Ralph Lauren has hit on a new marketing concept: the virtual shopping story book. The RL Gang: A Fantastically Amazing School Adventure is available on the Ralph Lauren website as an interactive shopping tool (i.e., they let you click on the children in the video story to view their wardrobes and shop for them.) The story, narrated by Harry Connick Jr., is not particularly well-written (the mention of "an amazingly amazing book" and "moist" apples made me cringe a bit), but I reminded myself that this is about retail marketing, not children's literature. And, as a marketing piece, it's great. Read the rest of this entry »