An Exception to the Rule

I was a preteen girl back when one of the best things about the music industry was the excitement of a new music video release. I'd rush home from school to make sure I didn't miss TRL, a music video Top 10 program on MTV, and cheered on my favorite bands for the number one spot. I never realized how many degrading images of women I was absorbing in a mere hour's time.

Seeing video after video I recognized in the Dreamworlds 3 documentary really opened my eyes to what I'd either missed or forgotten. Suddenly I remembered how disappointed I was when Jewel was suddenly shaking her hips in a skimpy outfit instead of playing guitar just because she was now endorsed by a brand of razor. I thought--

 "Oh yeah! When I was young, you either had to be Jennifer Love Hewitt lusted after by all of LFO, or... Jennifer Love Hewitt saved by Enrique Iglesias in the desert!"

miss_rogue @ flickr

I remembered this monstrosity. Not only did the video for "Dontcha" fall right into the pattern of objectifying women, it wanted the men to pay attention. It asked them to fantasize and to use the women in the video as objects because they were better than the reality of any girlfriend.

Last night I set out on a quest to find a video that defied the odds, because more disheartening to me than the treatment of women in men's entertainment was the seeming compliance of female performers. It was in this search that I stumbled upon a pattern. Women who played instruments - guitar and piano most common - were the ones most often allowed to tell a story from their own point of view. 

Maybe it was already believed that women would be the target audiences for this genre of music, or maybe the fact that a story was built into the song itself spared them from falling into the 'lack of creativity' that other videos show. Either way, it was something to get hopeful about, something that showed that there is a light at the end of a loooooong tunnel of booty shaking babes.

Here was one exception I thoroughly enjoyed. A woman telling a story about her own exception, and keeping her clothes on in the process.

If only she were a natural redhead too!

What Could Have Been A Berry Successful Campaign

When looking through the Forbes.Com Article about Social Media campaigns, I was shocked to discover that a good number of those considered the 'best' were things I hadn't seen before. This is likely a side effect of infrequent use of sites like Facebook and Twitter, which are quickly becoming the sole form of communication for my age group.

And yet... I do have accounts, I do fall victim to popular youtube videos, and to suggest that I've never seen the Old Spice commercials with Isaiah Mustafa would be an outright lie.

What is it that makes social media such a successful outlet for product placement? I think the main factor is the fact that advertisements have found a way to become interactive, and the best way to get a person on board with your brand? Make them feel as if they have a say in it! Like stockholders, but without any monetary benefit.

I know that when Mountain Dew recently placed three new flavors in stores and asked consumers to vote, I was determined to try every single one. When a store didn't have one of the new three flavors in stock? I'd just buy the original. At the time I didn't even think of how easily they'd hooked me.

Thinking over this topic reminded me of what could have been a successful social media campaign and fell somewhat flat. When a commercial featuring a man in a funny outfit doing a dance and singing a tune aired on television for Starbursts - Berries and Cream flavor, all of my friends were talking about it. Whether they felt the commercial was hilarious, or just plain silly, it had captured their attention. Soon after, a video hit youtube showing exactly how to do the dance featured in the commercial.




If only they'd found some way to connect this with flash animation! Then we'd all be able to do the 'Little Lad Dance' without stepping away from our computers. Unfortunately, the campaign failed to recognize the main appeal of social media - tell everyone you know with the click of a button, not a flap of the tongue.

Ready, Set... Roleplay!

All right, so Jane Austen will forever be a huge bore.

Or, to be more fair, her works will always be there for the masses to form opinions on when forced to read or watch, and freedom of speech will allow those of us who enjoy her stories... to sit through a large number of complaints from the rest of the room.

Fair enough. But it doesn't make for a website project to be enthusiastic about when there are twenty five pages of content expected.

So, in the spirit of doing something far more personal and thrilling in a can-I-really-ruin-my-social-life-with-one-project sort of way, I've decided to throw a new concept out there in time for the PowerPoint requirement [and for my views on PowerPoint as a program see this blog post].

ROLEPLAYING.

While some gutter-minded folks out there might link this directly to the bedroom, I'm talking about everything but. Forums, blogs, online games, and cosplay to name just a few varieties.

"So you mean like... where you run around on quests and stuff?"

Eloquent words from my younger brother, but... not exactly. There's so much more to roleplaying than just collecting gold coins and saving the princess. While I've never played any online RPGs myself, I look forward to exploring the subculture they've created. I also want to look into the benefits of roleplaying - from the expansion of the imagination to the grammar skills acquired through shared writing.

Why read about Mr. Darcy when you can be Mr. Darcy!

... Right?

What's the Point?

With titles like Learning to Love PowerPoint and PowerPoint is Evil, I anticipated that these two articles would hold opposing views about the program in question.

I believe, however, that David Byrne and Edward Tufte ultimately reach the same conclusion. A PowerPoint presentation may be a convenient and effective communication tool, but its true quality depends on the content the presenter brings to the table.

