It’s early April 2016. You’re a junior associate at a PR firm. You get an e-mail from your boss, Haston Lewis, senior director of marketing, Frito-Lay, saying, “Cracker Jack is dropping its prize and replacing it with a scannable code that will unlock four baseball-themed experiences on their mobile device. Let’s sidestep the fact that… Continue reading Sad Devolution of Cracker Jack Prizes Mirrors Decline of America
Month: July 2017
Did Young Turks’ Ana Kasparian Really Say “Balls Deep”?
Lesson #1 of YouTube captioning: don’t rely on automatic captioning. But the mighty media empire behind The Young Turks couldn’t hire someone from Fiverr to vet the automatic captioning, thus saving Miss Kasparian from the indignity of uttering “balls deep” instead of the Hepatitus C drug Solvaldi? The Ball Quantity Discussion But it was only… Continue reading Did Young Turks’ Ana Kasparian Really Say “Balls Deep”?
Is Prego’s “Welcome to the Family” Ad Real or Fake?
It’s the type of TV commercial we’ve grown accustomed to: the mock feel-good reality event with actors portraying actual people. In this one for pasta sauce company Prego, my bullshit detector maxed out. 1 – An event crew sets up dinner. It’s well-staged, designed for effect: wood chairs with wicker seats, long wood table, colorful glasses.… Continue reading Is Prego’s “Welcome to the Family” Ad Real or Fake?
Surreal Life: Evolution of the TV Talk Show Set, 1964 to Present
The evolution of the TV talk show set only lightly mirrors design changes that were going on in the rest of the world at the time. Plaids, bold colors, African tribal prints, rubber plants–whatever was happening at the world outside migrated into the studio set. But for the most part, these are not meant to be… Continue reading Surreal Life: Evolution of the TV Talk Show Set, 1964 to Present
Large Scale Models That Will Seriously Warp Your Mind
Large scale models are simply diabolical. Models of any scale can play with your imagination, but you always know what’s real and what’s fake. When that train, plane, or car model is, say, 14 inches long–normal scale model size, more or less–your mind quickly adapts to the concept because it knows this is a model. And… Continue reading Large Scale Models That Will Seriously Warp Your Mind