Google Sure Can Tug a Heartstring.

Loving these new ads for Google Chrome in France (captions available by clicking the "CC" button at bottom). Whenever one appears on TV, I just stop what I'm doing and watch.

I've Activated My Tumblr!

You can follow it here if you're into that kind of thing. Or you can stay right here, because I'll go on updating this for, I don't know, other stuff.

I didn't even know I excelled in that.

Thanks, Klout, for keeping me abreast of all the previously-unimagined ways I can expand my sphere of Influence™.

"Time Warner has called. And they want us all back on the couch."

Let's go back to the way things were. Let's go back to when nobody complained, nobody could produce their own entertainment and nobody could appropriate your slogan, logo or message to reveal an intent different from the one your PR firm so painstakingly produced. Let's go back to a time before Rick-Rolling and a world in which Edward Khil was rediscovered in the magic of trololo.

Let's go back to suing kids and shutting down online enterprises, no matter where they're based, because they cause the MPAA harm -- the same MPAA whose leaders are systematically chosen for their high political connections. Let's go back to the Top 20 playlist defining our tastes.

Wasn't it better then?


"In the end, the real threat to PIPA and SOPA is our ability to share things with one another," Shirky says in the video above.

These laws place the burden of proof for demonstrating goodwill toward copyright holders onto us. Us. That's mashup makers. That's your kids, fooling around on their new computers and doing what they think is a creative sendup of their favourite cartoon. That's you embedding "Every cigarette smoked in 'Mad Men'" onto your blog.

Other People's Nostalgia

Publicité pour les Gateaux Bamboula par odilederey

One of the toughest things about getting along in a new country is trying to grasp the cultural references: that campy movie everyone's seen, the candy kids ate in the '80s, or the ads and the brands, whose context, though long forgotten, have become part of modern culture's quilt.

Today on Facebook, Osmany Barbosa shared this little spot for Bamboula cakes. It isn't a brand that exists anymore, but the biscuits were evidently so good that there are recipes seeking to replicate them across the French 'net. The ad's got a clear aesthetic that you can easily tie back to the '80s, but it also speaks to France's own colonialist history and efforts to come to grips with racism. Bamboula wasn't the only brand that reflected this struggle; Banania, which still exists today, is still the source of great argument about whether or not its logo and slogan had clear colonialist slants.

From there you can easily take the leap into our own advertising history. Uncle Ben's Rice and Mrs. Butterworth's have both been criticized for depicting African-Americans in a domestic service role, although that has largely changed (depending on who you ask).

The Kind of Thing that Haunts You Forever.

Stargate's early take on grey goo. Greygoogreygoogreygoo.

My favourite quote from the internet today:

The term grey goo was coined by nanotechnology pioneer Eric Drexler in his 1986 book Engines of Creation, stating that "we cannot afford certain types of accidents." In 2004 he stated "I wish I had never used the term 'grey goo'. Le sigh.*"

It's okay, Eric, I don't mind "grey goo." It sparks curiosity and curiosity sparks Google searches, which can lead to wondrous learning experiences followed by a love of science and speculative technology. (And as probably only five people in the world watched The Stuff, you don't even have to worry about inviting the comparison.)

In other news, this wikipedia article about grey goo makes me miss Stargate SG-1. Remember that crazy little sad girl who made the Replicators? The mere thought of them still gives me the chills!

---

*"Le sigh" part added by me. But I could tell he wanted to.

They Never Ask Enough Questions.

Him: ...so R said he saw you on the street the other day. He said he thinks you got skinnier.

Me: Good skinny or bad skinny?

Him: ...what?

Me: Like, "wow, she got skinny" or "my God, she's so skinny"?

Him: I don't know. I didn't ask. Do you think you lost weight?

Me: Why didn't you ask clarifying questions? What did he mean?

Him: I don't know! I don't think it was good or bad. His tone was just neutral. Like me, speaking now.

Me: THERE IS NO NEUTRAL.

Him: Should I ask...?

Me: No! It's too late.

Image: mugley.

Ernest Dichter: The Soul of Brands + Why We Buy

In the case of soap, he found that bathing was a ritual that afforded rare moments of personal indulgence, particularly before a romantic date (“You never can tell,” explained one woman). He discerned an erotic element to bathing, observing that “one of the few occasions when the puritanical American [is] allowed to caress himself or herself [is] while applying soap.” As for why customers picked a particular brand, Dichter concluded that it wasn’t exactly the smell or price or look or feel of the soap, but all that and something else besides—that is, the gestalt or “personality” of the soap.

This was a big idea. Dichter understood that every product has an image, even a “soul”, and is bought not merely for the purpose it serves but for the values it seems to embody. Our possessions are extensions of our own personalities, which serve as a “kind of mirror which reflects our own image”. 

- "Retail Therapy: How Ernest Dichter, an acolyte of Sigmund Freud, revolutionised marketing", The Economist