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

A bump in the road, or sky, for American Airlines

American Airlines officially declared bankruptcy earlier today to cut costs and restructure their financial identity. The company reports having problems with high labor costs and raising gas prices. Luckily, the 18-month timeline allotted for restructuring the airline’s business plan will likely result in a profitable future, according to many financial experts.

"AMR will no longer have its defined benefit pension plan, helping absorb nearly $7 billion in debt," Morningstar equity analyst Basili Alukos said.

"I imagine the company can save between $1.2 billion to $1.5 billion in labor costs, in addition to savings on repair and maintenance and better fuel burn," he said.

While American Airline’s finances may survive this bankruptcy, we must consider who else will suffer.  Retirees, employees, customers, and investors will all be affected. And we must not forget our dear friends at Interpublic Group of Cos.’ FutureBrand who have been planning an entire brand revamp strategy.

I think it’s safe to say that FutureBrand will have to press the brake on their rebranding campaign while Weber Shandwick, American Airline’s public relations agency, will be pouring blood, sweat and tears into a crisis management campaign.

https://www.facebook.com/aa

Weber Shandwick has already responded with posting information about the bankruptcy announcement including a video from Tom Horton, chairman, president, and CEO of AMR Corp.

Now that American Airlines has dived into financial hell I wish them the best and will be looking out for super cheap flights in the future!

Why Go Green?

I recently began participating in the “go-green” revolution.  No, it wasn’t the “Save the Earth” or “Respect our Planet” messages nor was it the recent literature on environmental changes that transformed my habits. Nope, what did me in was vanity.

Studies show that people who live a “green” lifestyle are healthier, happier, and well…skinnier. Now as a girl, the “skinny” message hit home with me and I decided to change my habits.

While my vanity led me to adopt a new lifestyle, what other incentives drive consumers to adopt the “green” lifestyle? I began perusing the internet to find out and while it took some digging, here’s what I found:

In summary of articles I have read, consumers are particularly receptive to learning about environmental initiatives if it saves them money. Utility and home improvement companies are in a great position to ride on the go-green movement by presenting that they have environmental waste-reduction services that are cost effective.

Ha! I should have known…it’s always about the money!

http://greenlifestylemagazine.net/images/issue-4/money-recycling.jpg

Netflix Blunder Update

Netflix shares hit their all-time-low this year on Wednesday, leaving CEO Reed Hastings with a little less to be thankful for.

http://articles.businessinsider.com/2010-07-21/tech/30041565_1_netflix-nflx-subscriber

The company has been suffering since its announcement of the controversial price hike this summer and later attempt to separate the DVD rental service. Since these heavily resisted business moves, Netflix has lost 800,000 subscribers in the third quarter alone.

So now what does Netflix do? Financially they have planned to sell $200 million in common stock and $200 million in bonds to raise cash to expand into U.K. and Ireland and guarantee more content deals. But what about communication-wise? How does Netflix use communication to reverse the company profits?

For one, Netflix can start being a lot more transparent in their business methods. The DVD/online streaming split announcement back in September nearly destroyed the company’s image. To make up for lost ground, Netflix should try to create content to drive consumer engagement. This would show Netflix is listening to their consumers and has learned from their mistake.

Longhorn Network: Flop or Fortune?

The Longhorn Network launched August 26 to a sea of expectant fans. But here we are, three months later, and chances are that very few of those fans actually have access to the channel.

Predictions project that barely over 4 million cable customerse have access to LHN. The primary national cable carrier is Verizon FiOS. Regionally, Grande broadcasts LHN to 180,000 viewers in cities across Texas.

 “We've attempted to do similar deals with Time Warner Cable, DirecTV, AT&T U-Verse, Dish and Comcast,” ESPN said in October. “Unfortunately, these operators have not engaged in active negotiations in the past month.

The LHN/ESPN partnership creates an complementary brand. “No matter how ESPN spins it, the Longhorn Network is a P.R. arm of Texas,” wrote Richard Deitsch, a media columnist for SI.com.

While the initial partnership seemed to launch UT Austin further into collegiate stardom, what are the repercussions for the lack of coverage? How does this affect the university’s brand reputation?

In my opinion, the potential flop of the Longhorn Network definitely weakens the University of Texas brand image. People will criticize the amount of hype and coverage Longhorns expected to receive and failed to get and rank this attempt as a loss. Lord knows the Longhorns have enough enemies to crank that rumor mill.

Please feel free to share your thoughts.

Newspaper Survival 101

In an attempt to survive among the growing digital world, newspapers are now responding with a type of Groupon coupon chain. Eight publishing and media companies are launching Find n Save, a digital shopping platform that will spread across the companies 200-plus newspapers.

http://valerioveo.com/wp-content/uploads/2009/08/tough-times-newspaper.jpg

Christopher Tippie, the acting CEO of the group, says “it’s an industry movement to embrace a single advertising platform. We’ve got to come together and bring forth a better set of advertising tools to connect with shoppers.”

From what I can tell, Find n Save is a type of “one-stop-shop” for online shopping deals. For example, McClatchy, a newspaper parent company has been using the Find n Save online deals in an array of online products including coupons, daily deals, and circulars. The newspaper has also included a social element by embedding real-time local deal feeds from shopping blogs and Twitter.

I think it is extremely wise for newspapers to adopt the Find n Save program in order combat their decline. I believe a print newspaper will lessen risk of extinction by undergoing a continuous media and technology evolution. As long as newspapers continue to adapt their editorial product to the web, they should survive.