No I am not going to New York...but the next best thing to that is that Jay-Z is coming to the Frank Erwin Center very soon! And as an intern at the Erwin center I have been walking around campus with "him" and taking pictures. That's right, me, Jay, and my fellow interns, have become quite the pals.
Check out Jay-Z in 2-d at the on the Frank Erwin Center Twitter page and watch out for "him" all week with us on campus! You could get your picture taken with him and put up on our website.
This is probably one of my favorite marketing campaigns I have done to date at the Erwin Center, considering that it is incorporating unique marketing techniques with our social media. Pretty awesome!
Marijuana, hash, pot, grass, weed, Mary Jane, ganja...
The list goes on and on. And the discussions about marijuana go on and on as well. Should it be legal or not? Should we let people sell it for medicinal purposes? If we do, who should prosecute if that privilege is abused? How much is too much?
While I myself am not a pot smoker for my own personal reasons, I live in a city (Austin) where it is very prevalent. Plenty of my friends smoke it, maybe not on a regular basis but it is not unusual to see it at parties. To me it isn't really a big deal because I have been around it for so long, but I think it is definitely not something to be overlooked.
This notion was confirmed last night when I watched an A&E Special Presentation called "Pot City" in which a small town in northern California called Arcata is highlighted. The town which was once a very quaint, quiet, and rather crime-free place to live has now turned into a haven for marijuana growers. Almost 10% (about 1,000) of the towns 7,000 homes have been turned into pot homes, which then become no longer inhabitable after the pot growers move out.
Not only is pot being harvested in homes, but it is illegally being planted in state parks and timber company properties. The new culture that has evolved from this massive pot business has led many of the residents to live in fear because of the crime that goes along with selling pot.
After watching this I had to ask myself...how can people say that this drug is harmless? I highly disagree. In this town, the amount of house fires has greatly increased, putting a strain on resources. Also, police department resources are strained because they are having to deal with crime that was never there before. A town that was basically a haven, an oasis, is not plagued with crime. You call that harmless?
I encourage you to read about this documentary and follow with all the talks in Congress about marijuana enforcement. Here is a link to the new bill passed in which Obama says he will not prosecute medical marijuana users and distributors as long as they are within state regulations.
I know there has been a lot of buzz about the San Antonio Spurs and Oklahoma City Thunder game at the Frank Erwin Center tonight.
For one, we don't have our own NBA team here in Austin so this game is an exciting change from our college games, especially since it is featuring a local favorite, the San Antonio Spurs. Also, and I think more importantly, Kevin Durant will be making his BIG return to Austin since leaving the Horns to embark on his NBA career. He started out with the Seattle Supersonics, and since then has come a little closer to home, playing with the newly franchised Oklahoma City Thunder.
Anyways, this is not a piece about Kevin or to get you to go to the game (all though you should because tickets are not expensive and it will be awesome!), but more of my own little blurb. I am kind of bummed because I work at the Erwin center in the marketing department, and part of my job is to work the events that we book. So when I heard about the game I was SUPER excited because I am a HUGE NBA fan. One of my saved tabs on my computer is NBA.com. I really wanted to be at the game tonight, to see Kevin and Tony Parker and Tim Duncan and Manu UP CLOSE ( I mean I have been to a Spurs game before when they played my home team the Houston Rockets) but never really close.
So have fun all of you that will be there. Give a shout out to Kevin for me. I will be in class, filling my head with lots of knowledge that is extremely important I will admit. You win some you loose some.Photo courtesy of pacejmiller.wordpress.com
I feel like everywhere I go there is some new celebrity endorsed product. It is not enough these days for an actor to be just an actor, a singer to be a singer, or a fashion designer to focus purely on fashion. Celebrities are constantly taking their "celebrity" and using it slap their name on some product.
So that brings me to my topic for today: Where do we draw the line? From wines, to foods, to clothing lines, to jewelery lines, to shoes, to restaurants, celebrities now days are going into many other business ventures to "brand themselves" as they call it. But honestly, are they just cluttering the already crowded marketplace with products they may or not be of good quality just because they can? Are they robbing people who have real talent of their opportunities because they have the resources and the name?
