Here in San Francisco, It's Sunday Morning Coming Down

This Is What Politicians Are Supposed To Do

To be fair, both parties are a wholly-owned subsidiary of Big Business in general. But I wish, with all my heart, that our elected officials would grow some cajones the size of Weiner's and start fighting for the American people, not the American corporation, because that's their job.

Rollerball, 1975

I just caught Rollerball (the original, from '75) on TV, and was reminded how much I love that flick. From the melodramatic score to the prolonged track scenes of some future-barbaric blood sport, to James Caan's crazy square shoulders, I can't ever flip through - I just have to watch it to the very last freeze frame.

Dystopian blood sports never looked so fun

The future is now

Actual Content vs. Perceived Content

A beautiful piece by Clemens Kogler and Karo Szmit:




[via Brand66]

Larry David vs. The Package

If you're still not considering the user's experience when designing your materials, you're making a big mistake.

The Fun Theory

Making an action more fun makes people more likely to do it. We seem to forget this too often.

Fun with Film Strips: A Guide to TV Advertising

I recently discovered a treasure trove of old filmstrips archived over at AV Geeks (no doubt!). I remember being fascinated by this one when seeing it in elementary school:



I wonder how many grade schools still teach kids about media literacy and critical analysis. I also distinctly remember a mathematics filmstrip featuring Donald Duck that taught principles of geometry using a pool table.

And then there's this 1971 gem about the emotional buying habits of consumers (who is that encyclopedia salesman, anyway?):



Be sure to peruse the AV Geeks online archives; it's a celluloid goldmine!

Why We Need "Socialized" Health Care

Thanks to Worldchanging's Andy Lubershane, we now have an easy-to-follow, entirely sensible argument in support of health care reform:



Now, can someone produce a similar short describing Congress' various proposals?

Flow

I finally had a chance to watch Flow, an incredible (and incredibly disturbing) documentary about the privatization of the world's water supply. More than just an anti-corporate diatribe, the film speaks to the inevitability of the looming water crisis, and what that might look like based on where the battles are being fought now. And they are battles.



Water is a $400 billion industry—the third largest behind electricity and oil. My mind kind of explodes at that statistic. We're talking about water. The slow commodification of the natural resources most fundamental to human existence should raise alarm bells in every human being. And yet, one in five Americans refuse to drink anything but purchased bottled water; even though a four-year study by the NRDC found over a third of the tested bottle brands were contaminated with synthetic chemicals, bacteria, and arsenic.

Visit Food and Water Watch to learn more about water issues in the U.S.

This isn't just an "over there" issue impacting the lives of underdeveloped or developing countries: as of May 2009, over 30% of America was experiencing "abnormally dry or drought" conditions. Public water supplies are being handed over to private corporations, who are then denying entire populations access to clean water supplies—and frequently contaminating the remainder.

We can each participate in the change

One of the strengths of Flow is the movie's focus on solutions. There is a growing movement of ordinary citizens across the globe who are banding together to demand safe access to clean water. Here are just a few easy things you can do to help:

• Watch Flow, and talk about it with people you know. Information needs to spread, and you're how it happens.
• Sign the petition to add "the right to clean and accessible water, adequate for the health and well-being of the individual and family" to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. This simple act will enable those struggling for safe water a powerful tool in the struggle for access.
• Delve deeper by exploring the various resources and groups working on this issue.

Playing for Change

This is one of the coolest projects I've seen so far.

"Four years ago while walking down the street in Santa Monica, CA the voice of Roger Ridley singing "Stand By me" was heard from a block away. His voice, soul and passion set us on a course around the world to add other musicians to his performance. This song transformed Playing For Change from a small group of individuals to a global movement for peace and understanding. This track features over 35 musicians collaborating from all over the world. They may have never met in person, but in this case, the music does the talking."

