Viral Videos: Beatbox Battle World Championships – Julia & Daichi

Time for another round of Viral Videos. Keeping tabs on what is the new “it” video everyone has seen.

Beatbox Battle World Championships Wild Card Entries

Who’s the greatest beatboxer in the world? Each year there is an annual competition called the Beatbox Battle World Championships. This year it is held in Berlin, Germany on May 28th. Beatbox Contestants all over the world come together to lay down some human generated beats.

Several videos of wild card candidates have been going viral across the web. The wild card winner was Julia Dales, a 17 year old from Canada. Her video entry is shown below. HOWEVER, my vote goes for a guy who didn’t even crack the top 5 but has gained considerable support from the youtube and internet community. His name is Daichi a 18 year old from Japan. Check out his beats below. Just ridiculous.

World Championship Beat boxing Wild Card Results
1st Place: Julia Dales
2nd Place: Primitiv
3rd Place: D-9
4th Place: Lytos
5th Place: The Beatbox Hitman

Daichi – 17 year old Japanese on TV Show – Amazing Beatboxing Skills

Daichi gets my vote for the best wild card entry. As someone who grew up on hip hop and have a personal interest in beat boxing, I found his beat boxing crisp, clear and versatile. Also he ends with what seems to be a signature sound. It was cleaner than Julia and you have to love his sounds and scratches.

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Star Trek 2009: Movie Review – Themes Galore

Star Trek Movie 2009
Star Trek Movie 2009

Star Trek (2009)

Primary Audience: Teens, Adults
Genre: Sci-Fi, Action
Length: 2 Hour 6 Minutes
Rated: PG-13

Starring: Chris Pine (James T. Kirk), Zachary Quinto (Spock), Leonard Nimoy (Spock Prime), Eric Bana, Bruce Greenwood, Karl Urban, Zoe Saldana, Simon Pegg, John Cho, Anton Yelchin, Ben Cross, Winona Ryder, Chris Hemsworth, Jennifer Morrison
Director: J.J. Abrams (Felicity, Alias, Lost, Mission Impossible III, Cloverfield)
Producer: Bad Robot, Paramount Pictures, Spyglass Entertainment

Is Star Trek Action Packed as the Trailer?

Have you seen the Star Trek trailer? The Star Trek trailer makes the movie seem like an edge-of-your-seat action packed movie. There are a lot of movies where the movie itself doesn’t do the trailer justice, however this is not one of them. Star Trek was a visual treat and an extremely well made movie. With the latest in CGI technology, space travel has never been so fun and visually pleasing. The trailer showed a lot of action and the movie made good on it’s promise.

Do I need to be a Trekkie to Enjoy the Movie?

Absolutely not, though I imagine this movie is going to create a lot of new fans and a huge boost in sales of older Star Trek DVDs. Though this movie is a prequel to the original star trek series, the movie has enough content and story in itself to be very enjoyable. I myself am not a trekkie. I’ve only seen clips of a few episodes and saw one star trek movie. Of course Star Trek fans of old would enjoy this movie all the more knowing the future histories of many of the characters such as Kirk, Spock, Dr. McCoy, Scottie, Uhura, Sulu and Chekov.

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Unnaturally Beautiful Children: Image & Beauty

In 2004, a survey by NPD Group showed that on average, girls started to use beauty products at the age of 17. Today that average is 13.

Influence of Media on Children & Beauty

There’s a scene in “Toddlers & Tiaras,” the TLC reality series, where 2-year-old Marleigh is perched in front of a mirror, smothering her face with blush and lipstick. She giggles as her mother attempts to hold the squealing toddler still, lathering her legs with self-tanner. “Marleigh loves to get tan,” her mom says, as the girl presses her face against the mirror.

Children's Perception of Beauty
Children’s Perception of Beauty (Newsweek)

The quote above is about Marleigh, one of the pageant girls on the show. Does anyone find something disturbing about this picture? She is two years old. Unfortunately the ridiculousness of this scene doesn’t end on screen, it is a depiction of our current generation.

What do these shows have in common? “Extreme makeover”, “I Want a Famous Face” “Little Miss Perfect” “Toddlers & Tiaras”. These are shows centered around raising the bar of what is considered the norm when it comes to beautifying our children.