In my opinion, yes. When I read my celebrity news (which is every day) it seems as if some celebrity is coming out with a new clothing line. O but theirs has a twist to it. Maybe it is affordable for all...well we already have about five of those...I can name them off the top of my head right now. Issac Mizrahi for Target, Miley Cyrus and Mary Kate and Ashely Olson's both have lines in Wal-mart, and now Lauren Conrad has come out with a more affordable line of her $250 cotton dresses.
Outside of the fashion world, celebrities are dabbling in the food world. Countless celebrities are opening restaurants all over the country. This I don't have as much of a problem with, since it is not necessarily Jennifer Lopez back in the kitchen cooking. However, when Dan Aykroyd comes out with a line of wines, I have got to say something. His wines were actually featured on Gary Vaynerchuck's Wine Library TV series the other day (which somewhat prompted this post), and needless to say they were kind of a dissappointment. Let's leave the winemaking to those that know it best.
So what are your thoughts? Do you buy things because a celebrity's name is on it? Do you endorse celebrity products? Do you think real talent is being overshadowed by celebrities?
Today's hot topic: Photoshop! While every girl would love to be on the cover of Glamour or Seventeen magazine, many don't realize that the images they see in those magazines are far from the truth. The topic of photoshopping has sparked many people in the industry to speak out and do something.
From Christina Aguilera's hit song "Beautiful" back in 2002, to the Dove Real Beauty Campaign, launched in 2004, to celebrities like Kim Kardashian now insisting that they not be photoshopped in magazine spreads.
It amazes me how much people have to say about this topic, but photographers, models, celebrities, and others still insist on creating this ideal image with photoshop. As a child I think I got lucky in the sense that I didn't watch a lot of TV or read a ton of magazines because I was too busy playing sports and trying to be like my brother, but there are many girls that fall into that gap.
Our society places so much emphasis on either creating a perfect image, or criticizing those that create that image, which sometimes just makes everything a much bigger deal than it was in the first place. (I mean honestly...I played with Barbie my whole life and I never really thought about the whole boob to waist to arm to leg ratio crap that they talk about...the focus was on dressing and playing...PLEASE!)
Picture courtesy of Dove RealBeauty Campaign
However, this article from Read Write Web did catch my attention because I do think it is a step in the right direction. French member of Parliament, Valerie Boyer, has "proposed a law to include a disclaimer at the bottom of all enhanced press, political, art and advertising-based photographs." The reason why I like this is because I think it is reasonable. Asking photos not to be retouched is, lets face it, not going to happen anytime soon. However, just like the food industry has to add disclaimers if their food might contain nuts, the fashion industry should include a disclaimer if their image is altered. Fair enough right?
While there are many details to work out I hope that this law is approved! Tell me what your thoughts are and if you have heard of anything else related.
3) iCarly is one of my favorite shows (and I constantly watch Disney and Nick)
4) At this very moment I have a Hello Kitty Band-Aid on my finger
However, one thing that I never really got into was the whole video game thing. While I will never hate on Nintendo and Super Nintendo, and I have caught a little Wii fever (I mean who doesn't want to get into an intense game of Wii table tennis), I just couldn't understand how my guy friends could spend days playing the new Halo or Madden.
Anywho, one thing that has been the new buzz on the web and in my classrooms is Second Life. Second Life is "virtual world launched...in 2003....that enables it users to interact with each other through avatars." Here is the the video one of my professors showed us in class over the educational uses of Second Life.
After watching this video I became somewhat familiar with the in's and out's of Second Life, however I was not sold on just how much relevant Second Life was to my life. Then as I was riding the bus to school the other day, I was reading a copy of the Daily Texan and came across this article which outlined how our University hundreds of thousands of dollars in virtual realty in Second Life. It amazes me that cyber-space can cost that much, and that in the middle of an economic crisis UT deems it important to buy virtual land. What are your thoughts on this expenditure?
A couple days later I was going through some articles on my Google Reader, and came across this article on ReadWriteWeb, which outlined the investment that The University of Texas made in Second Life and the implications it would have on the future of Second Life.
Are we starting a new phenomenom? Is the classroom going to go entirely virtual? How do students feel about this? Personally I like going to class, creating relationships not only with my peers but with my professors. I don't think that relationship can be made through avatars. Plus, not everyone is going to be who they really are in person, online.
Anyone that knows me knows that I am an avid follower of Jimmy Fallon. I have loved him since his days on Saturday Night Live. How can we forget his lovely song parodies in his early days, and of course his co-anchor new desk days with Tina Fey?