Sounds great, and the music they produced was pretty great, too. Too bad they're more concerned with selling stuff than providing useful information about the project. Not sure why this is rubbing me the wrong way - oh yeah, because they had a great site going, with a clear message that explained themselves, their project, and those involved. Now the original site is a friggin' t-shirt store, and if you want any details at all you have to dig. This isn't rocket science, folks: give the people what they want. All seems well again; perhaps a site redesign snafu of some sort?

Visit Playing for Change. Or, if that link gets wonky again, the videos are also available on YouTube.

Write with Intent: Written Messaging in a "Design with Intent" Framework

First, have a look at Dan Lockton's 10-minute slide show on persuasive technology and design with intent, in which he describes various methodologies used to influence user behavior:



As I continue to explore the world of social marketing et al., I've been wondering about the specific role of language in these issues. Designers focus on visual and spacial cues, obviously, and with good reason. There's a strong argument to be made for the idea that modern human language is quickly moving from a verbal core to a visual one. That's a huge debate in and of itself, best left to another post. But there can be no argument that people are becoming increasingly sophisticated information processors when it comes to visual frameworks (that is, we're getting better at deriving meaning from visual cues).

So, where does that leave verbal language? And more specifically, where does that leave the role of persuasive verbal communication? To make this more concrete: copywriters have long insisted that web copy is best served by bullet points, subheads, and other visual means of breaking up text. Shorter sentences and fewer syllables are another way we're encouraged to accommodate this shift in human information processing (since readers are now more used to simply glancing at a screen and immediately deriving meaning from what they see). But is altering the visual appearance of the words the most effective use of verbal language to communicate and persuade (and, ultimately, effect behavior change)?

Using content in addition to form

Often lost in all of this is the actual content. In the case of commercial and social marketing, content is as important an influence as form on a reader's behavior. So if we worry only about the visual appearance of text, we risk failing to provide the meaning it's intended to communicate. It's the effective communication of that meaning that causes a reader to change their attitude or, better still, their behavior. There are several ways writers can increase meaning, and therefore persuasiveness, in their messaging:

1. Avoid passive language, unnecessary modifying clauses, and jargon that may dilute the meaning of your text.
   
2. Acknowledge perceived barriers to behavior change, but emphasize the benefits.
3. Use personalized examples that reinforce the sought-after behavior change (personalized to your reader, not the writer).
4. Integrate a narrative structure that leaves the reader visualizing the process of behavior change.
   

This isn't an exhaustive list. But many of these examples find counterparts in Lockton's presentation above. Number 1, for example, could be compared to the use of unadorned, light-up reminder icons on a car dashboard (a visually active and engaging cue).

Commercial marketers have long understood this, of course (the good ones, anyway). Good social marketers understand it, too (hence the focus on addressing perceived barriers to action). But I'd love to see more academic/theoretical discussion of this within the field. Or maybe it's there and I just haven't found it yet (please point me to it, if you know that's the case). In the meantime, it would serve us marketers well to remember that form and content must work in tandem to effect real behavior change.

The Tools of Self-Government

This looks fascinating:



Us Now is a documentary film exploring how social media tools are changing the way we handle information, and how that might impact how we govern ourselves. The concept is both timely, and a necessary one to explore given the current state of global affairs. I love exploratory stuff like this.

The Good Consumer

[via Bonfire of the Brands]

Kids'r Cute

The dork in me is totally fascinated by early childhood brain development. This is a great example of it (and it's real cute to boot):



Notice how mom asks how big is a whale? to get sonny boy to raise his arms. He understands how to react to that input, but hasn't yet appeared to make the connection between his own input and the reaction he's causing. It's also a nice example of how a single action might get both the reaction we expect, and a completely unexpected one (see this recent post about habits). Plus, like I said, it's pretty darn cute.


[via It's Nice That]

Nina Simone: Feeling Good

Text-based videos and ads are all the rage right now, but this is by far one of the best I've seen to date. Of course, Nina Simone makes me weak in the knees, so that may explain the warm glow this gives me.

Feeling Good, Nina Simone
by mrfnk

[via Infosthetics]

This Is Where We Live: In a City of Books

Created for UK publisher 4th Estate, this film is utterly engrossing—at least for book nerds like myself.



