Creativity: Contextual Advertising & Visuals

Do you know what contextual advertising is? Advertising companies take websites and divide up their pages into themes. It does this by reading the content on the page and assigning a particular context. Then advertisers can then choose particular themes to target depending on their business needs. Advertisers can utilize banner ads or text ads in these slots.

Below is an example of a very cleverly made ad on a news article page. It really captures your attention. I am a huge fan of apple’s marketing.

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China’s 2008 Beijing Olympics Media Part II : Beauty is King

As everyone has heard by now, it was later found that the cute little girl, Lin Miaoke, was lip syncing while the original girl, Yang Peiyi, was yanked from the program last minute told to sing from backstage because she wasn’t “flawless in image” according to the musical director of the olympics. The musical director said the reasons were for national interest and that the child on camera should be “flawless in image, internal feelings and expression. Lin Miaoke is excellent in these aspects”. “The reason why little Yang was not chosen to appear was because we wanted to project the right image, we were thinking about what was best for the nation,” said Chen Qigang. The interview appeared briefly on the Chinese news website Sina before it disappeared.

“What was best for the nation”. Do you believe what they did was best for the nation?

My first thought when I heard this news was thinking about what kind of message this sent to the two little girls involved as well as to the rest of the viewers. Yang Peiyi was basically told that if you aren’t pretty you can’t be on stage or in other words there is a limit to how far you can go if you don’t have the looks. Despite her incredible voice, it was her physical appearance that held her back. In an interview the General Music Designer slipped in saying she wasn’t attractive enough and had crooked teeth. This was indeed tragic as she is so young. What do you say to her when she asks why she isn’t being allowed to go stage but has to sing in a mic as another girl pretends to be singing?

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China’s 2008 Beijing Olympic Deception & Lies: Impact on Culture Part I

The 2008 Beijing Olympics was the most widely watched Olympics in history. It had all you could ask for. It had high drama, incredible feats, and one of the most beautiful opening and closing ceremony ever. I was completely in awe with the beautiful creativity in displaying all of China’s history and culture. Great job China.

However… coupled with such great display of the magnificence of Chinese culture, so was the display of some not so magnificent incidences. Lot of deception was carried out by the Olympic decision makers to put forth their best face. It’s a show, so much of it is understandable, but I strongly believe that actions the Chinese Communist Party (CCP) & the Olympic organizers carried out poorly contributed to its own culture and sent the wrong message to the very people they govern.

The list of what are being called “deceptions” or “lies” continues to grow. A wonderful little girl with a wonderful voice, Yang Peiyi, was yanked from the stage and told to sing backstage because the organizers wanted to have a more prettier girl, one “flawless in image” as mentioned by the music director, to be on stage. The new girl, Lin Miaoke, ended up lip syncing while the Yang Peiyi had to sing backstage during perhaps the biggest stage she would ever get a chance to participate in. CCP also claimed to have sold out the games but admitted later to hiring volunteers to fill up the empty seats. Organizers also showed fake digital fireworks making the firework display grander than it actually was to the rest of the world. Organizers also claimed and printed on their programs that the spectacular display of China’s ethnicity groups were actual people from those provinces while later saying that they were actually nearly all from the Han ethnic group that make up 90% of their population. CCP kept emphasizing harmony with its people while sanctioning away water and resources from the countryside farms to keep Beijing well stocked and pushing out migrant workers out of their cities. CCP praised the fact that the Olympic games were protest free while quietly jailing any dissenters and sending elderly protesters to work camps. Then there is the still unresolved matter of the Chinese Gymnastic team.

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Bias of American Media – Influence of Media Money

As almost everyone would agree, media has a huge influence on our thought patterns and the way we perceive the world. With the presidential candidates starting to gain more press, the bias found in different networks and media groups starts to become more visible. The bias of the media is always influencing us daily, it just happens to be more noticed this time of year especially networks like CNN or ABC (left) versus networks like FOX (right). The way we make decisions about who we vote for to how we live our lives to what is right and wrong is built upon what we see and hear.

