Tuesday, December 14, 2010

The Human Santapede

2010’s trends on Twitter

I wish that sentiment was attached to this.

For example, while The Last Airbender was top trend I'm quite sure most of the conversation regarding the movie focused on how bad it was.

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Thursday, December 9, 2010

The 10 Most Innovative Viral Video Ads of 2010

Tis the season of year end lists and Mashable's up with a list of the 10 most viral ads of the year. 

The list includes two of my favorites, the Call of Duty spot: 

 

And of course the great Google work from the BBH team: 

See the full list here:

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Thursday, October 21, 2010

Advertising Fail: NYC Breastfeeding Campaign WTF??!!

I've seen this spot while watching my cheesetastic local morning news program (more on that later) and I find this so odd it defies logic.

A few points:

1. The woman lost 40lbs because she GAVE BIRTH 
2. The tone of this piece seems to almost be a farcical satire of weight loss ads but its totally un-ironic
3. Her hair is really bad
4. Who said yes to this? (It's probably some bureaucrat who saw nothing wrong with the spot and really assumed that women would identify with this)

Has anyone else seen these ads before?

What do you think?

And if anyone associated with this campaign happens to read this please let us know the thought process behind this. 

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Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Advertising Fail: Medal of Honor Hates Babies

Via @samijae and @michaelmiraflor

Unintentional, clearly, but still hilarious. 

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Monday, October 18, 2010

I Love my Hair: The Re-Mix

Throw the mic down. Walk away. 

This mash-up is brills. 

(Thanks Sammi for the heads up.)

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An early look at the worst movie of 2011

Seriously Nic Cage isn't even pretending to care anymore. 

Also is that the wonderful Katy Mixon that I see in the background slumming it in this movie?

(via Gawker) 

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Monday Morning Jam: Strafe - Set It Off

Get your week off to a good start. 

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Thursday, October 14, 2010

Sesame Street FTW: "I love my hair"

Love this video. 

So adorable plus have you ever seen a Muppet with cornrows before? 

I think not.

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Monday, October 11, 2010

Grover takes on Old Spice

Sesame Street is at it again with the spoofs. 

Now Grover is doing his take on the Old Spice spots. 

Anyone else uncomfortable with the sight of Grover in a towel? He is normally naked but the addition of clothing actually makes things saucier. 

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Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Headline of the Day: Brazilians Elect Actual Clown to Congress

Sorry Brazil. 

Via Gawker:

"Tiririca, a former circus worker, clown, and popular television personality, campaigned on the slogan "It can't get any worse." In the ad above, he asks people to vote for him so he can help "the needy," like his family, and then says, "If you don't vote for me, I'll die!""

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Major Lazer is at it again

I find it fascinating how they have managed to cross pollinate Dance Hall and hipster culture. 

No daggering in this one though (I don't know if that's is a good or bad thing) 

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Thursday, September 23, 2010

Sesame Street parodies True Blood with "True Mud"

I think the muppet waitress trumps Anna Paquin in terms of a believe southern accent. 

(via @Vulture) 

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Wednesday, September 1, 2010

Know Your Six Types Of Obnoxious Yelpers

Here is my favorite quote:

"The cookie was decent in a sort of joyless crumbly kind of way" 

Right.

Read more @Jezebel

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Friday, August 20, 2010

Hot Sh*t of the Day: New Cee-Lo Green

Headphones up if listening at work or around kids. 

Love me some Cee-Lo

(via @vulture) 

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Thursday, August 19, 2010

The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of Facebook Places

Last night Facebook launched “Places” a platform that allows users to check-in in real time to their location via mobile device.


This announcement has journalists, techies, marketers and consumers in a tizzy today trying to sort out the implications of how Facebook Places will change the world of social media.


Here are my initial thoughts on The Good, The Bad and The Ugly of Facebook Places just a few hours after the launch. (Do you like that caveat that I just built in since I could totally change my mind about it 3 months from now?)



The Good

Foursquare has been the leader in location based social networking, however the primary Foursquare user base is relatively small (2MM registered users) and  largely limited to urban based early adopters. However, the sheer size and diversity of Facebook users presents a whole new world of opportunities for marketers to reach consumers though location based technology .


For a simple example of how this could eventually develop, lets envision the grocery shopping experience for someone like my Mom (j/k my mom doesn’t even know how to text but let’s pretend that she is tech savvy).


