Stay F---! | April 4
Carrie McLaren
stay.free at verizon.net
Mon Apr 4 13:53:15 EDT 2005
Hi folks, here are some recent highlights from our new Stay F---! blog
(http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org) See the listed URLs for full text,
including links and images.
NYC GRASSROOTS MEDIA CONFERENCE
...is this weekend (April 9 & 10) at New School University. We’ll be
selling magazines and other stuff in the tabling area so come out and
say hi.
http://www.nycgrassrootsmedia.org/
NEUROECONOMICS
Business Week makes the bold proclamation that “The study of
neuroeconomics may topple the notion of rational decision-making.”
Yeah, right. We’ve heard this all before, as “behavioral economics”--a
form of economics that acknowledges the obvious: that emotions affect
one’s economic decisions. Though advertising and marketing have relied
on emotions for over a century, mainline economics has always refused
to acknowledge the role of emotions because doing so would undermine
the basis of free-market economics (in other words, the idea that the
market is the perfect arbiter of society’s interests). Behaviorial
economics is clearly more realistic than the classical model, but
political forces so overwhelmingly disfavor it that it’s a wonder
Business Week even mentions it. (Though perhaps neuroeconomics--with
its “scientific” dressing--sounds more palatable than “behavioral.”)
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/
STARBUCKS ALTERNATIVES COURTESY OF DELOCATOR
Posted by Steve Lambert
Delocator.net a new project by artists collective, Finishing School has
been launched. It’s an online interactive database that allows
visitors to enter and pull comparative information on independently
owned cafés and Starbucks...
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/04/delocator_is_li.html
GORGE ON THE RAINBOW
Posted by Tim Harrod
One of the many product tie-ins with the upcoming “Star Wars” film is
with the makers of Skittles brand Bite Size Candies. Along with various
games and contests on the website, the Star Wars or SkittlesTM fan is
urged to shop for SkittlesTM until they possess all 48 collectible
packages featuring images from the film. According to my math, to
achieve this feat one must consume over eighteen pounds of SkittlesTM
over the four-month duration of the promotion. I know Star Wars fans
have a slim shot at impressing the ladies anyway, but between the
eighteen-pound suggestion and this ad, I think they’re pursuing a new
“Never Get Laid Again” advertising strategy.
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/
PBS SELLS OUT (AGAIN)
PBS is partnering with Comcast, Sesame Workshop, and HIT Entertainment
on a new advertising-supported digital cable channel for
preschoolers...
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/04/pbs_sells_out_a.html
TECHNOPRANKS, CUT-UPS, AND KIDS WITHOUT COATS
Highlights from my recent trip to Iowa: Jesse Drew talked about
prankster engineers who inbed images into computer microchips--images
that can only be seen with a microscope... also, a website compiling
audio cutups of President Bush and his cronies. And more...
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/03/technopranks_au.html
STUDY: PUPILS ‘DO WORSE WITH COMPUTERS’
From the Guardian: “An international study of about 100,000
15-year-olds in 32 different developed and developing countries
suggests that the drive to equip” schoolchildren with computers may be
misplaced. See also: Lose the Laptops.
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/03/study_pupils_do.html
BAD MOTIVATOR
Posted by Jason Torchinsky
I’m always amazed by what gets people angry enough to justify the
effort of making webpages, online petitions, and the like. There’s
plenty of valid things to be angry about in this crazy-go-nuts world of
ours, but the lack of a “pacifistic” R5-D4 action figure doesn’t even
make my list, and I LOVE toy robots.
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/
THE $500 COURSEPACK
Students at Harvard other universities are battling coursepacks that
cost almost $500, due to copyright insanity. Pissed off, they’re
photocopying articles from the coursepack on their own, which this
editorial from the Harvard Crimson calls illegal. I could be wrong but
I’m pretty sure it’s actually fine to photocopy articles for personal
use, particularly for educational purposes. What’s NOT okay is for a
commercial outlet such as Kinko’s to sell coursepacks without getting
copyright clearances.