I think my favorite think about Jimmy is his ability to just laugh at himself. When he just looses it and laughs out loud on camera it gives him a realness that not too many comedians have today...I LOVE IT!
For those who aren't familiar, the show is a parody of the The Real Housewives series that Bravo produces. There are currently four cities featured in the series, Orange County, New York, Atlanta, and New Jersey.
Back to Jimmy...When I heard about it on his twitter account (yes, I follow him on twitter) last Thursday the anticipation was almost too much to bear. When it finally premiered on Monday it was all I could have ever wanted and more. Jimmy and other workers at the show dressed in drag as their wives and played on the set of the show. For those of you who don't watch the show, go and check out a clip of the Real Housewives of Late Night on Jimmy's Website (HILARIOUS!)
Song Recommendation Of the Day:
No Scrubs- TLC (It was produced by one of the stars of The Real Housewives of Atlanta, Kandi)
For awhile I never really saw the impact of social media in the workplace. I didn't use it in the workplace, wasn't hugely involved in it, and didn't go home and do much research on it. I wasn't extremely interested in creating a blog, I am still reluctant to create a twitter account (although I have as a result of MUCH pressure), I didn't join Facebook until I got to college, and I was never part of a social network until I got to college.
I guess you could say I was more into human contact than about getting on the computer and connecting. Well I was guilty of late night chat sessions on AIM, I mean what middle schooler wasn't...and who doesn't remember their first ridiculous screen name. Mine was halogurl125 (where in the world did that come from???)
However, working in marketing at the Frank Erwin Center I have realized how EXTREMELY important social media is not only for our work, but for all the people that we are involved with. In the past six months we have launched a Facebook page and a twitter account, and we have started keeping track daily of all the social media that our clients are involved with. For example, since Jay-Z is coming in November we have begun tracking his twitter account and all the media attention he gets for anything interesting.
In doing this I have learned so much about social media. Not only about how important it is in the sense that it does make a difference in getting the word out, but that there is so much you can do with it. For instance, Jason Mraz was here last night. One of his interesting social media tactics were a series of comedic webisodes called Grati Tube. The series really had nothing to do with Mraz's music, but they were really popular because they showed a completely different side of him. Jason Mraz is known for being a soulful and thoughtful musician, so viewers were interested to see him being playful and comedic. The videos got thousands of hits on his official Youtube website.
I think that doing things like Jason did that show you have a different side to you than what you always show the world are important not only for celebrities, but for other people in the spotlight. In light of all the recent outbursts in the public eye lately, social media might be one of best outlets to shed a new light to the situation. The way people look at news is definitely changing, and perhaps being real can be the best remedy to some situations.
Yesterday in my PR352 class we had an amazing guest speaker named Andy Lark. Among many things Andy was partner at Fleishman-Hillard, he co-founded of Google, dabbled in the video gaming world, and is now the vice president of global enterprise marketing at Dell computers. Oh I almost forgot...on the side Andy helps fund and run a successful clothing company in his home country of New Zealand. Talk about a man of many talents.
In his presentation yesterday Andy filled our minds with buckets of information on how the climate and landscape of the media world is changing right before our eyes. He also gave us hope that PR is not dead...thank goodness since my parents have spent thousands of dollar on what will soon be my PR degree. (It will all be worth it mom and dad!)
But what REALLY made me want to write about Andy today is how strange and odd it was that yesterday he mentioned in his presentation one of my favorite entrepeneurs, Gary Vaynerchuck. For those that don't know Gary he is the founder of Wine Library and the hilarious host of Wine Library TV. I discovered Gary's blog for the first time about 2 1/2 years ago working for a small wine company here in Austin and have followed him ever since. But what REALLY takes the cake is that while skimming the news in the New York Times this morning I came across this article featuring Gary Vaynerchuck.
Gary has really capitalized on the new social media frontier. He not only does Wine Library TV, but he has also racked up 900,000 twitter followers. He also stays in touch with his followers and readers through e-mail.
Gotta love Gary and Andy...what a small world.
Song Suggestion of the Day: Watcha Say- Jason Derulo (the new song with the Imogen Heap song "Hide and Seek mixed in!)
Song Recommendation Of the Day:
