Dear John - Bechdel Test

Recently I watched to movie "Dear John". In this movie a young woman meets a young man while he is home on leave. The fall in love in two weeks, and write eachother letters while he is deployed. Their relationship continues when he comes home, and then write letters when he is deployed once again.

So let's see how "Dear John" fairs against the Bechtel Test:

The movie must have at least two female characters: Yes, but they do not have names, so I am going to say no.
The female characters must speak to each other: Yes
The female characters must speak to each other about something other than a man: Nope.


Sadly, "Dear John" Fails the Bechtel Test.

Leave Buffy Alone!

I love the television show Buffy the Vampire Slayer. Love. And I was BEYOND excited when I heard the powers that be were working on a feature film. At least I was up until I learned they are planning to do this without creator Joss Whedon, star Sarah Michelle Geller or any other actor or actress from the show.

What is with Hollywood taking on beloved television shows and movies and trying to remake them? The new project is rarely as good as the original. I know there are people with good ideas out there, who have awesome (read: new) stories to tell. Why aren't those people being given an opportunity to create something new and awesome?



*Yes, I know the television show was technically a reboot of the movie, but Joss was the original creator, so as far as I am concerned, he can remake things all he wants.

My Favorite Time Wasting Website

Have you ever worked in any kind of customer service or retail job? If so, I think you will like this website as much as I do.  The website is notalwasyright.com, and it is my favorite online time waster. I am always amazed by the things that come out of people's mouths.

Where do you waste time online? Post a link here!

Hazing

Last week we took part in National Hazing Prevention Week at BSU. There were some great events, including a presentation by Travis Apgar. After everything that was discussed last week, I feel like I have a pretty solid understanding of what hazing is and how it can affect a person. Fast forward to this week when a story broke about hazing at Needham High School** on the soccer team. Now, the hazing incident itself was shocking enough, but it doesn't compare to the reactions of the players' parents and the news media.

-The school reacted (correctly, and according to policy) by suspending the players and not allowing them to play in a championship game.
-The parents reacted (wrongly, and outrageously) by attempting to get a court injunction that would allow the girls to play. They did not deny their child's actions, or even argue that what they did was right. They basically argued that they shouldn't be punished for behaving in an illegal manner. One father stated to the nightly news that it was "a misguided team-building exercise", which, frankly, is pretty much the definition of hazing.
-The media reacted by sending mixed messages to the viewing public. They descended upon the families to question their motives, and used graphics with their stories that implied perhaps the school was wrong in their reactions. At the same time they all aired or wrote opinion pieces that derided the players, the coach and the parents for their actions while celebrating the school's reaction.


Perhaps it is time to consider how entertainment programming presents hazing. Movies like Animal House and Old School present it as something that is fun and brings people together. Even the popular television show Greek has shown hazing as a normal activity. I can't think of any sports movies where hazing is presented off the top of my head, but I know they exist. I wonder if presenting hazing as both normal and entertaining has led to the average person thinking it is both normal and entertaining in the real world.

What do you think? Both about the situation in Needham and the way hazing is presented in entertainment?

**Check out the comments on this link. They are pretty outrageous.

Media Undefined

I got into a major disagreement with a faculty member last week about internships. He basically said that all media internships must take place in a studio/production setting, and I disagreed. I think a media internship also relates to social media, and other content creation such as advertising and even marketing, especially when you are creating the content.

What do you guys think? What does this really broad term "media" really mean?

Halloween Round-Up

Here is a round-up of some interesting things having to do with Halloween.

The sixth annual Boston University Pumpkin Drop happened today. See more photos here.

Salem Zombie Walk

Zombie Walks are becoming more and more popular every year. This week there was one in Salem and another in Providence.

Children in Foxboro will be trick-or-treating on Saturday 10/30 instead of on Sunday, which is Halloween, because of the Patriots game on Sunday night. This has been a big controversy in town among the parents. The kids don't seem to care though. I keep hearing them talk about getting candy in Foxboro on Saturday and then going to (neighboring town) Mansfield on Sunday!

The Evening (Bad)News

I have noticed recently that there is a big difference between the news shown on television at 6am and what is shown at 11pm. The morning news tends to be optimistic, talking about good news and human interest stories. On the other hand, the evening news is faced paced, with crazy graphics and full of stories about shocking violence and terrible things. 