This kind of time-lapse video takes infinite patience, and serious set-making skills. The video stills below show the level of detail involved in each frame (more production photos can be found on the film's site).











Cheers to Apt Studios for such incredible, meticulous work.

[Via notcot I think]

No on 8: The Musical

Too bad the original No on 8 campaign wasn't this well choreographed...

Thanksgiving

Fifty People, One Question:


Fifty People, One Question: New York from Crush & Lovely on Vimeo.

[via SwissMiss]

Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid

"I don't know why it was that people liked it. The only reason movies are successes is because people like them, and the only reason when they're failures is people don't like them, and everything else is mythology."

—William Goldman, writer (speaking in The Western, 2003)

Mythology is used to explain a lot these days.

Movie Posters with Product Placement

I'm not sure when "brand integration" replaced "product placement" to describe the shameless shilling of stuff in entertainment vehicles, but it has. And these posters from Antrepo Design Industry are an elegantly understated way of describing recent box office hits (click the image to view more):




[via Quipsologies]

Paul Newman, The Epitome of Class: 1925-2008

He was smiling... That's right. You know, that, that Luke smile of his. He had it on his face right to the very end. Hell, if they didn't know it 'fore, they could tell right then that they weren't a-gonna beat him. That old Luke smile. Oh, Luke. He was some boy. Cool Hand Luke. Hell, he's a natural-born world-shaker.

A few of my favorites:











[Full obit, NY Times]

Musical Interlude: Nick Cave and the Bad MotherF$#%@in Seeds

Saw Nick Cave at the Warfield this past Saturday. What can I say, I'm a sucker for a skinny funny-lookin' rock 'n' roll man in a suit. I remember picking up Kicking Against the Pricks when I was 15 and it nearly split my head open.

This footage is not from this weekend's show, but is pretty recent:



(Footage from the show I was at can be found here, though there's a little much audience for my taste.)

The thing about Nick Cave is his storytelling. And his nasty version of Stagger Lee. And his funny Australian accent. And his devotion to Elvis. And his complete wackiness as evidenced by the commercial for Dig Lazarus Dig! on his site (navigate yerself to the "Miscellany" section).

Happy 51st birthday, Nick!

Slacker Uprising: Michael Moore Film Hints at a New Future

No one can argue that Michael Moore is a polarizing figure—but that's why he is so effective. He speaks, people listen. He organizes people, people react. This is a good thing. Now he's got a new movie coming out. Slacker Uprising is clearly an attempt to galvanize America's youth during this year's momentous election:



There has been a mounting buzz about the potential power and growing engagement of America's young voters. At the same time, it's not unusual to hear 30-plussers complain that kids today are apathetic and self-centered. So which is it? Well, here are just a few statistics:

• Almost 25% of eligible voters are aged 18-30 (source).
• On Super Tuesday '08, voters under 30 turned out in record numbers, in some states quadrupling their turnout numbers over the previous election (source).
• Almost 50% of eligible under-30 voters went to the polls in the 2004 election, the highest youth turnout in over ten years. (source).

So, it looks like Moore may be onto something: the kids are getting more involved. And to encourage more of the same, he's giving his new movie away for free to anyone living in the U.S. and Canada. Sign up for the free download here.

(Thanks, Noah!)

I want to laugh, but the thought makes me cry...

The Girl Effect

Carrotmob: Harnessing Consumer Power so Everybody Wins

What happens when hundreds of people agree to give a single business their business in exchange for an environmental commitment? Watch and find out:

Carrotmob Makes It Rain from carrotmob on Vimeo.

This really is the perfect example of how the strength of individuals can benefit business and the environment. It bridges the typically hostile gap between activists and Big Corpo. It appeals to the everyday shopper. It has the potential to make real change. And they've even got a business plan (okay, not yet). If you're an angel investor looking for the next perfect project, this might be it.