Both articles seem to focus in on the key point of limitation. While PowerPoint makes everything simple - bullet point here, bouncing text there, rinse and repeat - for the presenter to organize information, it cannot make up for a lack of good subject matter, nor can it be relied on as the best method for sharing ideas 100% of the time.

Although at first glance the articles may seem contradictory, together they make a successful argument. While those people who choose to use PowerPoint as an aid should not feel as if they have to sacrifice creativity for program presets, they should also remember that more than just slides are available for reaching their audience.

The point: No limits... within reason.

Austentatious Ideas

How are the civilities and compliments of every day life to be related as they ought to be, unless noted down every evening in a journal?

One of my old college roommates used to shake her head or scoff at me whenever I suggested we watch a Jane Austen film for our weekly movie night.  The mere mention of Pride and Prejudice seemed to make her nauseous, no doubt related to resurfacing memories of high school literature courses.  I've been there.


I can admit that I usually don't admit to being a die-hard Austen fan myself. There are a combination of factors at play here.

➻ Actually reading Jane Austen's novels can be similar to pulling teeth (and my six-year-old self remembers having a tooth yanked out that wasn't ready to go, thank you!)

➻ Social structure of the Jane Austen Era makes me want to throw things.

➻ There's enough similarity between her work and modern-day romance novels for me to  fear I'm turning into my mother already.

BUT.

One day I managed to convince my roommate to watch Northanger Abbey with me, and soon enough we were sitting through all 3+ hours of  Sense and Sensibility. We laughed, we screamed at the heroine, we swooned over the men - I converted her to an Austen fan easily in just two weeks.

What makes the film adaptations so much better than the original work?

I often compare William Shakespeare to Disney's animated films ("He might not have come up with the story, but he knows how to make me like it!"), both genius in their own right. Andrew Davies is another person to add to that list. Every single screen adaptation of Jane Austen's work with his name attached is one I can claim is worth seeing.

If I could choose my ULTIMATE website project, it would be to compile a shrine to Mr. Davies list of Jane Austen BBC (and ITV) adaptations and what makes each unique. Choice of actors and actresses, adaptation of dialogue, and even set design could all be a part of the comparative process.

I am, however, aware of the various problems that could arise with such a topic. Not only external, but my own sad tendency to ramble like a rambling thing that rambles.

Failing a Jane Austen Adaptation site, I do seem to have quite a few photos I took of empty benches lying around my desktop. 

Could be an idea there.

I am simultaneously sitting as close to and as far away from a good idea as possible.

Hmn. 

Vintage French Ads

I hate cats.

Not only do I have a severe allergic reaction whenever one is near, but it seems that if you have any sort of interest in blogging at all, someone who follows your writing (and perhaps you follow in return) will want to speak to you in depth about what their cat is doing at any given time.

I might not care that Princess Fluffybutt  looks cute when sunbathing, but I listen anyway. This is incredibly similar to how I feel about old French advertisements.

design by Théophile-Alexandre Steinlen

When people think of vintage ads, or display any in their home, they tend to be full of cats. The classic Le Chat Noir to be more specific. But unlike the aforementioned Princess Fluffybutt, Le Chat Noir is iconic. It's about atmosphere and design aesthetic, history and culture.

While I wouldn't want to change my friends (cat-lovers and all), I can change my choice of wall hanging, and while Le Chat Noir is incredibly popular, vintage ads have a variety of products to sell - including bicycles, chocolate, and lots and lots of alcohol.

I have incredibly fond memories of chocolate. As a woman, I feel compelled to make fond memories of chocolate at least once a month... but even as a child, growing up in a city with a Nestle chocolate factory assured that waking up in the morning smelled amazing.

Didn't hurt to have the right connections either. Crunch bars with pictures of Pocahontas and John Smith on them will forever be one of my favorite freebies.

design by Firmin Bouisset

A Chocolat Menier poster will forever be one of my favorite advertisements.

There's something incredibly charming about the little girl in the ad. Maybe it's the double braid (that I could never pull off without being called Pippi), or the sense of mischief in writing on a wall, which most of us were never supposed to do with Mom's lipstick. I could have been intrigued by the closed umbrella or the bright, bold colors with yellow and blue when chocolate always pops into mind as a rich brown.

Whatever the initial attraction, I've always wanted to see advertisements return to the uniqueness of these older designs. It might seem unwise for a company to advertise a product without capturing the exact look of the object using specific lighting techniques and a powerful photo lens, but there is something to be said about the way advertisement is often linked to art and design. Photography can be a beautiful medium, and I would never turn my back on a good PS image, but it couldn't hurt to employ a few artists to an advertising job and make good use of the printing press, could it?

Just don't look to me for the first design, unless you're attempting to sell stick figures.

Oh, and to my friends Circe and Luna - I owe you each a chocolate bar. You'll know why (nyan).