Has anyone else noticed this?

Chloe's Carbon Footprint

For class this week I had to watch "The Age of Stupid". It is a really neat documentary. You should totally watch it if you haven't.

After watching the film, I was thinking about the idea of a carbon footprint, and read about it some more, and I found myself wondering how big my cat Chloe's carbon footprint would be. I used a carbon footprint calculator, and answered the questions as though I was her:

-1 person household
-1 car, traveling 10 miles/month (about how far I drive for her food & litter)
-$30 electricity/ month (we have electric heat and a/c, so I figured out about how often she is home alone)
-Mostly prepackaged foods
-Rarely buys local
-Generally buys organic
-Eats mostly fish

Sure enough, Chloe, my cat, has a bigger carbon footprint (2.28 metric tons) than the world target for an individual human (2 metric tons). I don't know what this means, but my mind is boggled.

Brand Loyalty and the Weather

Every evening I watch NECN to find out what the weather is going to be the next morning. Then, in the morning I watch to see what it is going to be over the course of the day. But during the day I consult the weather.com app on my iPhone to see if there have been any changes to the forecast, and if there is a weather system moving in, to see how close it is to my location.

When I was a kid, my dad and I watched The Weather Channel religiously. They were the people I turned to in order to know what to wear, and when to plan my events. I really don't watch anymore because the channel has added quite a bit of Reality programming, and I really don't need any more of that in my life. That being said, I obviously still trust them as The Source for weather information when it matters most: when I am out and about in the world. 

I think this says something about the importance of creating a brand people trust. There are dozens of weather apps for my iPhone, but I choose theirs. I honestly don't even feel the need to check anything else out.

Are there any brands you feel this kind of loyalty to?

Interesting Email

Today I received the following email from our VP of student affairs. Although I am not a lesbian, and not being bullied, I really appreciated him reaching out to the BSU community in this way.

To All Students,


I write to express my deep sorrow and outrage at the recent deaths of Tyler Clementi (Rutgers University) and Raymond Chase (Johnson & Wales)--two gay college students who committed suicide recently, one due to anti-gay bullying; and of Seth Walsh (13 years old), Asher Brown (13 yrs old), Billy Lucas (15 years old), and Cody Barker (17 years old) who took their lives in September 2010 after suffering anti-gay bullying. Members of the LGBT community at Bridgewater State University may feel especially vulnerable just now, and it is important for them to know that students, staff, and faculty/librarians of the University stand with them at this sad time.


Harassment is not a prank. It is never funny. It is hurtful both to the persons who are its targets and also to the whole University community-- and it is illegal. The BSU student Code of Conduct forbids harassment of individuals or groups based on race, color, creed, religion, gender, sexual orientation, national origin, age, disability, veteran status, political belief or affiliation, marital status, gender identity, and/or genetic information. I urge any student who believes he or she has been harassed to make a detailed record of the harassing incidents and report them to one of the offices listed below, no matter whether the harassment is based on sexual orientation or any other element of social identity.


Now is the time for all members of the BSU community to come together in mutual support. It is the time to stand up against inappropriate jokes and hurtful actions, and it is the time to reach out in friendship and care across whatever boundaries divide us. You all deserve a sympathetic ear and a helping hand.


Bridgewater State University is a wonderful place to live and study and work. Social justice is one of our key values. Especially now, let us live up to the values we espouse.




I'd like to think that people feel comfortable reaching out in our school, but since my experience has really only been positive, I really don't know if that is the case. Thoughts?

Tyler Clementi, Seth Walsh, Asher Brown, Billy Lucas

You've probably already seen this by now, but I want to share it here. The recent suicides of young people that were being bullied, and especially those of the people who were ridiculed for being gay, have broken the hearts of many, including mine. I can't even express how horrified I am that this continues to happen. The worst thing about it is that there are people who take their lives every day for the reasons above and we never, ever hear about it. The only reason we are hearing about it right now is that the media has decided it is worth covering.

We need to DO something.

Wazzzzzzup with this new beer ad?

