Assignment:

Control your political feelings (hard to do these days, but this class is NOT about politics, it’s MEDIA STUDIES!), and tell us how you think these posters compare in terms of their impact on the public (feelings they evoke, memorability, ability to motivate, power to incite rage/euphoria, all other).

What I find interesting about both images is the timeliness of their references. The Fairey image immediately reminded me (upon first view) of soviet propaganda art (or the Che Guevara image we’ve all seen – which, during the Cold War makes a lot of sense with this art style). The vector silhouette with monochrome coloring and the large “HOPE” looked, to me, like “OBEY”. But this style was popular in graphic and web circles at the time of its release and I doubt most non-design nerds (true of us, yes???) would pinpoint it as “propaganda,” even if the head nod was there. It’s an image of “¡Revolución!” that fit well into the “change” mantra of his campaign.
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@oldspice has the best political advice I’ve seen – not to mention the absolute most original, fun, entertaining and brilliant campaign ever. Thanks for the laughs Old Spice. You are pushing the limits of modern participatory culture, and I salute you for that. Monocle Smile!

Can One Bad Tweet Taint Your Brand Forever? – Advertising Age – Digital.

Interesting read. Talks about the way very small numbers of normal people are tainting the way the masses are perceiving brands. Deals specifically with the negative views.

It’s no secret that I’m addicted to social media, or that my favourite outlet is Twitter.

Why? So many people I (or my friends) come into contact with don’t get it. They say Twitter is stupid. Given, most of them haven’t checked out the service. But while they’re making fun of Twitter, they’re off spending hours on end on Facebook or MySpace. You know, the old social media. (Strange we have old New Media already, yes?)

But Twitter is the anti-Facebook. On Facebook you’re bombarded with photos, fan suggestions, ‘Become a Zombie’ requests, snowballs, and God knows what else that is hiding in the depths of their app schemas. Last week it was suggested I become a fan of curly fries. Really? Curly fries?
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