media_studies

So I am time-thefting at work to write this blog post.

Twitter is a much more convenient venue for stealing a moment to share something personal when I should be labouring for wages.

In any case, I didn't even arrive early because I was chasing the bunny around the back yard with a bowl of carrots trying to coax it out of the neighbours garden.

Kiki Kannibal has basically been sexually harassed and terrorized on the internet for the past 5 years, since she was 13 years old.

It's a little too late for me to be writing a full-blown essay on this tonight. But I was just flipping through a photo essay from the Washington Post titled: Recession in the Rust Belt and became disturbed by what seems to be a poverty aesthetic.

Update: This morning Emily West, a prof at U Mass, posted this Slate article on Levi's new "Go Forth" ad campaign and it's use of iconic Walt Whitman verse, and dramatic imagery such as; "children playing in run-down neighborhoods, an embattled business executive surrounded by an angry mob, and young people frolicking in blue jeans", to produce a feeling of "squalor and anxiety" paired with what you might call a pioneer spirit.

After setting the ominous tone, the spot goes on to portray youth in distressed jeans, carrying heroic signage. Slate's Seth Stevenson proposes that the ad "acts as a galvanizing call to generational action: Times may be tough, but we've been here before, and America's youth will not be broken." Yes, and the first action will be Googling Walt Whitman, the second, paying full price for a pair of 501s.

You know what I hate?

I hate when marketers take things I love with all my being, and make them look ridiculous, vapid, and stereotypical.

Take chocolate and sex.

There are other sweet treats, but none are such a miraculous mixture of sweet, bitter, sharp and spicy as a decent chocolate bar (especially the chili/peppercorn variety). And as for consensual physical pleasures, I am including all sorts of activities here: massage, sexy dancing, making out in the park, holding hands for the first time - the whole spectrum. Like chocolate, sex is wonderful in its variety.

Even though I am clearly a demographic goldmine, I can't stand the campaign for Fling chocolate bars. The "naughty but not that naughty" chocolate bar made especially for women:

"It is a delicate truffle,sitting on a subtle crisp layer enrobed in shimmering chocolate that looks as glamourous as the women it speaks to. It tastes indulgent but it keeps its figure, at under 85 calories per finger. Sneak out to a movie. Go curly. Lick the wrapper. Shake things up! Nobody's looking."