think Che shirts in Target’s clothing department, or unwanted bunnies roaming the pet store after Easter. It’s all very badass and has several stores in a tizzy.
At Powell’s Books in Portland, Ore., religious groups have been hitting the magazines in the science section with fliers featuring Christian cartoons, while their adversaries have been moving Bibles from the religion section to the fantasy/science-fiction section.
Crocs To Make Annoying Plastic Clothes To Go With Annoying Plastic Shoes
By 8.28.07
We’re all for comfortable footwear, but we really don’t get the whole “Crocs” thing. They again, we’ve never tried them on, so perhaps we’re not being fair. They look like good shoes for space pirates or RNs and we are neither (sadly).
You Tube Video Causes Self-Stirring Cup Fad
By 11.30.06
What is it about seeing some regular people enjoying a product that makes people want to purchase it? Do people just really need a $30 self-stirring cup, but didn’t know it existed? Will this cause a teaspoon glut? Lately, we noticed advertisers trying to replicate “You Tube” or “blog” style videos in their commercials… but it’s just not the same, is it? —MEGHANN MARCO
