Tag: New Media

  • PSFK: Conference Culturejamming

    Nike + hurdler Liu Xiang(soaked up heaps of ideas at PSFK yesterday, so begins a lil loop of yawps, queries + kisses)

    Earlier this month, Business Week wrote about Pepsi, Nike and other big guns subverting the ‘official’ brands of the Beijing Olympics. But could a brand hack or subversively sponsor an advertising conference? If well executed, would it be well received? I imagine a large conference is fair game, but are the nimble new off-limits?

    Banksy on the inside of 4 museums
    Quicker than quick, cooler than cool.

    6/9/2008
    Olympic Advert Hijack

  • Real Recognize Real

    poochy.jpgAs Eric Henderson and Agency Spy recently wrote, all cultures are rooted in unique codes and mores. If you are an outsider reaching in, be honest about your status, otherwise you’ll just get shook. One of my favorite examples of cultural missteps in the YouTube era is the P Diddy & Burger King collab.

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    On a platform whose billion dollar market value is based in egalitarian DIY, Diddy not only looks pompous, but gets all the codes wrong. BK ‘bought’ him a YouTube channel? And so this gets flipped by Lisa Nova to the tune of +1.5 million views.

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    It spawns a raft of other spoofs and poor press for both ‘Kings’. While DiddyTV is going strong, BK is MIA and Young Nov’ is keeping it real in the YouTube era.

    read about it in this book, matey

    12/10/08 Naked shows that Diddy just seems to be outta touch. It aint even that’s he’s so lux, he’s just so lame.

  • Sony

    We produced a suite of 20 new media documentaries about music for Sony’s Crackle.com. Here are two of our faves, above is The Exit and below is Neutral Mute.

  • Crookers + Miike Snow

    A music video for the remix kings Crookers that’s earned a raft of press and over 250K views thus far.

  • Barbie, The Ghetto Diaries + Fanon

    your hair looks good girl

    Last week Robin Hafitz from Open Mind/kb+p gave a great
    presentation about how the walls of public/private space are melting. One sign of these times is the sex tapes and commando-flashing tactics of Brit/LiLo/Paris. The recording and sharing of sex is no longer in the back room, but
    writ large, and as Robin noted, Barbie and Ken aren’t just dating, they’re making porn.

    Robin’s talk came spinning back into my skull today when I learned about YouTube auteur SANKYLADY. Her series, Ghetto Diaries, goes one step beyond porn into a realm of absurdity, sexytime and bad haircuts. And it’s pretty durn addictive.

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    SANKY joins the ranks of women vidders, her work lodged somewhere between Brookers and Luminosity, futzing with a billion dollar brand in the lowest of fi. I do hope she catches a virus, in a good way.

    X8IjwO6eFnM(learned about Sanky Lady from the The Message)

  • Juno, Sex Workers & MapQuest

    When accepting her Oscar for Best Original Screenplay, Juno scribe Diablo Cody proudly displayed her bicep tat of a bikini-clad + rope bound lass, a visual reminder to viewers at home that Cody was once a stripper. And the dark humor that actress Ellen Page spits in Juno is strongly rooted in the self-aware and acerbic style of writing oft found in sex worker literature.

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    Women in the sex industry have historically been labeled as Victim with A Heart of Gold, Radical Feminist or Dumb Slut. Rarely are they seen as having any agency or complexity. Spread Magazine launched in 2005 to flip the script:

    We believe that all sex workers have a right to self-determination; to choose how we make a living and what we do with our bodies. We aim to build community and destigmatize sex work by providing a forum for the diverse voices of individuals working in the sex industry.

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    For those dear readers who may be clucking and saying Not My World, let’s look at the webstat counter Alexa.com to see the story of Our Nation’s online activity.

    Megarotic has more visits than Amazon, AOL and Blogger
    YouPorn beats Digg and The New York Times
    Adult Friend Finder…gets more love than MapQuest?

    With porn’s market position as an ‘outsider industry’, we may be inclined to think that some of these xxxsites are clickbotting. While we may question Ms. Alexa, her stats are bandied about like Mr. Nielson’s ratings. Fact is, porn is no longer just “finding Dad’s Playboys” (i looked, alas he had none) or a dusty VHS. It’s everywhere and we’re all, shall we say, touched, by it.

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    Now Sex & The City EP Darren Star has an upcoming HBO series based on Tracy Quan’s Diary of a Manhattan Call Girl. Also coming, Washingtonienne and Secret Diary of a Call Girl.

    Given that Carrie Bradshaw spawned trends like drinking Cosmos, lusting after Manohlo Blahniks and hearting Marc Jacobs, I’m curious to see what details our pop culture might take from an expensive prostitute. Going beyond any new trends, maybe this show and Diablo Cody’s high profile will begin to remix the public discussion of American sex workers and this naughty little $12 billion industry.

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    —-
    UPDATES

    4/24/08
    What does it mean when Nintendo’s Wii has a stripper video game?

    5/16/08
    Teens + Sex and the City

    6/10/08
    NYT and 365 days of sex

    Porn = Normal trend report

    7/24
    Porn vs. Prostitution

    8/17
    Porn visits Sesame Street?

  • Urban Planning = New Media Planning

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    Below is the Pecha Kucha presentation I gave at Hall & Partners about remix culture via urban planning. Before working with brands and film, I was an urban planner and did research in a raft of cities round the globe.

    One thing planners have learned is that people have an innate need to remix and customize any urban system or grid that they encounter. Rules will be broken, it’s not about ‘if’, it’s ‘when & how’. See below Jason Lewis’s pics of skaters, parking garages and rollerrinks. Or take a look at HBO’s The Wire. Both engage in this dance of spatial rules and regulations…and are far better executed than my YouTubed musings.

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