Discovery Channeling

I really like this ad for the Discovery channel. Who said that things that are interesting and edifying have to be dull or worthy? Watch the news for long enough and you will begin to think everything is negative. Fear is the key that unlocks the compliance of the population. Short format news bites iterate and reiterate UnSpeak of the day. News reporting is devolving to converge with propaganda and advertising (at its worst - say something often enough and loudly enough and it becomes the 'truth').

Going back to the Discovery Channel, I was reminded once again of Randy Pausch, the author of the Last Lecture - based on his lecture at Carnegie Mellon which has become an internet phenomenon. (I am reviewing the book at the moment). Pausch says that people learn best when they think they are doing something else. In the case of the Discovery channel your own channels are open because you feel entertained.

Thanks to the excellent Bad Banana Blog for the heads up - I haven't visited for a while and was reminded of just how good it is.

Order the The last Lecture from Amazon

New Zealanders: order from Fishpond The Last Lecture

Comments

Go figure

Took my daughter shopping tonight. We had dinner out. Got back home late. She laid her new clothes out in neat rows so she could choose what to wear for tomorrow. She's 5. I see her just every second weekend. How can such incredible errors of judgement (marrying my daughter's mother) result in such a wonderful little human being? Go figure

Mac Air Music

I love the idea of the Mac Air but, call me old fashioned, …no disk drive? How will I watch Ratatouille, Toy Story, The Incredibles, Finding Nemo, Cars and A Bug's Life on DVD? The music on the MacAir launch commercial is terrific. I tracked the artiste Yael Naim's video for you. What is the name for this genre (Regina Spectre et al)? Apparently Steve Jobs chose the track personally for the TVC. Order from Amazon: Splash out:

Sexist Advertising and stereotypes

Advertising lives in the short-form world. Because mass media is so expensive the 30 second commercial is conventional and because there is so much clutter simplified signals are essential to 'cut through'. One form of communication short-hand used as a default is the stereotype - "A stereotype can be a conventional and oversimplified conception, opinion, or image, based on the assumption that there are attributes that members of the "other group" have in common. Stereotypes are sometimes formed by a previous illusory correlation, a false association between two variables that are loosely correlated if correlated at all. Though generally viewed as negative perceptions, stereotypes may be either positive or negative in tone." In the 1950's and 60's when men dominated advertising stereotypical impressions of women as inferior or subservient were not only commonplace but usual. It was normal to show women as housekeepers, largely because most wer...

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