5.22.2008
5.20.2008
Why Consumer Generated Media Should Worry Us
This video was created on a laptop as part of a senior project (high school? college? not sure). The camera is shaky b/c they didn't have a tripod! I think it's incredible. And I think production houses need to get worried!
5.16.2008
I %*#!ing Love Adrants
I've been getting the Adrants daily blog update to my inbox ever since I started working for an agency. I've rarely deleted it - even during busy days/weeks when all my media posts get dumped in one fell swoop (sometimes it's liberating to delete emails you will learn something from).
Anyway, they just posted a hilarious fake ad from Saturn. Check it out:
Find more videos like this on AdGabber
Anyway, they just posted a hilarious fake ad from Saturn. Check it out:
Find more videos like this on AdGabber
5.15.2008
5.13.2008
Ads of My Youth
I've been reading a new book called, "The Advertised Mind" by Erik Du Plessis. I'm loving it. Right now I'm reading about how memories are created and stored. This made me think back to the first commercials I could remember (as well as a recent screening of The Little Mermaid. Disney had its best years when I was a child!). Surprisingly, the first thing I remembered were songs and jingles! Check out some of these early 90s ads that were running in my oh-so-impressionable-years.
DeBeers and the original silhouette spot ;) So dramatic.
Zest: You're not fully clean unless you're Zest-fully clean. The frame of the dad and the towel is too funny.
Cotton: The fabric of our lives! Soooo clever!
I tried my best to find the Softer Side of Sears commercials. But as you can tell, the above spots were likely tape recorded. Not the easiest to come by! Of course, I can't recall any print ads. I was reading books and Highlights - last time I checked, they don't accept advertising.
But I do remember one outdoor board that was on US-1 and 152nd St in Miami. It was a cigarette ad with a bunch of teenagers on top of a car. They looked like they were having a ball on that car, smoking and subsequently developing lung cancer. I feel like that board never changed. Did they use vinyl in the 80s-90s? 'Cause it was always the same and at one point I remember it being really faded. Oh well, enjoy my blast from the past!
DeBeers and the original silhouette spot ;) So dramatic.
Zest: You're not fully clean unless you're Zest-fully clean. The frame of the dad and the towel is too funny.
Cotton: The fabric of our lives! Soooo clever!
I tried my best to find the Softer Side of Sears commercials. But as you can tell, the above spots were likely tape recorded. Not the easiest to come by! Of course, I can't recall any print ads. I was reading books and Highlights - last time I checked, they don't accept advertising.
But I do remember one outdoor board that was on US-1 and 152nd St in Miami. It was a cigarette ad with a bunch of teenagers on top of a car. They looked like they were having a ball on that car, smoking and subsequently developing lung cancer. I feel like that board never changed. Did they use vinyl in the 80s-90s? 'Cause it was always the same and at one point I remember it being really faded. Oh well, enjoy my blast from the past!
5.09.2008
Ad Sales Reps, Beware!
I'll admit, I've done a few things I'm not proud of. I once hit my little sister in the mouth while she was eating rock candy. Tried to cut my own bangs. Kissed a boy I knew had a girlfriend.
And one time I hid under my desk from a sales rep that dropped by the office unannounced. Not my finest hour (And for the record, I'm a very nice media buyer and am more than happy to meet with sales people - I was just having a bad day).
But with this fun game from Intergi, I can take out my frustrations in a safe environment without having to show my co-workers just how unprofessional I can get!
Thanks, Adrants.
And one time I hid under my desk from a sales rep that dropped by the office unannounced. Not my finest hour (And for the record, I'm a very nice media buyer and am more than happy to meet with sales people - I was just having a bad day).
But with this fun game from Intergi, I can take out my frustrations in a safe environment without having to show my co-workers just how unprofessional I can get!
Thanks, Adrants.
5.08.2008
The Pope Gets Social Media
In an attempt to reach out to young Catholics, Pope Benedict will be texting his young flock for World Youth day in July. I'm very curious what the message will be (attend mass or die?). Oh, and he has a social network to unite Catholics around the world.
I'm impressed. If the Pope can use social media, my clients can too! Come on guys, the Pope is doing it!
