Citizen's Arrest on Advertising

Things keep living. That means media too. Messages take on their own meaning once people recognize and respond to content.

Well what happens to what's delivering your message? The speakerphone, the portal or speaker?

Meet the Public Ad Campaign.

Their mission "
OUR MISSION

Public Ad Campaign acts on the assumption that public space and the public's interaction with that space is a vital component of our city's health. By visually altering and physically interacting with the public environment, residents become psychologically invested in their community.

Outdoor advertising is the primary obstacle to open public communications. By commodifying public space, outdoor advertising has monopolized the surfaces that shape our shared space. Private property laws protect the communications made by outdoor advertising while systematically preventing public usage of that space.

In an effort to illuminate these issues, Public Ad Campaign chronicles the activities of artists intent on challenging these relationships, as well as other contemporary issues in outdoor advertising and public space.

Through bold acts of civil disobedience we hope to air our grievances in the court of public opinion and witness our communities regain control of the space they occupy."

Pretty interesting, but nothing novel. Culture jammers have been around for decades.


Brain Rafferty of the site's blog says it best.

"One man’s vandalism is another’s political art. Just ask Poster Boy, the Matisse of subway-ad mash-ups."


Beautiful stuff. I appreciate someone taking a media and giving it a gust of wind. No matter the direction. Check out the site's maestros here


Ojo

Read more...

Levels of Conversations- Twitter Addiction

So ive been absent on here, as ive fallen completely head over heels into the world of twitter. Its a different scope of communication, but one that has superseded this blog (sorry). Twitter is a more instantaneous, rapid way of conversing. Much of what prevents me from posting on here is the actual time to collect and organize my thoughts. Lame to say but tougher than one might think after a full day of doing so.

Twitter is a more instant brain dump so of course im taking the easier way out and migrating there. This year for the superbowl, more folks were conversing on twitter vs live-blogging bc/ its more conversational. That was really my original aim for starting my blog. Dont worry, still lots of goodie content to come on LF but you can reach me in my day-to-day mode there.

Follow Me

Read more...

Microsoft's Vision of the Future

<a href="http://video.msn.com/?mkt=en-GB&amp;playlist=videoByUuids:uuids:a517b260-bb6b-48b9-87ac-8e2743a28ec5&amp;showPlaylist=true&amp;from=shared" target="_new" title="Future Vision Montage">Video: Future Vision Montage</a>

Sometimes to create the future you need to take a mental leap and work backwards. This highly edited and slick production from Microsoft gives us some hope that the software giant is well-suited to lead us to a grander place.

IstartedSomething

Read more...

Disruption - Creating Relevant Conversations

In the era of Quick N Easy Content, a few interesting things are happening. One is that a voice can come from anywhere. Another is that any voice can be relevant. Voices can create relevancy, by opening a dialogue or striking the right chord in a present conversation. In a traditional media world, much of the conversation was out of the consumers hands. These days people contribute where they see fit. And i think we are all benefiting.

A new PSA directed by acclaimed filmmakers Joel and Ethan Coen for ThisIsReality.org, was created with the aim of debunking "clean coal" industry propaganda. It was produced in partnership with Al Gore’s Alliance for Climate Protection. Clean Coal is one of the biggest misnomers out there. Its also a huge opportunity for us to shut down CC, and move onto Nuclear or sustainable power sources. Yet lobbyists have had such an impact, you will find mentions of clean coal in the last few decades of the President's state of the union address. Nice to see those with the clout and ability to make a conversation relevant like the Cohen's contribute in the right way.


BoingBoing

Read more...

Power Brands Change Culture

Nintendo creates better humans than the real thing?

In Japan, apprently so in Kanagawa. Nintendo means so much to culture it creates it. Its content is more relevant to everyone than on a recognition level than they might be. Kinda scary but thats what can happen when media brands are a lifestyle.

Kanagawa

Read more...

Wikipedia Band Names - A Social Viral observation

So everywhere i go i hear about the social virtues of media and how cool it is to do viral work. Personally i hate the term viral. Its beyond contrived, its just a bad misnomer. Its not some replication bit we cant control, its something humans pass onto each other. Sort like being social....Humans are social, media isnt.

