Media Permaculture
Cellphones microwaving brain cells like popcorn? Not quite. This video and many imitators are making the rounds quite rapidly, playing on fears (dully warranted I might add) of phones frying our brains. I did a scan of YouTube to check out the phenomenon and it appears to be a fake, albeit a pretty darn good one. This ranks as an A class viral video project.
AskMen.com - Worst Male-Bashing Ads:
You’ve seen him plenty of times on sitcoms; he’s the dumb, bumbling, idiot dad, husband and boyfriend who appears useless at everything but bringing home a paycheck. The message: Guys are dumb and women have to lead them around. This, of course, cues the laugh track. Yet a survey from an organization called Children Now found that two-thirds of kid respondents described men on TV as angry, while respondents from another group’s survey said men were portrayed as corrupt on TV by a 17 to 1 margin. Clearly, this is no laughing matter.
Feminists have lots to complain about when it comes to ads. No doubt, some of the rankest gender identity construction can be found in beer ads. But how many think about the impact of advertising on males as well? In my media literacy workshops I find myself particularly saddened by the repeated trope that men are stupidly driven by biology– contrary to some of the classical stereotypes that men are the intellectual masters of the universe. Obviously, both images are wrong. Marc Voyer (quoted above) does a nice job of surveying a number of the worse offenders, although I’m surprised that his list doesn’t contain any alcohol ads, though I suppose that would be too obvious. I have been recently re-reading Susan Sontag, and one comment really stuck out. Violence, she says, turns a person into a thing. It made me wonder, is turning a thing into a person also a kind of violence?
Well, leave it to Taco Bell to cannibalize flash mobs, but there you have it. The voracious appetite of marketing gobbles up another activist tactic. Why am I not shocked?
Newsflash! Flash Mobs Return! » Adrants:
To promote Taco Bell’s Fruitista Freeze, Philadelphia’s LevLane hired actors costumed in iced-over beachwear with their skin tinted blue who would freeze in position for hours while a support team outside Citizens Bank Park last week during an MLB Phillies home game handed out coupons for the frozen tropical beverage. Also, a flash mob in street clothes would do the same for a few minutes.
Because the stunt was, apparently, so successful and because, it seems, LevLane is so nice, the next day they did another stunt for free. Last Thursday during lunch, all agency employees wore orange t-shirts and walked to Philadelphia’s City Hall. On cue, the majority froze in place while a few others handed out more Frutista Freeze coupons. Ten minutes later the mob thawed, walked to nearby Love Park and refroze.
Yet another chapter in which a major corporation postitions itself as the savior of culture against the oppressor. As I wrote previously about Snicker and its clever Webisodes that somehow tried to convince kids that Mars Inc. is the savior of hip hop and youth culture, another caffeinated sugar pusher, Mountain Dew, has created this small semi-interactive universe in which Dew is equated with the elixer of freedom.
As high budget cartoon dystopias go, DEWmocracy is the mother of all corporate cannibals, riffing on the Matrix, The Invisibles, 1984, while managing to include a requisite Native American (with a really bad wig) to tell our skateboarding hero that he is “The One.” Hard to believe, but this bad acting trumps Keanu Reeves. Mountain Dew even includes pseudo participation in which user generated designs can become the next Dew label. Yeah for democracy.
The project also has a bunch of mysterious interrogation videos uploaded to YouTube, by one mysterious seedvideos1234, which is an odd bit of art imitating life given the recent scandal of the alleged destruction of CIA torture videos. But you won’t see the viral videos on YouTube associated with the DEWmocracy site, either because it’s just so bad PesisCo is disowning it, or it’s now too old to be bothered with (I have been sitting on this post for six months– sorry to be so out of it).
Just for fun, here’s an anti-Dew piece that attacks Pepsi for hypocritically advocating corporate responsibility while plastering the city with its ad graffiti.
Is the War on Terror really an advertising conspiracy? From Security Point Media:
Alternative Media for a Captive Audience: Guaranteed message delivery in an environment of heightened awareness.
Visit the Website for more surreal euphemisms.
Media Life Magazine - Your client’s face up at airport security:
“This is about the novelty of the space. It allows us to get our message across visually. Our 3-D campaign has the ad kind of jumping out at you, to put a little Zappos in your day. When I’m coming through security I know that it can be frustrating and this is to provide a little lightheartedness.” – Andy Kurlander, senior marketing manager for Zappos.com.