With reality TV shows, thousands of beauty product commercials, air-brushed magazine ads, and beautiful celebrities adorning every movies we watch, the norm of the importance of beauty has changed dramatically. In 2004, a survey by NPD Group showed that on average, girls started to use beauty products at the age of 17. Today that average is 13.
 See some more Children Beauty Statistics
But even that figure could be an overstatement. According to a market research firm Experian,

  • 43 percent of 6 to 9 year olds are already using lipstick or lip gloss
  • 38 percent are using hairstyling products
  • 12 percent use other other cosmetic products

By the time they are 50 years old, an average women would have spent nearly $300,000 on just their hair and face according to Newsweek’s research on beauty trends (noted below). But is this surprising considering girls ages 11 to 14 are exposed to 500+ advertisements per day? 8 to 12 years old already spend $40+ million a month on beauty products according to NPD Group. Teenagers? $100 Million.

More Statistics on Beauty

  • Cosmetic Surgery Procedures for Under 18 – Doubled last 10 years
  • 14% of Botox injections given to 19-34 age group, seeking “preventative treatments”
  • [American Society for Aesthetic Plastic Surgery]
  • 42% of 1st to 3rd Graders want to be thinner
  • 81% of 10 years olds fear getting fat

“When you have tweens putting on firming cream… it’s clear they’re looking for imaginary flaws,” – Harvard psychologist Nancy Etcoff

Full Article on Beauty

True Cost of Lifetime Beauty

Economy got you down? Trying to pinch a few pennies here and there? How about cutting out on some beauty products and enhancements! See the chart below.

Tweens Teen/20s 30-40s 50s Lifetime
Hair $1,260 $15,761 $23,640 $169,274 $209,935
Face $3,900 $32,684 $108,660 $21,840 $167,084
Body $0 $10,586 $17,820 $16,366 $44,772
Hands/Feet $2,010 $6,834 $8,040 $10,452 $27,336
Totals $7,170 $65,865 $158,160 $217,932 $449,127

See Beauty Spend Breakdown Here

  • What are your thoughts about young children and teens spending so much time and money on beautifying themselves?
  • How about Adults?
  • What can be done to help push up against our image driven culture?
  • Can anything be done?
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Mac vs PC Elimination Apple Commercials: Product Not Lifestyle

Here at Clean Cut Media, we show a critical eye to TV Commercials, TV Shows and Movies in regards to the level of unnecessary mature themes such as sexual innuendos and crass jokes , even in children movies. We also touch upon how media tends to paint a particular way of life or a particular image that can give the wrong kind of picture of reality and what is considered the norm.

Product Centric vs Lifestyle Centric TV Commercials

Mac vs PC Elimination TV Commercial Spot
Mac vs PC Elimination TV Commercial Spot

However we aren’t all just about the end of media and desire to live in a log cabin somewhere in the middle of forest where we can be free from the evil that is the world. I personally work in the marketing world and also produce videos, art among other media centric work in my free time. So here at Clean Cut Media we regularly post videos, advertising, commercials, art and anything else we can get a hand on as examples of media creatively done with class.  Below are two examples of a well made commercial that does an excellent job highlighting the features or advantageous of a product. This is in comparison with the habit of companies that produce commercials with the sole intent, not to sell the product, but a lifestyle or associate their product to some good feeling or experience. Is the latter ethical? That is a judgment call depending on the message of the commercial itself, but we have to appreciate the commercials that does sell the product for the value it itself.

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Monsters vs Aliens: Movie Review for Parents & Children

Monsters vs Aliens Movie Logo
Monsters vs Aliens Movie Logo

Monsters vs Aliens (2009)

Primary Audience: Kids, Family, Teens, Adults
Genre: Animation, Sci-Fi, Family, Kids, Comedy
Length: 1 Hour 34 Minutes
Rated: PG

Starring: Reese Witherspoon, Seth Rogen, Will Arnett, Kiefer Sutherland, Stephen Colbert, Hugh Laurie, Rainn Wilson, Paul Rudd, Renee Zellweger
Director: Rob Letterman (Shark Tale), Conrad Vernon (Shrek 2)
Producer: DreamWorks Animation

Dreamworks vs Pixar

Finding Nemo. Toy Story. Cars. What do these films have in common? They were considered excellent, well made films great for the family and safe for children. Each were produced by Pixar who now holds both the benefit as well as the burden of increasingly high expectations. Every year, we expect a clean and great blockbuster to come out of Pixar Studios.

