friday felines: cutness will always win.

Breaking Bad News with Baby Animals.



got some bad news? grandma's dead? say it with a puppy. oh, you mean your 401k is royally fucked and you're now paying its loans? say it with a kitten. it's a far cry from the sophistication of someecards, but i do think they're on to something.

[via brandflakesforbreakfast via yesbutnobutyes.]

good, bad, ugly: all hail the pumpkin king

other places to be! Halloween link haze, loves.

THE GOOD:
+ Joshua Hoffine's Horror Photography -- badass. take the look. i love the wolf one and the clown one... least fave is probably baby with spider or hands under the bed.
+ Swedish Dawn-till-Dusk Ads -- i like the split effect; freakin' sweet. almost makes you want to turn into something at nightfall. almost.

THE BAD:
+ 4 Real-Life Things That are Creepier Than Halloween -- arguable. i actually don't find most of this creepy, except maybe that last bit, about the cat feces.
+ Online Pumpkin Carving -- tricky, like most .swf type "fun." you just wish you could make one puke like this (photo courtesy coworker, Steve).

THE UGLY:
+ WTFCostumes -- dot com, of course. but omfg is that doesn't house some of the worst costume ideas ever... i don't know where does.

is that a banana in your pocket...

...or are you just happy to see me?
--why yes, yes it is actually a banana in my pocket.

[noticed on the Dole bananas chillin' on my dining room table.]
[apologies for blur. env2 phone not the most awesome at photos.]

music videos now online via mtv.

in case you are living under a very tiny rock and haven't yet heard about this, i give to you mtvmusic.com. that's right. mtv has become so NOT about the music that now their digital is about the music. so really it should be monline? mcom? mnet? digim? im? oh wait, that's taken. anyway. point being all those music videos you love and miss and only see shitty quality of on youtube, they're all at mtvmusic.com now. party on. as a halloween gift, here's the extended version of Thriller, using mtvmusic.

Michael Jackson |MTV Music

money, myspace, & music, oh my.

on another note, i've been playing around a fair amount with the new Myspace Music interface. and since Myspace is clearly trying to position--as it should--itself as a big player in music sharing&caring, i have had thoughts on the matter.

as it currently stands, users can add songs listed by bands' pages to their own playlists, which display on their profiles. previously, a user could only have 1 song on their profile page. now you can have whole playlists. that is the one major change given by Myspace Music. but i think they can push it farther.


as you can see above, "Download" is not available. this is often the case.

they're still entrusting me to purchase songs from iTunes, Amazon, or however else i might get them. this is problematic, especially as many of Myspace's bands aren't signed, or more underground--that's, you know, that thing they're trying to foster along with the bigger names. i should be able to buy my music from Myspace, especially from the lesser known bands that i can't get from iTunes etc.

also, it would be a big community pull if there were band-user incentives regarding music. like if a band has a new album coming out, i should be able to buy songs off that album at a discounted price providing i put those songs on my profile page for X amount of days (say, 7). that way, you get advertising, i get discounted music. things like that.

you make me wanna... LaLa.com?

it's time for 3 music posts. first on the menu: muxtape meets iTunes for your online music needs. if you haven't already heard about this new it-toy, you should look into it. it hasn't converted me from iTunes yet, but it has me poking around and it's definitely worth the curiosity invested.

the short of it:
6 million tracks (+counting). you can listen to any song once for free; no "thirty second preview." currently there are no ads and no subscription fees. just sign up and listen. if you want to listen again, you pay based on what you're licensing for... web only is 10 cents, mp3 download is 79--cheaper than iTunes. if you already own a song, they 'move' it to your purchased tracks for free.

oh and yeah, there's that social aspect where you can add friends, and a last.fm style graphic aspect where i know what kind of style of music a person is into on a sliding scale. it also has this "CD trading" feature you can do, but i don't know what that is yet. and for what it's worth, so far they seem to have most of the stuff i've looked for, including my more esoteric choices. okay, they didn't have Emily's Sassy Lime, but at least they knew the band existed.

and so forth...
so this is being hailed as something of a breakthrough in music distribution. i mean, it's cheaper, and that's a plus, but since it's newer, it's not as integrated. i will need more time before i surrender the awesome that is iTunes. it does seem like a step forward from last.fm and muxtape, merging the social with the purchasing directly, as well as offering a space for all of it to be held purely online if one should so desire. this is a plus for organizational types and i'm sure a few other 'types' as well; the lack of a subscription fee with an iTunes-like purchase system is just an added bonus.

commercials switched at birth

view each of these. draw your own conclusions. my snark after the vids.





