Friday, February 27, 2009

May's Remix

I happen to be a fan of Billy Mays and I'm also a fan of remixing. When people take things, and make new things out of them, regardless of how cheezy, you have to admire the effort and appreciate the originality. I think it's safe to say Billy is mainstream now and officially awesome! Welcome to pop culture Bill.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Pizza Hut Gets Remixed

Remixing (or recombinant culture, <---- I suggest you watch this lecture by a really cool brit guy I work with) is a part of our culture, but I'm still trying to figure out if all forms of remixing result in positive impressions for you brand. This Pizza Hut spoof shows what some people really think of their product. Personally, I just happen to agree.


Thursday, February 19, 2009

Dentyne Ice

I must admit Dentyne has been doing some awesome work as of late; although I may be biased considering it came from my very own home base at McCann NY. But what struck me as incredibly insightful was how the developers dug deep into cultural inertia to pull out the insight that in modern societies people are experiencing a disconnect with each other due to the proliferation of advanced communications platforms. I blogged about this prior to the launch of the campaign, and to my delight was shocked to see that I wasn't alone in this belief. Essentially, the ads look to encourage physical human interaction again; not via mobile communications, text messages or social networks etc. I think it is a refreshing notion that we can all learn from, let's just get back to being people. Instead of sending an e-mail to that coworker across the hall, just walk on over and actually do something far too many of us dread, talk to them. Oh yea, please ignore the irony that you're be reading this post, most likely alone and behind a computer screen. If I could I would give you a hug right now. I also encourage you to visit Dentyne Ice's home page, but be swift, in an effort to curb web browsing and stimulate people to 'make face time' they set up a site that only allows 3 minutes of browsing per session. Very cool guys.

Wednesday, February 18, 2009

User Generated Content Crossing Over

I was watching TV the other night, channel surfing course. I stopped on a grainy, unknown network 'Current_' and remembered hearing about this channel (launched with the backing of presidential hopeful and environmental champion Al Gore, back in 2005) in the past but never payed close attention to it. But this night what sparked my interest was a viewing segment 'VC2' which expanded means 'viewer created content.' It was obvious at a first glance that this wasn't network quality production, but instead clips, pods and even commercials of which is mostly user generated content; there was even a Chase Bank commercial that was created and produced by an Indie. Although I'm quite late, I still find it very interesting that user generated content is beginning to crossover platforms from the web on to mediums such as Television. Something to pay close attention to as our attentions spans collapse and our desires to interact and engage with our media increases. This is TV we can contribute to, and in the end isn't that what we all desire.. more autonomy? I'll monitor this new channel 'Current_' and see how this develops. The video below is a taste of what you could find.