In a convergence of pop culture, social media and the real world, a Vanderbilt admissions counselor responds to a television character’s Tweets.
http://blogvu.wordpress.com/2009/04/01/friday-night-lights-twitter-and-vanderbilt/
I’ve noticed that advertising–which has told us to buy, buy, buy–is now telling us how to be more smart in our consumption. Target was the first advertiser that I noticed. Now I’m seeing Bank of America doing the same thing. Who else?
I’ll bet you never thought about checking out the blog of actor Jeff Bridges, but you should. It’s completely written and illustrated with his own doodles and sketches. This site will certainly inspire those with artistic talents who are interested in expressing themselves on the Web.
I’ve noticed a couple of creative tactics the broadcasters are using to get people to actually watch commercials. Or maybe just to trick people into watching commercials. Last night, I watched two shows from my DVR: Lifetime’s Army Wives and TBS’s My Boys. By the way, it was my first time watching Army Wives. My sister has been recommending it and I finally caved in. And I’ve been a loyal My Boys fan from the very first episode and was excited to see it back for Season 3. Go PJ!
Army Wives was sponsored by some haircare brand (obviously, I didn’t watch too closely), but they used the main characters speaking directly to the audience to lead off the commercial breaks. I didn’t quite jump for my remote as quickly as I might normally have.
After the first scene or so in My Boys, I was expecting a commercial. I dropped my remote when I saw that there was another scene. But who were these people sitting around a kitchen table? It wasn’t My Boys, but a brief scene from TBS’s Bill Engvall show. It was so seamless. Sneaky TBS!
One other tactics I’ve noticed lately is that broadcasters will intersperse a quick clip of the show in the commercial pod. When fast-forwarding, I thought the show was back on, but it wasn’t.
I’m interested in learning more about how people express themselves on networking sites like MySpace, particularly with respect to banners, skins, or widgets for brands or pop culture products like movies or television. Do you have the “Sex and the City” skin? Do you have a “Get Smart” badge? Why do MySpace members choose to display these objects on their profiles?
My paper abstract for the ICA Preconference called “The Long History of New Media” can be found below. If you are interested in reading the full paper, I’d be happy to send it to you. The paper includes lots of examples of social media applications (culled from PRWeek and PR News articles) and summaries of research reports on public relations and social media. The paper concludes with the results of an exploratory study of practitioner user.