Lesson done. I saw this funny social experiment on Buzzfeed. It states a rather humorous and interesting method to create a new band name and create an album cover.

Go to “Wikipedia.” Hit “random” and the first article you get is the name of your band. Then go to “Random Quotations” and the last four or five words of the very last quote of the page is the title of your first album. Then, go to Flickr and click on “Explore the Last Seven Days” and the third picture, no matter what it is, will be your album cover.

Gwyther Irwin was my name, pretty badass no doubt. Ive always had a thing for the origin of band names, and while this takes the symbolics out of it, it adds some much needed hilarity.

NameYourBand

Read more...

My New Favorite Site: The Dieline

ive really been getting excited about packaging lately. Maybe its because i have been working on CPG goods more so lately, but part of it could be a rise in my consciousness towards product lifecycle and waste.

There arent many good aggregrate sites or that approach packaging with a non-industrial perspective. These guys really know what they are talking about, and have a modern sensibility and practicality to their descriptive approaches. Check out these gorgeous pack shots.



TheDieline

Read more...

iPhone's Impact on the Election

Finally a free moment!

Time to get back to expressing my curiosity through this blog too!

As i watched the world react to the historic election last night, I couldn't help but think about the impact on the iPhone on our daily coverage. You know the election.

Some have been in play for months, but everyone is touting this touchscreen business on their analysis.

Clearly an influence of the iphone? Do we really need this new interface, when its someone behind the screens pulling it up in most of the cases anyways? Or is it a sign of the times and our orientation towards visual user interfaces?

Either way it looks like they are playing with a giant iphone to me

score one for jobs...

Read more...

Rob Walker's "Buying In" Review

Ok time to stop stalling about writing my review and get this off the shelf, especially since likemind gave out copies this morning.

Rob Walker of Murketing and the New York Times Magazine has taken his murketing theories and created a magnificent lens onto the perpetual roles of consumption and consumerism in America. Walker has an astonishing array of sources and background stories, each meticulously researched and hand picked for advancing an tactful ideology about brands, products and our behaviors

Ive always loved Rob's attention to tap the pulse of relevancy in terms of brands and cultural mavens, and this book is no slouch. From the humble beginnings of Red Bull and Ecko, he charts a path from idea to success, and you feel the optimism bristling quite like the entrepreneurs had themselves. Other brands include Hello Kitty, PBR, Tylenol, Axe, Scion and the Hundreds amongst many, many others. Each brand lends a building and steadying sense of credibility to a carefree consumption it seems that Americans, in particular enjoy engaging in.

Having heard Rob speak and read many of his articles, I can say this book in quite an extension of his murketing theories. In fact its the perfect culimination and forum to extend those thoughts, which often felt confined by the medium it appeared in every week. Walker has an incredible ability to break down how brands engage consumers, rather it be ambiguity, hyper-advocates, misnomers about perceptions, internal badge value, and commercialization of chitchat amongst others.

Walker believes we actually have a "good problem" on our hands where any product is pretty much a commodity and can be replicated cheaply, easily and found almost anywhere. This places the emphasis on the engagement and value placed by the consumer to the forefront of the consumption cycle. Most often consumers are buying products for the wrong reasons. We arent necessarily buying food for nutritional value but for taste instead. Examining it in that light, really puts the beauty in the eye of the beholder, a value we create for ourselves. Walker pulls in some fancy psychologists to explain this on a more scientific level, but it certainly sticks by that point.

It certainly leaves you with a new appreciation for products and for markets. It left me looking deeper into the actual and perceived value of objects. Its a fantastic read for anyone engaged in brands and looking for a deeper meaning to the role we play in influencing and creating behavior. Pick yours up today at your local bookstore or here.

[Ed. Note] Rob was kind enough to link my review to his site, though im sure it will get bumped when somone has something more eloquent. Thanks Rob!

Read more...

