People have been doing a double take in their local supermarket recently because they’ve caught a glimpse of the past, something from a mental montage that includes Steve Austin in a jogging suit, Pinky Tuscadaro doing her finger snapping thing, and Fat Albert’s “Hey, Hey, Hey.” The kitschy pink can is familiar, yet, as is everything else today, it’s tweaked with a new twist. Tab is back, but it now is smaller, taller and thinner. (Or have you gotten bigger, shorter and fatter?) Groups like N.H. Fish and Game and N.H. Audubon hang their hats, in part, on the profession of environmental education. A noble cause, but not much bling. What might marketers do to help teach the public about nature?

The Rolling Stone’s “A Bigger Bang Tour” recently lived up to its name by attracting 1.2 million spectators in Rio De Janeiro. But why did these fans show up? Was it for the cutting edge music? No—most of the songs on the set list were pre-1970. Was it for the counter culture experience? No—the Stones are now completely mainstream. The reason all those people showed up was simply because they were amazed the Stones were still alive (at least most of them). People wanted to see for themselves the three guys—Jagger, Richards and Watts—rock and strut as they have for 40 years. The fact is that the Stones are members of a dwindling breed of ’60s rockers, famous because they have survived piles of drugs and heaps of promiscuous sex. In a similar way, endangered animals have gained notoriety as they battle the odds and teeter on the brink of oblivion.

In a recent Newsweek story about Granite State megastar Bode Miller, the author likened him to a modern-day Tarzan, because he grew up in the remote mountains of New Hampshire and cultivated his super-human powers far from mainstream culture. The article did not explore this hypothesis any further, but if Bode were like Tarzan, then one crucial element is missing: his foster parents. According to the story of Tarzan, a troupe of gorillas adopted the human infant and raised him to be King of the Jungle. So, what animal adopted Bode?