I'll be honest, I got the idea for this from a post over at teenagerie (a great website, by the way), but she makes such a great point that I needed to share it with you. The following advertisement appeared in Out Magazine recently:


Since when does Budweiser, the ultimate "(Heterosexual)Man's Beer" court gay men? Did they just suddenly realize that a solid percentage of the American beer-drinking population was not being reached by their T&A advertising and decide to branch out?

Now I'm not knocking Budweiser for this. You can't blame them for wanting to sell their product, and I doubt there are many other beer companies clamoring to advertise in Out Magazine. I do have to wonder how they went from women in bikinis and frogs and WAZZZZUUUUP to gay men in a bar, though.

What do you all think?

Going GrΣΣk

This semester I did something I never thought I would do: I joined a sorority. Me. I am the girl who watched "Sorority Life" on MTV with equal feelings of anger and sadness over how they treated their new sisters. I am the girl that bought "Pledged" the week it came out because I wanted to know more about what these terrible organizations were doing to young women. Me! The girl who would rather spend a Sunday watching football with her husband and her father than pretty much anything else in the world. Yeah. Me.

Something shifted in me, though. Maybe it was the show GrΣΣk's depiction of female friendships that got me, or maybe I was just lonely. I don't really know. When I heard about the new sorority that was coming to BSU I researched them like a good Virgo and found out that they are known for REAL sisterhood, and for embracing down-to-Earth, individual women and created strong groups that look out for each other and people in the world that need their help. So I contacted them, and we did some things, and now I am a member. To be honest, I am having time of my life.

I have been doing a lot of thinking about my expectations going into this and I have realized that all of my ideas about what it means to be "in a sorority" come from the media. Since I have never known anyone that was involved in Greek life, I allowed television, newspapers, movies, books and magazines to make judgements for me. I was prejudiced against something I knew nothing about. Granted, I'm still learning, but I feel like this experience has shown me that you can't simply accept the things the media tells you about a subject, no matter how unremarkable it may seem. It is a good lesson to learn.

Media Overload

I don't know if this ever happens to anyone else, but I feel like I have ODed on media over the last week. Between all of my class assignments (the 4 movies I had to watch, the 2 newspapers I had to read, the tv show I had to watch, the radio programs I had to listen to, the 125 pages in books and the blogs I had to read), and my personal media consumption choices (morning news, season premieres, daily NPR listening while driving, twitter, facebook, etc), my brain is overflowing. To be honest, I don't really feel like I am full of useful information, though. Just a random hodge-podge of pop-culture meets culture-study STUFF.

I feel like one of those people in the Bing Ads.

Has this ever happened to you?

Barbie Rocks

Listen, I think Barbie gets a bad rap. There are all kinds of books and articles and pundits out there yelling about how Barbie is a bad role model and causes young girls to have body issues. I seriously have to disagree with both of these points.

First, Barbie is not a bad role model (she can't be a good or a bad role model because she is a doll, not a human, but I digress). The first female doctor I ever saw was Barbie. She shows girls that there are careers out there for women, and she gives them something to strive for. In fact, a Barbie that came with a camera when I was a kid was probably what piqued my interest in photography. These days I do family portraits and weddings in my spare time, and am paid well for my skills. Barbie certainly wasn't a bad role model for me. 

As for body issues, give me a break. Little girls were comparing themselves to each other, and to their mothers and big sisters, long before Barbie ever came along. Do people really believe that no young woman ever wanted larger breasts before 1959? You mean to tell me that women weren't cinching their waists to look smaller for hundreds of years before Barbie, that she created a culture, all by herself that causes little girls to want to be shaped a certain way?

There are a lot of conversations that we can have around children's toys and how they effect their development, but can we please just let these arguments go the way of the corset?

All I wanna do is have some fun.

Things have been very stressful recently, and that makes me want to get out of the house, away from the computer, and off to something fun and awesome and adventurous. I've noticed, though, that my idea of fun is not what is perpetuated by television programming. If we go by the media, these are my options for weekend fun:

I could go the "Jersey Shore" route and get positively drunk out of my mind and go home with a random dude that will kick me out of bed 10 minutes after we "pound it out".


I could go the "Hangover" route and get myself dosed by a friend and have the most epic time ever, but not know what it was. 


I could go the "GRεεK" route and get really drunk at a frat party and spill a friends deepest secrets.


