Archive for June 28th, 2012

How many “Minute Clinics” are there in the U.S.?

June 28, 2012

Trick question.

CVS operates about 550 in store clinics under the the Minute Clinic brand umbrella.

More broadly, there are about 1,200 total in-store clinics … run by CVS, Walgreen, Wal-Mart, Kroger and Target.

Ken’s Take: These are great providers of routine health care … I’d like to see them spread like wild fire … and, I’d be all for government run “free clinics” in under-served urban and rural area.

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Great moments in fashion: adidas new shoe shackled … after adding shackles

June 28, 2012

Punch line: adidas is under fire after debuting an athletic shoe that contains rubber ankle shackles.  adidas calls the shoe quirky and lighthearted, but consumers liken the shoe to slavery shackles.  Despite initially defending the shoe, adidas has pulled the shoe from the Fall/Winter 2012 line, bowing to the power of consumers.

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Excerpted from brandchannel.com’s, “Adidas Sparks Uproar with Shackled ‘Slavery Shoe’”

adidas is under fire after posting a picture of its upcoming JS Roundhouse Mids on the adidas Originals Facebook page, designed by Jeremy Scott.

It’s not the colors or name that’s offending, but the rubber shackles attached to them that remind some observers (such as the Rev. Jesse Jackson) of the ankle chains that imprisoned African American slaves. That the “adidas” name is also part of the “shackles” is raising hackles (and heckles).

Even so, the brand defended the design and the designer.  “Jeremy Scott is renowned as a designer whose style is quirky and lighthearted … Any suggestion that this is linked to slavery is untruthful.”

Nevertheless, despite initially defending the designer, adidas is pulling the shoe, stating: “We apologize if people are offended by the design and we are withdrawing our plans to make them available in the marketplace.”

Edit by BJP

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