Archive for the ‘shock’ tag
Phil Schiller relates Apple’s struggles to develop iPhone, iPad; shock at Samsung’s copies
Apple’s senior VP of worldwide product marketing Phil Schiller took the stand today, describing Apple’s development of the iPhone and iPad at a time when few believed the company could shake up the mobile industry.
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The Milgram extension
In his famous experiment, Stanley Milgram gave his subjects a switch and then encouraged them to give (fake) electric shocks to his confederates if they were slow to follow instructions.
The internet has become a giant version of this, except the shocks are real.
You give people a switch and they can shock you whenever they choose, disrupt your day, cloud your horizons and generally make you feel like a failure.
Of course, that switch has always been given to certain members of your family or co-workers or teachers. But now, thanks to the ability of a total stranger to dump his anxiety or anger on you, the switch is easily handed to hundreds or thousands of people.
Extending the circle of people who are able to zap you is human nature. It’s easy to do and tempting, too (because it feels as though you’re gaining the ability to have others approve of you). On balance, my guess is that a large number of strangers holding on to electric shock buttons is a dangerous situation. But it’s up to you.
punch this…
Conan O’Brien Does His First Google+ Hangout [Video]
Conan O’Brien, the late night comedian with the shock of red hair, hosted his first Google+ Hangout on Monday, and apparently not everybody knows about it yet, as the recording only has 11,500 video views on YouTube. That said, Google hasn’t published any other stats to let us know how many people were actually viewing it live.
New Career Opportunities Daily: The best jobs in media.
Ads Worth Spreading
People hate advertising.
How often have you heard that line? Do you believe it to be true? I don’t (no shock there). I prefer to turn the phrase a little bit: people don’t hate advertising… people hate bad advertising. It’s a pervasive sentiment throughout the marketing world. Think about privacy: people want their privacy? If people don’t want brands to know what they’re doing why do they give out their personal information for a couple of coupons (is that all that it’s worth?)? If people were truly concerned about their online privacy, why would they sign up for Facebook and not only post very personal pictures of them and their family, but also publish (to the world, no less) information that they would commonly label as "personal and private"?
We’re an interesting species.
At this year’s TED conference they announced the winners of TED‘s ads worth spreading contest/initiative. In looking at the many winners that were chosen by the judges, I could not help but sit back, enjoy the ads, smile and think to myself: "advertising is worth it." The big challenge comes from getting brands, media companies and the advertising agencies to elevate the industry so that we all, collectively, believe it – and, more importantly, practice it. We’re struggling. We often don’t really know what works and what connects when it comes to creating advertising and marketing messages, so we pander to the lowest common denominator and create an ad that simply screams… instead of an ad that will tell a story.
How did we get so lost?
Is there any data, proof or business case to validate that screaming your product in an annoying and repetitive fashion actually gets (and keeps) attention? Below, are some of the ads that touched my heart. The truth is that I’m going to remember these ads forever. The truth is that I’m either going to become a customer or think about these brands the next time that I require their products and services.
That’s the point of advertising: to make a brand an idea worth spreading.
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look out below
Would you board an elevator if you saw a warning sign outside? Would you temp fate and press the button? Well if the elevator was in Southside Shopping Centre in Wandsworth London you’d get a bit of a shock when the doors opened, no floor! Nothing but the elevator shaft below.
Yeah I think I’ll take the stairs….
Created by artist Andrew Walker for Alton Towers Resort, to promote their upcoming thrill ride called Nemesis Sub-Terra. The ride will take people on a 3D illusion tour of an underground network of caves. The only question is; do you have the courage to take the quick way down?
Secret Santa comes to Vertical Leap!
Today we were thrilled by the arrival of a sackful of secret surprises….
Yep, it’s the time of year we all eagerly await…we draw names out of a hat and compete to find the most adorable/sweet/tragic/downright vulgar (delete as required) gift on a fixed budget.
This year the Head Elf insisted on some reaction shots as we opened our presents…check them out!
Surprise, delight, shock, hilarity..we’ve got ‘em all!
