Media Mindfulness

An example of Mexicans playing with Poly Identity
I feel bad for advertisers (OK, not really) because I often here industry pundits complain that the media audiences are too scattered, and have too much ADD to focus on their messages. Too bad, I’m crying crocodile tears. You see, part of the problem concerning people’s inability […]

A study that examines the monetization of relationships. Who’s your best bud now? Nike or Johnny?
Advertising Age - Digital - What’s Making ‘Friends’ With a MySpace User Worth?:
“It’s when I take the brand, put it on my profile page and then all the people would develop a deeper meaning for what Adidas stands for […]

One things I miss about the good ol’ days of modernity is the massive output of manifestos that artists and activists churned out to contest the prevailing ideas of their world. With names like Futurists, Surrealists, and Bauhaus, people seemed to care a lot about having clear and strong opinions. With the advent of the […]

I hope this is one Japanese trend that doesn’t catch on.
Advertising Age - Martin Lindstrom Video Reports:
TOKYO (BRANDFlash) — Kidzania, a theme park offering intense brand engagement with young children, is a new twist on branded entertainment. It charges a $30 admission fee to allow children to “work” in one of 70 different kinds of […]

USA writes about an interesting new youth media phenomenon: age compression. The article states:
Jill Brown almost cried the day her 9-year-old daughter sold several American Girl dolls at a yard sale so she could buy a Juicy Couture sweat suit.
It was a painful reminder that the emotional and psychological distance between childhood and the teen […]

Advertising Age - Caught in the Clutter Crossfire: Your Brand:
NEW YORK (AdAge.com) — Somewhere between 254 and 5,000 is a number that represents just how many commercial messages an average consumer gets each day. Attempts to beat clutter only end up yielding more of it, a bitter irony bound to have dire consequences for a […]

Ciao! I though I’d alert all the readers out there that I have a new article posted on Understanding Media about the issue of “authenticity” and youth marketing. The site also has a short interview that explains a little bit about where my perspective comes from. Here’s a snip:
Understand Media -> Articles -> The […]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-WT-jCanvFE

A clever marketing trick: make a commercial from a fictional product in your book that is unusual, strange and sexy. Add YouTube and the blogosphere, mix and you have a meme. Additionally the Web tie-in is similar to what the ABC series Lost has done with its show by constructing a parallel universe on the […]

I agree and disagree with the criticism of Buy Less Crap. On the one hand I don’t believe we can shop our way out of social and ecological problems. On the other, corporations are the most powerful force on the planet (besides people and nature), so why not change our patterns to force corporations into […]

The critique of advertising has been that marketers have no stories to tell, but everything to sell. Clearly the industry sees it differently. And I agree. Even an ad is a story, but usually it’s about the assumptions of our commodities system, and not necessarily one that enriches our spiritual lives. The following story marks […]

I heard in a talk by TV critic Jerry Mander that 25% of American kids have TVs in their rooms with cribs. Now this.
WP: TV’s diaper demographic - washingtonpost.com Highlights - MSNBC.com:
‘We don’t know the effects’
While almost all marketers of baby media promote their products as beneficial to a baby’s development, little is known […]

It is a little troubling when marketers are more interested in student work than schools themselves.
Advertising Age - Digital - Want to Build a Hipper Brand? Take a Trip to Trend School:
Real school was never this cool.
Aaron aired an art film and talked up his favorite Jordan sneakers and Nike ACG jacket. Jennie unwrapped a […]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qCKwPobh1EA

Klaxoncow’s comment posted on the above YouTube video:
You’re clearly not a bomb expert.
Just to clue you in: Bombs are traditionally not covered in LEDs which trace out the shape of a cartoon moon person giving you the middle finger.
Generally, as terrorists don’t want their bomb plots foiled, they tend not to decorate their bombs in […]

Once again we encounter the befuddled world of marketing in which the sales pitch gets misconstrued as terrorism. Is this what culture jamming was meant to be? Read on…
Boston devices a cartoon publicity ploy - Yahoo! News:
BOSTON - Several illuminated electronic devices planted at bridges and other spots in Boston threw a scare into the […]

Boing Boing: A Directory of Wonderful Things:
Neuroscientists report that they can use brain scans to predict whether someone looking at a product will actually buy it or not. Dr. Brian Knuston and his colleagues at Stanford University put images of 40 objects in front of 26 subjects undergoing brain fMRIs. By analyzing which parts of […]

“Digital Destiny: New Media and the Future of Democracy” (Jeff Chester)
I’ve mentioned Jeff Chester before. He has done remarkable work on the issue of media mergers and mass marketing. His darkest views focus on the “brandwashing” of America, but he also has innovative ideas for a progressive media, which are highlighted in the following Alternet […]

You can thank the media literacy movement for this:
Advertising Age - FTC, HHS Call for Strict Standards in Children’s Food Marketing:

Two government agencies are calling on advertisers to market only healthier food products to children in the continuing clampdown on children’s obesity.

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