She goes to her local supermarket and checks-in via Facebook Places. Instead of having to pick up the super market circular, ShopRite sends her push communications about this week’s special offers. Also because her phone knows that she is in a supermarket, Facebook serves ads that are manufactures coupons for Cheerios and Ragu.  She is also a member of ShopRite’s loyalty program so when she is paying at the register, she also gets an additional 100 rewards points just for her Facebook Places check-in.



The Bad

One word – Privacy.  One of the features of Places that kind of creeps me out is that it allows consumers to check-in their friends without their permission. Now you can obviously update your settings as needed, and I understand why they created this feature based on the popularity of Facebook photo tagging, but this kind of bugs me.

First off there are a series of steps needed to deactivate this feature and most people are too lazy or some just don’t understand how to do it. There should just be one big button that says something along the lines of ‘DO NOT WANT.’

Secondly, I want to be able to control when and where I check-in. I don’t want the world knowing that I actually paid to go see “Eat, Pray, Love” with my best friend and theater full of middle-aged ladies. I have a reputation to maintain. I imagine the inadvertent check-in could cause a lot of problems in the future.


This is not to say that I am against location based social networking. I have a Foursquare account (that I use whenever I can remember ) but my Foursquare friends are different from my Facebook friends and that is for a reason.  I don’t necessarily want all my Facebook friends to know what I am up to.  A great addition would be for Facebook to let you manually select the list of people that your check-ins are broadcasted to, similarly to the way your limited profile works.



The Ugly

Whenever Facebook makes a fundamental change to their platform you can always expect a wave a complaints and people threatening to leave the platform en masse. The launch of Places is guaranteed to incite this as well as it brings your digital presences and your real world presences even that much closer and the erosion of the barrier between the two is guaranteed to make folks nervous. If nothing else it will force me to only become Facebook friends with people that are actually friends.  

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Hot Sh*t of the Day: Lemon Andersen & Rik Cordero’s “Welcome To The Imperial”

PSFK The Future of Retail

This is a bit old but I am just seeing this. 

A good read. 

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Friday, August 6, 2010

Horrifying Movie Poster of the Day

As if the idea of a live action Yogi Bear movie weren't terrifying enough, the new poster really takes things to a new level. 

...And the obligatory Pedo Bear mashup  (via http://thedailywh.at/)


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Wednesday, August 4, 2010

Kenny Powers for K-Swiss: Fake Celeb Spokesperson for a real product

This may not convince me to buy K-Swiss but on the upside people are talking about K-Swiss for the first time since maybe 1994.

I like this spot and the Funny or Die quasi "behind-the scenes" piece that came out last week. 

This is another good example of brands taking risks and realizing that online video can go beyond putting a 30 second spot on YouTube or some forced "viral" video. 

P.S. I can't wait for the return of "Eastbound and Down" 

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Reddit Question of the Day

Saturday, July 31, 2010

Escape to Long Island

Taking a much needed escape from the city and embarking on a mini tour of vineyards. Anyone have recommendations?

Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

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Friday, July 30, 2010

Honda uses Bangs in their new campaign

He's gonna take u to da movies in a Honda. 

For those who don't know here is the original (and still hilarious) Bangs video:

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Friday, July 16, 2010

A few thoughts on Old Spice

I won't go into too much detail on campaign specifics as they have been written about extensively over the past week, but I did want to share what I think is a less obvious, but still huge, success of the campaign--the fact that P&G was willing to let Wieden+Kennedy just take their idea and run with it. 

These videos were being produced real time with no client intervention or laborious approval process. (Read Write Wed has full details on how it was done http://bit.ly/9VMyk8)

Props to W+K for convincing  P&G to let you do a digital campaign at a digital pace and good for P&G for actually trusting your agency to do good, innovative work while maintaining your interests. 

Fingers crossed for agency folk that we can use this an an example for clients to demonstrate how having a little trust can reap huge rewards (just don't do anything to screw it up.)

P.S.- Seriously how cute is Isaiah Mustafa and how cool is it that an old timey product like Old Spice lets a black dude serve as the face of their brand? 

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Monday, July 12, 2010

Everything you need to know about season 3 of True Blood

There is a Neo-Nazi werewolf named Cooter who is addicted to vampire blood.


Thanks Alan Ball. 