Then there is Dreamworks Animation, film studio of “Monsters vs Aliens”. Dreamwork films have always been a mixed bag. They’ve had great, safe animated films such as Shrek, Antz, Prince of Egypt and Kungfu Panda. But they’ve also had shockers such as Shrek 2, full of really inappropriate adult themed content which unfortunately went on to be their biggest grosser to date. Money talks and the success they’ve found catering to the adult audience will only further more such films. Unfortunately many people were caught off guard as many of these films are presented as family friendly movies.

How about Monsters vs Aliens? It continues Dreamwork’s long tradition of movies. Good fun movie but with occasional potty humor and inappropriate scenes.

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Influence of Media & Advertising in Our View of Life

Growth of the Information Age

The proliferation of the Internet and the ease of sharing information online has greatly enhanced the power of media and advertising. It shapes are attitudes, behaviors and our values in regards to how we view everything and everyone. Everyone speaks about how media affects our society but the power of advertising also comes from the ideas and messages that get portrayed as an underlying reality in media.

Advertising Providing Solutions to our Deepest Longings

Luxury Acura Advertisement Lifestyle
Luxury Acura Advertisement Lifestyle

Everyday we are exposed to a particular lifestyle portrayed in movies, tv shows, billboards and commercials. We see people dressed a certain way, living life “to the fullest” – in a particular way. Unfortunately, these characters are created to sell products or raise ratings. Often what is portrayed may not be aligned with reality and yet we may feel that…

  • We long to have the kind of life they live.
  • We wish our lives were just as exciting.
  • We wish we had such close relationships and friends.
  • We wish we would run into that kind of luck we see on TV.
  • We wish we can live just as recklessly, perhaps promiscuously without consequences.
  • We wish we could be as happy as the people we see.
  • We wish to look the way they look, have the body shape as they do.
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Children as Commodities, Influence of Media on Children

 

Media Influence on Children - Marketing Power
Media Influence on Children - Marketing Power

“The advertising and marketing industry spends over $17 billion a year on shaping our children’s identities and desires.”

Below is an excellent article discussing the influence of media and money in “commodifying” of children in our modern culture. The article itself is very long so I’ve excerpted pieces of it below with a link at the bottom to the original source. Enjoy!

As we face difficult economic times, everyone is wondering how are we going to bounce back? What can be done? In all the pain and sufferings we are facing, perhaps we should stop and ask ourselves, is there something we can learn from all this? Is there something we could change? The article asks “What kind of society and future do we want for our children given how obviously unsustainable and exploitative the now failed market-driven system has proven to be?”

In a society that measures its success and failure solely through the economic lens of the Gross National Product (GNP), it becomes difficult to define youth outside of market principles determined largely by criteria such as the rate of market growth and the accumulation of capital. The value and worth of young people in this discourse are largely determined through the bottom-line cost-benefit categories of income, expenses, assets and liabilities. The GNP does not measure justice, integrity, courage, compassion, wisdom and learning, among other values vital to the interests and health of a democratic society.

“Subject to an advertising and marketing industry that spends over $17 billion a year on shaping children’s identities and desires, American youth are commercially carpet-bombed through a never-ending proliferation of market strategies that colonize their consciousness and daily lives.”

Children once was perceived as important social investments, innocent children we needed to protect as they would one day be the moral foundations of our society. Our culture protected them. Businesses wouldn’t dare objectify them or treat them like any other commodity. Yet time has changed dramatically in the last couple decades. It has moved from a culture of social protection to a culture of commodification. Now children from a young tender age, grow up in a culture that objectifies their value taking away any sense of moral agency.

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No Freedom of Religion, Anti-Christian Britain?

How aware are you in regards to the media’s impact on our view of religious freedom?