New Reading: Buying In by Rob Walker

Today I received a really nice gift. An advance copy of Rob Walker's "Buying In", his latest book which explores the intersections of consumerism and identity. I have literally dipped my toes into the prologue, but it looks fantastic. For those of you living under a rock, Rob curates the insightful Murketing and writes for the New York Times Magazine. Will put a review up once i get through it.

Read more...

Living the ALife

InquiringMind Magazine has a behind the scenes peek at one of the original NYC streetbrands, ALIFE. ALife has been a truly original brand, establishing itself through mainly footwear and growing the brand to a global conglomerate. Their followers are nothing short of rabid, as I can attest to standing for almost 3 hours with 60+ folks for a red/flourescent green t-shirt down on Rivington. InquiringMind has an extremely candid and open conversation with its founders, Rob, Arnaud & Matt. They let loose on their creative backgrounds in graffiti, professional deathshifts of business and advertising, and how their love of brands developed into Alife. The guys take the time to discuss their thoughts on the overplayed art/street movement, which brands can step to them, who else could do a worthy collabo with Levi's. Hint: Ego plays a big role in this discussion. With that being said, its great to see the mindset and motivations of major streetwear players. They even give us a hint of where the scene might go next. All you kids thinking of creating the next big hit, take a read and see what you are up against. It might make you think twice.

ALifestyleLikeNoOther

Read more...

The Watch

Im coming to the slow realization that my occupation allows for little time to blog...or anything else for that matter. So i will have to cede any thoughts of my own for some from other sources. A few things of interest on the intranets for your inspiration.

Magnetic Pushpin Cushin - Seems to turn magnets and pushpins on a sphere. Fix them to any surface and leave messages to your hearts content.

The future of web tech? - Seems Google may almost be dead in its tracks if new semantic web searches come to fruition. Semantics embed information in practically everything to make greater associations simpler and faster. Think Mash-ups without having to create some weird program...

Best of Lifehacker - Organize your life to actually be productive for once.

PSFK Conference - Will be in attendance with a co-worker. Anyone fancy a hello? Lineup looks good as always.

Krups Heineken Review - This is the future ladies and gents! Personalized brews and drinks in your own home. Probably will be one size fits all machine for coffee to soda to Gatorade. Dear Heineken, please send me one!

Facebook matches blood donors - Finally something worthy for social networking.

Apple's Design Process - Some insight into the process Apple's creators go through for new product concepts. HA! I know a company that does twice as many...

Japanese Schoolgirl Watch - Weird but futuristically advanced. The chart topping voice is synthesized yet grabs the kids like idol. Who knew Britney would be replaced by a robot?

Lenticular Clouds - Via Designverb - Cant forget mother nature can we? I sure do miss her in this jungle. These are just awesome.

Read more...

Ebb and Flow - Box Office Receipts

I had no idea how fluid the box office is. You could have shown me numbers out the wazoo, but sometimes you need a little visual comm to put it all in perspective. The NYtimes gives us the impact of movies from 1986-2007, based on amount of money earned (height) and length of time (width). Imagine if ad campaigns could get this kind of life out of their ideas? Also a great lens on the mood of the american consumer.

EbbnFlow

Read more...

Sum of the Parts - Lenovox300

Gizmodo has a cool "innerds" shot of a Lenovo laptop. Love seeing what makes things tick and tock. Surprisingly less than you would assume to be capable of so much. Businessweek has a par-ish article on the struggle to create a contender. I find the picture worth a thousand words.
LaptopRace

Read more...

Loss of Storytelling - SuperBowl Ads

Wow...how late is this. Can you tell how much work i have going on? Thought i would weigh in better late than never

This year's Super Bowl was quite thrilling. Depending on where you come from, you were either ecstatic or distraught like half of my house. As always the Super Bowl is the showcase for the best ads of the year, or so the non-ad folks think. Heck there are even sites dedicated to it solely now.

Sadly though the ads have gone downhill since they started generating buzz, something indicative of ads in general these days. While Apple's 1984 set the bar high for ads, we have only watched their demise as the buzz has grown. Remember GoDaddy anyone? Still somewhat shameless and not doing anything to help themselves. Heck even the hamsters from cannon's dot.com era were funny, but lost in today's world. Were this year's any better?

