Cheetos, they're WEIRD!

An analysis of the Cheetos strategy seems like something that should come from the big wigs. And by 'Big Wigs', I mean creative directors working the Wig Company account. 

Now, I love my weird attempts in the world of advertising. I love seeing what comes out of people's minds when they realize they're allowed to just be out of their skulls. Sometimes its beautiful, sometimes disturbing, but always well worth the journey. 

BUT, it goes without saying that interpreting the weird must still inevitably come back to the product in some way. Because its still an ad, not art. And so you still have to be simple despite the weird.

I commend Cheetos for trying the weird. But seriously? Whoever sold them this idea came in with the opening line "Weird sells. I know this because I'm 'weird'. And as an expert, I also know that you can't have too much 'weird'. Budget costs? Recession? No, no! Don't worry, in the world of 'weird' you don't even have to try that hard. Because the rough look makes it more 'WEIRD'. Its what the target likes! They like that whole pasted together, "urban-street" look. Its WEIRD! It reminds them of parties and being super "boss". Trust me, more weird means more revenue. Lets get on this, duuuude."

And then they hired on a bunch of interns and had them go to town. Although there are a few things I really liked about this site for the most part it looked as though they gave the 13 interns and 1 real but annoyed art director only two weeks to paste it together. I understand that there are time crunches and indecisiveness with introducing a new brand but Cheetos.com is so poorly polished that I'm left wondering if their still working on it while the site is running. 

Social Media

This is part of an email I wrote to Danny Nathan (creative strategist/genius at Poke) in regards to part of a creative assignment he gave me to research and discuss social media. 

I liked it so much I thought should put it in here so as to never forget it:

"I'm just barely understanding what its all about. At first I assumed it was about the use of the internet, networking sites, blogs; I assumed it was about these THINGS and how we use them. I thought about this and not the idea of what they represent. Which is strange to break down since I've been so immersed in this media since I was in high school but never understood what I was a part of. And after picking up a few books (none I've finished reading yet because I'm an incredibly slow reader) I'm really beginning to understand that its so much more than a blogspot or facebook page. 

Its social interaction, collective thought, and the influence of the individual to society as a whole. It reminds me a lot of a book I read a few years ago called 'The Tipping Point' (I'm sure you've read it). The movement of a particular group of individuals that really influence the masses. In fact, as odd as this timing is, last night a few friends of mind and I revisited Friendster.com and laughingly pointed out our fossil profiles, like they were old photo albums from our youth. Thinking about this now, I realize that our view of the pages wasn't from something Friendster was missing in any grand scheme, they were still functioning as a networking site, but from the collective consciousness that the site had died socially. And we weren't alone on this as we searched through friend's profiles and saw that they too hadn't visited their site since 2005. 

Right now I'm reading 'Conversation Capitol' and 'The Wisdom of Crowds' (although more with the first book). I've looked through a couple of things I found on the internet here and there but again, the internet seems to focus more on the method rather than its implications to how it affects society. I think the first real piece that let me understand all of this in a big picture sort of way was a lecture I found from writer James Surowieki who talked about 'When Social Media Became the News'. He basically rounded out the idea that social media pulls together collective thought and the influence that it has (positively and negatively) on shaping society's intelligence.

Its absolutely fascinating to me since I feel as though I've always had this scope on watching the human being. I love realizing the moment when its happening rather than interacting with it, which inevitably always makes me a little distant from the individual but fantastic at understanding interactions, the relationships between people, and the understanding of what happens when we take a step back and look at big pictures. 

Whether I love or hate what social media has done to influence mass society really depends on the way I look at it all. At length I hate that social media has distanced us from each other's physical presence which I feel is such an important element to the way we connect, it also distances us from ourselves through this networking self celebrity. But from the other end it helps us understand each other on a conscious level and understand what it is that makes us all connected in a way that's so much more personal, true and vulnerable. Social media has made writers, artists, and photographers of us all whether we like what each other has to say or not. And because of the media level, it has created an entirely new culture that we must also find a way to survive in, learn from, and keep up with. 

Hope this didn't sound too foolish.

-Ani"

I'd like to hope I can continue to think at this level. Its so much more interesting this way. 

Snowy view

Things to be remembered about about today's snow:

Thing one:

The way that little girl ran gleefully through the white, untouched snow. It reminded me of the strange fulfillment we get with bubble wrap. It also made me sad to realize that the parents beside her simply kept walking the retrodden snow. 

Thing two:

The snow on the cars outside falls so perfectly that it makes any heap seem like a new model of sports car. Which would be a great way to introduce the new line for a December model. Interactive: Old model sits in the corners of internet pages getting snowed on quietly, right at the launch date (Merry Christmas Capitalism) someone comes out and drives it away as the new car. 

Thing three:

Because of the snow there is even more emphasis on people running to the subway to make it. Today I ran to catch my Q and with two other people we made it within seconds before the door closed. There was an actual moment (rare I've noticed) where we all turned to each other then to ourselves and smiled; like we won the race.