5 Contagions // Week #2
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Summary // The Bubble Project is a fun and creative, person-based, critique on Corporate America. What started out as a project that consisted of 15,000 empty voice bubbles (the ones often used in comic strips) and put over advertisements throughout New York City. These empty bubbles were invitations to other New Yorkers to put something in them. People soon caught on to the point and were writing a wide variety of responses from personal, political, humorous, etc. An example would be a model for DYNK who looks very serious saying “What am I going to do when I am 23?”. The bubbles offered consumers a chance to speak back to the advertisements that are always so blatently in their face. The project soon caught on on an International basis, spanning to South America and Europe.
Technique // Although I don’t think I need to use a technique that posits similar vectors, I think the piece is outstanding. There is a mutli-dimensional approach to the way the artist is talking about the culture of advertising. Even if people chalk it up as a joke and write silly things, the fact that the bubbles are there in the first place gives people the power to speak back (by ironically putting the words in the mouth of the people who are directing the messages. Since I am pretty sure I am going to try to promote the concept of “Divorce Photography”, a lot of the work lies in my hand to spread it around (and then hopefully it picks up and spreads horizontally), but this project is horizontal from the time the stick is put on the advertisement.
2.) Burger King Sells 2 Million Game Copies in 4 Weeks
Summary // A lot of people have seen the really creepy Burger King commercials with the King who wakes up in bed with people, or stalking them in some other way. Within the first 4 weeks of their trio of games based on the character, they were able to turn over 2 million game sales. The games, which were available for the XBOX and XBOX360 game console featured , “Sneak King”, “Pocketbike Race”, and “Big Bumpin’”. Burger King has been branding this character for several years before these releases, so people were able to play a character that they have come to know (and possibly love), which was a breakthrough sales move for BK. The above article makes some very valid points that we are living in a relatively thoughtless world when a food chain can propagate a brand as a disposable advertisement. The argument of other odd marriages such as Nike and Apple just prove that corporate branding cares about money and not the facility of offering something unique or exciting to customers.
Technique // Corporate techniques are not ones that I wish to adopt. I agree with the editor of the blog that Burger King should stick with food . The argument could be made that they want to offer a little joy that people bring home with them, but what is that really representing at all? It seems to be to be representing that corporations are trying to diversify their markets, which seems like a logical step, but in the end why do they care about hitting the game market — PROFIT. These products are not about making good games, I mean come on who really thinks a really creepy Burger King sneaking around the neighborhood doesn’t scream stalking. It’s not genuine, which if anything to learn from it is to make sure that the meme I am spreading is genuine and not for profit (I really don’t think Divorce Photography is going to be a corporate takeover of a business though). BK – What not to do.
3.) Yes, We Plan : How Altruism and Advertising Could Change the World
Summary // Many sites out there offer groups about campaigns of change. Facebook has groups, Care2 has specific campaigns. but what are they really offering? Cindy Gallop and Wendall Davis seem to think that they aren’t offering anything, that joining a group about saving cats is not helping any of the cats out there find homes. Their plan relies on people getting work done, by using a system that breaks down tasks (mostly menial) for people to accomplish that will help the over-arching goals for the cause that people care about. For example, if one wanted to save cats, someone might take in a cat, someone else would buy the food, another person would bring it to the vet, and together many people can accomplish their goal without feeling the weight of the world on their shoulders. Gallop believes that people want to do good, but they have to be interested and the buy-in has to be reasonable for them to devote their busy time to. “If I Ran The World”, is a step in making idle internet groups get up off their feet and actually work for the changes they want to see in the world.
Technique // If I Ran the World is a noble yet daunting project that institutes that people pry themselves away from their social networks (ironically by joining a social network) to create tasks in the real world happen. I would say a lot of my own interests include using computers and networks to get people back to doing things in the community or at the very least, just outside! The technique I find more interesting than how it spreads, is how the system itself devises that people are not alone in their feelings, and that they can recruit the help of others to make something happening. It’s really uplifting (Whereas Divorce Photography is not really – although it reflects a cultural paradigm and critiques it). Maybe someone could say “If I Ran The World, I Would Divorce My Husband”, and one of the tasks could be “Get Divorce Photographer”, who knows!
4.) Screensaver to Tie Up Spammer’s Sites
Summary // Popular (at least in the 90s) search engine Lycos launched a screensaver entitled “Make Love Not Spam”, which is used as tactic to control spam on the web. Users download this screensave which requests the spams source site. The problem for spammers is that if all the people that receive spam access their site (at the same times especially), their servers will be bogged down and their prices will increase (making it non-profitable to send the spam in the first place). The program is trying to discourage companies from hiring spam mailers and to reduce the overall spam on the site. The one problem people have is that they are wondering if Lycos is sending unnecessary data back and forth through the internet bogging down capacity. Lycos also adds that they make sure that they do not include sites that sell spam (the lunch-meat) on the web.
Technique // I think everyone can learn something from this article about memes. There is a fine line between spreading something and spamming it. There is obviously a sufficient amount of intention embedding in spreading a meme, but I think it becomes spam (regardless of the project / word / image / etc.) if the context is not proper. If I am trying to spread Divorce Photography through the web, I should stick to specific realms that I think can help me spread the meme. For example, wedding photography forums, photography forums (in general), blogs (related), etc. It would seem pretty strange if I was promoting Divorce Photography on a World of Warcraft forum (although I think the spouses of the players could use me eventually!)
5.) How To Explain Delicious to Your Parents
Summary // This video by “CommonCraft” is one of many in their series that helps break-down certain aspects of the internet in plain English by using the visuals of the site. This specific video is “How to Explain Delcious to Your Parents”. It outlines why delicious is better than using your browser (tied to one computer, not very organized), then goes on to talk about the social aspects of delicious. If I were a designer and I wanted to share some tutorials with some friends at work it is as easy as tagging it, and then sending them along the same bookmark. The expression of delicious is a tool that allow people to network based on where they are vising on the net.
Technique // I realized another way I can propagate my meme is to use delicious. Tagging with Photography , Divorce, etc. will obviously be good for myself, but I can use it to start spreading to other people, and then use that as another measurement of success (seeing how many people are saving my site). This is certainly a technique I will use. I was using delicious frequently about 2 years ago, but now I think I will use it more and more, and this video really helped me remember the social aspect of delicious and not just for the purposes of bookmarking sites I want to remember.
Tagged as activism, advertising, bubble, burger king, causes, corporations, delicious, guerilla, social networking, spam, tutorial + Categorized as Response