okay. first thing's first.
1 -- OMFG people leaning over me are CREEPY. and who says my questions take the form of a British wannabe nanny? or a cab driver? or any other of the bizarre personifications they give to my "questions."
2 -- why is "ask.com" in its multiple incarnations asking questions for me? shouldn't i be asking the questions? and those creepy people be answering them for me? i don't want to associate myself with creepy people unless they're being helpful. especially if i'm carrying those folks on my back. that's right, i'm self-serving, and so are you.
3 -- if anything, as the commercials currently stand, i should be asking questions of ask.com (since they're pushing that they know all kinds of random shit), and the G1 should be supplying me with answers (as that's the G1's unique benefit they're pushing).

creative teams, please switch executions. kthanxbai.

devil in the details: dunkin over starbucks?

now, if there's only one thing i learned in college about math--and i do believe there is only one thing i learned in college about math, actually--it's that numbers can be skewed to say preeeeetty much whatever you want. it was a class called Numeracy but instead of something out of Harry Potter, and though we did play with card decks, it was useful. analyzing statistics changed my world view.

something said in the commercial got me thinking: "hard working Americans." [disclosure: i fucking hate coffee. i can't drink it. i hate starbucks coffee and dunkin' donuts coffee. keep them both. so this is a completely impartial standpoint on the Coffee Wars. please hand me an Earl Grey.] in my head i'm already saying: this qualifier is interesting and where can i get the stats on the actual study?

surprisingly, NOT on the related web site, where the hoo-ha is the usual BS about south american beats and slow roasted whateverthefuck. after 5 mins of Googling, i came up with this link, which cites it was an independent double-blind involving "476 adults, each of whom had consumed regular, hot brewed coffee within the past week" in "10 cities."

honestly, if i cared a whole lot, the next questions i'd be asking are: what cities? what demographics? what are their jobs/income levels? what does 'city' mean? it's no secret that starfucks is more expensive and a status symbol. if you're polling New York City CEOs, i think your numbers will be skewed elsewhere. i'm not saying the study is fuxxor--i'm just saying having a study at all may be misleading unless this information is further qualified. i want to know there's an even split between people more likely to drink starbucks as those likely to drink DD.

imaginary twitter dates

i've been pondering for a few weeks what i would do if i could meet people from twitter--namely, according to their personal brands. ie. who do i feel i "know" well enough that i think we could hang out? and what would we do? and for a friday post, i thought it was suitably fluffy while remaining somehow relevant, so kudos to that.

this is not comprehensive, only cos i if i did all my followers whom i'd actually like to meet and do stuff with, i'd have to dedicate my whole day to this blog post. and you know... i have work to do (lame) and clients that need to annoy me (lamer). i do love everyone in my feed <3 you make my days far more interesting.

what would you want to do with me? which of these parties would you want in on? ;)

---

i would go to a concert with @truejerseygirl, @brooklynbee, and @irockiroll. we would rock out. probably laugh a lot. and maybe bake cupcakes. so we could eat them at the after party we would also rock out at. i'd bring @reverieapparel.

i would go to a fancy restaurant with @avflox and @abartelby, preferably together, so we can be posh and stylish and fierce at the same time as analyzing harshly the content of most of society. i'd bring @mtartag. knowing us, we'd probably go to a drag show or a strip club after, hahaha.

i would go to the movies with @garretohm, @srcasm, @strawberrycough - definitely a comedy. we have a weird online relationships (in a positive way) and i think they'd be the guys i'd watch Zack & Miri Make a Porno with, or whatever cult film Wes Anderson is thinking up next.

i would go to a carnival with @mtlb and @darrylohrt--oh oh and bring @sarachamp and @iRJ and @matthunsberger, too. fuck it. bring the whole crew of Plaid. we will ride roller coasters, do those spinny things that make us puke, and eat cotton candy while whacking the heads of moles. maybe face paint. i'm thinking Six Flags.

i would go to a poetry slam with @faris, @bradkay, @badbanana, @gregverdino, @servantofchaos. and by poetry slam i also mean comedy club. and by comedy club i also mean social media/marketing/advertising conference. there's performance art in all of it and i think the commentary would be wicked awesome.

i would get drinks with @griner, @dailybiz, @dearjanesample, @americopywriter, @johnny_bones. there would be lots of drinking games and lots of snark. i support all of it. and yes, i will drink half of you under the table. i'll teach you the Toast Game.

i would get coffee with @tokyohanna, @adbroad, @adelemcalear, @overthinker, @leighhouse, @eve11. i see us in downtown manhattan at night. all the lights and the buzz. and the space for philosophy. i feel like i could have deep conversations with you ladies.