The Fog of War: Full Transcript

From The Fog of War:

"This is the Secretary of Defense of the United States, Robert McNamara. His department absorbs 10% of the national income of this country, and over half of every tax dollar. His job has been called the toughest in Washington, and McNamara is the most controversial figure that has ever held the job. Walter Lippmann calls him not only the best Secretary of Defense, but the first one who ever asserted civilian control over the military. His critics call him 'a con—man,' 'an IBM machine with legs,' 'an arrogant dictator.'"

Get inside the mind of a very powerful man.

"Forty years ago this country went down a rabbit hole in Vietnam and millions died. I fear we're going down a rabbit hole once again. And if people can stop and think and reflect on some of the ideas and issues in this movie, perhaps I've done some damn good here. Thank you very, very much." —Errol Morris, Academy Awards acceptance speech

Engaging Environment: The NYC Air Bear

I've mentioned Italo Calvino's Marcovaldo, or Seasons in the City, before and I'm reminded of it once again. The book is about a man who manages to see the bits and pieces of our environment that the rest of us overlook. I love what the Air Bear does: it captures what we can't see, using it to engage and entertain.



The work is part of a series by artist Joshua Allen Harris (if anyone can point me to his website, which I couldn't manage to dig up, please do).

Why Do People Do Weird Things?

I've never been a fan of performance art, but this one takes the cake. Several hundred people freezing throughout Grand Central Station in NYC for five minutes. That's it.



From the website:

"We got great reactions from the folks who encountered us. Strangers started talking to each other, trying to figure out what was going on. With wireless microphones hidden in our shirts, a few agents and I struck up conversations with folks. I convinced one guy to grab a cell phone from a frozen woman’s hand. He did it, laughing uncontrollably as he gently put it back in her hand. My favorite reaction was from a female cop who witnessed the whole thing from behind her NYPD recruitment booth:

Me: Do you know what that was?
Cop: I have no idea! That is the craziest shit I’ve ever seen in my life, AND I’M A COP!
Me: Ha. Yeah, it was weird.
Cop: You wanna sign up to be in the NYPD?
Me: No thanks."

So why would you do this? Practically speaking, it accomplishes nothing. But isn't the idea of making people stop in their tracks, wonder about their surroundings, and really think about what they are seeing and experiencing worth something in and of itself?

[via SwissMiss via Gawker]

"Making Good Use of Bad Rubbish"

Here's a great little example of creative thinking:



[via via com it]

I wonder what will this be used for: Scanning crowds for brands and logos

From BBC News:

"The Metropolitan Police is looking into technology which can automatically identify branded logos on clothing...The concept is being considered by Detective Chief Inspector Mick Neville of Operation Javelin, who project manages the Visual Images, Identifications and Detections Office roll-out programme: a pioneering effort to turn the analysis of CCTV into a forensic discipline like fingerprint or DNA analysis...'What they do is they tend to go out in a kind of uniform, if you see a kid in a brand of 'hoodie' you can be pretty sure he'll be wearing that same brand of 'hoodie' the next time he commits an offence.'"

I guess when they say the clothes make the man, they really mean it.

Programs like these raise some pretty big issues: is spying on an innocent citizenry inherently bad? Even if used for good? How do we keep the technology and/or access to the already established systems out of the hands of those who would 1) do us harm, or 2) use the information against our will to achieve any number of ends (including marketing to us)?

I am by default opposed to systems—particularly government-sponsored systems—that collect information about my person without my explicit permission in order to advance their own cause. I'd like to just be left alone. But, of course, that's now impossible in this day and age. So how do we come to terms with a program like the Visual Images, Identifications and Detections Office?

I'm not sure what the answer is, but I know the whole thing creeps me out.

[full story via Murketing]

Orwell and Fascism Come to America

At the risk of sounding like a screaming conspiracy theorist...

Held at the New York Public Library, Here We Go Again: Orwell Comes to America was a recent conference focusing on propaganda in today's America—right here, right now—and how it hogties our public freedoms.

