From stay.free at verizon.net Mon Jun 13 18:33:20 2005 From: stay.free at verizon.net (Carrie McLaren) Date: Mon, 13 Jun 2005 18:33:20 -0400 Subject: Stay F---! | June 14, 2005 Message-ID: <2cf4eb68e3704773e7fd17c187e9d5b2@verizon.net> Here are a few more recent highlights from our blog, Stay F---! Daily. For images, links, and complete text, visit http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org. TEXTBOOK ADVERTISING McGraw-Hill is offering corporations advertising space in its textbooks. Again. http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/06/textbook_advert_1.html IS DEODORANT THE NEW TOBACCO? Remember the post about Procter & Gamble?s new deodorant spray targeting 7-year-old girls? The deodorant, Secret Sparkle, bears a warning: KEEP OUT OF REACH OF CHILDREN. What a riot. The marketers at P&G apparently didn?t think twice about marketing something to children that they know to be unsafe, because when the Children?s Advertising Review Unit (a public relations tool for the ad industry with no actual regulatory power) raised a red flag, P&G?s spokesperson expressed surprise. http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/06/body_spray_kids.html AN INQUIRY INTO THE EFFECTS OF PRESERVATIVES IN MCDONALD?S FOOD, OR, WHAT DOES THE FUNGUS KNOW THAT YOU DON?T? http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/06/mcdonalds_exper.html AXING CORPORATE GRAFFITI In Chicago, pretty much anyone has the right to remove graffiti from private property, thanks to a citywide initiative known as Give Graffiti the Brush. So last week, a trio of champions used the rule to their advantage and painted over a graffiti-style billboard for Axe, the perfume for boys. Continued: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/06/axing_corporate.html JETS STADIUM GROUNDED Posted by Charles Star Sheldon Silver (Democrat and NY Assembly Speaker) and Joe Bruno (Republican and NY Senate Majority Leader), in light of the IOC report, have declined to provide state financing to build the Jets/?Olympic? stadium on the Hudson Yards. Unless they change their minds, the stadium plan (as currently structured) is dead. Continued: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/06/jets_stadium_gr.html JUDGES TOSS OUT DUIS BECAUSE BREATHALYZERS? SOURCE CODE IS SECRET Via Boing Boing, we learn: ?Florida judges are tossing out DUI cases when defendants ask to see the source code for the breathalyzers that busted them -- the manufacturers won?t turn over the source, and since the machine?s correct operation is critical to establishing the case against the DUIers, the case is dismissed when it can?t be produced.? Now if only they could find a way to apply this to voting machines. Continued: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/06/judges_toss_out.html ISN?T THAT THE CUTEST LITTLE TERRORIST? Posted by Charles Star It is so hard, when crossing cultural lines to know whether something is intended as kitsch or not. Take the Osamaiana for sale in Southeast Asia. Is the Osama bin laden doll a GI Joe for kids in the Middle East to play ?terrorist training camp? (picture Osama sitting in the middle of the circle, lecturing about the inevitable realization of the will of Allah) or for lobbing fake grenades at bunkers filled with plastic army men? Continued: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/06/isnt_that_the_c.html BOOKSTORE PAYOLA The New York Times has a story about bookstore payola and the fact that chains like Barnes & Noble and Borders determine their display space based on how much publishers are willing to pay them. Not that this is news to a crotchety zinester; the practice extends to the magazine racks as well, which is one reason pubs like mine end up shoved in the back (though certainly not the only one). And it also applies to the music biz. In fact, a label rep once told me that Tower makes more money from selling in-store display space and other co-promotions than from selling CDs themselves. I find that a little hard to believe, but if anyone has real, compelling numbers on this, I?d be glad to share them. Continued: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/06/bookstore_payol.html YOU HEAR (STUFF ABOUT RADIO CONGLOMERATES) HERE FIRST Posted by John Aboud Stuart Elliott ?In Advertising? e-column for the New York Times is consistently informative and, often, unintentionally hilarious. The chuckles come from two sources. First, Elliott?s style. He is a shameless pun user, and he takes giddy delight in chronicling campaigns he enjoys. A recent email, featuring a recap of some new 2(x)ist underwear ads, actually caused cold sweat and drool to puddle on my monitor. Calm down, Stu. Continued: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/06/you_hear_stuff_.html HOW TV ONCE SOLD ITSELF In that odd way that things seem to happen in the publishing world, two new art books out appear to be the same thing: collections of advertisements documenting the rise of television. TV Wonderland is barely worth mentioning. The ads are printed so small that you can?t read the text, and the authors? commentary is close to pointless. Window to the Future: The Golden Age of Television Marketing and Advertising is a different story. The author, Steve Kosareff, looks at the ads with a critical eye and offers some historical insight, but the ads themselves are the real draw. Instead of doing a standard review, I thought I?d post some old TV ads -- some from Kosareff?s book, some not -- and share a few observations. Continued: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/06/how_tv_once_sol.html INTERVIEW WITH STAY F----?s CARRIE McLAREN, ON GOTHAMIST: http://www.gothamist.com/archives/2005/06/07/ carrie_mclaren_editor_stay_free.php POP WILL EAT ITSELF (AND THAT?S A GOOD THING) This Wall Street Journal article about Asian pop music made me realize an obvious solution to the music industry?s downloading woes: abandon the assumption that pop music is anything other than advertising and dissolve the music biz into the ad biz. That?s essentially what has happened in Asia, where pop hits are commissioned by cell-phone makers and fast food chains. Continued: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/06/ad_songs.html A LITTLE PRESENT IN BABY?S DIAPER Posted by Charles Star Marketers