Commercialism

Cam Newton, the Carolina Panthers' prized quarterback and last season's NFL offensive rookie of the year, appears poised to have another stellar season on the football field. Panthers Coach Ron Rivera saw the 6-foot-5, 245-pounder recently and said he seemed to have changed . "I had a chance to visit with him briefly, and he seems like a different person," Rivera said. "He seems more mature, in terms of ready to take some leadership roles. " That's not good news for teams in the NFC South.

Build-a-Bear Workshop was introducing a line of stuffed animals called smallfrys and wanted to reach moms through Facebook. One video used in the online promotion showed a woman pulling up to a fast-food window. Her young daughter requests "a smallfry. " When her mom suggests a fruit cup or celery sticks, the daughter says, "Mom, order me a curly-haired bunny in a purple sequined bathing suit. " The 45-second smallfrys spot came not from a traditional advertising agency but from Poptent Inc., a "crowdsourced" video production studio that has built a global community of 50,000 writers, directors, cinematographers and animators to create commercials for Build-a-Bear, American Airlines, Dell, Intel, Jaguar, General Mills and others.

Students experience a raft of emotions when they float into one UCLA professor's office. They giggle and gush over Tom Wortham's hundreds of glass figurines, fancy dolls, sheet music and scale models of Huck Finn. Wortham's shelves and file cabinets are stuffed with Mark Twain memorabilia tied to the all-American author's best-known work, "Adventures of Huckleberry Finn." The retired English Department chairman insists he has no love for the knickknacks, toys and Huck-themed gadgets and artwork stacked in corners and mounted on the office's walls.

A bill backed by House Republicans would stall plans to let sea otters reclaim their historical range off Southern California because of concerns that the threatened marine mammals would compromise commercial fishing and military training operations. The Military Readiness and Southern Sea Otter Conservation Act , sponsored by Rep. Elton Gallegly (R-Simi Valley), would keep a controversial "no-otter zone" south of Point Conception in place until wildlife officials develop a plan ensuring that the furry creatures and endangered abalone recover and that the commercial shellfish harvest stays at current levels.

Selling an Oscar smacks of commercialism, protests Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences President Karl Malden ("Harold Russell Selling 'Best Years of Our Lives' Oscar,' " July 31). The movie industry has bronzed commercialism and Malden. Why didn't Malden quietly buy the Oscar and return it to the academy? JIM SKEESE San Diego

Thank you for the article on the billboard jungle along the nation's highways (Oct. 22). While I don't expect scenic routes and beautiful countryside inside the city necessarily, the spate of sexually suggestive billboards that we're forced to view while chauffeuring our children to school is just unbelievable. Aren't there standards and guidelines that apply to entertainment marketing companies or the billboard companies? In a sense, we're all victims of commercialism. But having no choice but to accept the public viewing of adult images in a city teeming with youngsters is too much and it's not right.

I'm glad there's a bounty on the heads of those renegade tree butchers ("Illicit Tree Trimmers Strike Near Billboards," Aug. 21). It's not enough that we are deluged daily with vast amounts of unsolicited and unwanted advertising through television, radio, magazines, newspapers and junk mail. Now our city vista is a strident cacophony of competing images vying for our attention. Heaven forbid that a tree should intrude into this chaotic mix of ads, slogans, colors and words. It's time to rethink the policies that allow this tyranny of commercialism at the expense of beauty and serenity.

Tro Konialian's July 2 letter bemoans the commercial excess of today's artistic productions, specifically Andrew Lloyd Webber's "The Phantom of the Opera." One passage of his letter:" . . . If I were the world-renowned composer . . . I would require stipulations in the production and advertising contracts to protect my art from being exploited and tainted by modern business tactics and commercialism." I admire Mr. Konialian's vision of Lloyd Webber, Zola-like, penning his latest opus with stiffened fingers in a freezing loft somewhere, but Konialian should suggest those stipulations to someone else.

Whatever the fate of the proposed amendment that would make it illegal to desecrate the U.S. flag, I hope one form of desecration is covered. On July 1, small plastic flags were placed in the yards of my and other houses in Westchester, with a note and the smiling face of a local real estate agent. Each flag was in fact an advertisement for the agent's services. If some people object to the commercialism of Christmas, I object to this transparent and cynical commercialization of the flag.

