The phrase above can be read two ways: right side up and upside down. It’s called an ambigram, and it’s the hottest trend in typography since Helvetica. This one was created by professional puzzle designer Scott Kim, who has worked with invertible text for 35 years.

“We’re wired to look for symmetry,” he explains. “Ambigrams have an almost mystical quality to them.” You can find them on everything from doormats (reading COME IN or GO AWAY, depending on your angle) to tattoos (which are awesome in the mirror) to Angels & Demons (the best-selling novel that hits the big screen on May 15).

“John was in love with this city, head over heels,” Yoko Ono said Monday of her late husband, the subject of John Lennon: The New York City Years, a new exhibit that launched Monday at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Annex NYC.

Ono said it was “very important for me to make this New York City show complete.” To do so, she and curator Jim Henke tapped into collections honoring Lennon at both the Hall of Fame’s museum in Cleveland and the John Lennon Museum in Japan. “And I went through my closet again,” Ono said.

The exhibit chronicles not only Lennon’s enduring love affair with the Big Apple, but also the trials he faced and his violent death. The ex-Beatle’s battle against deportation during the Nixon era, when his anti-war activism was considered suspect, is documented with his green card and previously unseen letters from supporters ranging from Joan Baez to former New York mayor John Lindsay.

There’s also a billboard featuring Lennon’s blood-splattered glasses that marked the 20th anniversary of his death. (Ono used the same image on the cover of her 1981 album Season of Glass.)

The decision to include that item “was pretty hard,” Ono said. “I thought I might be criticized for it…but it’s very important now for people to understand what violence is about.”

Ono noted that Lennon enjoyed the “element of anything goes” in New York, and that she doesn’t agree with New Yorkers who lament how the city has changed in recent decades: “Change is New York. I accept that. I’ve gone through so many changes here.”

Speaking after the conference, Ono observed that New York “meant freedom to (Lennon) in some ways. I think he realized even London had elements of conservatism, but here he felt freer. That’s why when he came here, it was, ‘Whoopee! I’m in New York.’ “

We have all used a coupon at one point in our lives and if you shop a lot, chances are you have a whole booklet of the little pieces of paper. Now the coupons can be in your phone!

Yowza is a new and very interesting application that has become available for the iPhone and iPod Touch. Created by Heroes star Greg Grunberg, the app is trying to change the way we use coupons and discounts in stores. Yowza is an application that offers digital coupons that can be redeemed right from your phone, without the need to carry a wallet full of paper ones. The idea is that major retailers will sign on to their program and begin offering coupons for the masses.

The app uses your location and then shows what coupons are available in the area. Using a coupon, users can also track their savings which are actually publicly hosted and the total savings of all Yowza users will eventually be posted on an updated billboard. The app in itself is really a stroke of genius.

It gives shoppers a chance to have unlimited access to coupons from their favorite stores and have them stored digitally on their device. The only real catch with the whole thing is that it has received a lot of hype, but not a lot of participation yet. In my area, there are only a few stores that have signed on, and of those stores, some are just advertising.

Overall, this app is a great concept and if more major retailers sign on to the program, this app could see a boon in downloads and become a standard in coupons.

It is time to rebuild there and I am glad to see construction has begun.

Everything Star Trek is new again as J.J. Abrams reboots the beloved franchise this weekend in theaters around the world.

1 Life Alert: I’ve Fallen, and I Can’t Get Up! (1990)
The best-remembered (and most-parodied) commercial phrase of the past 25 years isn’t for a cola or sneaker. It comes from that elderly woman using the Life Alert gizmo around her neck to call for help. It is the ultimate product-as-hero ad.

2 Apple Macintosh: 1984 (1984)
The ad all others have aspired to be. Never mind that it aired once nationally, on the Super Bowl and that few recall much besides that very buff woman wielding a sledgehammer. It sold Macs.

3 Wendy’s: Where’s the Beef? (1984)
The same year Apple went over-the-top to tout its Mac, Wendy’s went under-the-bun to tout its burger. Crusty ol’ Clara Peller ranting “Where’s the Beef” became ingrained in pop culture. It may be the most effective fast-food ad ever. Sorry, Ronald.