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/03/the_500_coursep.html
THE BARBIE HISTORY OF AMERICA
From the Washington Post: “In ‘Peace, Love, and Rock ‘n’ Roll’ -- one
of the first books in a series aimed to offer, as one of its creators
puts it, ‘history through the Barbie filter’-- Barbie and her African
American friend Christie are both illustrated with pink skin and long,
straight hair.” The other new book in the series has Barbie teaching
about the 1960s Civil Rights movement. Oh, the irony! ...
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/03/barbie_diary_of.html
SUCKING ON THE TIT OF MCDONALD’S
Here’s an amazing McDonald’s ad showing a baby sucking on a Big Mac
bun. They’ve gotta be kidding, right? This is a parody? No and no. I’m
not sure when the ad was made but I’d guess around 2002. Pretty funny
in light of McDonald’s recent attempts to distance itself from
marketing junk food to kids, huh?
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/03/sucking_on_the_.html
THE SEX ED TEACHER WAS RIGHT!
Posted by Damian Chadwick
As if the Troubles and House of Pain weren’t enough, the Irish also
have to contend with fake condoms masquerading as the real thing. The
libido-killing tale of substandard prophylactics that somehow found
their way into “realistic” Durex-brand packaging and onto Emerald Isle
shelves can be found in the Guardian. An even more terrifying
revelation in this story: there’s an international standard setting the
number of holes condoms can have and still be legally sold...
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/03/the_sex_ed_teac.html
THE YES MEN’S BHOPAL PRANK
If you’ve seen the Yes Men documentary, you know those guys are
geniuses. But have you seen the stunt they pulled on the 20th
anniversary of the Bhopal disaster? The Yes Men are mostly known for
masquerading as members of the WTO. But this time,Yes Man “Andy”
manages to pass himself off to BBC World Television viewers as a
representative from Dow Chemical. Live on camera, Andy (as “Jude
Finisterra”) apologizes on behalf of Dow and promises to $12 billion to
compensate the surviving victims!
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/03/the_yes_mens_bh.html
WHY “OUR MEDIA” MATTERS
Many blogs have posted about Our Media, a new site that provides free
storage and bandwidth for your videos, audio files, photos, text and
software. If you haven’t checked it out yet you should, but I thought
I’d post a note about why I think this site is more important that you
may at first realize...
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/03/why_our_media_m.html
KEEPING TRACK OF “CAUSE” RIBBONS
Posted by Steve Lambert
Carrie’s recent post about the craze for silicone cause bracelets got
me all nostalgic about ribbons. Entering elementary school in 1980, I
arrived just in time for Nancy Reagan’s ‘Just Say No’ anti-drug
campaign. We had ‘red-ribbon weeks’ when everyone wore red ribbons and
made red ribbon anti-drug posters and hung them in the hall. As the
years went on I remember being confused when red ribbons started to
mean AIDS awareness instead of drugs. With the Gulf War came ribbons in
support of the US, and the troops, and soon after breast cancer, and
child abuse. Ten years later I stumbled across a handy guide like
this one. Ah ha! Finally a legend for this map! ...
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/03/colors.html
EVOLUTION OF ADVERTISING SLOGANS
The Institute for Infinitely Small Things has put together a neato site
compiling what it calls corporate commands. Taken individually, these
things seem pretty meaningless, but a long list like this paints a nice
Orwellian picture:
Drink. Win. Play. - Pepsi
Invent - Hewlett Packard
Join! - Procter & Gamble
Have It Your Way - Burger King
Revive - Glaceau (Flavored Water)
Reward Yourself - American Express
Find It. Book It. Easy. - Expedia (Microsoft)
Change The Way You Look At Color - Nexus
Empower Your Vision - Rayban
Keep Your Identity To Yourself - Citibank
Funny how exhortations such as these having pretty much replaced
classic slogans. Compare these to Advertising Age’s Top 10 Slogans of
the Century, for example...
http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/03/evolution_of_ad.html
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