The list goes on and on. Obviously, if I want to be a cool kid like the people on TV, I need to get thoroughly wasted and do something I'll regret. I think I might go the boring route and head out to The Big E. I could go for a fried snickers right about now. Who's with me??

Say What?

Have you ever noticed that a lot of the time professional newscasters and other people not "in the know" tend to use the wrong words for things? Strangely enough, I recently saw it happen in reverse. Last week I was watching a news program and they had a special guest on the program to discus the growing trend of businesses using twitter to communicate with their customer base. Sounds like a reasonable news story, right? There was only one problem, the "Social Media Professional" continuously referred to the act of sharing a message on twitter as "twittering", the correct terminology of course being "tweeting". Now this wouldn't be a big deal except the person speaking was hired as an expert, and he clearly was not an expert if he couldn't even speak using the correct terminology.

The words we use to describe what we do are important, even when it comes to something that many people might consider trivial, like Twitter. If someone was to go into a job interview for a corporate communications position, and went on and on about twittering, while at the same time stating they were on top of internet media trends, they probably wouldn't get very far into the selection process. Just something to keep in mind.

"Penelope" VS The Bechtel Test

Last week I watched the movie "Penelope". From IMDB, Penelope is "A modern romantic tale about a young aristocratic heiress born under a curse that can only be broken when she finds true love with 'one who will love her faithfully'. Let's see how the movie performed against The Bechtel Test:

1. The movie must have at least two female characters: Check! There was Penelope, her mother, the matchmaker, and Penelope's friend. 
2. The female characters must speak to each other: Check! Penelope talked to everyone above, and most of them talked to each other.
3. The female characters must speak to each other about something other than a man: Check! They talked about beer, a scarf, a postcard, etc. 

The final Verdict? Penelope passed with flying colors! This is remarkable given that the movie was about a girl that needed to find a man to accept her and love her for who she was. And this wasn't a chicks-only movie. There were plenty men in the movie, and they talked to the women, as well. 

Great job by the producers and writers!

Michael McGinty Family Fun Day

I moved to Foxboro last January, and I have been really impressed by the sense of community here. That being said, I was surprised to find a carnival-like atmosphere on the common on Saturday. A carnival on the anniversary of 9/11 struck me as really odd. My husband and I walked over, and come to find out, it was Michael McGinty Family Fun Day. On 9/11, Mr. McGinty was killed while working at the World Trade Center, and a memorial scholarship was created in his honor. The event was partially to raise money for the scholarships, but also to remind people what remembering 9/11 is really about. It is about holding on to your patriotism, and keeping your loved ones close. Check out the video below for NECN's coverage of the event. You can also read about it here. I think it is great that NECN chose to cover such a wonderful event.

An Obsession With Stuff

George Carlin on "Stuff". He does curse a couple of times, so be careful where you watch this.






Our dearly departed George Carlin has such a good point. We are all obsessed with stuff. Not all of us are obsessed with the same stuff, but we all have stuff that we consider absolutely necessary to get through our lives. There are people in this world that are so obsessed with collecting stuff that they are diagnosed with a mental disorder known casually as hoarding. Those people have so much stuff they can't live without that their houses could be literally falling down around them, and yet they still can't part with any of their stuff.

I think there are two main points to make here. The first is that the advertising industry has found a way to dig deep into our primal gathering instincts to convince us that we need, no MUST, have more stuff. Even if we have some stuff that is kind of like the other stuff we already have (Seriously, who needs 8 bottles of body lotion?). Second, the fact that there are not one, but two television shows that air regularly about people with hoarding issues says something about our voyeuristic tendencies here in America. When the world of reality television collides with the world of mental health issues in a society that says we need more stuff, this is what we get: A television show telling incredibly anxious people that they have too much stuff.

Excuse me while I go through all of my stuff and donate some of it to charity. Lord knows they are te only ones that really need more stuff.

A Keeper of History

When I was about 12 years old I would wander around downtown Middleboro, MA. I lived only about a mile away, and I liked to explore and be with my thoughts. One day, I went to an antique store. There were all kinds of amazing things there, including a box of old photographs. I spent about an hour looking through them all. Near the back of the box there were some newspaper scraps from 1911 or so. I was absolutely enthralled, and bought them for 50 cents. I think the store owner thought I was nuts. Ever since that day, I have had a minor obsession with newspapers, and how important they can be as first-hand accounts of history.

