Sunday, February 22, 2009

F@#$ My Life... I think there's an online community for everything

The library changed it's hours this semester. Apparently, instead of having general open hours until 2:00 AM, the lobby remains open that late and the stacks are only open until 11:00. I left to go to the computer lab near my dorm but when I returned the library was closed and whats more an entire mid term paper and research packets. I called around campus, and eventually was told to stick it out for about two hours when campus police would eventually search the building on their rounds and let me in.

While waiting for my nightmare to work itself out I called a few friends for comfort and two of the three of them told me to visit www.fmylife.com. The site is like an online open forum that anyone can post on, and tell stories... more or less about how their life sucks. Well, it did make me feel better and I got a good laugh out of a few of them but what I noticed was how easy it has become for people to be a part of everybody elses lives. It doesnt end with celebrities, it isn't limited to famous people in Popular American Culture, anyone can be heard.

Wednesday, February 4, 2009

'Man this is hard...'

The Super Bowl is one of those 'great American traditions' that manages to capture the entire country's attention at the same time. More or less our entire country is in a living room or bar watching a football game they may or may not care about. I love watching football, I may or may not have cried when the Giants lost to the Eagles this year and I'll never tell.

So why is it that during one of the most televised and watched TV events in the country we actually look forward to the interruptions? Maybe it was the Budweiser frogs, the screaming squirrels, the constant man-getting-hit-in-the-nuts jokes or anything in between. The issue is, that at some point hasn't it all been done before? Isn't every thirty second time space just one tacky giggle after another? I don't think I was impressed by any advertisements this year, and I think most people are on the same page as me...but somehow, someway, advertisers managed to attack the medium of TV from a new angle!

Miller High Life managed to catch my attention before the super bowl with this ad.



During the game, at various cities across the country a different one second commercial was aired. A bunch of them are recorded here.



Granted most of them didn't make it to out homes and screens, but it was certainly a creative approach to advertising. It isn't enough for a company to make a commercial, the millions of dollars invested in a commercial that fails to catch attention is wasted money and from my experience can do more harm than help to a company's reputation. People who work in advertising and marketing have moved beyond the money, beyond the commercial too produce a phenomena outside of the game and give themselves an advantage on a different playing field.