“Under new management” signs make a pretty clear statement of discontinuity with the past. I suggest that the more prominent the sign, or the longer it’s shown – the greater the intended discontinuity.
One of the Pizza Hut restaurants in Townsville (one of the few remaining dine-in Pizza Huts in Queensland) has had a large “Under New Management” sign on its roof for a couple of months now.
Human Rights activists spend far too much time sitting in cages in public spaces and doing things that are too easy to ignore. Largely because they’re so obnoxiously offensive that we immediately shield ourselves from the horrors they describe. Their campaigns aren’t generally “sticky” for this reason.
Stickiness is an important part of any marketing campaign – finding a message that is memorable is vital if your product isn’t something that involves an immediate and spontaneous purchasing decision (like a bottle of Coke).
Stickiness was particularly important to this UNICEF anti-landmine campaign, in a more literal sense.
Adhesive stickers with bottom side simulating a detonator for explosive were placed on the pavements in Zurich. When the passers by checked their shoes, they saw the message from Unicef: In many other countries you would now be mutilated! Help the victims of landmines!
It occurs to me that introducing any piece of communication with “if you google…” or “according to google…” – it’s as big a no-no as introducing anything by saying “the Oxford English Dictionary defines… as…”.
If you don’t know why this is a problematic way to enter dialogue (or indeed a monologue) – then please, begin your comment with either a dictionary definition or a reference to google search results on the matter.
Wil Anderson just made this bold claim on the Gruen Transfer:
“The McDonalds Golden Arches are now more recognisable than the Christian Cross.”
True or false?
It kind of fails to take into account the historical brand recognition and needs to be more specifically defined.
A little bit of googling suggests that this was either a piece of corporate indoctrination fostered by McDonalds that has now become fact – or that there is an obscure survey that I can’t find from the late 90s conducted in Australia…
Your thoughts?
When I first saw this I thought it was a piece of bad atheist satire on the way Christians use the Bible to justify killing people. Turns out I was wrong. Thanks Mr Rumsfeld. There are heaps more – and the SMH is reporting it, which doesn’t make it “fact” but makes it much more believable than I first thought…
That’s right people. We’ve been wrong all these years. The armour of God is a tank.
No wonder Christians get picked on…
I am back. Camp was good, more on that shortly.
But first things first – I was reading through my unread items in Google Reader and game across these gems – right next to each other.
Two media organisations reporting on the same set of circumstances with vastly different interpretations of the facts:
ABC – Ex-Sharks Player denies involvement in sex scandal
Fox Sports – Former Sharks player Daniel Ninness admits role in group sex incident
In fact – both stories report almost exactly the same statement from Ninness – without making any editorial judgment on his stance, except in the headline.
How is this so?
Ahh, IGA, you’ve done it again. Stuck it to the big corporate man with this campaign that tries to convince us to give up fast food for a month. It’s an interesting move – I guess that IGA’s opening hours mean that fast food are their real competitors – because who seriously shops at IGA when Coles and Woolworths are open?
You go girlfriend.
I do question the wisdom of openly antagonising the people with the biggest marketing budgets in the country. But IGA don’t have a choice really. When you consider that some of the top 50 advertising spenders in Australia (according to Nielsen Media’s 2007 report) were:
It’s hard enough having to compete with the other Supermarkets let alone the fast food guys.
That’s a lot to compete with in the pretty crowded market place market place.
So, could you go three weeks without fast food? I once did it for a year, it didn’t really make a difference to my weight though.
You read it, and you think it should be spelt miss-hit, but it’s dictionarily correct.
That is all…
Here’s a nice little Apple ad featuring a portrait of Steve Jobs composed using Apple marketing slogans… found here.
It seems odd to me that Matthew Johns could engage in dubious, but legal, conduct and lose his job – and future employability – on that basis. He’ll probably never work in the areas he was, until today, employed in again. Fair? I’m not so sure.
What Johns did wasn’t nice. It was wrong by most definitions of the word, and It will cost the NRL money, it will cost Channel Nine money. But the media witch hunt has been appalling.
It seems particularly hypocritical for the network that brought us “turkey slapping” to stick a turkey with a microphone under John’s nose at an airport demanding an apology on behalf of a girl the reporter doesn’t know and has never met.
It also seems somewhat hypocritical for Australia’s leading newspapers to run such a witch hunt while they have these stories driving their online advertising revenue:
Update: Matthew Johns has now apologised to the woman in question in a pretty contrite interview with ACA (reported here).
“Johns, who was earlier stood down indefinitely from Channel Nine and the Melbourne Storm, said the incident was morally wrong but claimed the woman involved was not acting against her will.
“I did not commit an act of abuse to that woman,” Johns said in the taped interview with A Current Affair. “I am guilty of infidelity to my wife and guilty of absolute stupidity.”
“I would say that on the night when she came back to the room, she was a willing participant in everything that occurred.”
He also said that he was unaware of the effect the incident had caused the woman since the night, which he apologised for.
“Any trauma and embarrassment that she’s gone through as a result of this I’m extremely sorry for.”
I think I mentioned once before that one of my sister’s uni lecturers once punk’d her class by banning the use of wikipedia in assignments and then placing false information in the relevant entries to track who ignored their instructions.
