BUSINESSWEEK ONLINE : JANUARY 17, 2000 ISSUE
COVER STORY A Picture-Perfect Target Building an empire on gilded acorns and perfect pasta is bound to generate smirks. But few have smiled through as much sarcasm and sniping as Martha Stewart. She has been roasted as much as a field of free-range chickens. When not being skewered as a humorless, hard-driving tycoon, she's lampooned for her impossibly complex home crafts. Her penchant for perfectionism makes Stewart an irresistible target for parody. A boggling array of books, sketches, and products play off the uptight homemaker image. Nash Co. in St. Paul, Minn., for example, sells a line of aprons and other products that carry messages like ''Martha Stewart doesn't knead my dough.'' The Net contains such catty gems as the holiday calendar that had her bear a son and lay him in a potpourri-scented manger. Even talk-show host and fan David Letterman has lists like ''10 ways to tell if Martha Stewart is stalking your dog'' (No. 1: The dog droppings in your backyard have been sculpted into swans). ''SO SERIOUS.'' Many brands, of course, suffer backlashes, but most don't have as convenient a human target as Stewart. ''She's so serious,'' says San Francisco branding consultant David Aaker, who thinks spoofs hurt the brand. Her name has become synonymous with a kind of unattainable--and slightly ridiculous--standard in the domestic arts, thanks to projects designed to take hours, if not days, to complete. Tyler Brule, founder of wallpaper, a London magazine, calls it ''homemaker porn... projecting into a world you can't have.'' Stewart takes the joking in stride. ''It probably just makes me more human,'' she says. Stewart has even been known to take part in parodies of herself, like an American Express Co. commercial a few years back in which she tiled a pool with old credit cards. But she insists that she's selling useful how-to information and not an escapist fantasy for harried housewives. Tom Connor, co-author of three parody books, including Is Martha Stuart Living?, says elevating mundane chores to high art is a joke in itself. ''The first time I opened her magazine, I started laughing because it was so over-the-top,'' says Connor, who featured Stewart making condoms from fresh-killed sheep. Stewart's laughing, too: all the way to the bank. By Diane Brady in Westport, Conn. _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ BACK TO TOP					RELATED ITEMS Martha Inc. COVER IMAGE: Martha Inc. CHART: Martha Stewart Inc... CHART: ...Rakes in Big Sales Gains...But Spending Curbs Profits TABLE: Martha's World TABLE: Mini Marthas A Picture-Perfect Target ONLINE ORIGINAL: How Margaret Roach Makes Martha's Garden Grow ONLINE ORIGINAL: Investors Aren't So Sure about Stewart's Style INTERACT E-Mail to Business Week Online

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