Here is what we got:

Offensive Asian stereotyping

Dancing Lizards- Is this a soda ad or a new children's animated movie? The smoky, fiery farts are a bit much..

Toyota- Making no sense (for a change) with cannon's and badgers. A quiet ride sells a car?

CareerBuilder's downfall (those monkey's really portrayed the office better than we thought)

The usual BudLight schtick - funny but still vapid and lacking a sticking point. Ok so its a commodity, at least acknowledge the cheapness of it

Fedex- Giant pigeons. Possibly the best of the day, the most lasting certainly

T-Moible: Charles yapping, pretty funny if you follow him on TNT. This was one of the better ones...

Really what i saw out of this was....

Loss of storytellers, for lack of a better term.

Nothing that sticks, its all about splashes, but these days we are almost immune to advertising. We automatically click the pop-up off the screen or start talking when a commercial comes on. There is little to no added value coming from the spots next to a laugh and that creates little connection, functional or emotional. The rules of engagement have changed and no one seems to acknowledge it...My how the 30second looked so dinosaurish...

Surprisingly the movie trailers kept my attention the most, maybe thats because they were trying to tell a story

*Note: Will Ferrell knows how to tell a story and establish a character just by acting goofy so maybe he wins by default



See how they ranked

SuperLame

Read more...

Van's Finger Fracture

All hail Advergaming. Vans has created a nifty videogame for the iphone that is part advertising, part casual game, and all smart. Decorate your rider with real-life Van's Models. Participate in a worldwide leader board. It implements a touch screen to do tricks, think of the mini finger boards 2.0. Which makes for intuitive control. Great use of media here. Rumor has it, its from a Miami Ad School Grad. All you early adopting Mac-heads pick this one up.
KickFlip Fakie

Read more...

The Behavior of Infrastructure

I used to be fascinated with process and i would continually reread this book by David Macaulay called The Way Things Work. I found it completely engrossing as he used clever drawings to illustrate the components, physics and behavior behind some of man's best and most common creations. Of how i love books that put the parts in the process! I think all strategically-oriented folks share some type of passion for the the how behind the what.

This holiday season I was lucky enough to find this book under my tree. I was also blessed with the first time in ages to be able to read something not work related.

The Works by Kate Ascher, is a magnificent book about the infrastructure of an urban environment, using my current home of New York City as a canvas. Kate has a deceptively simple illustration style which deep dives on the inner structures and workings of a city on a massive scale. She weaves graphics, and facts between mountains of data and topics we take for granted. From tracing the city's drinking water path to the number of riders on the subway at key times to the amount of manpower and scope to regulating trash or paving streets, Ascher brings a metropolis to life.

Being a strategist i found the book an incredible lens on the behavior of consumers. Why do people live in certani places, or eat certain types of things, or how those water tanks really increase the quality of a consumer's life. Whats equally credible is the evolution of infrastructure due to population and behavioral changes such as widening streets, or how waste was once divided by trash, recyclable and organic waste in the 1800s. As my sister said, its city planning in an easy how-to guide, but for me, its a wealth of knowledge that provides insight to the "what" in now predominant lifestyle of metropolis living.

I cant but help to only imagine in how our infrastructure will evolve now that we are all wireless and using information rather than horses and carts. Goodbye Interstates and hello internetstates. This book helped me visualize different types of micro-economies that are just beginning to emerge. It also helped me to dimensionalize key consumer behaviors from traveling to work to brushing your teeth. How often do we look at problems only within the context of the problem? Maybe the problem with the work commute isnt the shitty tires on the car, but really the lack of available public transportation? This book examines problems and solutions on a grand vista, always keeping the core problem within its sights as it scales outward.

This book is highly recommended for all those with a curiosity of why things are the way they are and what lies beneath the surface.


HowThingsWork

Read more...

