On The Ground Looking Up

Louis C.K. On Corporations

I took this snippet out of a long conversation that Louis C.K. did today with the Reddit community. I found it to be a very interesting perspective on corporations vs individuals.

Big companies do a lot to help people view them as less than human. I heard a speach by Noam Chomsky who said that corporations are like super humans. They cannot be hurt like a human can and they never die. They are not succeptible to scrutiny or accountability. this makes them more profitable. If companies want to enjoy these benifits to some degree they have to live with what else comes with being not human. you miss out on compassion, forgiveness, comraderie, empathy, trust, all kinds of shit.

-Louis C.K. 12/12/11

24 Hours On Flickr

Just saw this on The Creators Project. Erik Kessels (of KellelsKramer fame) created this installation. 24 hours in the life of Flickr. It focuses on the explosion in digital photography and it's existence online. The installation represents all of the photos uploaded to Flickr during a 24 hour period, about a million of them. And that is just Flickr, imagine if we added all of them added to Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Picassa, etc.

We are creating a lot of content out there folks, maybe it is time to start making sure it is worth our digital attention.

More here.

The Hidden Pursuaders Are Still Getting Press

This time via The Economist regarding Martin Lindstrom's latest, Brandwashed. And in this article I learned the following 3 things.

• The average American three-year-old can recognise 100 brands.
• Girls Intelligence Agency employs 40,000 American girls (some of whom are as young as 8 years old)to act as “guerrilla marketers”.
• The “male grooming” industry is valued at $27 billion

Read the review for more on how we are all being pursuaded, often without knowing it.

 

When You Make It On An Infographic, You Have Really Made It

@Dan_Rosenberg found this one and sent it over, thanks Dan!

The Evolution of an Advertising Executive which if you look at the lower right hand corner you will notice the Guerrilla Marketing Plan mention with a familiar little character that may or may not have gotten us a bit of attention a few years ago. Which leads me to ask the question, if you make it to an infographic, can you really say you have made it?

Originally seen here.

S. Ewen In The Economist

There is a certain S. Ewen mentioned in the Economist, talking about PR, marketing and the rise of influence. Here is the catch, it is a more scholarly, (slightly) older and certainly more influential Ewen than I. Way to go pop!

Economist -"Rise of the image men" - Dec 16th 2010

Download the article here.

Why Let Buildings Decay When You Can Hypothetically Build Them Up?

Just checking out my friend Rob Walker's latest collaboration, The Hypothetical Development Organization. Which poses hypothetical uses for neglected buildings in New Orleans. I am certainly digging the guerrilla concept of rethinking how these buildings should be treated and encouraging others to make them into something new instead of leaving them for what they are. Check out the Kickstarter blog below and if you get involved in any hypothetical building projects this year, make it this one.  

UNICEF's Dirty Water

Just came across this on CGM and it looks like a great guerrilla campaign on behalf of UNICEF. In New York, the put a Dirty Water vending machine on the streets to highlight how many areas of the world suffer with disease ridden water.

People were able to purchase the water with the specific 'disease' they wanted and all $ went to charity.

Holy Invention Batman! The Nobel Prize Winning Bra That Doubles As A Gas Mask

Nope, that is not another Onion headline. That would be The Emergency Bra, an IG Nobel prize winning design that is both a brassiere and 2 gas masks for the unfortunate circumstances when you may need one. And even though it won the 2009 Ig Nobel Public Health award last year it has now finally gone on sale to save the world. <via Uncle Andy via Nerve)

Creating A Guerrilla Movement: Operation Beautiful

I saw a story this morning on The Today Show and found it quite relevant to the guerrilla marketing pro. It highlighted the creator- Caitlin Boyle, website and a new book from Operation Beautiful. What struck me is how a simple, guerrilla idea became a movement. The idea was to post simple Post-it notes reminding women to feel good about themselves and their bodies. As we know, body image is a big issue in our society, especially among women and Ms Boyle's idea resonated. Women started copying her idea and sending in photos of their efforts to her site. Fast forward a year or two and you have a mini movement. Watch the story below for more but a few key things to take away:

1. Place messaging in unexpected ways
2. Create a relevant and meaningful connection to your audience
3. Give them the opportunity to champion the message for you

Sounds simple right? It is, you just have to do it right.

Some samples of how the message has spread:

Stone Age Meat

People eat all kinds of unusual meat… alligator, buffalo, shark, bear, elk, Spam. But what about Sabertooth filet, Mammoth steak, and Dinosaur leg? Mmmmm.

To promote Bosch’s new VitaFresh refrigerator, DDB created a promotion where they placed three packages of Stone Age meat in a grocery store freezer for a week to show just how well VitaFresh worked. Sort of gross looking, yet begging to be picked-up and inspected. My question is, how many people put these in their cart and brought them to the check-out line?