I tried to view the webcasts, in which some great academic minds debate what might be the most important issues of our contemporary society, but I couldn't get the video to work properly (I'm on a Mac, and I believe they use Windows Media Player or whatnot). Maybe you'll have better luck.

Another riveting lecture (no, seriously), is Naomi Wolf's discussion of American fascism and our current administration's echoes of previous dictatorships. It's quite well-reasoned and frighteningly enlightening. Instead of watching the latest episode of Lost or 24, watch this:

Corn Is the New Fast Food

Well, duh. Since the movies Fast Food Nation (and the book it was based on) and Super Size Me raised the ridiculously obvious point that we are what we eat (and what we eat is often crap), the American food chain has gone under the microscope macroscope. The most recent example would be Michael Pollan's recent success, The Omnivore's Dilemma, a book that eloquently and exhaustively traces three American food chains.

The first of those food chains was the mainstream industrial one (organic agriculture and hunting/gathering being the other two). Turns out the lifeblood pumping through our nation's veins isn't blood at all—it's corn. So you already knew that. Well, in case you'd like to know more, there will soon be a movie exposing all: King Corn looks to be the big screen answer to The Omnivore's Dilemma.

Eames on Film

[09.10.07]

These may only be interesting to extreme design dorks, (like my father, who, if I've got the story right, interned with Eames way back when).

Notice the references to male and female roles in the creation process (no, not that creation process):


Unveiling the new Eames chair:


[via Coudal]

Marketing Requires Research

Creative Director: Let's go with a cinema theme for the new Hennessey ads.
Copywriter: Sure, we can make the ad look like a movie poster...
Creative Director: What'll you call it?
Copywriter: How about "Lost Weekend"...it has a classy, luxurious devil-may-care feel...
Creative Director: Go with it.



Result: An ad for cognac referencing a movie about alcoholism. Oops!

[Via adfreak]

Solving the Non-Problem

Last night The Captain and I thought we'd watch a Netflix movie, but as soon as we slid American Hardcore out of its envelope, we knew it wasn't going to happen. The movie was so scratched and worn there was no way our DVD player would even recognize it. Luckily for us, we had other options; we ended up watching the very weird but strangely captivating Thumbsucker instead. But what of our first choice, which we'd been dying to see since it was released?

Rather than go through an arduous process of filling out a return form, getting authorization, and waiting on a replacement which may or may not suffer the same fate of the first, Netflix has a system that removes all possibility of further disappointment. It's brilliant in its simplicity.

All we did was hop online and indicate the disc was damaged. Today, a replacement is being mailed to us; Netflix doesn't even wait for the damaged disc to be returned. But the crowning glory of their solution to what has to be a common problem is this: the disc they are sending out is brand-spanking new. This means that there is zero chance we'll have the same problem happen twice, a calamity that may not destroy our relationship with the company but would certainly annoy the hell out of us.

Of course, it would be wonderful if quality control at the warehouses were such that they could catch every scratched disc before it ever went out in the first place. But I suspect that checking the playability of each of hundreds of thousands of DVDs before mailing would undermine one of the main draws of Netflix: quick turnaround. Instead, they make damn sure that a minor, once-in-a-while inconvenience never has a chance to blow up into an all-out pain in the butt. They solve the big problem before it ever happens. Smart move.

What can you do to think ahead and make sure the inevitable mistakes that happen to all of us now and then don't come back to haunt you forever?

Life Lessons/TV Lessons

Michael Beirut has posted a brilliant(ly hilarious) post over at Design Observer, titled "Everything I Know About Design I Learned From the Sopranos."

A taste:

On creative blocks:
"My advice? Put that thing down awhile, we go get our joints copped, and tomorrow the words'll come blowing out your ass."

Paulie's advice to frustrated amateur screenwriter Christopher is pretty much exactly the same as every book on creativity I've ever read: if you're struggling with a problem, put it aside and inspiration will come when you're not expecting it.

Just be warned: this is an HBO-rated post.