i would do extreme sports with @bmorrissey, @awolk, @ischafer. because you can't tell me it wouldn't be way too much fun to jump out of a plane with these guys. something about their intellect meets zero gravity meets pushing comfort zones just makes this have A+ written all over it.

fall out friday felines

i'm a little man, also evil... also into cats. ALSO INTO CAAATS!
too bad i could totally buy half of this. for more on the Misheard Meme, just search youtube for "Misheard Lyrics" or click here. Yellow Ledbetter is frighteningly convincing.

there's probably no God. christians OK with this.

so uh... the atheists are rocking British transportation getting you to think about how maybe, kinda, sorta, there might not be a God. it's a really compelling argument. "now stop worrying and enjoy your life" also appeals to nihilists, existentialists, hedonists, and skateboarders (the Enjoi website looks like an HRO knockoff, and that makes me giggle).

i think the campaign has wide appeal. apparently so much so that the Christians (namely the Methodists) are maybe, kinda, sorta okay with it. "The Methodist Church said it thanked Professor Dawkins for encouraging a "continued interest in God". Spirituality and discipleship officer Rev Jenny Ellis said: "This campaign will be a good thing if it gets people to engage with the deepest questions of life" (BBC NEWS).

while i think advertising Christianity is lame (and therefore i would have to rightfully extend the "lame" title to advertising atheism as well), i like how the Methodists chose to handle the PR of the situation. PR+! rather than casting eternal damnation on all people who so much as read the sign, like some folks might, they're like "cool. talking point." which is probably more than they're getting off of pro-christian signage. (no PR is bad PR?)

so maybe you should kinda sorta get to thinking about the deepest questions of life. if, yanno, you're maybe in Britain. i don't think it'd fly on this side of the pond.

transparency in movies, blackberry

wouldn't it be cool if there were transparency in movie posters? ok, so you'd never know what it was about, what actors were in it, what genre it is, or if you could take your little brother to it--but can you tell what you were being subliminally sold through product placement? YOU BETCHA! [haha] and let's be honest, product placement is what really matters otherwise everything would still be low-budget.

apparently, Ocean's 11 may be responsible for my purchasing habits or brand emotions regarding: Apple, Dr. Pepper, HBO, Ketel One, and Tropicana. see how these movies may have influenced you; check out the awesome posters spotlighting Ocean's 11, Dark Knight, Iron Man, the Matrix trilogy, Kill Bill 1, and The Bourne Ultimatum here.

on another note somewhat, i think the hype created by the new Blackberry Storm commercials is pretty sweet. and i don't even like Blackberry. but you know what would be sweeter? Blackberry owning up to its "crackberry" name and doing a series of spots a la Trainspotting. hell yeah. see the infamous baby crawling on the ceiling withdrawal scene here, youtoubed for your pleasure.

'yo mama so fat, she thinks the G8 is a Value Meal.'

title hat-tip there to @fernandorizo, as part of "Presidential Election Dozens" as dubbed by Xeni Jardin over at BoingBoing. see highlights there. personally, if the G8 were to be confused with anything, it'd be in the realm of "my mama the mechanic."

in other twitter news, if you didn't already hear through the grapevine (i heard it from @ischafer), there's a tool to let you know who unfollowed you, and after what tweet. it's pretty sweet. check out Qwitter.

i described twitter last night as "a boardroom full of smart people having a pizza lunch: business casual at its finest." i think that about sums it up. give or take a comfort level, i don't say anything on twitter i wouldn't say in a boardroom full of the business casual. haha. (except on fridays?)

friday... zombies?

i am #suspending "friday felines" for today in honour of developments in the subculture of zombies. as you know from previous distractions, humans have an uncanny interest in zombies. so i give you the above, Zombies in Plain English. why, might you ask? BECAUSE if you are in NYC this weekend, you will be in GRAVE DANGER. there is going to be a zombie takeover. if you plan on being dead, you can surely take part. so get on that. or at least have a zombie movie marathon.

[want more zombies? see previous, zombie, posts.]

sad mac & charity follow-up

intense apologies on my end for infrequent posting this week. as i'd mentioned, my mac showed me the sad face of death and totally kicked it a few days back. i'm finally getting the new machine set up, so i'm going to go ahead with "friday posts" and save the lengthy one for monday.

i want to follow-up Blog Action Day with a few items. primarily, this really stellar thing @AmandaMooney has arranged through Twitter. it calls on us to donate money every friday--just the price of a morning latte, or whatever you have to spare, even a buck--to a designated cause. the idea is simple: if we spread the word between followers, it's easy to donate $500--1,000 to a cause each friday if we each only gave just $1.

you can learn more about it here. you can also DM Amanda a cause you'd like featured on a friday; she will be posting causes in the order in which they were received. i already cast my vote for To Write Love On Her Arms, as most of you know that's my pet charity.