Hulse's nice little article about Kaua's Na Pali coast was surely the height of irony. It extolled the beauty of this magnificent spot that "remains silent save for the voice of the wind" . . .etc. That is what I hiked for miles to find. It is not there anymore. Instead there is a pervasive and intrusive chatter, clatter and roar of helicopters overhead every 20 minutes and zodiacs off the shore carrying hordes of tourists. I don't know when I have gone so far, spent so much and exerted myself so much to be so disappointed.

CBRE Group Inc., the world's largest commercial real estate brokerage, turned a profit in the first quarter as U.S. property sales took off. The Los Angeles firm said Tuesday that income from arranging transactions to buy or rent space in offices, warehouses and other commercial properties helped revenue increase 14% from a year earlier to $1.35 billion. Growth was driven primarily by activity in the United States as leasing transactions fell off in Europe and sales slid in Asian markets.

After an extended lull brought on by the economic downturn, commercial real estate developers are building again. Some of the activity involves the revival of projects that stopped during the recession, but many others are new from the ground up and mark the return of construction cranes to the Southern California skyline along with the injection of billions of dollars into the local economy. An intense demand for apartments is the biggest driver of development, as the improving economy supports the formation of new households.

Cam Newton, the Carolina Panthers' prized quarterback and last season's NFL offensive rookie of the year, appears poised to have another stellar season on the football field. Panthers Coach Ron Rivera saw the 6-foot-5, 245-pounder recently and said he seemed to have changed . "I had a chance to visit with him briefly, and he seems like a different person," Rivera said. "He seems more mature, in terms of ready to take some leadership roles. " That's not good news for teams in the NFC South.

The Jetsons had one, and Fred MacMurray flew one in "Flubber. " Novelist Ian Fleming included one in his children's book "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang. " James Bond's nemesis Francisco Scaramanga used one as a getaway vehicle in the film "The Man With the Golden Gun. " Now, a Massachusetts company hopes to commercially market a flying car — although "driving plane" might be a more accurate description. At last week's New York International Auto Show, Terrafugia Inc. of Woburn, Mass., unveiled the Transition, a two-seat aircraft with foldable wings.

The Dodgers should be required to disclose the conditions that govern land use around Dodger Stadium, the Los Angeles Times argued in a court filing Wednesday. The Dodgers have asked the U.S. Bankruptcy Court for permission to file those conditions under seal, citing the "sensitive non-public commercial information" within. Attorneys for The Times argued that the Dodgers have not provided any evidence to support that claim or shown why it should outweigh "the well-established presumption of public access to judicial records.

In a recording studio on Sunset Boulevard, Thomas Bergersen and Nick Phoenix are banging on two giant taiko drums built especially for their company, Two Steps From Hell. The brawny musicians exude the fierce intensity prevalent in much of their music - until they suddenly get off-beat and let out loud laughs that reveal just how much fun this is for them. Bergersen and Phoenix revel in the world of music for movies, but not in the same way as film score maestros like Hans Zimmer and John Williams.

John Shipp's comment (Nov. 14, Viewpoint) implying T.J. Simers' inadequacy reveals his own! He and other critics of Simers' offerings apparently are unaware that his columns are excellent examples of the respected literary art of satire. The dictionary defines satire as "sarcasm or caustic wit used to attack or expose folly, vice or stupidity." Simers' columns exemplify that definition. Commercialism has dulled the entertainment value of sports for me, and I barely scan those pages.

Painter Robert Dowd has a reputation as a Pop artist. Indeed his most recent paintings of wine bottles and apples buzz with chic painterly marks that do have an updated Pop sensibility--reflecting the trendy commercialism of the current art market. But that doesn't stop them from looking like magazine illustrations for classy wine. With titles like "Object Event" and "Quantum Event" Dowd is trying to capture something of modern physics' concept that all matter is composed of swirling subatomic particles.

Thomas Kinkade, the self-styled "Painter of Light" who died Friday at 54, once said he worked to "create images that project a serene simplicity. " But despite his astonishing commercial success with luminous seascapes and paintings of cottages and street scenes, Kinkade's life in many ways was neither serene nor simple. Millions of his paintings and prints hang in homes around the world, popularity that translated to more than $50 million in earnings for the artist from 1997 to 2005 alone.

Commercial property prices in the U.S. are mostly holding steady, analysts said, though some apartment buildings and shopping centers are appreciating. Prices for such buildings as warehouses and offices have been relatively steady since last summer after a sharp two-year rally saw them rebound to within 10% of their all-time highs, according to Green Street Advisors Inc. of Newport Beach    “With the exception of apartments and high-end malls, we haven't really seen values go anywhere in almost a year now,” analyst Peter Rothemund said.