I'm impressed. If the Pope can use social media, my clients can too! Come on guys, the Pope is doing it!
5.04.2008
New TV Network: Planet Green
I caught a sneak peak of some programming for the new cable television network, Planet Green. Loved it. Really. I watched a show called, Wa$ted, which finds a person, family, or couple that are being crazy wasteful, shows them how bad they are, puts it into a worldwide perspective ("your ecological footprint is the size of 49 acres! And you live in a 1300 sq ft apartment. AHH!" almost a direct quote from today's episode), tells them what to do to help fix their horrible lifestyle, challenges them to do so, and checks back 3 weeks later to see if they have mended their ways. Then, and this is the coolest part, they calculate how much money was saved, multiply that by one year and give it to them! The couple from today's episode received $3,000! Holy cow! Can you imagine? It was really neat to see how you can make small changes that really can save you money.
My only complaint was that this first couple was actually a little outrageous. I mean, they would leave the TV and lights on during the day so that the dog would be entertained. The dog. Tyler certainly does not have the luxury of catching up on all his soaps while I'm at work. So I would be interested to see how much someone like myself, who doesn't leave lights on, washes clothes with cold water, unplugs appliances, etc. would save. So be on the lookout for this new network - it is scheduled to premiere in June.
4.27.2008
How Do You Take Your Media?
Since this blog is now on Tallahassee.com, I've received a bunch of comments on the Death of a Medium post. Which totally surprised me. Some bloggers love their newspaper.
One commenter hinted that it was the experience of reading a newspaper that they loved. So my question to anyone reading is, "How do you take your media?"
Research points out that radio listening happens at home and in the car. TV viewing is mostly in the home (in fact, TV is also measured by households). The most Internet activity happens throughout the day; news is sought during the morning at work and informational searches typically occur at home in the evening (ex. house hunting sites). But what about magazine reading? Or newspapers?
Enter a major benefit of printed media: portability. You can take it with you. Where do I read my latest issue of Domino (best lifestyle mag ever)? On my back deck, in bed before I turn the lights out, in the car when I'm not driving, the beach, a plane trip...I can take it anywhere. If I lose my signal, no problem.
So there ya go. I'm standing up for printed, tangible, flammable media.
Photo via stock.xchng
4.24.2008
It's Been a Long Week
I'll admit - I've been kind of out of it the past few days. This week has kicked my butt. Finals, proposals, deadlines and intense house cleaning in preparation for the parental units impending visit. But now...I'm sitting on my couch in my super clean house with a glass of Chateau Ste Michelle Riesling (look, they named it after me! And yes, that's why I bought it) watching Ugly Betty. I am so happy scripted television is back. And in just 15 minutes I get to watch Grey's Anatomy.
Seriously, it's the little things...
Seriously, it's the little things...
4.22.2008
The Angola Prison Rodeo
Apparently I can't handle a blog by myself and have to solicit writers. Luckily, my good friend Vinny wrote this lovely account of the Angola Prison Rodeo that he recently attended. So here's a little recap straight from the source:
"Yesterday I fell in love with this country all over again.
I attended a slew of human rights violations called the Angola Prison Rodeo at the Louisiana State Penitentiary.
Care to hazard a guess at how a "prison rodeo" works? You got it: they throw a handful of inmates into a muddy rink and turn the bulls loose. Sure, there are rules and games and strategies, but it all pretty much amounts to good old-fashioned exploitation at the expense of our society's deviants.
For the record, I cannot believe that this sort of thing goes on anywhere, let alone in a first-world country. But now that I've attended, I'm glad it does. Kudos, Louisiana.
I'm going to walk you through some of the rodeo's horrifically inventive games in just a moment, but before I do so it's important that you get a feel for the event's ambiance.
After purchasing a ticket (very reasonable at $10, by the way), you walk through a couple of alarmingly casual security checkpoints and find yourself on the business side of the barbed wire. Inside, violent criminals peddle all manners of handicrafts, from furniture to art to leatherwork. The more trustworthy convicts, ambiguously identified by their official rodeo t-shirts, mingle with the crowd. We even spoke with a murderer who'd been in prison for over 40 years. I regret to say he wasn't a very talented painter. Meanwhile, the less scrupulous inmates are kept behind a fence lined with display tables, where they pitch their wares through chain links to passersby.
