The fine folks at Current tv warn us about Twitter overkill thanks to celebrity invasion of the site. Twitter, once a micro-blogging site used by early adopters, tech geeks, and let’s face it, PR folks, to communicate with others, has now become as mainstream as it can get with everyone from Perez Hilton, Oprah Winfrey, and yes, even Britney Spears (or more appropriately her handlers) keeping us up on all that they’re doing.
Yup, it’s oh so exciting. At the very least, the video is good for a laugh – if you can get passed the fact that they made P.Diddy sound like Ja Rule. “It’s Muuuurrrrddaaaaa.”
Looks like my good friend, Mother Nature will have the last laugh once again. It’s been a pleasant 50-60 degrees here in NYC the last few days as we gear up for the first day of spring, which is today at 745a.
Well, I’m happy to report that it is snowing like mad as I type this from the train platform. Amazing!
A certain someone recommended starting a game of “heard around the office” to aggregate all the random ish that goes down. I’ve decided to take it one step further – visuals. Why the sudden need to share? Well, I was just going into the ladies bathroom when I noticed a suspicious amount of duct tape along the outside of the door. My instinct told me to find another bathroom, but my intrigue told me to proceed in. Let’s just say, I was not disappointed. Apparently, someone managed to break the door handle making it nearly impossible to exit the bathroom. Fear not, some forward-thinking maintenance person came up with a make-shift solution, which helped me escape. Proof:
Um, I can’t even tell you how many quarters I used to pump in this game while vacationing as a kid with my folks in Virgina Beach. The total is probably around a year of college tuition, which is sad in itself. Needless to say, when I saw Skate or Die can be played online now, I pissed myself. Amazing. Skate on kiddies. You’re welcome.
The five words that are tossed around relentlessly in my profession that I’ve grown to hate, yet am forced to integrate (just missed the cut) into my vocab on a daily basis. Really, there’s nothing revolting about these words/phrases rather it all comes down to the context in which they are used.
1. Leverage – this is hoity-toity marketing speak for “use”. Why can’t we just say use anymore?
2. Assets – can we be more vague? What are our assets? Most days this consists of news, video, and/or images. I know – annoying right?
3. Loop – Most commonly used as a verb: “I’ll loop you in,” which loosely translates to “I don’t feel like doing this work, so I’ll be sure to pass it off to you in front of others so you can’t decline.”
4. Case Study – Everything is considered a case study – but rarely is any thing a TRUE case study. However, I’ve affectionately come to refer to the dreaded case study as – CS.
5. Thanks so much – Most commonly used as a reply to the “I’ll loop you in” comment. It’s drenched in sarcasm and dripping with disdain, but still seems civil in tone, unless your recipient is wise to you.
Wow. So, by now I’m sure you’ve all read/heard about Chris Brown aka CBreezy smackin up Rihanna. Though I do not condone domestic violence or violence of any kind, I have to share the most inappropriate joke of the day. The award goes to my Dad who, every now and again comes up with a gem. Like this one…
:::cue Doublemint Gum Commercial:::
Me: “Ha, that’s gotta be pulled now that he’s a wifebeater.”
Dad “What do you mean?”
Me: “Rumor has it he beat up Rihanna”
Dad: “I hope not with her umbrella, ella, ella, eh, eh.”
It’s rare that I fall for a tv commercial – so when it does, I feel like I need to share it. Last night I was flipping through the channels when I settled on a random station to basically leave on in the background while I downloaded music to my iPod. Then I heard this jolly little tune, “Summer Day” by Coconut Records, followed by a voice-over saying “The Original Instant Message.” I was intrigued – had to see where this was going.
Then the commercial cuts to a shot of guy and girl that kiss quickly. Mr. voice-over returns and declares “Voicemail” while two guys jump into a lake and the camera pans to two girls sharing a secret. Then we see a room full of twenty-somethings chatting/sitting in a room where Mr. voice-over states “Chatroom Full.” Seriously, I was hooked.
Jump to a shot of a bunch of guys playing soccer. One guy scores a goal and subsequently celebrates with his teammates as Mr. voice-over (aka my new best friend) says “Friend Request: Accepted.”
Then it concludes with the sell: “Dentyne, Make Face Time.”
Wow. Really, I’m not one for commercials, but just the fact that they were capable of taking current online trends and integrated them into a commercial that wasn’t overly branded or pushing product at me is exactly what sold me. Now, can I say I’ll honestly go out and buy Dentyne gum as a result? No (sorry, sales team!), but this commercial will stick with me, especially as someone who spends long hours behind emails, social networking sites, profiles, etc for a living.
The message is simple – log off, disconnect, and spend time interacting in the physical world. Let there be physical, tangible experiences in life while not simply relying on technology to express feelings or experience moments. It’s not preachy either. Simple stating – make time for others.
So my friends and I were just discussing how we don’t remember what life was like without YouTube. Well, that’s an exaggeration, but seriously, the site is a huge source of entertainment in my life. I came across this little gem of a video today after lunch (thanks, NY Mag!) with co-workers where we well…gossiped…about the CW’s Gossip Girl.
The video is called “Dear Gossip Girl” and features Southern Mothers & Matt Pearson, aka a bunch of preppy dudes who rap about the show. Heck, they even visited GG locations to shoot the video. How can you not love it…
I was catching up on all my RSS feeds and saw this video on my friend and colleague, Luke Armour’s blog Observations of Public Relations. It’s what Facebook would be like in real life — not online. It’s pretty funny, but also kind of annoying — which is most likely how most of us feel about Facebook.
I’m a proud New Yorker — one who has always bragged about the eclectic nature of the city. Different cultures, different people, different foods — a place to get anything you want, when you want it and fast. One of a kind. Original. Well, maybe in it’s hay-day, but can’t deny the “mallification” of the city these days.
Retail stores have pretty much pushed out any “mom and pop” type shop you can imagine. In the course of a city block, you’ll pass at least one of the following stores (in some cases multiples of each): Starbucks, Duane Reade, CVS, or Subway. Earlier this year I wrote a post about how I’m currently working in the same area of Manhattan where I had worked three years ago. Have I noticed a difference in the stores in the area? You betcha.
For instance, when I was working on 39th and 3rd a mere three years ago you couldn’t find a Dunkin Donuts. Now, there’s 3 Dunkin Donuts in a three block radius. No joke.
So I shouldn’t have been too surprised when I saw Gothamist post this data compiled by The Center for Urban Future ranking national retail stores in NYC, but I was. It was eye-opening to actually see the store tally and breakdown for boroughs.
Dunkin’ Donuts actually tops the list with 341 locations throughout Manhattan, but Starbucks leads Manhattan with a whopping 186 stores! Again, not really surprising when put in context since my office is surrounded by Starbucks with six stores in a three block radius, but still crazy to process. Do we REALLY need that many coffee shops? Aren’t NYers wound up enough?
The interesting stat to note is that there are actually more Subway chains throughout NYC than there are Mc Donalds — maybe we should thank Morgan Spurlock’s “Super Size Me” for that.
I do have to give Gothamist props for this astute observation “yet despite the fact that the city’s small businesses are being rapidly replaced with chain stores you can find in any depressing strip mall across America, there still isn’t a single Dairy Queen in the five boroughs. And that burns.”
I’m with ya man. There’s nothing more defeating than seeing those Blizzard commercials on TV and not being able to get one — ever — unless you go down south somewhere. That goes for Sonic too!! Check out the rest of the table below…