Back in September 2007, Gallup surveyed the American voters and found that 45% said the media is too liberal while 18% said the media is too conservative. I fall into the 45% category so there is my personal bias! The sad thing is most of it goes unnoticed because we get so used to it that our standards of what is liberal and conservative shifts over time.

One way of determining the bias of media is to look at the people who make up those companies and publishes the material and their contributions to the political parties. The following are total 2008 PAC contribution figures and where the majority of that contribution went. I’ve noted the more well known companies. [Facts provided by opensecrets.org].

Media Industries
Books, Magazines & Paper – $12 Million [78% to Democrats]
Motion Picture Industry – $8.9 Million [89% to Democrats]
Cable & Satellite TV – $6.3 Million [63% to Democrats]
Music Recording Industry – $3 Million [79% to Democrats]
Television Production / Distribution – $2.3 Million [86% to Democrats]

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Who Regulates Online Advertising & Marketing to Children?

A new report by Berkeley Media Studies Group, part of the Public Health Institute in Berkeley, California focuses on the different methods companies use to advertise food to kids. It focuses on methods that have become popularized in the last two years such as the utilization of social networks. The main concern is that though mediums such as TV are somewhat regulated, but the online world still has no true regulations. Junk food advertising has been a huge concern and lawmakers have started to move to present a proposal to Congress to restrict junk food advertising. One author of the report says “With social networking, marketers are getting the kids to create the ads and share them with their friends. It is incredibly sticky and it is viral. Regulators need to understand that.”

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Kids Consuming More Online Content

Nielsen Online came out with a report showing that children consume more online streams and videos than those over 18. Kids 2-11 viewed an average of 51 streams and 118 Minutes of online video per person a month. Teenagers 12-17 watched 74 streams and 132 minutes of online video per person. The youngest group mainly watched children TV programming while older groups watched trailers, music videos and clips generated by other users.

Monthly Online Video Consumption among Kids, Teens and Adults (U.S., Home Only, April 2008)
Age Unique Viewers (000) Unique Viewer Comp % Streams per Viewer Min per Viewer
2-11

7,966

8.4

51.0

117.9

12-17

11,632

12.3

74.2

132.4

18+

75,122

79.3

44.3

99.4

Source: Nielsen Online, VideoCensus, June 2008
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Quick Hits – Media Impact on Children

Does Media have an impact on our children? This question is no longer a question but something validated through numerous studies over time. Yet why is it that most families continue to allow our children and teens to sit hours on end in front of a TV screen or bother to read up on or screen movies before allowing them to watch? Is it because of the convenience of using the TV as the ultimate babysitter? Is it because we don’t bother to really think about it and assume it our children and teens would know the difference of what is right and wrong? Is it because we have gotten used to the violence and sexual imagery used in almost every single TV show and Movie? Every single one of these points are probably true. We all know how much media affects us, how much more for the internet generation where every piece of media is only a click away?

I had such a fellow in my kindergarten who was very sensitive to television watching. In his play he always identified enemies, be they sharks, monsters or other children, and fortified himself and attacked them. Gradually, as TV was minimized in his life, (unfortunately it was never eliminated), his play became more social and less aggressive. However, several times during the year he visited his grandparents for a week at a time, where the TV was on most of the time. He came back in full attack mode. At such times he would push children down on the playground, and he would say to me, “They were going to hurt me,”

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How Safe are Social Networks?

In June, Common Sense Media released a comparative analysis the Internet safety features on the most popular social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Bebo, YouTube, Club Penguin among others.

Though there has been significant improvements over time in building safety features for the users, more than half of the sites were deemed not adequate. Also many of the features are not easy to find or too obscure for the users. However it is still too easy for someone (think: children or teens) to lie about their age or access bad or inappropriate sites or videos.

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