Because this is Louisiana, there are also dozens of food stands and beverage kiosks (no alcohol), where the criminally culinary boil crawfish, grill hot dogs, and bake meat pies. Delicious, if suspicious.
Okay, enough periphery... onto the rodeo itself. There were eight or ten games played; I'll highlight three.
CONVICT POKER Four inmate cowboys sit at a table in the middle of the rink, playing poker. They're told to stay seated. Then an angry bull comes careening out of its chute, toppling the table and sending prisoners hurtling through the air. The object of the game is to be the last man sitting.
WILD COW MILKING These aren't your regular cows. These are massive, angry, aggressive steers, and this was definitely the most violent game played. The prisoners work in teams of two: one holds a 15-ft rope fastened to a wild cow. While he tries (and fails) to control the beast, his partner attempts to milk it. Eight teams work at once, which means that eight steer are bucking and thrashing and charging the inmates as well as each other. Total pandemonium. Needless to say, nobody won this game. After being dragged, kicked, rammed and manhandled, several inmates were carried off the field by EMS.
GUTS & GLORY The rodeo's grand finale. Angola officials tie a poker chip (a "chit") to the wildest Brahma bull present. The bull then charges into the rink, which is populated by ten or fifteen courageous prisoners tasked with removing the chit from the bull's horn. Some try flanking the animal, others try surprising it from behind. The bull effortlessly throws most of them over its shoulders, goring the unlucky ones in the process. In the end, it's a more direct approach that wins the day: one inmate manages to snatch the chit after leaping onto the bull's head. He's jettisoned into the air, but that's a small price to pay for the "glory" that is his victory.
The whole thing feels like an inbred, country-fried version of Spartacus. The winner of the final game even tosses his hard-earned chit up to the prison warden, who sits in a special box overlooking the whole violent spectacle alongside his wife and daughter.
MY THEORY What made the rodeo so thrilling? I suppose I could ramble on for pages about our species’ innate sadism or the perverse extent to which we’ve fetishized the act of punishment. But there are better reasons.
We tend to think of our violent criminals as less human – which is to say, more animal – than the rest of us. For this reason, we’ve rendered prisoners virtually indistinguishable from livestock. We herd them like cattle. We feed them slop. We confine them to cages. We tag, brand, groom, and catalogue them.
But at the Angola Rodeo, where we pit them against real, bona fide beasts, they assume a different role altogether. Foiled by their animal opponents, they are transformed into ambassadors of humanity, reflections of society, extensions of the crowd itself. The Angola Rodeo is a celebration of the divide between us and everything else. It’s a tribute to our uniqueness, and a poignant reminder that all men, independent of their crimes, share the same fundamental identity.
I could be wrong. I might even have it backwards. Perhaps it’s how similar our prisoners and livestock are that captivated the audience yesterday. But I’ll say this: in the deafening roar of the crowd during that last bout, amidst all of the applause, the cheer, the gasps, not a single spectator was rooting for the bull.
At least that’s what I keep telling myself."
-Vincent Maling
"Yesterday I fell in love with this country all over again.
I attended a slew of human rights violations called the Angola Prison Rodeo at the Louisiana State Penitentiary.
Care to hazard a guess at how a "prison rodeo" works? You got it: they throw a handful of inmates into a muddy rink and turn the bulls loose. Sure, there are rules and games and strategies, but it all pretty much amounts to good old-fashioned exploitation at the expense of our society's deviants.
For the record, I cannot believe that this sort of thing goes on anywhere, let alone in a first-world country. But now that I've attended, I'm glad it does. Kudos, Louisiana.
I'm going to walk you through some of the rodeo's horrifically inventive games in just a moment, but before I do so it's important that you get a feel for the event's ambiance.