TODAY IS FOR BREAST CANCER at the suggestion of @ValeriaL. so go ahead, toss in $1 or two and then drop Amanda a DM to let her know that you participated.

funny after 5: "BT" comic.

hat tip to @PeoriaPundit

a break between long posts

i have another music-advertising based post coming up of moderate length. so to break it up. i give you Purple.



no, really. ok, i'm not giving you Purple, but i'm letting you in on it. check out the fun here. and if you're still not laughing, try this. still not laughing? you're clearly not a properly vetted ironic creative.

you could give up all your worldly possessions

interlude -- aka that thing i do when i'm not directly talking about advertising/social media/marketing. instead, this post is dedicated to Blog Action Day, inspired when i read Advergirl's response. really, go read it. because she did it well and i'm not going to head in the same direction.

the theme this year is poverty. Advergirl gives examples of hands-on ways you can change poverty in the world around you. i think that's the point of the action, but i want to talk philosophically instead. i want to talk about the word possession. not its roots, but its context. because i think the root of poverty is our concept of possession. i'm not going to tell you to give up all your worldly possessions. we all need stuff. duh. that's kinda the point of poverty actions. to help people who don't have stuff get stuff. so yes, in essence, i'm pro-stuff.

but the concept of ownership--of possession--of items or of people has been tripping me up lately. i've been thinking a lot about infidelity, no small part in thanks to AV Flox [on the person-level] and on the corporate-level [that's just one link, hat tip to Gavin]. and also about ownership literally. like in the beginning of Fight Club where the narrator's apartment, his whole life basically right down to his treasured Ikea furniture, goes up in flames. and he has nothing.

"it's very easy to take more than nothing" -- Mad Hatter [Lewis Carroll]

if we think of ourselves as owning nothing, then everything we have is its own gift, come to us by way of the world, into our laps, and can go just as swiftly. letting go becomes easy. giving becomes easy. after all, what is it to you, who needs nothing, and can always have more than nothing? why do you not give? what are you saving for? what do you think you own? what do you fear to lose? what do you fear?

you get upset when someone leaves you because you thought you owned some part of them. that they for a moment might become a part of you. and that fear encroaches on many relationships. fear of cheating, fear of abandonment, fear of emotional distance, etc. you get upset when an object breaks, when you lose a stock, when hours are cut. i'm not saying any of those are unrealistic fears. i'm saying, comparatively, you would feel less stressed if you were less concerned with your territory, your ownership.

because right now, if you own up to the fact that you own nothing, you still "have stuff." you've changed your thought patterns but not your life, and that's alright. i'm not saying become a recluse and get out of every relationship because you can't have any true security in it. you don't have to go become a monk, but next time you can give, you might think of it as a little easier. easier to give more than nothing. and more thankful for those moments in which others give to you--a new sweater, an hour spent, a moment of intertwined fingers.

[disclosure: in my ugliest state, i am an intensely territorial creature. i am that jungle predator in my head, i like the idea of ownership and i can be incredibly defensive about it. a poem i wrote in college had the line "i would piss on tree bark just to prove it's not yours"; a paraphrase but still true. things belong to me because they have become a part of me. "you are not your fucking khakis" -- palahniuk. i am working through this. i am learning what it means not to own. i am good at giving. i am trying to be better.]

blip.fm: great idea, applied failure.

so, this wasn't the post i'd planned for today... but then my computer committed suicide at 10AM this morning and hasn't yet recovered, pushing much of the rest of my day into work overload on another (not set up) computer. so sorry about the lack of posting--i did have stuff planned; you'll get it tomorrow. in the meanwhile...

