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stayfree - Stay F---! | April 4

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  • From: Carrie McLaren <stay.free AT verizon.net>
  • To: stayfree AT lists.ibiblio.org
  • Subject: Stay F---! | April 4
  • Date: Mon, 04 Apr 2005 13:53:15 -0400

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



  • Stay F---! | April 4, Carrie McLaren, 04/04/2005

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