 

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Happy Monday and You're Welcome

Guaranteed to put a smile on your face this Monday morning....

via The Daily What

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Friday, July 2, 2010

Baastan Red Saax

Kicking off the 4th of July weekend with my first baseball game. Amazing weather. The Red Sox fans aren't unbearable...yet....
Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

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Thursday, July 1, 2010

I Guess Kid's Make You Drink

Watching videos of cute kids  on Babelgum (don't ask) and the pre-roll is a Stoli ad featuring Hugh Hefner. 

Is Babelgum subtly suggesting some type of coping mechanism? Very Betty Draper. 

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Wednesday, June 30, 2010

Thursday, June 3, 2010

RIP to the Original (and still the best) Slutty Old Lady

Actress Rue McClanahan pass away this morning of a stroke.

She was best known for her role as  Blanche Devereaux on The Golden Girls.

Not gonna lie I’m most like Dorothy, but Blanche was my favorite Golden Girl because while I didn’t get all the jokes as a kid I knew she was up to no good and having a great time doing it.

Samantha Jones only wishes she had this much class and seductive appeal. 

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Thursday, May 27, 2010

Infographic: International Number Ones

Things I learned from Sex and the City 2

 I really did love the series. It was a thoughtful, inspirational, guilty pleasure.

However the films make me CRINGE.

My biggest problem is not the over-the-top, unrelatable, impracticality of the plot (I am a woman who loves True Blood. Tacky doesn’t bother me). My source frustration is that the characters refuse to freaking grow up.

  • Carrie has everything she ever wanted and still complains
  • Samantha’s whole horny routine is LAME. Her over the top behavior seems weird and desperate. 
  • Charlotte is still whining all the time.
  • Miranda is the only one with a lick of sense.

Any who, I won’t go into a full blown rant, but here a list of some of the things I learned from the film.

Don’t worry, there are no spoilers because there is barely a plot.

  1. Liza (with a Z!!!) Minnelli is shockingly sprightly and light on her feet. Home girl may not be able to sing very well anymore but she can still move.

  1. Gay dream wedding = Rogers and Hammerstein musical set (I gues???)

  1. The characters in SATC live at an income level that make them no longer relatable to 99% of the population. In the series the women were clearly well-off but there were aspects of their lives that you could identify with—the women rented their apartments, Carrie had no savings, they took taxis. In the film this is not the case at all. These women are multi-millionaires who live absurd lifestyles. Carrie’s biggest problem is that she doesn’t want to spend time in her multi-million dollar apartment on the Upper East Side. Charlotte doesn’t like the Help.

  1. Actors can  get top billing in a film for 2 minutes of work (I’m looking at you Penelope Cruz)

  1. SJP’s does a lot of arm reps.

  1. Pat Fields is punking us all. Seriously those outfits??

  1. There is no limit to the number of bad puns that can be wedged in to a script.

  1. Muslims are soooo weird and repressed. I mean come on,  they are offended by a woman giving a man a hand job at the dinner table in FULL view of everyone else. I mean seriously waaay to be uptight. Right? Right?

  1. As the characters get more ridiculous, Miranda has evolved from the uptight one  to the most likeable and reasonable of the bunch. She also has some of the best outfits –the dress she wore to the wedding was awesome.

  1. Bad behavior is rewarded with big jewelry.

  1. It’s completely reasonable to wear couture to do housework.

  1. Carrie’s upper torso must be horribly bruised from constantly sleeping in under wire bras.

  1. Women are so desperate for entertainment options that speak to us that we have tricked ourselves into thinking these films are good and our blind enthusiasm for this kind of fluff demeans us (much like black people demeaning ourselves by going to see shit like Soul Plane).


P.S. : On the positive side, while the characters are absurd, I have to give props to the women who play these roles for being willing to age naturally. You can see every line on their faces but that does not distract from their beauty. (take note art department who turned them into photoshop horrors)

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Non-news: Bill O'Reilly still an ass

Thursday, May 20, 2010

Clear line in the turf battle: Tourists vs. New Yorkers

Odd collection of self serve ads

I recently checked my Facebook profile and was served up the most random collection of self serve ads.

None of these services are interesting or relevant to me (seriously a dance class with Maskim?) and I was actually slightly offend that this is what my generic interests lead their algorithm to assume that I am interested in. 