@OneLuvGurl sent me a DM asking to join her on blip.fm; i had been peripherally aware of blip, but hadn't dabbled so i said sure, why not, and went at it like a good little social media scene queen. see the fruits of that labour along with my frustrations at my "station" here: http://blip.fm/thegirlriot (and no, it's not yet added to zoolit, haha. i'm not sure i'm keeping this.)

on premise, blip.fm seems pretty awesome. OLG described it as "twitter for music." i like twitter, i like music. seemed a natural fit. i love the idea of carrying on a conversation through songs, as i did about last night's Heroes ep with blip.fm user ZachsMind. so that's a major plus. it's like communicating with other total music dorks, and i like that, because i used to have txt convos using only lyrics. [i am that dork.]

in implementation it's super frustrating. for these reasons:
1 -- shitty music selection. it took me forever to find a song i wanted to post, let alone the one i was actually listening to.
2 -- strike through songs. if the song doesn't work or you don't want me to use it, why is it there? delete it. don't let me preview and then not let me blip. like seriously. wtf?
3 -- incomplete songs. Epicentre by VNV Nation? yeah, no. you only get the first minute. but you don't know that in preview, or, well, anywhere until you get to the 1 minute mark. cos then it stops. but by then it's already in your stream.
4 -- unregulated song titles. "Slide" is by the "Go Goo Dolls." the first song that comes up as "Girl's Not Grey" AFI was unidentifiable. i have no idea if it was a shitty recording of the acoustic of that song, or if it wasn't that song, at all.
5 -- shitty load time. i waited for 20 minutes for "Hurricane" by Something Corporate to load. before i gave up. and found "Girl's Not Grey" by AFI instead (see aforementioned ordeal). which wasn't what i was listening to. until i had to.

in short, song titles should be regulated. also, like on songza, users should be able to vote a link up or down for quality (which would take care of bad copies and shortened songs). shitty load time? i have no suggestion, but i used blip all day, and i had the problem about 1/4 of the time. so maybe not the biggest problem, comparatively. i suppose i could deal.

but the heart of it? APPLE NEEDS TO GET ON a dj system similar to blip where i can stream from my own goddamn music. i have shitloads of iTunes. let me be a user. let me make a stream in the same conversational way, where also in my stream you can buy the .mp3s from iTunes. let me USE the music i've GOT so i'm not so frustrated when YOUR selections are CRAP in variety, length, and quality. just a thought.

"Communities already exist. Instead, think about how you can help that community do what it wants to do." -- Zuckerberg. i just think with an app like iTunes and a share like Apple has in the online music biz, it seems natural to add a similar feature. LET THE PEOPLE MUSIC TWEET! hahaha okay. i'm done here.

[PS: Kathleen Hanna cancelled. i didn't miss her. i feel slightly better about that.
PPS: Rise Against concert was AWESOME. made of win. anyone who says different is a liar.]

friday felines: Simon's Cat

some of you have known the wonder of Simon's Cat when the "cat wake up call" -- titled Cat Man Do -- swept the internets with something akin to viral wonder. (there's that word again.) in case you missed that vid, click here.

but here's another installment, equally funny, i'd argue, and anyone who's had a cat and tried to watch TV at the same time is sure to sympathize. me, it happens with House and Heroes. PS who is SO EXCITED to finally meet Peter/Nathan/Gabriel's DADDY?! mwuahahahaha. i am so stoked. anyway. here's the cat vid.



in other news, it's a friday and i have a lot of work to do. LAME. so this will be my only post for the day. i promise further snark on tuesday. since i'll be off and at a Rise Against (!!!) concert on monday.

heartbreaking: ethics & advertising

secretly, it's not a secret. i would give one of my toes to have lunch with Dave Trott if only in the hopes of sucking up some of his awesomeness through a straw and osmosis. i love his insights; i think his perspective on creative is empathetic and inspiring; i think that his circular logic and penchant to relate unrelated things marks thought processes i find enviable and intriguing.

but i did read his blog--as i do every day--and last week i read something that broke my heart a little. often times Dave will write something that will make me think; sometimes i will outright agree, sometimes it takes me a minute to see it, and i like that. but this i just couldn't come around to. and i'd let it be my own seething sadness until David Griner picked it up on AdFreak earlier today.

maybe it has something to do with how jaded i'm feeling lately. how everything can seem corrupt from the top down. but that's just it: from the top down. i want to believe that advertising doesn't have to be unethical and corrupt. that's one of the reasons i picked the shop where i'm at now. i want to believe that idealist kids are a good thing if only because it provides a steady stream of reality check; of honesty and integrity before the biz taints it and spits us out funny colours.

i don't want to believe that stealing is okay. because i don't think it is. being inspired by, and stealing, are two different things. most people can tell the difference, i would hope. but to outright take something just to get your first job? i know the first one's hard--and probably the 15 after it, too--but to be that unethical from the get-go surprised me, especially from a man whose creative thought i so intensely admire. it made me confused to find that such creativity couldn't find its own merit and outlet.

clearly his methods got him in the door, and his own talent carried him the rest of the way, to the respectable and successful place he is now. but i give kudos to his prior boss for flipping out. because accepting it would have set one more unethical precedent. i am hoping this emerging trend for transparency will create bosses and hirers who are looking for that integrity. not just a nice book. but then again, i am that kid.

