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A Dutch student has come up with the ultimate way of making easy money - by staying in bed.

Yde Van Deutekom, 22, from Zoetermeer, is selling advertising on a website featuring a webcam showing him in bed. So far, he has been in bed for 21 days and has had more than £3,500 paid into his bank account.

Mr Van Deutekom said: “Sleeping is just a hobby of me, and it is the only thing I’m very good at. I stay in bed all day, except for taking a shower, going to the bathroom and making something to eat. That’s all I want to do. And I want to stay in bed until I’m very rich.”

To celebrate its 80th anniversary, Speedo, the world’s leading swimwear brand has launched Speedo LZR Racer suit, which independent testing has shown to be the world’s fastest swimsuit.

Speedo has harnessed the expertise of the United States space agency NASA amongst a number of international research institutes to create a faster suit which has 10% less passive drag than Speedo’s Fastskin FSII launched in 2004 and 5% less passive drag than Speedo FS-PRO, which was launched in March 2007 and has seen swimmers break 21 World records as a result.

  Made from an ultra lightweight, low drag, water repellent, fast drying fabric, unique to Speedo, called LZR Pulse, the LZR Racer is the world’s first fully bonded swimsuit that is ultrasonically welded and gives the effect of no seams at all. Ultra low drag LZR Panels are embedded into the base fabric to create a ‘Hydro Form Compression system’ helping to compress the entire swimmer’s body into a more streamlined shape and enabling them to cut through the water with more power and agility.

“When I hit the water, I feel like a rocket”, says Michael Phelps, holder of six World records, who has been involved in the development and will be sporting the LZR Racer suit as he sets out to achieve a world record breaking 8 gold medals later this year. “I can’t wait to race in it - this is going to take the sport of swimming to a new level”.

His comments, echoed by other elite swimmers, are gratifying for Speedo’s research and development team, Aqualab, who have spent more than three years in intensive research and development to create their most hydro-dynamically advanced swimsuit to date.

Speedo scanned the bodies of more than 400 elite swimmers and held technical tests involving more than 100 different fabrics and suit designs in the world’s leading flume and test centres. Their quest to enable swimmers to swim faster than ever before, took them all over the world from the NASA Langley Research Centre to the Australian Institute of Sport (AIS), Otago University in New Zealand and working with CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) software from ANSYS, Inc., whose technology is also used in F1 motor racing and America’s Cup yachting.

The result is an engineered swimsuit whose 3D anatomical shape has a Core Stabiliser with a corset-like grip to support and hold the swimmer so they can maintain the best body position in the water for longer without losing freedom or flexibility of movement.

The LZR Racer suit’s unique design also provides swimmers with up to 5% more efficiency in terms of their Oxygen intake, enabling them to swim stronger for longer. “It makes it easier to swim faster,” says Rick Sharp, Exercise Physiologist, Iowa State University.

The Speedo LZR Racer suit has been declared ‘out of this world’ by swimmers involved in its development and testing. “It’s like swimming downhill” says World record holder, Libby Lenton (AUS). According to Women’s World and Olympic backstroke champion, Natalie Coughlin (USA), “It’s super tight but it really feels like part of your body when you put it on”, while double Olympic champion Grant Hackett (AUS) comments “It’s the best suit yet and looks like something out of a futuristic movie.”

The unique ‘space age’ design of the Speedo LZR Racer suit brings about another world first – where elite performance meets avant-garde fashion, through the involvement of international fashion label Comme des Garçons whose founder Rei Kawakubo formed a key part of the design team.

Her striking design on the side panel of the suit incorporates the character ‘kokoro’ meaning Heart, Mind, Spirit, by celebrated Japanese calligrapher, Inoue Yu-ichi. Kawakubo said: “When we come to combine the development of the highest technology that is the realm of Speedo, with the force and spirit of the art of Yu-ichi, records will surely be broken.”

Speedo co-President, David Robinson said: “Speedo has been leading the world in swimwear design since 1928 and our commitment to innovation in design and technology is the backbone to everything we do. We are particularly proud, in our 80th year, to be launching the Speedo LZR Racer which has broken new boundaries in performance swimwear and which we know will help elite athletes achieve their ultimate performances in 2008. It’s our 80th birthday present to the world of swimming.”