UPDATE: Surprise, surprise the Daily Show is all over this one.
When satire isn’t enough, you can depend on the Republican to insert a little more comedy into the routine.
GOP’s New Slogan Already Being Used To Market Anti-Depressant - Politics on The Huffington Post:
What the GOP doesn’t seem to realize, because they are idiots, is that “the change you deserve” is the registered advertising slogan of Effexor XR, a drug that many of you might have started taking as a result of all the…you know — terrorism. (Hat tip to Bluestem for catching this gem.)
Effexor, also known as Venlafaxine, is approved for the treatment “of depression, generalized anxiety disorder, social anxiety disorder, and panic disorder in adults.” Its common side effects are very much in keeping with the world the House Republicans have striven to build: nausea, apathy, constipation, fatigue, vertigo, sexual dysfunction, sweating, memory loss, and - and I swear I am not making this up - “electric shock-like sensations also called ‘brain zaps.’”
Its less common side effects are equally awesome in their appropriateness.
And when the Food And Drug Administration reviewed the ad copy that included the tagline, “The change you deserve,” it took issue with Wyeth Pharmaceuticals, which manufactures Effexor, saying that the company made “unsubstantiated superiority claims.” Sounds like the GOP have picked an ironically accurate tagline for their efforts!
Greenpeace is both marketer of ideas and media critic. The above video is a recent attack on Dove, parodying its “Onslaught” campaign to criticize Dove’s use of palm oil because it destroys rain forests. The Greenpeace version is pretty intense, although a bit manipulative. What do you think?
Now Greenpeace has a “StopGreenwashing” site that allows users to submit examples of “greenwash”– “Used to describe the act of misleading consumers regarding the environmental practices of a company or the environmental benefits of a product or service.” I applaud their effort but have a small (constructive) criticism of the project. You are asked to vote on greenwash videos, but there is no context given. You are supposed to automatically understand why the commercial is bad. Furthermore, the site offers no tools for reading ads. I hope that in the future Greenpeace will make the effort to incorporate media literacy tools into the site.
Technorati Tags: Greenpeace
Yes, marketers are really suffering. No one loves them anymore, boohoo. They really want to be your friend, and hang out with you out of the love in their hearts to be one with your pocketbook.
(Vis Adrants)
Not even the Enlightenment Card can make credit more authentic
AdAge stares at the marketing bellybutton asks the pertinent and obvious question of our time, Is marketing relevant anymore? Can it solve the paradox of trying to be authentic when its job is to be inauthentic? Rather than a zen paradox, this is more like fodder for Daily Show one-liners. Still, the fact they are asking the question at all marks an identity crisis that confirms my growing suspicion that advertising is becoming less and less the center of gravity of our universe.
Authenticity — Whatever That Means — Is Our Only Hope - Advertising Age - Small Agency Diary (you may have to register to read this article):
My point is that there are millions of consumers steadily gravitating towards these kinds of experiences and they are defining trends for many others. And there is no way the medium or the message can possibly make any kind of connection on its own without a deep understanding of what these people deem authentic. Of course the big fear of the ad industry is that maybe the medium and the message can’t even do it together. Maybe, as people crave ever-more authentic experiences advertising itself is simply not capable of being authentic. I don’t think so. People will always need help making choices. And they’ll always gravitate towards compelling ideas. But I do know one thing. This drive towards authenticity is just getting started. If advertising is going to have a future in it, then both the medium AND the message are going to have to pass one helluva a sniff test. And that’s a tall order. Because as 81% of Americans agree, there’s a lot going on out there that stinks.
Link to my related article:
The Authenticity Paradox and the Perils of Youth Marketing
A Community is Not a Demographic
I thought I was the only one astonished by the marketing of yogurt as a weight-loss product. With all that fat and sugar didn’t someone finally wonder, hmm, isn’t this a bit like ice cream?
Jodi Lipper and Cerina Vincent: Yogurt And Lies - Living on The Huffington Post:
For over 25 years, dairy companies have been advertising yogurt as a “diet food” and their campaign has totally worked. They have somehow convinced everyone that eating sugary, fruity cream can magically melt away the pounds, and yogurt is now a staple for many dieters. But even before Stonyfield started adding glass to their yogurt, we thought it was one of the worst fake diet foods on the planet. There are so many foods out there that are healthier, tastier and far more filling than a tiny cup of lactose. If you are a yogurt addict wanting to drop those last five pounds, here are some things to think about next time you’re in the dairy section.