How Can I Avoid Static Shocks in Cold, Dry Weather? [Ask Lifehacker]
Dear Lifehacker,
Its starting to cool off around here, and pretty soon the weather is going to be so dry that everything I touch gives me a shock. This year I’m determined to avoid constant static electricity problems in my house. What can I do to avoid it? More »
shocking video gets banned
This chilling anti-child abuse PSA from Ireland has been out in the media for a bit, but the shock of how realistic and sad it is stays with you. Apparently so much that it was just banned from all media channels in Ireland.
So you’re probably thinking it’s because the ad was too graphic right? Too disturbing? Too sad? Nope, because it was too sexist since only a male was shown beating the child. Adfreak goes on to explain.
Pretty ridiculous considering the nature of the video. Kind of missing the point, no?
Why Taking it to the Streets is Neither Senseless nor Shocking
Why is it that we cheer and sympathize when the citizens of Cairo take to the streets to protest the way their government is treating them, yet we are shocked and label it as “senseless” when the same thing happens in the poorer neighborhoods of London.
In fact, the shock of the year is the Arab spring, where the people have been suppressed for centuries and have suffered–as far as we westerners know–in silence.
They rioted in the UK as recently as 1983, and for the same reasons as it seems they this week: government policy which cut backs what the poor are getting in the name of an austerity that does not appear to much impact the rich.
The poor feel disenfranchised for pretty good reason. They are.
This is not a political statement of any kind. The poor have spurred most revolutions because they are, almost by definition, the most exploited class. When they become idle, and have access to alcohol or other abusable substances, their frustration mounts.
Then something happens, which ignites a short fuse into a large explosive keg. In this case, it was the alleged mishandling of a black youth being arrested by police in Hackney.
For those of us Americans who are old enough, there should be a certain sense of deja vu. This is what happened in the late 60s and early 70s in Harlem and Watts, Detroit and Boston, Chicago and Newark. There was something an advisor to Richard Nixon called “benign neglect.” The victims of it found any hope they had was replaced with frustration. Then a fuse got lit and then “boom.”
The newspapers call what happen in riot-torn areas senseless. The leaders blame gangs of thugs. The rioters slip into the night for a while and the benign neglect continues, often in the name of fiscal austerity.
The issues in London are not all that different from the issues of Cairo, or the Philippines or Thailand, or Gandhi’s India, Mandela’s South Africa, or for that matter, King’s America of the 1960s.
The degrees of oppression and cruelty; the levels of racism or sexual discrimination may vary according to government or century, but a certain truth remains the same and self-evident: that all people are created equal and have certain unalienable rights. When government takes away too many of them for too long a period of time, then most people will eventually refuse to be governed.
I am no advocate of violence. I would note that many of the most successful overthrows of government in the last 100 years have come about through nonviolent protest–that almost always results in violent government response. People endure great cruelty and display great bravery once they realize that to not stand up against such policies is to live a life like cattle and to leave a legacy for their children to graze the same pastures.
I also do not mean to liken British PM David Cameron to Hosni Mubarak. The political situations are far different and Egypt’s corruption and cruelty to citizens was far greater. But I do see similarities, move for move between Cameron and America’s Richard Nixon–who also complained of street thugs as he flew home from an aborted expensive vacation and vowed also to get tough rather than listen and communicate.
Sometimes I wish that governments could learn what many commercial enterprises have learned in the past few years through social media. In 2005, I started a book about blogging with the statement “We live in a time when most people don’t trust large corporations.”
I could have just as easily written that we live in a time when people don’t like their governments. In democracies, we are supposed to respond to that by voting. Yet over time, we discovered the act of voting one bum out seems to do little more than install a different bum.
This leads to frustration and anger. Those most afflicted eventually take to the streets and the cycle resumes yet again.
I do not endorse what happen in the last few days in the UK. In fact, it saddens me to a large degree. But I find it neither shocking nor senseless and I hope the powers that be respond in a more conversational way before it becomes to volatile.
