"No Boys Allowed"

Plan UK, a nonprofit organization that helps children in third-world countries, gives men a taste of their own centuries-old medicine in their new interactive media campaign.

http://www.psfk.com/2012/02/facial-recognition-billboard.html

Plan UK has launched a new interactive outdoor media engagement initiative that only allows women to view the whole ad. The advertisement is being tested on Oxford Street in London’s West End for two weeks before launching in various cities across multiple publics.

The advertisement uses a high-definition camera to scan pedestrians and identify their gender before determining which ad to show. If identified as female, the pedestrian will be shown the full 40-second “Because I’m a Girl” video that promotes sponsoring a girl to receive an education in a developing country. However, if you are identified as a male, you will be routed to the Plan UK’s website. What’s the point, you might ask? To show men “a glimpse of what it’s like to have basic choices taken away.”

Will this campaign be a success or a flop? Facebook and Twitter comments are already saying it’s a flop. Many people view the video as regressive, offensive, and down-right dumb. What if a couple wants to watch the video? Will a man be as enticed to visit the website instead of women? And why not install a card reader so people could donate on site?

Good luck, Plan UK.

Love Visualized: A Mashable Love Story

You may have seen this little news nugget on your Twitter or Facebook feed this week, but let me set the story straight. Drake Martinet of All Things Digital proposed to Stacy Green of Mashable the night prior to the launch of this internet graphic. But the traditional proposal wasn’t enough for Martinet, he wanted to show his love for Green in the context of his second love, digital media. His solution was to create a statistical analysis of the chances of their love.

“I always say something unromantic, like ‘Yeah there’s probably only a few hundred thousand people who would fit with you as well as I do, and the odds of them meeting you is pretty low,’ ” Martinet said. “To me, that’s sort of the equivalent of soul mates.”

Martinet looked up population statistics and created an algorithm based on various factors such as where he’s lived, the amount of time he lived there and the average number of people he met each day. The couple believes that they met by more than just luck and the infographic is an illustration of that.

“I wanted to showcase that even though I’m pretty logical, and probably over-logical, I still believe in small miracles,” he said. “Stacy is evidence of that.”

LittleMonsters.com

Little Monsters UNITE! Lady Gaga has launched a social media website to do just that- create an online community exclusively for her trillions of fans, whom she lovingly calls her little monsters.

The site is currently an invite-only beta and invites fans to sign up to “be among the first to experience a new community only for little monsters.”

While I’m anxiously waiting for my invitation to be confirmed and therefore cannot give a first-hand perspective, I have heard the site is a mix between Pinterest and Facebook. It sounds like the site is a type of Lady Gaga shrine where little monsters can vote for their favorite Lady Gaga tributes, pictures, and videos.

So how will this social media site measure up to its predecessors? Based on previous social media presence, she should do pretty well. Lady Gaga currently has over 19 million followers on Twitter and over 47 million likes on Facebook. But don’t jump the gun just yet. Facebook and Twitter are platforms that can be used for other reasons besides your Lady Gaga fascination, so can Little Monsters compete? Well just wait and see.

Puppy Bowl VIII

For the third time in three years, the Super Bowl ranked first in the most watched television broadcast with an audience of 111.3 million. And as it has for years, the Super Bowl served those 111.3 million viewers with football, commercials and…dogs!

Four out of eight of the top ranked commercials on USA Today Facebook Super Bowl Ad Meter featured furry canine friends, including my personal favorite, Volkswagon’s “Dog Strikes.” And if you didn’t get enough canine action during the Super Bowl, perhaps you were able to tune into Animal Planet’s “Puppy Bowl VIII.”

Legend has it that this “Puppy Bowl” wound its way from network executive’s jokes to a full-on media counterprogramming strategy. If you can’t beat ‘em, why not just air an endless loop of cute puppies and join ‘em? The Puppy Bowl first aired in 2005 and drew an audience of 150,000. Since, the Puppy Bowl has grown into a multi-media mega-play place with sponsors like Ice Breakers, Kraft, Pedigree, and Disney to draw an audience of over 8.5 million viewers.

I’d say this year, Super Bowl XLVI went to the dogs.

AdAge’s partner Bluefin Labs, a social-TV analytics company, is currently tallying up the Super Bowl social media commentary. Bluefin Labs has tracked as many as 12.2 million social media comments during and after Super Bowl 2012, mainly on Twitter and Facebook. That’s an astounding 578 percent increase over the total Bluefin tracked last year. Specifically, there have been over 985,000 social media comments specifically related to just Super Bowl commercials.

While they are still busy crunching numbers, a Bluefin Labs study that measured the most social media responses within 45 minutes after a commercial air is available for viewing. And the winners are….

http://adage.com/article/special-report-super-bowl/10-super-bowl-commercials-won-social-media/232548/

That's right, David Beckham's salivating H&M Bodywear ad racked up the most social media comments in the first 45 minutes. Apparently, 108,914 people were able to overcome the initial speechlessness of the ad to type out a comment.

Then, of course we have the Clint Eastwood Chrysler ad with 95,682 comments. Certainly less scandalous, this classic, inspirational spot sure did get people talking. 

And again, Betty White to the rescue for NBC's "The Voice." 

Take This Lollipop: The Ultimate Facebook Creeper

Interactive video “Take This Lollipop” creatively visualizes the undeniable horrors of online socializing. The video transports you to a dank, stuffy basement where you watch actor Bill Oberst Jr. (whose credits range from “True Blood” to “The Secret Life of Bees”) grow in aggression as he hacks your Facebook profile, scrolls through your personal pictures and news feed, and even searches a map of your town.

Creator Jason Zada, a commercial and viral marketing director who created the interactive “Elf Yourself” online campaign for OfficeMax, said he “wanted to do something that messed with people” and to spur thought about how much information we allow people access to online.

"Our privacy was dead a while back and will never be the same," he said. "Life as a whole has changed. If you look at the video, the scariest part is that your information is in the video. The piece is scary because a person is violating your privacy, not because it's bloody or there's anything jumping out."

In order to check it out for yourself go to this site, http://www.takethislollipop.com/ and click allow. Then sit back and lock your doors.

Woes of a Facebook user

Oh, you know the drill. Facebook updates a new feature and everyone throws a fit. Facebook status after Facebook status begs for anyone to provide a shred of information to restore “the old Facebook”. But then days go by and low and behold, we get used to it. “The old Facebook” seems like a thing of the past.

http://graphics8.nytimes.com/images/2010/07/22/timestopics/facebook/facebook-sfSpan.jpg

However, for those who just can’t quit throwing a hissy fit, check out the following links to change a few features back.

http://mashable.com/2012/01/25/get-old-facebook-back/#448278-For-Firefox-Show-Only-Online-Friends-in-Chat-with-Tidy-Facebook-Chat-by-Nicolas-Maravitti

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/09/21/facebook-changes-old-facebook_n_974517.html#s368200&title=Tom_Metcalfe