Word: cleverisms
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...after law students had already left for the summer—to send the letter threatening to cut Harvard’s funding. That letter listed a deadline for HLS’s decision as July—long before the students return in the fall. This clever timing allowed the Air Force to bully HLS while no one was around to defend the compromise that was in place, making these dealings particularly underhanded...
Many of today's alternative approaches are clever updates of old techniques. As part of the launch of new talk shows hosted by Isaac Mizrahi and Carrie Fisher, respectively, women's cable network Oxygen has dispatched ice-cream trucks to cruise the streets of New York City and Los Angeles and give out specially labeled popsicles and vitamin waters touting the coming broadcasts. Procter & Gamble sent out a trailer of elegant, air- conditioned Porta Potties, complete with hardwood floors and aromatherapy candles, to state fairs last summer to extol the virtues of Charmin toilet paper. Bottled-water producer Evian paid...
This didn't suit many of the environmental groups involved in the negotiations that believed the market was just a clever way for corporations to skirt environmental regulations. Says Katie McGinty, then chairwoman of Clinton's Council on Environmental Quality: "Practically every utility in the country began to accept the notion that they would face legally binding carbon restrictions. But environmentalists who were opposed to doing anything consensual with industry said what we really should be doing is suing their butts under the current provisions of the Clean Air Act." Result: today the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has no ability...
That approach paid off big for Bonderman's first turnaround, Continental Airlines. Thanks to a clever purchasing arrangement, TPG's partnership controlled Continental, though it owned just 14% of its stock. Not just an investor with deep pockets, TPG closely watched costs and CEO Gordon Bethune. Continental's share price, once down around $2, soared to $65 by 1998. "It was a huge gamble with an even larger payoff in an industry where net profits are close to zero," says Continental board member George Parker. After eight years, TPG's total return on its $66 million investment was nearly...
...Cola and Pepsi officials are scrambling to undo P.R. and ecological damage caused by the painting of soft drink logos on rocks along a 50-km stretch of the beautiful Manali-Rohtang Pass in the Indian Himalayas. India's Supreme Court demanded to know why someone thought it was clever to use scenic boulders as billboards. Company representatives said they knew nothing of the graffiti, blaming local franchisees instead. Now the companies are trying to decide how to remove the paint without doing further harm to the delicate mosses that cling to the rocks. We hear colas will strip paint...