"So you choose what works for you.
Either the means justifies the end.
Or the end justifies the means."

it's not about endings. it's not about Machiavellian meets Darwinian tactics.
it's about looking at my own face in the morning. i'm not saying he shouldn't be able to. i'm saying i couldn't. and that's just me.
he's the larger than life, epic adman of awesome. i'm just a girl in advertising.

[in other news: i'm also heartbroken because VICE sent me an email today to RSVP to an event TWO DAYS from now. if i'd had more notice, i could have gone. instead, i am missing going to a live taping of my hero, Kathleen Hanna. i am so depressed.]

cool toy du jour: Zoolit

you may be saying to yourself, with all this social media, where ever will i keep it? and you'd be right! how many times have we laboured over long lost profiles, things we no longer keep track of, shiny toys that got dusty (coughcough: Friendster, Buzznet, Mashable, PROpenMic, Plurk, and identi.ca are just some of the profiles i joined to ignore). how do you find the active ones and share those all in one easy place?

the answer: ZOOLIT.
incredibly simple. incredibly easy.

you want to know where i live on the internet? http://zoolit.com/thegirlriot and look no further. as i recall shit i actually use, i put it up there. don't know whether to judge me by a defunct Threadless account or by my Etsy feedback? wonder no more! every where i am ACTUALLY is there. how about you? send me your Zoolit stalkerbook in the comments. cheers!

revolution, inc. :: how i do.

i've been getting a number of questions lately from about a dozen folks prying into "the girl Riot" so i figure it's time for another edition of Revolution, Inc. but hey--there hasn't been one in four months. i know, i know. at least i spare you talking about my actual life (short of music and costuming, haha).

today i was highlighted, along with the fabulous Alan Wolk, by David over at The Social Path. you can read that there, which he properly capitalized and punctuated for me, however out of line with my personal branding that may be ;) sacrifices, sacrifices. David has been discussing anonymity avidly with his commenters in the for/against debate.

to round that out, i wanted to share with you, and elaborate, just why i do what it is that i do here on this blog. some of you have met me in person and had that moment where you said, 'so, what's your real name?' and i just gave a crazy half-smile and launched into this whole thing. so, now you know:
---

we are constantly asking our brands to be more like "people." brands we can relate to, want to have beers with, brand we could see in the White House (don't laugh). it's kind of like "the consumer isn't a moron--she's your wife" (Ogilvy). how can we make recommendations and bandy words around if we don't understand them personally? see also.

we are having arguments over what "authentic" means and whether something can "be it." i wanted to get at the heart of that in a meta sort of way, to understand more about the unwritten policies being developed like "authenticity" and "transparency," etc. because of that, i wanted to come at this like an art. at heart, i'm an art kid who became a copywriter. plus, i just happen to like (studying) people.

i like conceptual art and post modernism, i'm big on "the medium is the message" across multiple planes, not just advertising. i wanted my brand to express not only myself, but the tensions in branding as we work to 'humanize' brands. so when i decided to write a blog, i wanted to bring that to it--that essence of my own understanding and how i was going to consume advertising as a product.

so for me, becoming the girl Riot™ isn't about anonymity; i don't say anything under Riot that i wouldn't say to your face. i go to lunch with people from many agencies and present myself as Riot. i'll tell you where i work, and if you care or want to recommend me, if you really need my name, i'll give it. i'm not afraid of tying my 'real life' to this one because they're one and the same: it's about craft. the very craft we are supposed to create elsewhere.

craft from what shoes i wear to my punctuation and capitalization usage to my business politics. i just wanted to own my own 'craft,' and i give that impression best in person, so it's not about pure anonymity. it's about the bridge between advertising and real life. "people don't read advertising, they read what interests them... sometimes, that's advertising" (Gossage).

in short, it's the actual meta craft of advertising and our interaction with it that i wanted to draw attention to by creating the girl Riot™.

