funny after 5: an introduction to Palin

just in case you have no bloody idea who Sarah Palin is [cough: Alaskan governer] other than she just got the Republican Veep nomination today [ever wonder if she's as surprised as we are?--or as the other 3 male repub veep contenders?], here's a short introduction to her persona and her political experience via the lovelies on twitter:

- Sarah Palin's maiden name is Connors. (@skydaddy)
- There are 327 words in Inuit for Sarah Palin (@Dayngr)
- When a tree falls in Alaska, Sarah Palin knows EXACTLY where it is (@doctoranonymous)
- Sarah Palin tells Steve Jobs at Apple what to do. (@illuminato)
- Sarah Palin drilled there, and drilled then (@travis)
- Sarah Palin singlehandedly keeps the Alaskan vampires at bay. (@jtcalhoun)

see more meme here: little known fact. discerning eyes (the guy who started it) have catalogued some of the funnier ones at palinfacts.com

youngsters; yr doin' it wrong.

found originally on AdFreak, this still annoys the shit out of me.

how old were the folks making this ad? have any of them had kids? ever touched a Playstation? mind you i SUCK at Playstation and XBOX and whatever. my experience is limited to things like Spyro the Dragon and Guitar Hero. and even i knew that controller didn't match up to that game.

not to mention that dorm room doesn't match up to that kid. he looks like he's sitting in the main room of a hotel. the decorations are too classy, the room is too clean, and to boot, he has a bloody flatscreen tv. yeah, cos i had a flatscreen in college. (i didn't have ANY tv in college!)

you can tell from this ad that they were trying to improve their image with the younger demographic, and yet, didn't actually use any input from that age group. (wtf kid model, didn't you point out the nonmatching controller? or are you too into fashion to be bothered?)

this violently violates a sense of relevancy to the customer. rather than saying "hey, we get you, give us a second chance," it says "we want your money and can't be bothered to take the time to get you right."

if you're targeting a demographic like that--male college age gamers--you'd better believe they know their shit and will see through yours, too. you may have gotten away with it if you were being general, but "gaming" is intense--thus the "play hard"--unless they didn't even make that connection.

this is why agencies should hire a few younger kids. a la dave trott's suggestion. otherwise you'll just do more harm than good to that market.

friday felines: winged cats, china.

found at the Daily Digresser, there seems to be a "winged cat" found in China. now, there have been pictures of winged cats throughout the centuries, and in truth, that would be pretty bad ass--even if they wound up being like penguins and can't actually fly.

but the thing is, they can't actually fly. they're not wings. there are usually three causes for these "wings" to appear: extraordinarily matted hair (think cats with dreads), genetic mutation (nubbins! stumps!), and elastic skin (think old lady chin flesh). in fact it's kinda gross to think about (at least in the case of the matted hair, which often traps feces and parasites). the site linked just before actually discusses the chinese cat. they feel it's genetic.



some times these issues develop around the rump, giving the appearance of two tails. but don't worry, @bmorrissey, the wings aren't real, and short of Hemmingway's 6-toed cats, you won't be getting a feline with thumbs, either.

mad men, ogilvy: at least it's not 'shipping?

for those of you living under very tiny rocks this past week, i will give you a brief summary of the Mad Men AMC fiasco before proceeding. skip between the lines if you've followed.

---
1 - bored unknown assailants 'brand jack' characters from the tv show and portray them on twitter, interacting with one another and fans.
...see also: @Don_Draper, @Roger_Sterling, @Paul_Kinsey, et al.
2 - they develop following, and apparently popularity is bad for AMC, so they legally request the accounts to be suspended, of which the main characters' are. something something copyright.
3 - the awesome folks at Deep Focus convince AMC to stop being asshats. a 'gentle nudge' goes a long way--especially when done with a metal ruler.
4 - but not before the damage was done. the accounts are reinstated but the backlash from AMC's handling thrives.
---

moving right along.

there are a number of things that could have made this situation handled better, and other folks have said that better than i could, so i won't dally there. though i doubt they'll be paying the folks any time soon; that would mean condoning their behavior, and if they go against character grain, AMC will likely want to keep a distance. wtfever.

the greatest backlash, apart from the usual blogging wonders, actually comes from the fans who made the twitter accounts. for some interesting stuff, check out We Are Sterling Cooper [dot com]. they humbly request: "But please, don't treat us like criminals."