Freedom of Religion Curbed
If I asked you to think of a country that has no freedom of religion, what countries come to mind? Perhaps an Islamic country like Afghanistan where converting from Islam to Christianity is punishable by death? Perhaps a country like China where churches are persecuted and people are only allowed to meet in a handful of government sanctioned churches? How about the United Kingdom?

Story of a Dedicated Foster Mother
There was once a foster mother who dedicated her life to taking in fosters kids and providing them love and care. As a practicing Anglican Christian, she had devoted her life to a life of love. In 10 years she had brought in over 80 foster kids. She rented out a farmhouse so she could provide them a home and experience having a family.

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Average Adult Watches an Hour of TV Ads a Day

TV Media Consumption
TV Media Consumption

When the subjects were asked to recall their media consumption behaviors, “people underestimated the amount of time they spent with TV by a substantial amount,” about 25 percent on average. – Mr. Wakshlag

  • Average Americans are exposed to 61 minutes of TV ads and promotions every day.
  • An Average Adult are exposed to some form of digital screen (TV, GPS, Cellphones, Computers) for 8.5 hours a day.
  • Computer usage has supplanted radio as the second most common media activity

These are some of the statistics found by the Council for Research Excellence, formed by the Nielsen Company. The $3.5 million dollar study was started to determine whether media companies needed new ways to measure media. Ball State University’s Center of Media Design conducted the study and called it the largest observational look at media usage ever conducted. Rather than surveys, researches shadowed 350 people (over 18 years of age) and recorded their behavior in 10 second increments for 952 days.

Consistent Exposure to Media among All Ages
They found that the number of minutes exposed to advertising was consistent among all the age groups other than 45-54 year olds who spend on average an extra hours more in front of the screen.

“It flies in the face of conventional wisdom, of course, which tells us that the younger cohorts apparently spend more time with screen-based media,” said Michael Bloxham, a director of the center at Ball State.

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Girl Self-Esteem & Image Issues & Parents

Girls Self Image

Almost across the nation 50% of young girls are engaged in negative activities such as injuring and cutting themselves or engaging in unhealthy eating habits and disorders due to self-esteem and self-image issues.

Girl Self-Esteem & Image Issues

Dove’s Campaign on True Beauty came with a bang last year with their poignant videos that went viral all over the web:

Evolution Video

Onslaught Video

Have you visited their site? It has quite a good number of statistical data in regards to Girls and Self-Image. They have information as well as workshops in helping a girl with their self-esteem. They also have a map with top cities and the individual studies they did in each area. I’ve summarized their statistics and findings below.

Here is the executive summary:

Self-esteem has become a crisis in this country. The majority of girls feel they do not measure up in some way including their looks, performance in school and relationships. Most disturbing is that girls with low self-esteem are three times more likely than girls with high self-esteem to engage in harmful and destructive behavior that can leave a lasting imprint on their lives.

Highlights: Real Girls, Real Pressure National Study

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Adult Stem Cells vs. Embryonic Stem Cell

Stem Cell Research Media

“… why do researchers and the biotech industry push so hard for public funds for embryo-destructive research?… because they stand to make huge profits through potential patents. It’s potentially far more lucrative than research involving adult stem cells. – Breakpoint

Were you aware that not a single clinical success has resulted from treatments using embryonic stem cells yet there has been many great success stories involving the use of adult cell stems?

So why is it that most of us are not aware of the progress that has been made in adult stem research yet the issue of embryonic stem cell research is quite familiar? Who is responsible?

Few years ago, Laura Dominquez, a young teenager got into a car accident when she drove over an oil spill. She was unfortunately paralyzed from the neck down. She was told she would never walk again.

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Obama Pro-life Abortion Video?

The images of a baby fetus.
The heart beats, the baby moves.

“This child’s future is a broken home.”
“He will be abandoned by his father.”
“His single mother will struggle to raise him”

The baby continues to grow…

A pro-choice video, we assume..

Then in a twist of fate,

“This child, despite the hardships he will endure, will become the first African-American President.”

Images of Barack Obama triumphant on election night.

“Life. Imagine the potential.”

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