District 9, the movie, the marketing, afrofuturism and an awesome panel on transmedia.
Part 1/Part 2
"The reason why the film wouldn't have caught many who followed science
fiction by surprise is that it has been the focus of a transmedia
marketing campaign for well over a year in advance of the film's
release. Signs prohibiting nonhuman use of restrooms surfaced at
Comic-Con a year ago. By the start of the summer, such signs were
appearing on park benches, the sides of buses, and in a variety of
other contexts around major cities."
"Afrofuturism offers us a fascinating way of thinking about how the
themes of science fiction emerge across a range of different arts,
including music, rather than remaining in the space of literary,
filmic, and television science fiction which have traditionally been
dominated by us white guys. And as the images of science fiction
circulated through those channels, they took on new shapes and
meanings, becoming a set of metaphors for thinking about issues such as
slavery and cultural oppression."
http://www.viddler.com/simple/f94249ea/
The Original Short that preceded the movie (of course, available on YouTube)
Another brand in name only. (or Bino for Rush fans)
Linens and Things sets out to prove that simply keeping the name and a related product set can still work, even in a post-LnT world. (an extension of this post)
Advertising's Problem: It's focused on advertising, not solutions
"What Othmer's example fails to explain is that when the client moves
on, no matter how good the agency, at some point they'll probably move
on again. History has shown this to be true: key players leave, needs
change, relationships sour. Each subsequent agency ends up dealing with
the same or similar problems that the last tried to or couldn't solve,
all the while making money and thinking they're doing great. All the
while wearing out their tools a little more."
The Netflix Prize: Cool Idea, but maybe one doomed to fail
"But I think there's a deeper problem with these newfangled preference
algorithms, and it has nothing to do with the details of their
programming code. Instead, I think they're making a fundamental
psychological mistake: all of these algorithms assume that our
preferences are stable and consistent, but that's clearly not the case.
In other words, Netflix assumes that if I like Napoleon Dynamite on
Saturday night then I'll also enjoy it on Sunday afternoon. It assumes
that I'll find Pineapple Express funny when I'm watching it with a
bunch of stoned friends and when I'm watching it sober and
alone, on a weekday evening. It also assumes that I'll want to watch
the same list of movies regardless of when I'll be watching them."
How Does Language Shape the Way We Think?
"The Kuuk
Thaayorre did not arrange the cards more often from left to right than
from right to left, nor more toward or away from the body. But their
arrangements were not random: there was a pattern, just a different one
from that of English speakers. Instead of arranging time from left to
right, they arranged it from east to west. That is, when they were
seated facing south, the cards went left to right. When they faced
north, the cards went from right to left. When they faced east, the
cards came toward the body and so on. This was true even though we
never told any of our subjects which direction they faced. The Kuuk
Thaayorre not only knew that already (usually much better than I did),
but they also spontaneously used this spatial orientation to construct
their representations of time."
Hey - just trying some stuff out.