Too much technology?

Everyone wants to stay up-to-date with each other, hence why social networks are so popular. But as they become more popular in the mobile world, at what cost do they have in the real world. The picture below and article from the New York Times put things into perspective.

The bottom line: People will always be distracted by something. Whether it is cell phones, iPods, or a new advertisement on the street; people are easily distracted. The best way to deal with it is to reinforce good habits, but my guess is that there will always be a new device that will be taking attention away from where it should be directed.

David Blaine is a bad ad agency

A young ad agency creates an ad campaign that is a hit. What do they do next? They think they have to do something bigger, better, louder, push the boundaries even further.

Compare that to David Blaine. A street magician who has made fame through various acts that would seem impossible. First it was spending 7 days buried under water without food, then he spent 3 days inside a frozen block of ice, then he spent 44 days in a glass case without food, and now for his next feat: Hanging upside down for 60 hours.

Agencies don't need to go bigger or spend more, they only need to be more creative. It is far more impressive to out-wit than out-spend. David Blaine doesn't need to hang upside down in one of his most dangerous stunts. There are a lot more creative ideas out there that would create more buzz that aren't quite as dangerous.


What do you think?

Oasis Street Marketing Follow-up

About a week or two ago, I commented on how Oasis had a brilliant idea for the release of their new CD: get street musicians to play the songs. Check out the video below.

Big Internet Startup To Get Bigger

Politico, perhaps the biggest source of online political news, is about to get bigger. They have plans to expand after the presidential election, both to increase their print circulation in DC and to add reporters. With so many top-notch newspapers closing, we really are seeing a media revolution. (NYT)

We Stumped ChaCha

My friend is subscribing to ChaCha, and we had a good time testing it out. The first try was to see if it could define "peripheral neuropathy", which happened to be a test question my friend had received earlier that day. ChaCha's def was graduate level, and would have raised some eyebrows on an entry-level college class.

The second question was "what should I write my Scarlet Letter paper on?" The answer came back within 5 minutes, the idea was morality, which is a little banal but definitely solid.

Our third question was "how many party balloons could we fill with a ton of helium?" ChaCha took about thirty minutes to say it was hard to tell. Hmm, looks like the internet can't figure everything out...yet.