After purchasing a ticket (very reasonable at $10, by the way), you walk through a couple of alarmingly casual security checkpoints and find yourself on the business side of the barbed wire. Inside, violent criminals peddle all manners of handicrafts, from furniture to art to leatherwork. The more trustworthy convicts, ambiguously identified by their official rodeo t-shirts, mingle with the crowd. We even spoke with a murderer who'd been in prison for over 40 years. I regret to say he wasn't a very talented painter. Meanwhile, the less scrupulous inmates are kept behind a fence lined with display tables, where they pitch their wares through chain links to passersby.
Because this is Louisiana, there are also dozens of food stands and beverage kiosks (no alcohol), where the criminally culinary boil crawfish, grill hot dogs, and bake meat pies. Delicious, if suspicious.
Okay, enough periphery... onto the rodeo itself. There were eight or ten games played; I'll highlight three.
CONVICT POKER Four inmate cowboys sit at a table in the middle of the rink, playing poker. They're told to stay seated. Then an angry bull comes careening out of its chute, toppling the table and sending prisoners hurtling through the air. The object of the game is to be the last man sitting.
WILD COW MILKING These aren't your regular cows. These are massive, angry, aggressive steers, and this was definitely the most violent game played. The prisoners work in teams of two: one holds a 15-ft rope fastened to a wild cow. While he tries (and fails) to control the beast, his partner attempts to milk it. Eight teams work at once, which means that eight steer are bucking and thrashing and charging the inmates as well as each other. Total pandemonium. Needless to say, nobody won this game. After being dragged, kicked, rammed and manhandled, several inmates were carried off the field by EMS.
GUTS & GLORY The rodeo's grand finale. Angola officials tie a poker chip (a "chit") to the wildest Brahma bull present. The bull then charges into the rink, which is populated by ten or fifteen courageous prisoners tasked with removing the chit from the bull's horn. Some try flanking the animal, others try surprising it from behind. The bull effortlessly throws most of them over its shoulders, goring the unlucky ones in the process. In the end, it's a more direct approach that wins the day: one inmate manages to snatch the chit after leaping onto the bull's head. He's jettisoned into the air, but that's a small price to pay for the "glory" that is his victory.
The whole thing feels like an inbred, country-fried version of Spartacus. The winner of the final game even tosses his hard-earned chit up to the prison warden, who sits in a special box overlooking the whole violent spectacle alongside his wife and daughter.
MY THEORY What made the rodeo so thrilling? I suppose I could ramble on for pages about our species’ innate sadism or the perverse extent to which we’ve fetishized the act of punishment. But there are better reasons.
We tend to think of our violent criminals as less human – which is to say, more animal – than the rest of us. For this reason, we’ve rendered prisoners virtually indistinguishable from livestock. We herd them like cattle. We feed them slop. We confine them to cages. We tag, brand, groom, and catalogue them.
But at the Angola Rodeo, where we pit them against real, bona fide beasts, they assume a different role altogether. Foiled by their animal opponents, they are transformed into ambassadors of humanity, reflections of society, extensions of the crowd itself. The Angola Rodeo is a celebration of the divide between us and everything else. It’s a tribute to our uniqueness, and a poignant reminder that all men, independent of their crimes, share the same fundamental identity.
I could be wrong. I might even have it backwards. Perhaps it’s how similar our prisoners and livestock are that captivated the audience yesterday. But I’ll say this: in the deafening roar of the crowd during that last bout, amidst all of the applause, the cheer, the gasps, not a single spectator was rooting for the bull.
At least that’s what I keep telling myself."
-Vincent Maling
4.19.2008
Death of a Medium
What a depressing thing to say. I keep hearing about media dying off and wondering, why do people keep saying this? Is this a news media scare tactic?
I'll admit, I have - on more than one occasion - asserted that newspapers are dying. TV is dying too. Radio is long gone. And advertising on those channels? We'd better start planning for the apocalypse. I've even been so brave as to hypothesize that "if technology exists to avoid it, it's obviously on its way out" (referring, of course to satellite radio and DVRs).
But all of the above is just talk. The thing that is happening right now is fragmentation. And growth. We have all these wonderful new media channels, but still 24 hours in one day. So of course something has to give. Maybe I'm not listening to the radio, but I'm downloading podcasts. Or I'm not watching the evening news, but I've got CNN on RSS. It's not a matter of life or death - just change. Change from mass appeal to segmented audiences.