The Speedo LZR Racer suit, which has been approved by FINA (Fédération International de Natation Amateur), will debut at national trials around the world from March 2008. A retail version of the suit will go on sale in May 2008.

Although Ford is spending less on gay marketing and to support gay groups, the cutbacks are due to the slowing economy and not because of any “settlement” with the American Family Association, as the group announced this week.

“I can tell you there was not a negotiated settlement to this boycott,” said Ford spokesman Jim Cain. The automaker still backs groups including Human Rights Campaign and Parents, Families and Friends of Lesbians and Gays.

Read this artcle at > Portfolio.com

  Despite the cliche that men are simpler to understand than women, they remain a surprisingly tricky proposition for marketers. They can be quite easy to reach when it comes to cars, power tools, junk food and gadgets; but persuading men to buy fashion, skincare products or low-calorie foods is a different matter.

Men are conspicuous under-consumers in a whole range of categories, leaving advertisers unhappy. An obvious question is: haven’t men changed? Aren’t they all metrosexual now, proudly wearing Armani underpants and slathering themselves in moisturiser? The answer lies somewhere between ‘a few of them’ and ‘well, no’.

  The term ‘metrosexual’ was coined by journalist Mark Simpson in 1994 and raised to marketing stardom by Marian Salzman, now director of strategic content at JWT. The media wholeheartedly adopted her interpretation of the metrosexual , churning out reams of copy about the straight guy who was ‘just gay enough’. Advertisers welcomed him with open arms, due to his taste for expensive skincare products, stylish clothes and minimalist home furnishings . His toned torso unfurled across billboards, most often in the shape of David Beckham.

  One small snag, though: in real life, he barely existed. In 2006, a study by ad agency Leo Burnett Worldwide estimated that only one-fifth of the male population could truly be placed in the ‘metrosexual’ bracket, while the others expressed no interest in joining them.

  When men were asked by a Harris poll to name their role models, the top 10 responses included Clint Eastwood , Sean Connery and John Wayne. Men admire toughness, authority, responsibility and what Ernest Hemingway described as ‘grace under pressure’ . They aspire to power, money and status. Silky smooth skin doesn’t come into it.

In terms of advertising, celebrities tend to dominate, as in the women’s market, but men are particularly attracted to authenticity and accomplishment. Sports heroes always go down well, hence Gillette’s latest campaign featuring Tiger Woods, Roger Federer and Thierry Henry.

  Actors need to be older and a little rougher around the edges; more Daniel Craig than Orlando Bloom. These images are trafficked by men’s magazines , although they tend to be preaching to the converted . Product placement and sponsorship are far more effective ways of reaching shop-phobic males.

  That’s why the Bond movies have become male brand juggernauts. Nor do men shop as enthusiastically as metrosexuals are said to. They are reluctant shoppers, remaining loyal to a core selection of trusted brands. They tend to base their purchasing choices on timeless notions of authenticity, craftsmanship and performance . Few of them shop for pleasure, instead adopting a ‘search and destroy’ strategy. They go out looking for a raincoat and they come back with a raincoat.

  Mintel confirmed the patent lack of metrosexuality in the real world when it looked at the UK toiletries market in 2006. It concluded that men’s toiletries had failed to achieve the explosive growth anticipated since the late 80s, when Shulton launched its Insignia men’s range.

This was supposed to herald the emergence of the ‘new man’ , but the reality was that most were not ready to embrace a grooming regime featuring myriad products. Instead, it has been a much slower process, which, according to the report, has highlighted ‘that men will never adopt the levels of interest and investment in the toiletries industry that is fuelling the women’s beauty industry’.

That is not to say that the market is not growing. Mintel valued the men’s toiletries market at £751m in 2005, up by 28% since 2000. But skincare made up only 6% of the total, which was dominated by fragrances (44%). According to trend-tracking service WGSN, in 2006 the UK male grooming market was worth £818m, within which skincare was the fastestgrowing sector, up 14% to £68m. So men are definitely buying skin products, but on the face of the market, compared with women, they’re a mere freckle.

‘The fact is that men are wired differently,’ says Margaret Jobling, director of male grooming at Unilever. She joined the company in summer 2006; until then it had been organised into brands and categories, so nobody had sole responsibility for male-oriented products. Jobling’s role is to co-ordinate Unilever’s approach to the male market.