Flash forward five years to September 11, 2001. Well, we all know what happened that day. I won't get too deep into my reactions, but suffice it to say it was life altering, and I became obsessed. The newspeople said to donate blood, but I couldn't donate blood because of medication I was taking. The newspeople said to send money, but I didn't have any. They called for volunteers, but I was too young to be of much help. So I did the only thing I could do. I called libraries and grocery stores, and I collected all of the newspapers from that day that I could, and I am saving them. Someday my children will ask me about that day, and I will pull out those papers. I bet they will be able to illustrate what happened better than a textbook ever could.

The Bechdel Test

I would like to start an ongoing project in this little blog. Ever since my friend Erica told me about it, I have been fascinated with The Bechdel Test. The test was popularized by Alison Bechdel's comic, "Dykes to Watch Out For" and was published in 1985. You can read more background about the comic strip in question here.

The Bechdel Test determines whether a movie is worth seeing based on 3 simple Rules:

1. The movie must have at least two female characters
2. The female characters must speak to each other
3. The female characters must speak to each other about something other than a man

These rules seem pretty easy to follow, but once you start thinking about it, you'll be shocked by how few movies actually pass. You can see the original comic strip below. Let me know what you think in the comments!

FaceTime for Everyone!

Yesterday Apple* released a gaggle of new gadgets, and that makes me very, very happy. Out of all the new features and all the newly designed devices the thing I am most excited about is, I'm sure you've guessed, FaceTime is now available on the iPod Touch! This is made possible buy the front-facing camera and the new version of iOS software. This is exciting to me for a few reasons, but mostly because it means that you don't have to buy an iPhone and sign a contract to participate in a FaceTime chat.

Over the last several years, video chat software like Skype, Google Video Chat and iChat have become essential for people who find themselves far away from their loved ones. With the economy the way it is, many people are unable to fly their family around to see people. I see mobile video chat becoming just as prolific as the software I mentioned above, and just as normal as sending an email. Just wait. It'll happen.

*In the interest of full disclosure, I should note that I work part time at the Apple Store.

Oh, hi there!

It occurred to me that it might be a good idea to write an introduction of sorts.

My name is Anna. You probably already know that based on the title of the blog, but it is worth mentioning. Although this blog was created as an assignment for a course, I have been thinking about creating one along these lines for a while now. I am an avid social media user, and love technology and the gadgets that go with it, so expect to read about those topics here. Additionally, I am very interested in customer relationship cultivation, and how media changes the customers' relationship with the corporation.

Please feel free to comment on my posts. I love a good discussion!

Would you like an App with that?

Target, McDonald's, Burger King and GAP. What do these companies have in common? Instant name recognition for sure, but they are also part of the ever-expanding group of companies with their own authorized iPhone App**. This new category of brand management is exciting and very interesting to me. 

Prior to the smartphone era, there were only a few specific ways that a company could communicate their branding. Let's use GAP as an example. They used television advertising, web ads, billboards and store window displays that reach everyone, but not necessarily their core customer, the person who already shops at GAP. Then came email marketing, which allowed the customer to ask for advertising in their inbox. I imagine this was a huge boon for the company, as now they could reach their core customer, and the customer could choose to forward the communication to a friend. By sending coupons along with their communication, GAP gave their customers a reason to open the email, and see the advertisement, not to mention an incentive to come to a store. Now GAP has an app, and it has the potential to take direct marketing to a whole new level.

The GAP application lets you pick out clothing, put it in your virtual closet, make purchases, find a store, and post your favorite looks onto facebook. That means that one person downloading this app, and sharing their favorite outfit has the potential of reaching an innumerable amount of like-minded consumers (the app owner's friends), and therefore helping GAP grow their brand with only a little extra effort on their part. Pretty cool, huh?

It will be really interesting to see how companies choose to use-or not use-this new tool in their arsenal. I expect the market to grow virtually exponentially over a short period of time. How well the App market helps brand a company remains to be seen, but it is certainly looking like a good investment to me.

**For the uninitiated, an "App" is an application that is created to run on a specific platform, like the iPhone. Its specific purpose may range from mindless entertainment to precise medical care, but it always has a purpose.