Category: News

Special Effects guy Francisco Guerra has developed a machine that creates lighter-than-air foam that he intends to offer as advertising media. The AP story (Company floats ads in ‘clouds’ shaped like corporate logos) begins with the following.

Picture the Manhattan skyline filled with Nike swooshes. Or the golden arches of McDonald’s gently drifting over Los Angeles.

Or picture someone shouting “buy my overpriced shoes” at you constantly as you walk down the street. Imagine visiting Yosemite’s Halfdome and smelling the unmistakable fragrance of processed “burger meat” that only comes from McDonald’s. No thanks.

It’s interesting that the article seems to focus mostly on the possible biological problems from the technology and only hints at the horrible experience for people who might like to enjoy looking at the natural sky rather than be pummeled with brand awareness campaigns. The technology sounds cool and I can see how it might make a visit to Disneyland or a concert better, but the idea of spewing out trademarked logos into the skies of cities is bankrupt.

Marketers would be well advised to give up on the archaic idea of interrupting people they hope to be customers. It’s taken awhile, but we’ve adapted to ignore that crap. Yes, I know what McDonald’s is. No, I would never eat there. Stop reminding me you exist.

Modern advertising needs to offer a fair trade of values. Tell me something new that will help me and I will buy it from you. That’s the Google AdWords model. It’s made Google a lot of money. The marketers in dirtworld who figure out how to do the same thing will enjoy success, too.

A direct mail piece from the local YMCA arrived yesterday. Among the classes and activities they were advertising for kids this Summer was “Princesses and Pirates”. I googled the site to figure out what this was. It’s not a mixed class of princesses versus pirates or even princesses and pirates working together. There are two different classes, one for girls and one for boys presumably. It didn’t say that girls couldn’t go to pirate camp, but I can’t imagine most boys wanting to go to princess camp…not when they’re five anyway.

The description of Pirate Camp is as follows.

ARRR!!! Join us for a week of adventure on the high seas where we’ll transform ye landlubbers into truly fearsome pirates! Go treasure hunting, learn how to sword fight, and navigate the perilous seas by learning about mystical creatures of the deep and mutinous crews in this camp of swashbuckling fun!

First of all, I appreciate that playing pirates is the equivalent of playing princesses. There are other things to pretend to be, but pirates are pretty modern. Yeah, yeah, 16th century. The truth is that modern youth, more than ever, needs to develop the skills of the pirate: to be independent, unafraid to defy the law in order to follow your moral compass. Today’s world demands a privateer, perhaps serving the interest of a large organization but always serving his own interests first.

I don’t think it’s any coincidence that the myth of the Flying Spaghetti Monster is associated with pirates and global warming. While the FSM fights the creationists with reductio ad absurdum, the pirates are doing the same against the first church of the warming globe. I just hope to hear my kids yelling, “I’m Captain Nemo!” and “I’m Ragnar Danesjold!”

I just figured out that after I updated WordPress a couple of weeks ago, it broke permalinks for pages. Ugh. The fix was to go into Settings, switch to another format for permalinks and then switch it back. 😐

Last week, the New York Times ran a story on Iraq with the premise that the religious ideas of Islam are being tested and rejected. The author, Sabrina Tavernese, used the phrase, “the American liberation”, which is only remarkable because the reputation of the NYT is that of promoting the idea of the war as a failure. While the war has a definite strategic purpose for the USA, I cannot think of a better achievement of the Iraqi people than for them to move past the outdated ideas of religion.

Here are a people who truly are liberated from a religious or military dictator, finally able to decide for themselves what to think. The laws of Islam have been dramatically exercised in Iraq. To a free man, the idea of screaming “God is great” as you chop off someone’s head is not appealing. In fact, the ideas of the clerics lead only to your own destruction.

When Bush talks about a forward strategy of freedom, I’m not sure he totally understands it. But a disillusionment of religion is exactly the kind of freedom I was hoping for.