‘A lot of beauty marketing is about the power of attraction. But what do women look for in men? They look for financial stability, emotional strength, loyalty, security and, yes, a good sense of humour . Shiny hair and soft skin are a long way down the list,’ she says.

From her own research into the male market she discovered that male consumers are ploddingly practical. They must be lured with functionality and performance, rather than an esoteric ‘brand universe’ designed to make them buy into a better life. As a result, skincare brands tend to be packaged as tools.

For example , the Swiss brand Task Essential includes in its range products such as Oxywater O2 Oxygen Spray and Stop Burning aftershave. Lab-Series Skincare for Men is another example. ‘High-tech , high performance, high results’ boasts its website, which assures the male consumer that its products are created by ‘an elite team of doctors, scientists and skincare specialists’.

Its products include Mega Foam Shave and Root Power Hair Tonic. Men appreciate humour, too. Skincare brand Nickel takes a jocular approach with products such as Smooth Operator shaving gel, Fire Insurance aftershave moisturiser, Silicon Valley antiwrinkle cream, and Morning After revitalising lotion. As Jobling observes, creating products for men is not the problem; finding the right language in which to communicate to them is the real challenge.

Then there’s the retail factor, men are notoriously timid about browsing for skincare products in public. That is why male-grooming websites such as Mankind.co.uk, launched in 2001, have proved such a happy hunting ground. At the Beauty and the Brand conference in London last year, Mankind founder Hilary Andrews said: ‘Men want a comfortable, fuss-free method of getting products, and the internet is the obvious choice.’ She added that on the high street, women buy 50% of grooming products for the men in their life, while 98% of the products on Mankind are sold directly to men.

Andrews also confirmed that men were interested in ‘problem solving’ . The most searched-for words on the site are a delightful litany of ‘acne’ , ‘hair loss’ , ‘blackheads’ , ‘oily skin’ and ‘dandruff’ . She added that products backed by scientific data sold better.

  The buying of clothes is another area where men are notoriously reluctant to hit the shops. Consumer research conducted by Mintel over the past few years has consistently identified the fact that many men are uninterested in fashion and shopping.

According to its Men’s Outerwear report from January 2007, men over the age of 25 ‘often dislike shopping to such an extent that their partners buy the majority of menswear for them’.

The key to luring men into stores seems to be a comforting retail environment. Forget blaring music, disco balls or floor-to-ceiling mirrors , it is impeccable service and a slight hint of retro eccentricity that will work more effectively.

Think of Paul Smith’s stores, which are dotted with toy cars, tin robots and other ephemera; or Dunhill, whose decor reflects its heritage as the purveyor of accessories to the first motorists . At the latter’s store in London, men can also have a traditional wet shave.

MySpaceTV, the video wing of the online community network, late on Sunday unveiled its first original Web series to give its users a television-like experience with the interactive benefits of the Internet, according to a Reuters report.

“Roommates” will track the lives of four women in their 20s who have recently graduated from college and are living together in Los Angeles. The Web show debuts on Monday, October 22, and runs through December 21 for a total of 45 episodes. A new, three-minute segment will play each day, Monday through Friday at 4 p.m. EDT. Fans are expected to engage characters online and influence the plot.

“Roommates” will utilize a real-time “polling tool” in which viewers’ opinions on characters and plot developments will be sought. Fans can chat online, as well as post comments on the characters’ individual Web profiles. The information will be scrutinized and the plot changed, accordingly. According to sources, MySpaceTV and the show’s producers, Iron Sink Media, have enough episodes to get the program started, and future segments would be taped as it progressed. Iron Sink has produced several Los Angeles-based Web series, including “WeHoGirls” and “VanNuysGuys.”

With the success of video-sharing sites like YouTube, the Web is seen as an emerging medium where advertisers can find viewers who previously might have been drawn to TV. Web shows like “LonelyGirl15″ and “Prom Queen” have built loyal followings among teenagers and young adults. MySpace is owned by media giant News Corp, which also operates the Fox TV network, and most U.S. TV networks are rapidly ramping up production of short “Webisodes” to recapture viewers they may be losing to the Web. “Roommates” will be sponsored by Ford Motor Co’s 2008 Focus automobile. The car will appear in episodes and ads will be on the show site.