With less than a month left in the holiday shopping season, procrastinating shoppers are moving into crunch time. Many looking for last-minute gifts are turning to Nordstrom for the most popular rock since Dwayne Johnson. Its purpose is unclear, making it the perfect catch-all gift for everyone on your list.
For those who don’t appreciate geology, Ikea has renamed a wide array of products to help solve common problems, such as "Why Men Can't Open Up."
This, and more, in this week’s Retail Therapy.
A leather-wrapped rock sells out at Nordstrom
“A paperweight? A conversation piece? A work of art? It's up to you,” reads the description of Nordstrom’s $85 leather-wrapped rock, which sold out this week. The beautiful ombre leather, which is made using “vintage leatherworking tools and traditional saddle-stitching techniques,” captivated internet shoppers and Twitter critics alike this week, making it akin to Supreme’s bizarre, viral brick sale.
While it may have seemed like a marketing stunt, Supreme’s brick was all too real, and so is this rocky product, according a Buzzfeed interview with product maker Made Solid. The rocks are "really cool, labor-intensive objects that are used as everything from paperweights to doorstops to home/display accents. [They're] one of our most consistently popular items, actually … they sold out at most stores," a Made Solid representative said.
Fans of the product went as far as to make a personal Twitter account, @Nordstromrock (Twitter bio: self-proclaimed “The hottest item for the 2016 Holiday season. Keep this rock in your breast pocket right next to your cold, dead heart”). The account managed to garner a mild 200 followers as of Thursday night.
Here’s a look inside the rock’s social media life:
Don't make anyone beg this holiday season - just GIVE THEM THE STONE. https://t.co/Wyvy1Ep61P #Voldemort #NordstromRock @jk_rowling
— NordstromRock (@NordstromRock) December 8, 2016
Just got back from our year-end R&D meeting. Don't want to *foil* anyone's plans, but I sense some big things for Q1 in 2017. pic.twitter.com/QdtJIVYvMC
— NordstromRock (@NordstromRock) December 7, 2016
Reasons why the #NordstromRock is the best holiday gift:
— NordstromRock (@NordstromRock) December 7, 2016
1. Never goes bad
2. TSA Approved for carry-on (take that Galaxy 7)
3. Only $85
British Friends are like...
— NordstromRock (@NordstromRock) December 7, 2016
Weight: 12 Stone
Annual Income: 540 NordstromRocks
Ikea names products after problems
Ikea wants to make life easier for its customers, so the home goods retailer is rolling out Retail Therapy (clever name!), a real website that pretends to use SEO techniques to rename popular products after phrases people commonly search on Google when looking for solutions to their most pressing problems. Ikea's Hemnes daybed? On the Retail Therapy site, it's now called My Partner Snores. Its PS Lövås sofa sleeper? Kids Every Other Week.
Ikea spent the last year collaborating with Swedish agency Åkestam Holst on the tongue-in-cheek campaign, Adweek reports: Previous ads have celebrated a range of family dynamics and milestones, culminating in this latest bit of SEO esoterica.
Confused? Check out the spot:
'Why Men Can’t Open Up' corkscrew
'She Gives Me Mixed Signals' bunk beds
'My Mom Can’t Cook' microwave
Target ad debut turns into Christmas rap battle
Big-box retailer Target got a little holiday cheer from celebrity couple Chrissy Teigen and John Legend in a new ad campaign, "Toy Cracker," which adapts the classic Christmas ballet "The Nutcracker."
The eight-minute mini-musical premiered at a special screening on Wednesday, and guests got a sneak peek at the couple in an unexpected holiday rap battle. What could be more festive?
The video officially airs on Dec. 11 on ABC. Check out the trailer:
An Irish goat walks into a store...
In what is definitely the strangest news of the week, a goat in Carrickfergus, Northern Ireland was particularly peeved when he wasn’t able to enter a local store for some last-minute holiday shopping, Mashable reports. The enraged beast charged at the storefront, and employees were forced to seek shelter in their cars.
"We have a pensioner named Billy who shops here and it charged at him and I grabbed him and dragged him through the door just in time before the goat crashed into the door," store manager Jonathan Smyth, who managed to catch some of the incident on video, told the Carrick Times.
Jeez, maybe he just really wanted that Nordstrom rock?
