The Room

As Friday is my last day, the powers that be within my agency have decided that there will be a lunch time viewing of The Room.

A modern masterpiece and cult classic, it features such amazing dialogue and truly polished performances as this

50 year anniversary of Doc Martins

I was considering buying a pair of Doc Martins for my travels. My consideration has been cemented into absolution because of this.

Irish Media History in 7 mins

Despite now being four years old, this spot, which takes us through the last 20 years of our media history, is still an interesting watch. Scripted and preformed by a past employer of mine, Luke Clancy (ahem... clang!), it demonstrates in an concise manner how we became the media.

"Back in 1986 they used to say ' the medium is the message' these days the media is us"

Brilliant

The Lizard Brain

I found a link to this on our internal agency website.

Seth Godin's presentation above on "the lizard brain" is quite brilliant. The lizard brain refers to the Amygdala, a primitive section of our brain that controls our survival instincts. It's the little voice that tell us to stop before we embarrass ourselves; to refrain from challenging the status quo. Godin argues that being creative is easy, "shipping" or quieting the lizard brain long enough to actually produce an end product is the true genius of creativity.

His presentation is timed to the burning out of a candle, so it won't take to much time out of your day.

Does the audience bite back ?

Here David Mitchell makes an extremely valid point about how our televisual experience is being constantly dumbed down. Considering we live in an age where information has never been closer, why are the people who make the decisions desperately trying to turn their audience into a troupe of troglodyte civil servants? David makes his point his relation to children’s programming but it’s just as applicable to advertising.

The argument that not knowing a reference will make a viewer automatically switch off buys very much into the idea that we are all passive viewers and what we view has an enormous effect upon us. The influence that media has over its audience is something that has fascinated me for a while. Without boring myself and anyone who happens to stumble upon this little blog into absolute oblivion, much of audience theory, quite simply, concentrates on whether the audience is passive or active. In the example of advertising, is it that the ad does something to us? Or do we do something with the ad?

Advertising Kills.

First it controls your mind. Then it controls your body.



This scene from David Croneberg's Videodrome sums up nicely the fear of the influence that media could potentially have upon us. Made in 1983, around the time when VHS was soaring in popularity, TV standards were relaxed and the term video nasty was being knocked around like an exchange kid called a Cornelius on his first day of school; the world thought that these media messages could be injected into our minds like a giant hypodermic needle of bad juju.

However, suppose the world has some reason for thinking like this.

When things like this happened...

And this...

Advertising Cures.

Integration, involvement and a literate audience means that in the past few years creating a successful advertising campaign often relies heavily on audiences actively responding. The more we as audiences and consumers are becoming dabblers in journalism, videography and social commentary, the more avenues are open for conversations both personally and commercially.

One example is this year's integrated Canne Grand Prix winner Livestrong.

Or this fantastic campaign, again involved, integrated and altruistic.

So to surmise this little Saturday afternoon ramble, referencing good, more needed. Saying that people will switch off because they don't understand compares people to inactive coach potatoes that will try and inject videos into the stomaches. Previously this hypodermic notion was understandable due to an audience that was widely media illiterate and the effect that propaganda has previously caused upon an entire nation. However, the digital revolution has proved that audiences aren't passive and instead can use their media consumption to reach others and impact change.