Am I being a bit of a snob, yes, but since our Facebook profiles are supposed to be authentic representations of ourselves does this mean that at some level I categorized with discount seeking, pregnant, Dancing with the Stars fans?

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Separated at birth?: Hurley and Junior Gorg

Friday, May 14, 2010

Bros Icing Bros

I can't tell if this is really clever marketing or some niche trend.

Either way, it explains why you can't find Smirnoff  Ice in Murray Hill anymore. 

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Website of the Day: Talk like Stefan

Thursday, May 13, 2010

Job Seekers get more clever: The Google Job Experiment

The Wall Street Journal on Af-Am Hair vs. Dominican Hair Salons

Image via The Wall Street Journal

Slow news day,  I guess.

"Armed with a blow dryer and brush, deft wrist action and shrewd promotional tactics, immigrants from the Dominican Republic are snipping away market share from African-American stylists whose mastery of black women's hair ensured for generations that their customers wouldn't, or couldn't, leave them. Promises of seemingly healthier hair, swifter service and far lower prices are wooing away a growing number of black women."

This article is totally meh for me. 

It's not deep enough for those who are unfamiliar with these salons to really understand the racial and economic politics involved 

For those who are familiar with the salons the article does not provide anything new. 

For those who have read it, any thoughts?

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Wisdom from the mouth of babes

I have been on the fence regarding precocious fashion blogger Tavi.

For those of you unfamiliar with her, she is a 14 year old fashion blogger whose wise beyond her years analysis has made her the talk of the industry.

I've been a bit reticent to get behind her because I refuse to believe that a child of her age could actually produce that level of insight,  but this quote that she recently gave about creepy photog Terry Richardson sold me on her.

Word Tavi.

(via @jezebel)

Read Tavi's blog at http://www.thestylerookie.com/

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Monday, May 10, 2010

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

It's My Birthday Ya'll

Tons of meetings today but I am very thankful for all the love from friends and family. 

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Monday, April 19, 2010

Thought of the Day

Our humanity makes us both lovable and loathsome. On this Monday morning, what end of the spectrum are you on? 

(After my cup of coffee this morning I'm edging more towards the lovable end of things.)

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Sunday, April 18, 2010

Great DC Weekend

Shockingly I have never visited the National Mall. As jaded as I may be it's moving to see these American symbols in person. Thanks to my sisters for a wonderful weekend. Sent via BlackBerry from T-Mobile

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Wednesday, March 31, 2010

I'M MOVING!!

http://thisismyrelaxedexpression.posterous.com/

Moving to Posterous.

Easier to update.

Sorry Google.

Thursday, February 4, 2010

Twitter is for the Olds

A new study is making its way around the interwebs today discussing the use of Social Media among young adults.

One key finding is:

8% of internet users ages 12-17 use Twitter. This makes Twitter as common among teens as visiting a virtual world, and far less common than sending or receiving text messages as 66% of teens do, or going online for news and political information, done by 62% of online teens.

I have discussed my concerns regarding Twitter before, and within the last year my views haven’t changed substantially.

Although Twitter gets a ton of media buzz, its usage isn’t comparable to the attention it generates and uniques to Twitter are actually down 24% compared with its peak in July. (Source)

Couple this decrease in traffic with the fact that kids don’t think Twitter is cool, (Face it, what kids think is cool rules our lives people! Would the world know about Miley Cyrus if not for 14 year old girls?) and I have to wonder about the direction the platform will take.

From a marketing perspective, Twitter has some problems as well. Last night I attended the SUXORZ -Worst Social Media Campaign Awards and the unanimous winner (or maybe loser) was the misuse of dynamic Twitter feeds for marketing campaigns.



#FAIL.



In an effort to not just be a sayer of nay, here are some of my thoughts as to where I see Twitter going.




  • In 2010 Twitter will see a slight resurgence but never reach the level of success of Facebook or MySpace.
  • We will change our perception of Twitter as a mass platform and see it as a more niche, specialized social channel (i.e. LinkedIn, Polyvore, and Flickr).
  • I think the biggest opportunity for a Twitter win lies with the news media. We’ve see that Twitter gets a boost surrounding breaking news events. Smart media companies will get better at leveraging the platform to promote their news content. CNN is doing a great job at this, but I would like to see correspondents on the ground using the platform to share breaking news updates and images, while always linking back to the deeper analysis on their main site.