Just a little food for thought.
I'll admit, I have - on more than one occasion - asserted that newspapers are dying. TV is dying too. Radio is long gone. And advertising on those channels? We'd better start planning for the apocalypse. I've even been so brave as to hypothesize that "if technology exists to avoid it, it's obviously on its way out" (referring, of course to satellite radio and DVRs).
But all of the above is just talk. The thing that is happening right now is fragmentation. And growth. We have all these wonderful new media channels, but still 24 hours in one day. So of course something has to give. Maybe I'm not listening to the radio, but I'm downloading podcasts. Or I'm not watching the evening news, but I've got CNN on RSS. It's not a matter of life or death - just change. Change from mass appeal to segmented audiences.
Just a little food for thought.
4.18.2008
REAL[ITY] CHECK - 4/18/2008
A lot of reality shows are coming to a close now that the scripted shows are back. What does that mean for us, the general viewing public? Crazy reality show finale antics! Here they are (and some premieres too!):
- On the Rock of Love finale, Ambre pulls a Sharon Stone in Basic Instinct, thus clinching the heart of Bret Michaels. Ambre's rival, Daisy, says Ambre is 80 years old and 500 years old and looks like a dinosaur. If Ambre is 500, what does that make Bret? 1200?
- On the Real Housewives of NYC, in a conversation with the other housewives, Alex makes mention of plugging a vibrator in. Seriously?
- One of the Flavorettes on Flavor of Love surprises Flav in bed with chicken and waffles. Yes, that's right. Chicken and waffles.
- On the Viva Hollywood premiere, one of the male contestants (I wasn't paying close enough attention to know which one) says that his first sexual experience was at age nine. I guess molestation counts as a sexual experience...
- And on the Real World Hollywood premiere, we meet seven of the most dillusionally full of themselves people in the world. The house is huge, but they're going to need a lot more room to house all that ego.
4.17.2008
Hans Rosling on TED
Came across this a while back and was reminded of it while reading some blogger love from Thought Gadgets.
This is amazing. Hans Rosling has developed this incredible software called Trendalyzer used to graphically display statistical trends. Although the software, bought by Google (surprise, surprise), will change how we present data, it's Rosling's endearing performance that properly displays the capabilities of the robust software. Make sure you watch the whole thing!
I'm excited - fingers crossed that Google makes this available to the public.
*Notice - BMW is a sponsor for TED. Genius.
This is amazing. Hans Rosling has developed this incredible software called Trendalyzer used to graphically display statistical trends. Although the software, bought by Google (surprise, surprise), will change how we present data, it's Rosling's endearing performance that properly displays the capabilities of the robust software. Make sure you watch the whole thing!
I'm excited - fingers crossed that Google makes this available to the public.
*Notice - BMW is a sponsor for TED. Genius.
4.16.2008
Have We Met Before?
I'm posting today because I'm stoked that this blog is now being featured on Tallahassee.com, the website for Tallahassee's newspaper. So I wanted to write a little introduction and explain what I'm all about for anyone reading this via Tallahassee.com (my apologies for being redundant).
My name is Michelle and I'm the media director for Kidd Group, a local advertising agency. I oversee the media planning and buying for our agency's clients. This means that I am the one who decides which episode of American Idol to buy or what radio station to run advertisements on. It's a pretty cool gig.
Topically, this blog is about just that; media buying and planning. But I also explore consumer behavior, media related and general news, and I attempt to spice it up with anecdotes from my own life. I'm excited to be on this site and welcome any and all comments. Thanks for reading!
Click here to read via Tallahassee.com.
My name is Michelle and I'm the media director for Kidd Group, a local advertising agency. I oversee the media planning and buying for our agency's clients. This means that I am the one who decides which episode of American Idol to buy or what radio station to run advertisements on. It's a pretty cool gig.
Topically, this blog is about just that; media buying and planning. But I also explore consumer behavior, media related and general news, and I attempt to spice it up with anecdotes from my own life. I'm excited to be on this site and welcome any and all comments. Thanks for reading!
Click here to read via Tallahassee.com.
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