---
previously on revolution, inc. :: in a name.

beer goggles for your gmail.

oh yeah, it's just what it looks like. found via techcrunch on behalf of gmail blog, it seems as though the company really wants to ahem--step up to the plate--and give you that friendly, buddy-to-buddy pat on the shoulder we sometimes need.

you know, for when that tiny voice in your head saying "maybe this can wait till morning" or "proofread?! at least proof--" just gets drowned the hell out by overwhelming streams of alcohol-induced emotion.

personally i think this would be better served on Facebook or Myspace. i'm less inclined to be stalking--i mean, checking up on--people in my gmail. what kind of trouble can i really get into there?

anyway. beside the point. kickback it's getting is that most people are saying they can do this sort of math drunk (and that if it's any more complex they couldn't do it sober--here here!)--that it should have other sorts of questions as well. that may be true, but then you get into SAT cultural type issues and no emails ever get sent after 8pm or on weekends. haha.

i think the value in this isn't so much the math question as a--SOBER--voice outside your own head, the calm logic of binary digital happiness, says "hey, uh, maybe you shouldn't be sending that right now?" that's the subliminal message being sent by those math problems, not whether you can count to 11. and that 1 step between you and send--even if it's a step making you run for the calculator--may save lives.

or at least a considerable amount of drama.

[disclosure: i have never sent a drunken text/tweet/mail/etc that i've regretted. partially cos i don't do most anything that i regret. partially cos most anything i'd do drunk i'd do just as easily sober. and also partially because when i'm drunk i'm social and nowhere near any technology that would support mail goggles. haha.]

people (&musicians) should say what they mean.

and by that i mean, wouldn't it be funny if what you saw was exactly what you got? perhaps even refreshing. check this video out, courtesy of @johnny_bones, who is awesome at finding funny shit. this video is a good adaptation/translation of "Take On Me." cheers to your afternoons--mine are busy!

friday felines: wigs for your cat. srsly.

and you thought i was kidding. nope, it's for real: Kitty Wigs, which come in Pink Passion, Bashful Blonde, Silver Fox, and Electric Blue for $50 a pop plus S&H.

a small price to pay to harass your cat for hours trying to get him or her to actually wear it. KW doesn't promise your cat will tolerate the wig--or you. check out the FAQ. i think my cat is a Pink Passion sort of lady.

where are the male cat wigs, hmm? i need Ken style. and maybe an afro. i do think perhaps my cat would best be personified with a Lenny Kravitz-esque do.

if you should want to all out dress up your cat, i suggest going to this site, after learning to read Japanese. and if you can read Japanese, then be sure to order in advance.

not enough cat costume fun for one day? check out these embarrassing shots. cat frog. pumpkin cat. pig cat (not to be confused with manbearpig). more? try the flickr group or the costume cat blog.

tech geeks and halloween

it's never too early to prep for halloween!

this year, i'm the Mad Hatter. last year i was Jessica Rabbit; before then, Helena from MCR [i don't even like MCR].
what have been your past costumes?

and if you're stuck, here are some ideas, haha:

-dress your baby like an iPod.
-paint yourself black and walk around with said baby
-or be trendy! do that with a fake baby.
-t shirt reading "404 costume not found"
-team up! there's mouse, computer chip, and keyboard.
-a P2P pirate with logo of choice on the chest.
-any character from the Alltel commercials
-as any variant of the lolcat and pantheon
-the badger from badgerbadgerbadger

i will add more as i think of them. what are you, or members of your fam, going as?

that DeclareYourself voting vid? think twice.

it seems that the Don't Vote video i discussed here yesterday has caused quite a stir in the advertising and marketing community, from a number of age ranges and locations, like Public School Intelligentsia and Dear Jane Sample, both of whom are devoutly, it seems, against it. in a way, rightfully so. it's unappealing. but...

i think that there has been sight lost on the target group for the video. it's not meant to convince jaded 30-40 somethings to vote through use of the wiles of overpaid celebrity--you and i see through that by now. neither does it appeal to my age group, unless they act younger, because many of us have graduated college, have decided to vote or not vote already, have assessed our politics, and so forth. as such, we likely won't care about the spot.

it is meant to appeal to high schoolers and recent high school grads, whose attentions spans, as i've mentioned and many know, are incredibly difficult to capture. you can't coddle them like mommy and daddy or tell them what they should do. they're teenagers, they're rebellious, and likely, they don't give two shits about you, the government, or Wall Street. but if you get their back up by being condescending, you may just have a shot. MAYBE. though to get them to watch for 4 mins is asking a lot of the ADD generation.

to verify my thought process on this, i tossed my brother, a high school aged kid, the video. told him to watch it and just tell me what he thought. no prepping, no framing. then i asked him a few pointed questions: would it have made you register to vote? what did you think about the use of celebrities? what did you think about the use of sarcasm?

