Mediacology

The pith* theory of advertising.

* Pithing is when you stick a needle in the brain of a live frog. The goal is to scramble its brain in order to immobilize it for dissection while it is still alive. When applied to advertising a paradox or insult is used like a needle to confuse and conquer [...]

This is an interesting ad that blurs the lines between self-reflexivity, DIY and marketing. You can click each element and it explains why it’s there. I think it works because it offers to teach something you may not know, all the while offering a way to further your curiosity. I’ve noticed that a lot new [...]

I nice little feature on an inevitable corporate menace: Localwashing.
On Barnes & Noble (see graphic above):

Maybe you’ve heard of this cute little bookstore around the corner. It’s got a DIY-looking video blog with the tagline, “All bookselling is local.” Except when it isn’t.

(watch the videos in order)

Do you want to frak this car?

One of the key themes of Carolyn Merchant’s The Death of Nature is the loss of a cultural restraining ethic in our dominant global paradigm, one that limits “progress” and prohibits the over-exploitation of land. Up to the Renaissance it was commonly held in European [...]

Adorno said “writing poetry after Auschwitz is barbaric.” The updated version could have been, “marketing after 9/11 is uncivilized,” but alas, the American response to 9/11 was more advertising and to shop as much as possible (at least this was Bush’s command). But in some cases the dictum still stands; thus a major dustup over [...]

Bob Garfield, a columnist for AdAge, has long predicted the splitting at the seams between media and advertising. His new book, The Chaos Scenario, fleshes out what he’s been hammering at in his column. The above video gives a nice intro.
Here’s a link to the book’s Website.

One of the strategies of culture jamming is to “uncool” brands. Although I don’t believe that this tactic in and of itself is the be-all of environmental activism, I do like how Greenpeace is taking on sacred cows of consumer culture, such as Kleenex, and now Nike (and other sneaker companies).
I’m a little skeptical [...]

Diana Verde Nieto of Clownfish writes an interesting piece in AdAge about “sustainable marketing”– a double entendre because usually these kinds articles have to deal with how the profession survives the economy, as opposed to how does marketing become relevant in a world that demands sustainable behavior. I think she’s on the right track. [...]

Apologies for being part of Burger King’s viral campaign. I have been victimized once again by my own outrage. Anyhow, just to restate the obvious, who has more girth here?
Click here for more info about the offending ad.

The Future of Advertising, APA, 17/02/09
View more presentations from John v Willshire. (tags: communities social)

This slide show is definitely worth giving this presentation a whirl (press the green button to hear the narrative). It’s interesting how marketers and media theorists read the same books, but the difference is what people do with the information. In [...]

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I recently posted a fun video by Spike Jonez (here it is again) as a visual metaphor for the economy. Well, skaters like that video, and are pretty pissed that someone stole that idea. Me too! Ad rants reports.

Upon reading Ann Elizabeth Moore’s awesome polemic, Unmarketable, I’m tempted to create a new blog category, “clusterfrak.” This would be necessary for posts in which I feel compelled to document nefarious marketing practices that have infiltrated the counterculture, but in doing so am forced to give free publicity to the offender. What is one to [...]

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Though I’m a big supporter of Amnesty International, I find something a little troubling about this ad. Part of it is based on some resent criticism I’ve been reading about how NGOs tend to work outside the context of the societies they are functioning in, and can [...]

Burger King is becoming the Ann Coultor of marketers, which means that by reacting to their rediculous marketing strategies, we’re playing into their hands. But in the latest BK social atrocity can’t be missed only to remark on the problem of postirony, which is a sure sign of the end of marketing itself. The problem [...]

Transformer Generation
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Continuing with more cultural analysis from the perspective of marketers, we have this interesting take on the Gen Y narrative. To be honest, I’m now getting confused who is Gen Y and who are the Millennials. I guess that goes along with the theme of [...]

Not to be a bummer on this great inauguration day (can’t believe it’s happening), but in perfect postironic, postmodern harmony, a presidential slogan and soda marketing campaign mash-up perfectly. Is Pepsi cashing in on Obama? Consider article 1) Pepsi’s Refresh Everything, and article 2) Obama’s campaign site. Hmmm.

(images from Instapundit)

Pepsi: “Every generation refreshes the [...]

Leo Burnett– ad agency for Marlboro and the Army– take a hard look at the reality advertisers face with an interesting and unusually candor cultural analysis. Now, it must be strange times indeed when an ad agency serves cultural deconstruction to the masses, but as the clip indicates, the world the industry has normally been [...]

This should come as no surprise but marketers are taking a perfectly great public theater tactic and turning it into a advertising technique. In the above ad T-Mobile takes the idea of flash mobs and Improve Everywhere to turn them into a hokey displays of corporate performance art. Why is this a problem? Obviously everyone [...]

A short history of marketing from Michael Reissinger on Vimeo.

There is something a little ironic about this video. On the one hand it paints a pretty good picture of the transition from one to many to many to many media, and how that has created a problem for advertisers. But it implicitly assumes that people [...]

Is it my imagination or is the NYT increasingly becoming a media navel gazer by focusing more and more of its reporting on pop culture and other media? Anyhow, there was a nice little gem of an article as a result of this kind of coverage with a recent piece on the trend of artists [...]