Buckley's Awful Campaign

Many of you may not have heard of a cough syrup called Buckley's. The brand is well known for being quite effective, yet tasting terrible. Absolutely no innovation has been done since its creation and the Canadian product is pushing into the U.S. with an interesting, yet honestly brilliant campaign. While on espn, i saw a redirect to the myspace page where they are promoting consumers to contribute exactly how awful it tastes with their best after-consumption shots. There is also a battle of "Buckley" faces between towns in Illinois and Washington.

Brilliant not for getting consumers involved nor creating contests between towns nor letting people be 'friends' with Buckleys. Brilliant for acknowledging that the product, tastes like crap and using the natural human behaviorial response as the platform. If more brands would acknowledge where they sit in consumer's minds and hearts, the world would be a better place. Awfully good ad eh?

Ewww

Read more...

One Day In America

Ok so I have that quite strange and amorous relationship with all things data. Time Magazine has a great slice of life in America by looking at what we do in an average day. Yes, all of us. Called One Day in America, it aims to find out just how average we are.

Absolultely chocked with mind-boggling behaviors and happiness drivers and drinking habits the study sheds like on quite a few consumer behaviors that are imperative if you are in branding, sales or product development.

With family in the urban planning circle im quite fascinated at large-scale behavior models and ecologically compliment solutions. We are major fans of Bruce Mau on this site.


The Population density in NYC during the DAY

VS.


The Population density in NYC during NIGHT

WHERE DID EVERYONE GO?
We can begin to assess the importance of transportation, living situations, and product purchase behaviors of this city of "commuters". I would be interested to see if this is a trend in other major-metro areas and then we are talking about a massive cultural behavior. I personally believed the density was much higher at night in NYC, its still crowded as hell to me.



This chart explores happiness in terms of job occupation. Priests are the most happy and waiters are the least satisfied. Interestingly both rely on handouts for their services.



This chart shows the annual alcohol consumption in america. While Utah is barely buzzed New Hampshireites are drinking up to 40 gallons of hard liquor per person, per year.



I recommend picking up the magazine as the website doesn't have the range of graphs and charts that the full article does. While only planners can get excited about presentations of census data, i would consider it a must-read for anyone in strategy or advertising.



1day

Read more...

Literary Retail

Complex Magazine has created the Complex Platinum Club, which is an invite-only experience that brings pages of the magazine to life. This exclusive invite-only retail store is on 41st street in New York City. It carries an impressive list of duds from MHI, Penfield, Staple, Modern Amusement, WESC, as well as footwear from Jordan, Y-3, Clae, Supra (Gold Skytops) and more. Expected to coincide with each publication, featured products will end up in the store. As of right now the store is invite only, but you can get on the list here.

Wired started this with their Wired Store which pops up every holiday season to show the latest inaccessible gadgets we all covet. The Complex store is good for several reasons:

1) The hype and release nature of streetwear products
2) The covet and hunt process consumer behavior of purchasing unique streetwear
3) The insider-only status of 'authentic' streetwear retail locations
4) Brings the lifestyle mag to life

Streetwear is a somewhat fickle cat-and-mouse game of my brand is cooler than yours and my personal statement is about slying embracing change but going my own way or illustrious destruction mantras. Complex has long been the mainstream staple (Ecko-started and run) of cool, urban brands but never moved beyond the occasional party or one-off. Establishing a retail store is a smart move, albeit it brings the 'mainstream' label to the scene. Will really be interesting to see how the kids react. On one hand it could access to a myriad of sources with its connections, on the other it could become the "lugz" of streetwear retail. Streetwear has a level of authenticity, but this location could seem too forced.

Certainly a brand which preaches fresh consumption needs an outlet beyond just finding the products. A retail location is a natural fit, and i would appreciate more magazines to do so in the future. Maxim could own guys, People could be the epicenter of women's beauty and entertainment, and Sports Illustrated could create sport retail locations. It seems to me to that channels that are the aggregators of news and new products, ought to be selling them. Consumers have already invested money and time to learn what they find, why not ultimately sell their featured products direct to them?

PlatinumComplex

Read more...