Is the media evil?

I was listening to some music (or whatever you want to call it, I like it so It's music to me) VIA YouTube.

I had been listening to a song by System of a Down (or SOAD) called Hypnotize (above). Now I LOVE  SOAD because they always seem to have some sort of message in their music. The song in question, Hypnotize,  is partly about the way people are controlled by the media. (There's a lot of Communism, mass suicide stuff going on too but lets ignore that for now - You can click on the title of the post for a link to the interpretation of the song)

The point is, it got me thinking that the concept of the Media is that it is akin to a controlling unseen being, Like George Orwell's Big brother character in "1984". (Now you know where the Big Brother reality TV show got their title from.)

There have always been debates on whether "Media" (Yes, it deserves a capital 'M' it is now an unseen entity) should be controlled or not (and many other arguments) and we all know that the U.A.E has a Semi-free media... with a couple of restrictions, like no nudity, or sexual acts, ....stuff like that. (I feel like I'm walking on eggshells in this post)

At university, i was thought two different things:

1. In your adverts, assume everyone is an idiot and simplify everything.
2. In your adverts, don't insult your audience by treating everyone like an idiot.

Obviously it gets a lot more complicated than that depending on what vehicle media you actually use (Print, broadcast, Internet....etc), and how much time you have (EX: More time in magazines , less on billboards) , and who your actually trying to talk to (EX: General consumers, or tech freaks) and several other factors. The message, the clients, the audience, the expected results, blah blah, blah.

 As a result, I have tried to become "immune" to advertising ... however I've failed. I want Apple's , I want to wear the latest fashion, I want to have the coolest car, the latest phone, the latest diddybeats headphones, I want to been seen with the right colour of nail polish .......you get the drift.

So, as student of advertising I still get affected by all those messages bombarded at me. (Though I do try to resist). But sometimes I buy things because I appreciate the time and effort put into the whole campaign.

My question to all of you is this. Do you recognise when the Media is sending a message to you? Do you ever feel insulted by bad advertising? Do you feel like you have an uncontrollable urge to buy everything that is being advertised at the moment? (I'm not asking if you a shopaholic just asking how easily you feel you are affected by all the messages)

In short: Do you feel controlled by the Media? and who's doing the controlling? is the Media evil?



 

Social Media for Beginners (2008)

Social Media for Beginners

View more presentations from Billy Fischer.

http://http://www.slideshare.net/babrain/social-media-for-beginners-presentation

Twitter fun facts!

Here are some twitter facts thanks to marketingelf.com , or http://marketingelf.com/events/effective-social-media-techniques/

1.      Focus on retweets

2.      Don’t practice tweet poaching

3.      70% of retweets contain a link

http://www.p2pnet.net/images/twwl.jpg

4.      retweets with a hashtag are more likely to be retweeted

5.      Retweet the classics – classic stories that hold up

6.      Their highest tweet day is Wednesday

7.      Retweet days are Monday & Wednesday

8.      highest # of retweets are from 2:15pm to 3:30pm EST

9.      #1 Twitter city is London

10.  ABO – always be optimizing

11.  troll friends of competitors – if they are following them then they may be interested in your content too

12.  scout hashtag & trends

13.  contest & giveaways are heavily retweeted

14.  put tweet it buttons everywhere

15.  Retweet buddies & ask them to do the same

16.  RT’ers track them & thank them

17.  Keep score and remember to retweet friends

18.  one offs “payback” retweets at odd hours

19.  Dell did $6.5 million on Twitter last year, so it is viable for sales

20.  do some automated tweets, but click throughs are less

21.  quick tricks = traffic

22.  a little extra effort = quality traffic

23.  Drive engagement:
bland- what did you think of Avatar?
Better – was Avatar overhyped?

Interesting stuff! I know it's difficult to remember all of this , and there's may more! You can check out the original blog posting by clicking on the title of the post , or the link at the top of this post.

