No More Hiding Your Kids, Wife, or Husband. Media Meditition #4

Hey out there. Flipper here. Have you ever bought a product and used it for unconventional means? Like buying Coke and Mentos, putting them together, and watching them explode? Flipper has. That’s called accidental marketing: consumers buying a product, not for its intended purpose, but because one can do something cool with it. Now let me ask you this: have you ever done the opposite? Have you ever seen something comical and bought that product to use for a serious cause because of that comical reason? Flipper has.

Everyone with a computer has probably seen the “Bed Intruder” video on Youtube. Going viral with over sixteen million hits, this video is probably one of the funniest videos of 2010.




But it didn’t stop there. Soon, an auto tuned version of the report was released, doubling the number of hits at thirty-five million.




Obtaining over fifty-one million hits, one realized they could make this craze into a legitimate product.




The new bed intruder app, available for the iPhone and Android, shows the user where various sex offenders locations. However, the ad is not entirely accurate. “While the promotion video is hilarious, it's also misleading because in fact, the Sex Offender Tracker App only shows you the houses in your neighborhood where sex offenders live.” Still, it is a very useful app to have.

The entire concept of this new app is very entertaining: taking viral videos, and using the fan base of those videos to market a new product. The main techniques of this ad are humor, fear and testimonial. The creators are using a comical figure that millions of people recognize to market this product that can protect you and you’re family.


Anyway, I wonder if there is anyone living near my dorm I should worry about. Flipper is going bed intruder hunting. And you can tell that.

Popular Mechanics: A Mass Media Review

Thesis:

Popular Mechanics is an exciting and influential magazine dedicated to science and technology. First published in 1902, it was purchased by the Hearst Corporation in 1958. Popular mechanics is dedicated to providing informational articles regarding automotive, home, how-to, outdoors, science, and technology.

Triune Brain:

Neo-cortex: Popular Mechanics is a magazine in print, requiring the neo-cortex to comprehend.

Reptilian: Some of the articles in Popular Mechanics are about dangerous or deadly objects or events. These articles affects the readers reptilian brain, creating a fight or flight response.


8 Shifts:

Epistemological shift: There are many articles and many related pictures in popular mechanics. As a result, the reader is constantly shifting from word to image.

Technological shift: First printed in 1902, Popular Mechanics has shifted from analog and is available online.

Aesthetic shift: Once only available in print, Popular Mechanics online uses text, pictures, video, links and allows viewers to comment on articles.

5 Facts:

Popular Mechanics features the latest articles about technology, science and automotive advancements.




7 Principles:

Reality construction: Day to day, we as people don’t see a lot of advanced technology or scientific breakthroughs. However, Popular Mechanics creates the reality that we live in a very technologically advanced society.

Emotional transfer: Many of the articles and advertisements in Popular Mechanics involve a “do it yourself” attitude, along with a sense of rugged masculinity.


Persuasive techniques:

Simple solutions: Articles offer an “easy fix” to certain problems. Although those reasons may be very complex, the idea or tools used to fix the problem are easy to understand.

Plain Folks: Appeal to the do-it-yourself attitude through how-to articles and ads.


Repetition: November 2010 issue discusses pick-up trucks, and there are many pages with pictures of pick-up trucks.

Beautiful people: Ads feature stunning women or handsome and rugged men.

Strength: Articles allow one to gain strength by learning and performing tasks on one’s own.

Media Medtation #3: Prezi > PowerPoint

Hey out there. Flipper here. I have just discovered a powerful new presentation tool that could give PowerPoint a run for its money. It’s called Prezi. Although it follows the same presentation concept as PowerPoint, the two could not be more different.

Let’s face it: PowerPoint is boring. It follows a very structured slide by slide format. Title, bullets, picture, rinse and repeat. With Prezi, your entire presentation is one giant slide with no limits on placement or size. There is no structure, there are no parameters: you can be as creative as your imagination lets you.

Check out this marketing presentation that I put together for Lake Champlain Chocolates. By the way, try their new, “Grace Potter Under Fire” bar. You have not had any chocolate like it. Ill let you find out why.

Lake Champlain Chocolates on Prezi

You’ll notice the presentation follows a freeform path zooming in and out to focus attention on the necessary information. Although every element is horizontal, if I had words or pictures slanted, the Prezi slideshow would rotate the screen to make the content viewable. It also makes for some interesting transitions.

With Prezi, you can control all elements of you presentation using the “zebra.” The zebra is an easy to use tool that allows you to change the size, placement and orientation of text, pictures, video, and boxes.



Prezi is also very easy to use. Instead of having to sort through hundreds of useless tools to find one tiny button that alters color, Prezi has one, easy to use menu. That is your command center.
Prezi is entirely online, with no required downloads, which has a lot of benefits. For example, if your computer crashes, you forget your zip-drive, or you have to use a different computer, your presentation is intact and instantly useable from the website.

Check out this tutorial video, and give it a try! I can guarantee you will have your friends and co-workers in awe. Anyway, I’ll see you on Prezi, Flipper needs to present tomorrow.

Midterm Reflection

After studying 21st century media, I have learned how to evaluate media with a purpose using universal terms and ideas that can relate to advertising and marketing. During the first part of this class, I have learned that I am an extremely creative thinker who questions the media we are constantly exposed to.

If I could do one thing differently, I would have studied my power tools more at the beginning of the semester. Another hour studying and I could have avoided a few low scores.

One thing that that I would like to have seen differently is the use of the power grid earlier in the semester. The grid is where the all the power tools all come together, and are seen and used as a whole.

Everything I have learned in this class is very useful.

Power Tools: These are very useful because I can use them in my marketing and business classes.

Course Blog: An interesting medium for class work. Very nice to have access to all the class information we have reviewed / posted.

Films: The films we have viewed are very interesting and thought provoking. Great for reviewing the information we have learned thus far.

In-class quizzes: A nice way to start the class and review key knowledge.

Book: I love the book. Each chapter is formatted the same way and contains tons of useful pictures, charts and descriptions. It also offers an insightful look at mass media then and now.

Camp Champ Radio Spot: Da Bevaz Single: Champlain Fevah