4　Isuzu: Joe “Trust me” Isuzu (1986)
Joe Isuzu ranks among the most memorable auto pitchmen. He (David Leisure) was a remarkably likable liar making outrageous claims about the Isuzus. Joe’s job as slimy hawker wasn’t to sell cars, but to familiarize consumers with the then-little-known Isuzu name. Did he ever. Trust us.

5　Energizer Bunny (1989)
Energizer stole Duracell’s drum-beating bunny, put it in motion and never looked back. For this campaign, Energizer can beat its own drum. And it’s still going and going and going.

6　Bartles & Jaymes: Thank You for Your Support (1985)
Frank Bartles and Ed Jaymes perfected the art of sitting on the front porch step and shooting the breeze. (OK, Ed never spoke.) They convinced millions that the new wine cooler was from a coupla country geezers – never mind that wine giant Gallo was behind it.

7 California Raisin Advisory Board: Heard it Through the Grapevine (1986)
The ad wasn’t just the birth of the dancing raisins. It also was the birth of Claymation – clay animated figures that could move and groove. And it was the original better-for-you snack pitch: raisins instead of sweets?

8　Budweiser: Croaking Frogs (1995)
Perhaps the most fondly remembered Super Bowl campaign from Anheuser-Busch starred a trio of talking frogs in a dark swamp croaking: “Bud. Wei. Ser.” It was so widely mimicked and so wildly successful, the King of Beers made it a series with talking lizards and ferrets.

9 California Milk Processors Board: Got Milk? (1993)
What could be stickier than to have an entire peanut butter sandwich stuffed into your mouth – and have no milk to wash it down? This first ad was a springboard for Got Milk? – and Aaron Burr – into pop culture.

10 Partnership for a Drug-Free America: “This is Your Brain on Drugs” (1987) To scare teens off drugs, this public-service ad compared an egg in a frying pan to a brain on drugs. Any questions? Yes: Got cholesterol?

After 83 years on the road, General Motors is throwing Pontiac overboard in a desperate bid to stay afloat.

It’s a sad end to a brand that brought us such venerable cars as the Chief, the GTO and, of course, the Trans Am. But dumping a brand isn’t uncommon. More than 500 American marques have gone under in the 124 years since Karl Benz invented the automobile.

great song…sorry about the video…

Out of the top ten suggestions for marketing during these tough economic times Mobile now checks in at number 7!

Go mobile

More and more examples of mobile marketing are proving to be successful for marketers. From special offers sent by text message to mobile websites, companies are beginning to find niche uses that are paying for themselves. While mobile is still a relatively small medium there are amazing opportunities to get in early and make a pretty penny or extend your impact while no one else is.

As mobile grows, so too will its importance to your business – don’t get left behind.

Space junkies and wannabe astronauts rejoice.

This is the exclusive video of Virgin Galactic’s recent test flight in the Mojave.

Also the first official cockpit video and other footage from the recent test of Virgin Mothership Eve at the Scaled Composites skunkworks operation in sunny SoCal.

Scaled Composites and Virgin tend to keep the test results hush-hush but say “several recent published articles have been sufficiently inaccurate and negative” to make them “set the record straight.”

They could be referring to reports by FlightGlobal that VMS Eve, the prototype of the White Knight 2 that took to the air, suffered a tail strike during an April 20 flight and experienced rudder problems. Scaled Composites, in a statement called the test “very successful” and said, “we only needed to adjust the rudder forces.”

White Knight 2’s will make its public debut next month at a fly-over during the groundbreaking for Virgin Galactic’s Spaceport America terminal. Head honcho Richard Branson will climb aboard for the spacecraft’s coming out party at the big AirVenture Oshkosh air show in July.

Attorneys for Chrysler said the company will file a motion by Saturday to sell substantially all of its assets to Italian automaker Fiat Group SpA, but that won’t include eight plants, including five that the automaker revealed it will shutter by the end of next year.

Yikes who would have thought “Fix It Again Tony” would have to save Chrysler. Where is Lee Iacocca when we need him?