are going after pre-cognitive infants by using their sense of smell to fix positive affiliations with brands in their memories. Continued: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/06/a_little_presen.html From stay.free at verizon.net Tue Jun 28 15:27:47 2005 From: stay.free at verizon.net (Carrie McLaren) Date: Tue, 28 Jun 2005 15:27:47 -0400 Subject: Stay F---! | June 28 Message-ID: <83d7ea839a71d74147ea8524eac2e106@verizon.net> NO, I'M HAPPY TO SEE YOU Posted by Charles Star Newsweek reports that, taking a page from the Wonderbra, manufacturers are designing men's underwear to give more lift (but presumably not to separate). Continued: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/06/no_im_happy_to_.html JUNK FOODS AGAINST OBESITY When Armageddon comes, fast food clowns will dress up as fitness instructors and cola companies will write nutrition guidelines for schools... Oh wait, they already are, at least judging from this new batch of corporate "health" websites. Continued: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/06/coke_junk.html NEW FROM STAY FREE! MAGAZINE An Interview with Flavor Makers. What's it like on the frontlines of food chemistry? A couple of former factory workers talk about non-blueberry blueberries, the dangers of peppermint oil, and why you really, really don't want to spill the diacetyl. by Amy Balkin and James Harbison http://www.stayfreemagazine.org/archives/23/flavor-chemists.html IF ALBUM COVERS WERE ADVERTISEMENTS After the unfortunate news spread that Nike has ripped off a Minor Threat album cover for a new ad campaign, some enterprising readers of I Love Music tried to imagine what other well-known album covers would look like if advertisers got a hold of them. There are loads of funny examples here so check 'em out. Continued: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/06/if_album_covers.html CRITICAL MASS, JUNE Posted by Matt Ransford Mr. Ransford recounts the group's encounter with the police in June. Lots of discussion ensues. http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/06/critical_mass_j.html HOW DID THE DOCUMENTARY "MAD HOT BALLROOM" SURVIVE THE COPYRIGHT CARTEL? Answer: by limiting music that played in classrooms, haggling over clearance fees, and cutting out a scene. The price tag for a cell-phone ringtone? $10,000. Continued: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/06/mad_hot_ballroo.html See also the followup: FAIR USE: USE IT OR LOSE IT http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/06/fair_use_use_it.html ALAS, TOO LATE FOR THE GENIUS WHO CREATED "PUCK" Posted by ja3 Big news hot off the wires, dateline Hollywood! The Writers Guild of America is organizing the writers and editors of reality TV. Yep, "writers of." Sorry to blow your mind. Continued: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/06/alas_too_late_f.html UNDERGROUND ADVERTISING Posted by Charles Star When writer Jeff Johnson was taking the tube to Heathrow airport, he became the audience for British Airways' latest whispering campaign: "...two men stopped in my car and started talking about how one of them wasn't going to make his flight. The man insisted that he was going to make his flight because he'd checked-in online way before hand at BA.com. The conversation/argument went on for about a minute and a half before the BA.com stuff got out of hand and it turned out that the guys were actors paid to make us think about BA.com." Continued: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/06/underground_adv.html THIS LAND IS YOUR LAND Posted by Steve Lambert In the midst of some research I stumbled across the website of The Center for Land Use Interpretation. Most interesting is their Land Use Database. Pick a state and it will show you "unusual and exemplary sites" catagorized by everything from cultural, to nuclear, to transporation, and more. Selections from California include an abandonded solar power plant, the now abandonded Ambassador Hotel, the world's largest parking lot, assorted military bases, power plants, mines, environmental disasters, and Jonnies Coffee Shop... I swear I can't stop looking at this. http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/06/this_land_is_yo.html DELETING PUBLIC SPACE DeleteviennaCheck out this awesome public art project in Vienna, where Christoph Steinbrener and Rainer Dempf somehow managed to convince city officials and local businesses to cover all commercial signs and other advertisements for a two-week period. http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/06/delete_vienna.html RADAR LOVE It's taken me a while to get to the new issue of Radar magazine, but I must say I'm impressed. The celebrity coverage isn't my bag, but there's a lot of really smart, biting reportage here: great articles about all the gay children of rabidly anti-gay politicos, the secret lives of Disney World workers, a psychopath who buddies up to celebrities, and brainless TV news anchors. Continued: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/06/radar_love.html PRIVATE GROOMING Posted by Charles Star Queer Eye for the Straight Guy mainstreamed the metrosexual, but even the Fab Five couldn't have predicted that promoting daily showers and Kiehl's would lead to ads for balls-shaving gear. Remington and Philips have both created ads for their shave-everywhere products. The print ads are amusing, but Philips' flash animation came straight from my nightmares. Continued: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/06/shaving_nads.html OVERDOSING THE ELDERLY Following the news that orphaned babies are being treated with psychiatric drugs, a couple of medical journals report that people in nursing homes are increasingly dosed with antipsychotics. According to these studies (see CBC News and Archives of Internal Medicine), roughly 25% of all nursing home residents are given antipsychotics, often for no medical reason or benefit... and despite the fact that the drugs are linked to an "increased risk of death" among the elderly. Continued: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org/2005/06/overdosing_the_.html Carrie McLaren Editor, Stay Free! (718) 398-9324 blog: http://blog.stayfreemagazine.org magazine: http://www.stayfreemagazine.org exhibit: http://www.illegal-art.org