The numbers don't lie: the internet is made of cats. Lots and lots and lots of cats.

Doubt me? Type "cats" into YouTube and you'll get back 1.3 million results. Type "cats" into Google Image Search and you'll get back 776 million results. Type "cats" into Twitter and you'll see an average of one cat-related tweet per second. That's a lot of digital hairballs! Mmmmm hairballs.

Memes are important. Why? Because even if you don't actively mine them for content you should at least actively understand them. Or else this happens and you embarrass a client. Since Traction's work is neither created nor received in a vacuum, I've taken it upon myself to "educate" the office on the current state of internet memes.

This is a response to Adam Kleinberg's post Why We Have A Burning Man Policy

After six consecutive burns I planned to skip this one. I was going to backpack through India! Or ride AIDS Lifecycle! Or apply for grad school! Or visit friends in Europe! Honestly, I didn't really have a plan aside from wanting a Big Important Adventure that involved running water, flushable toilets, and wearing pants. (in hindsight perhaps India was incompatible with this goal) So I retired from my position as Store Manager for Costco Soulmate Trading Outlet, said "See you in 2013!" to my far flung burner tribe, and *POOF* I was no longer interested in the burn. Then early August rolled around and friends started selling their extra tickets... Fuck.

Here at Traction we love good food, good drink and good competition; hence our quarterly Traction Cook Offs. On Friday, June 1st our resident foodies competed in a pairing of grilled sliders and cocktails. Check out our Flickr photostream for a great set of pictures from the event.

Traction is an office of connoisseurs. It informs how we work, how we play, and most especially how we eat.  From Glenn's to-die-for lemon meringue pie to Kele's home-brews to Julie's delectable cheesecake to Adam BBQ obsession we're an office that loves fine food and drink. We're also an office that loves cutthroat, blood-thirsty competition. Hence our quarterly Traction Cook-Offs.

In the era before mobile devices, computers, and television; advertising was an art form dominated by the printing press and the paint brush. This pre-digital world had a marked physicality to it, with advertisers using printed and hand-painted ads to all but cover the urban environment.