The growing reliance of mainstream media on the user generated encyclopedia has been beautifully exploited by one man’s little piece of poetic justice.
Shane Fitzgerald edited the entry for French composer Maurice Jarre hours after his death to include the following quote:
“One could say my life itself has been one long soundtrack. Music was my life, music brought me to life, and music is how I will be remembered long after I leave this life. When I die there will be a final waltz playing in my head that only I can hear.”
This quote hit obituaries in major media outlets all over the country almost immediately – although it was removed from the wikipedia entry within hours.
Fitzgerald came clean – and here’s the story being reported in the SMH – with this quote:
“I am 100 per cent convinced that if I hadn’t come forward, that quote would have gone down in history as something Maurice Jarre said, instead of something I made up,” he said. “It would have become another example where, once anything is printed enough times in the media without challenge, it becomes fact.”
While I’m not suggesting that there’s a culture of feeding purposefully false information into wikipedia one only has to look through the history of changes to Scott Minto’s profile to know that it’s a pretty regular occurrence.
The bit in Fitzgerald’s quote about stuff being printed becoming “truth” is interesting, and it makes Wikipedia an important element of a PR campaign if you want a nice endorsement of your key messages. Wikipedia is a triumph in post-modern market driven thinking where truth really is up in the air and able to be determined by the market – which is perfect if your job is to manipulate or shape a message.
That is all.
These Pepsi Max ads are apparently quite controversial – dealing as they do with the sensitive topic of Suicide.
I don’t personally have a problem with them – they’re just a more colourful version of the Little Book(s) of Bunny Suicides – perennial favourites in the Campbell household…
Apparently those books were inspiring copy cats (or rabbits) in China so were pulled off some shelves… I wouldn’t have thought they were a particularly useful how to guide – given the elaborate nature of the set ups involved.
If, by chance, you’ve reached this post by googling “how to” – and “suicide” please don’t do it. Instead call Lifeline on 13 11 14.
Back in 2006 I wrote about why I hate emoticons. Basically if you use them incessantly or if your online dialogue is peppered with LOLs and ROFLs then I’ll probably find online discourse with you really annoying.
Emoticons and LOLs are starting to appear in actual verbal conversation. People now indicate laughter by saying LOL LOL LOL. If each of those LOLs is indicative of a bout of real life laughter then basically you’re abbreviating your response to things and packing in added hilarity. People also now feel the need to articulate the expression on their face – by saying “sadface” where they’d traditionally :( in typed text. This is sad. Particularly in the light of research that shows face to face communication is about 58 percent non-verbal, 35 percent “vocal” (tone etc) and only 7% verbal (the words you use). And it’s annoying. This is a bit ranty, and it’s really just an intro to a story I just read and thought I’d share…
We may never know the degree of sorrow felt by a young Novosibirsk woman over the traffic cop she struck and killed with her car while driving drunk. But a senior traffic safety official said the “cynicism” of the suspect is exemplified by the text message – complete with emoticon – she sent her boyfriend after killing the officer:
“Honey, I killed a cop. I’m sorry :( What should I do?”
Yeah, nice. Her emotions are so beautifully captured by a colon and a parenthesis. That, to pick up another piece of online lingo is a “sympathy fail”.
The boyfriend’s priceless PR advice:
Create a “scandal and don’t say or sign anything.”
That is all.
I have a bad habit of paying too much attention to the annoying idiosyncrasies in people’s conversational patterns. Particularly the use of annoying catchphrases. Like “So I’m there going…”, “Can I just say…”, and “… and things like that”…
It gets to the point where hearing those people use those phrases is like nails on a chalkboard.
EDIT: I should point out that this post related more to my bad habit and the problems it causes than to things people say. I was being self reflective not trying to be judgmental.
My stimulus payment has finally arrived. So I thought I’d express my thanks to K-Rudd via this open letter.
Dear K-Rudd,
Thank you for the very generous gift that arrived in my account today. I am not sure whether it is a “gracious” act – because I do work and pay taxes so it may be “deserved” – but it’s certainly a pleasant interaction with your government.
Many people are suggesting that this payment is a waste of money that should by rights belong to future generations – I disagree. What have those future generations done to deserve the payment? I think we should do more. Future generations should be doing more for us. We’re always told to look after the planet for them – and I notice that you’ve shelved the carbon pollution reduction scheme for another year. Good move.
Spending our kid’s inheritance is all the rage these days – if I was old and had children – I’d do it too. Kids of tomorrow don’t know how easy they’ll have it, and how hard things were for us. They’ll take everything for granted. Shackling them with debt will build resilience and be good for their character.
Here are some other ideas that will help us enslave future generations for our comfort.
I’m sure there are some other great ideas for how the present generation can ride the back of the future generations – we’ve ridden on the sheep’s back for too long. The children are our future – and our present. They’re such a great asset, provided we use them right. I commend you for taking this bold step and giving me all this money.
My wife doesn’t really want to spend it – can you please contact her, you’ve no doubt got our address, we pay taxes – and tell her that spending the money is in the country’s best interest.
I take back all the mean stuff I’ve ever said about you. And I’m sorry I posted that video of you eating your earwax.
Sincerely,
Nathan Campbell