I want to be an Apple Fan Girl

I work at one of the coolest companies ever. A media company that focuses on tech and gaming, as well as movies. So I get to tinker with/play on/watch stuff before (or as soon as) it's publicly released. Which is totally AWESOME.

One of the coolest things about this place is that all my co-workers are what I called "The new cool", or computer and gaming enthusiasts.  Yes , I know. Geeks and now the new cool. That's just how the world works now,  and I want to be one of them.

Without them, we'd literally be living in the dark, washing with cold water...outdoors, living in the cold (or heat as is the case here), still writing letters and riding horses (which isn't too bad) , waiting days to hear from someone.. you get my drift.

Anyways, we were running around Dubai going to several meetings, and when we were done I automatically assumed we were going back to the office, when my boss starts driving us to Sahara Mall, Sharjah. Why? Because he heard that they were still selling the iPhone4 there. Alas, the iPhone4 was no more and all sold out and he would have to wait till stocks were replenished.

We had lunch, and he went off to hunt for the iPhone4... i think he went to all the malls in Dubai. Poor guy... it was sold out everywhere. (Two guys at work already have the iPhone4)

Now, looking at my pathetic un-smartphone, with its VGA camera and lack of multitasking abilities, I hate Steve Jobs for creating these awesome pieces of technology that have created a sort of class-tech distinction... Apple users VS OTHERs. There's a whole following, a cult if you will, of Apple owners, running around flaunting their gadgets.

Now, I want not ONLY the Macbook pro, but the iPad AND the iPhone4. I want EVERYTHING to do with apple.

There's a thin line between love and hate.

Market your skills through hacking! (Don't try this at home)

Hello readers!

So I just read a link through twitter today (thanks to @socialmediamind about this 17 year old who hacked twitter using what he called the "mattster worm"

"He was the brains behind the computer code that caused chaos on Twitter last Tuesday night, devising a script to Tweet that replicated to every follower on the receiver's account."


This script was incredibly annoying, even I got it, and i was wondering what was up with twitter.  It went something like this:

sigsdohnsdjbnsd;obnabngo;dg sonnfoggna0ry49[0c04y50htrhm5yvjwvdgb 3b045jbtnf...

or at least that's what it looked like to me.

And now we all know about him, Oh what a jerk...oh what a young genius... do you see where I'm going with this?

Other recent hacking incidents are when:

• Twitter was overrun with posts one morning that used a programming flaw to play pranks, distribute porn and spread worms to unsuspecting users. 
• Twitter was overrun with weight-loss product spam @mashable
• BP has admitted that its official Twitter account was compromised temporarily yesterday by hackers who posted a joke about its attempts to stem the devastating oil leak that has polluted the Gulf of Mexico.
• A Twitter security glitch left celebrities and members of the public mourning the temporary loss of their legions of online fans yesterday. 

So why don't people think about using their hacking skills to market themselves (Im sure someone must have done it by now,,, and im sure other haven't because it's illegal)... but there must be other ways! like installing a widget on peoples desktops that has a count down to a product launch (that they can remove) or something like that..

WHAT? it's just a thought!

Social Media Facts and Stats

3D Viewing: not special anymore

Why is 3D viewing becoming so popularly infamous?

Everyone around me has been complaining that almost all the movies now are coming out in 3D, everywhere we go we're bombarded by 3D Ready TVs or 3D TVs and get 3D glasses shoved in our faces to enjoy this vomit inducing form of entertainment.

Yes, people actually get 3D Sickness (Motion Sickness) watching these things. 5% of the US population to be exact. Not to mention that all visually impaired eye-glass wearing humans are forced to put the 3D glasses on TOP on their own eye-glasses. (I must admit they're trying to fix the Motion sickness with some special 3D glasses)

Even Nintendo is coming up with a new portable video gaming console that allows you to play everything in 3D (though i don't think you have to wear glass).

Personally, I remember being terribly excited on the way to a 3D movie and having gloated to my friends about how cool i was. (i was probably 13 then so leave me alone haha).

I want 3D to be special again!

What do you guys think? Am i being a bit purist? or does everyone just LOVE 3D?