Want a company Web site for nothing? Ad agency Modernista has come to the realization that hosting Web sites is unnecessary when you can distribute your content across the Web. Why not? Host your images at flickr, network with Facebook, put your company information on Wikipedia and make Google your home page. Conceptual, geeky, or just plain viral? You be the judge.
Not the most exciting production in the universe but worth taking a look if you want to know about cutting edge marketing tactics.
It used to be that hoaxing was the province of pranksters and artists. But now Burger King? WHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAA!!!! I suppose when Aqua Teen Hunger Force inadvertently hoaxed terrorism, the florescent light went off in the heads of a multitude of marketing geeks.
Hey, No Whopper on the Menu?! - WSJ.com:
The videotaped hoax was a twist on a market research technique called “deprivation research,” in which marketers measure how loyal consumers are to a brand or product by taking it away from them. The insight gained helps marketers design new marketing and ad ploys that will resonate better with consumers.
A range of marketers have tried the technique. Dunkin’ Brands’ Dunkin’ Donuts, for instance, two years ago forced a group of its customers to drink Starbucks coffee for a week instead. Verizon Wireless also tried it a year ago, getting a group of teens, at least half of them Verizon customers, to give up using cellphones — theirs or anyone else’s — for a weekend.
[Shocked Customer]
A shocked customer learns the Whopper has been taken off the menu.“It’s a great tool to understand what role a product plays in peoples lives,” says Lesley Bielby, chief strategy officer at Interpublic Group’s Hill, Holliday, Connors, Cosmopulos, who helped conduct the research for Dunkin’ Donuts and Verizon. Still, experts say it’s rare for the method to be used in actual consumer advertising.
Critics have said that Super Bowl ads are the capitalist equivalent of a Soviet May Day parade. So it was nice to see this contrarian view of the holiest of sacred cows (snip below).
PS I found the above video while searching YouTube for Super Bowl ads. I don’t know if it’s real, but I though it was pretty darned funny.
PPS Here is a link for the “best” Super Bowl ads.
From Advertising for Peanuts:
Super Bowl Ad Creative Brief:
Objective:
Make one of the funniest ads ever.Target:
Men ages 8-80, but not excluding women. Household income 14k - 900k. Whites, African Americans, Latinos and other. Basically every person in America.Considerations:
Most people will be drunk. Half of them will already be angry. Since this ad is appearing during the super bowl, everyone is expecting this ad to be the funniest ad ever, so don’t let them down. Lastly, if consumers don’t rate your ad in the top 5, you will be fired.Mandatories:
Economy is not so good, so keep it low budget.
Technorati Tags: Super Bowl, super bowl ads
YouTube - Broadcast Yourself.:
It’s about time to demand some R-E-S-P-E-C-T from your cleaning products so tell that broom “She’s Gone.” We know that you love to belt out those break up songs, especially while you’re cleaning. Put those talents on camera! Choose a song, grab your Swiffer and start filming now! Sing along, dance and show us your moves Swiffer!
You know the user generated media revolution has gone too far when Swiffer gets involved. Yes, Swiffer wants you to make a commercial for them (you could win $15,000– cheaper than an ad agency) because you love them so much you feel motivated to make a film. One thing I emphasize in media literacy workshops is the ridiculousness of feigned passion, be it in the ecstatic and orgasmic states people in the ad-generated world find themselves in, or a Shakira jingle declaring love for Pepsi. I have never in my life seen in a teen talent show a song or poem written for a product– a jilted lover, a betrayed friendship, a love for animals, yes. Products? No. OK, sometimes drugs, but products are most definitely out. And just to prove my point, last I checked there were only 2 videos posted. But… there are 121 subscribers. They can’t all be media critics, can they? Anyhow, one thing that I don’t think anyone gets concerning the user generated phenomena: people do it because they care. In the case of Swiffer, I can guess that most will care more about the opportunity to win $15,000 than some plastic hyper-broom. But the way the dollar is going these days, a broom is about all you’ll be able to buy with the prize money.
PS A note to ad copywriters: please stop the extraneous use of exclamation points. It does not make the product more fun, and it’s really annoying!
(Via AdRants)