Free, promotional email list for Stay Free! print magazine

[Carrie McLaren <stay.free AT verizon.net>]

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