--
the responses were as follows:

on voting:
it would have persuaded me to vote, within reason yes i would try to but it would be put on a list of personal priority meaning i'd get to it asap but i wouldnt go out of my way instantly to do so

on sarcasm:
if i could vote, and wasnt planning to, it sure would've made me feel like crap. their approach was very sarcastic (obviously on purpose). i think the sarcasm was just right, but as i said it would come down to personal priority to whether or not i left that second to register

on celebrity:
sarah silverman(silvermen? sp?) was a little over the top with her...nonsense - it didnt fit well with the seriousness of the video. otherwise they worked well together.

any other thoughts:
ME: if i hadn't told you, specifically, to watch the whole thing, would you have if you stumbled on it?
HE: with a proper description and/or title, yes. i dont just click randomly at yt vids
ME: do you want to add anything else?
HE: the length was abit much, only when they started "waiting" for you to register
--

i don't profess that my brother is the be-all end-all answer; in fact, he's atypical. he's highly aware, interested in politics, and extremely bright. if you were following me on twitter, you noticed that i didn't think he'd like it, since he tends to have views nearly as mature as ours. so if this video works for him, i urge you to think about that, and to ask others in the high school age group what they think. no prepping, no framing. just, does it make you want to vote? food for thought.

rock your cock off? don't you want that? ...?

see all of the ads for Rok night club in Vegas at Advertising is Good For You. i particularly like the post's headline: "Thirteen-year-old boys aren't allowed in Vegas night clubs, but it seems they are allowed to create ad campaigns for them." i know these came out a few weeks back, but seeing them again made me really want to comment on how much they irritate me.

and no, i'm not irritated because it appeals to thirteen year old boys (cos really, who isn't a 13 year old boy at heart in those situations?), but because the actual execution is lame. at one point, this was a darling of an idea. a little baby bundle of a concept i'm sure was cooed over and loved until it hit the teenage phase and then it got sent for an "attitude adjustment."

YOU DO NOT ROCK YOUR COCK OFF.
YOU ROCK OUT WITH YOUR COCK OUT.

YOU DO NOT ROCK YOUR FUNBAGS OFF.
YOU ROCK YOUR SOCKS OFF.

and who the hell says "funbags" anymore anyway? who wrote these lines? for real? and when was the last time they said any sentence involving with word "rock" and "off"? not to mention, especially in Vegas... don't you rather want those body parts? the only VAGUELY acceptable one is "rock your ass off." i can see that. maybe. if i squint. otherwise, copywriting FAIL, hook line and sinker.

i may cry: Apple to shut down iTunes?

hot on the heels of a conversation i was having yesterday about music subscriptions and the issue of transference, it seems that yet another legal battle or other may destroy music lovers' hearts. Apple is threatening to shut down iTunes if it goes through.

i think that of all businesses, the music business has single-handedly gone out of its way to make shit absolutely horrid for themselves. if there is an antithesis to social media, it's the music business. there is nothing social about it and there seems to be an utter disrespect and apathy toward the consumer which they, on the other hand, so avidly court by banning pirating and slapping on RIAA fines before you can say "student loan."

[i'm not referring here to social media music sites like Last.fm or iLike, i mean the industry itself--those in charge of distribution and collection to and from those lesser sites.]

this is not Apple's fault. i don't want them to shut down iTunes, but i don't think it's right for the record execs to hoc more cash out of the resellers, especially when in most cases it's not like the artists see a raise. it's like the music bailout to save some cushy chair's job.

between a copyright hike and streaming radio battles the likes that Muxtape, Pandora, and many more face, all that the music industry is accomplishing is blowing off the one foot they've got left. REALITY CHECK. people are going to find more, new ways to pirate if you're going to make it harder to be legal. work WITH our needs, not against them!

i am a full legal music downloader. i buy everything from iTunes (if .mp3) or Amazon (if CD--i do still buy those). if i hear it on Pandora and like it, i buy it legally. partially because it's easy and partially because, at some point, i respected the industry, and still respect the musicians. the former is fast going down the crapper.

UPDATE 10.03: The Copyright Royalty Board Does Nothing. iTunes’ Rates Remain The Same.

"rampant like herpes. for positive."

nice job declareyourself. via socialvibe.

i think the beginning shock value offers enough to keep a younger viewer watching/listening, but after the first two minutes of more and more people telling me not to vote, i may just turn it off before it even gets to the payoff. clever idea, but a bit lengthy. could have survived with slightly less celeb face time by about half. especially since some repeat, even in the "vote if..." section. me personally, i don't need Hollywood telling me to vote, but i've always been politically active. i think this may do well at speaking to the 'newly unregistered 'voter, that is 18-20 types who haven't yet had a big reason to vote, who are still swayed by pop when nothing else will. if, that is, the spot can get past the ADD factor.