which led me to the question: where is the line?

there are fan fiction groups everywhere for everything (almost). i don't follow it, but i know there are ones for Harry Potter, Twilight, Star Trek, and any number of oddities that attract immersion in an 'other world.' (i think the 'other world' is most attractive--that a slip in time or place is more suggestive of immersion.)

these people rarely get sued, if at all, or asked to remove their written work, and often these fanfics greatly vary from the actual characters' intents. for example, 'shipping (a term i learned from @tokyohanna Amber @ Naked earlier this week). imagine Betty Draper and Joan Holloway as lovers. yeah, i didn't think so either--but people write it.

that's not to say you have to like it. this Mad Men twitter thing isn't for everyone. i'm not saying to run out and subscribe to it, proliferate or promote it, but i don't see how it's different from fanfic other than the medium. do you think the fact that it happened on twitter is really the reason for the uproar? twitter, where transparency is expected, even when writing twit-novellas?

~

what i find REALLY interesting, though, is this as of this morning: @David_Ogilvy. it's unverified as to whether or not this is actually him; he styles his name like the other mad men, and followed the mad men characters first. he is pitching @Don_Draper for a 'lunch meeting' concerning hiring.

Don insists he is happy at Sterling, as his character would. but the $5 million question: is Dave impressed by the tenacity of the twittering mad men and looking to hire the Man behind the Draper, OR, is even Dave a "character" and now the link between 1960s advertising fiction and post-millennial advertising fiction becoming a reality? bizarre to think about. which do you think?

branding makes you better in bed.

a funny facebook forward i got
---

You go to a party and see a sexy girl across the room. You go up to her and say, "Hi, I'm fantastic in bed, what about it?"
That's Direct Marketing.

You go to a party and see a sexy girl across the room. You approach her to get her telephone number. The next day you call and say, "Hi, I'm fantastic in bed, what about it?"
That's Telemarketing.

You go to a party and see a sexy girl across the room. Your friend goes to her and says, "Hi, my friend over there is fantastic in bed, what about it?"
That's Advertising.

You go to a party and see a sexy girl across the room. You get up, straighten your clothes, approach her and pour her a drink. You open the door for her, pick up her bag after it drops, offer her a ride, and then say, "By the way, I'm fantastic in bed."
That's Public Relations.

You go to a party and see a sexy girl across the room. She comes over and says, "Hi, I hear you're fantastic in bed, what about it?"
That's the power of Branding!

in case you were wondering, the internet is awesome.

and this is legitimized by the fact that the Barbarian group says so.
and in case you don't know or don't care about the Barbarian group,
think of them like a new political party. only they're an ad agency.
and they approved the following message:




i actually clicked through to 100 [ps-you can click the yes].
there is a fancy surprise on 99. though the preceding responses were funnier.
i think "still yes" is my fave. experience the minimalistic wonder:
http://istheinternetawesome.com

i just threw away 8 bucks.

and i'm hella pissed about it.

see, i came in really early to work today due to circumstances of my life and the inane scheduling of the LIRR trains. so to kill an hour and inject caffeine (which i normally don't do...) i figured i'd sacrifice my better judgment and head on in to Starfucks.

also against my better judgment, i decided to get a coffee derivative. usually i forgo all such nonsense in favour of the blended lemonade with raspberry (which is the only Starfucks thing i'm currently not cranky about), but i figured, of all mornings, today was a mocha frapp morning.

i had memories of high school. when they used to be good.
or when i was stupid enough to think so.

for real. do they burn everything? even cold stuff? i don't get it. I JUST THREW OUT a frapp. that's right. i couldn't even swallow it. i tried. i had a moral dilemma past FOUR trash cans. it was so expensive to throw out. but i could not. could not drink it. strike two?

those fruit platter bullshits. strawberry kiwi mango. the kiwi was weird, the strawberries were glazed with i have no fucking idea what, and the mango wasn't even ripe (read: edible). needless to say, didn't eat that either, and threw it out. oh, and the barista was a bitch and had her own deal going on.

I AM CRANKY ABOUT MY MORNING EXPERIENCE.
is it too much to ask for some sensible caffeine?? clearly.
at least i'm not the only one. the sad thing? they gave me a coupon for a $2 cold drink provided i use it this afternoon. i may do it. just so i can get this godawful taste out of my mouth. how in the hell this came out of Seattle and into the rest of the world, i will never know.