Grown Up Thinking

Dorthy.com, the ‘Dream Search Engine:’ The start of the year always has us rarin’ to go and conquer the world, but this delightful site allows do-gooders and dreamers to acquire relevant articles/photos/videos to help realize their goals, collaborative tools to connect with people who can help and sharing functionality. Seriously- lots of fun.

Appropriated Poster Campaign: brainchild of artist Sean Wolsey to use outdoor ads as a canvas to create a more meaningful, positive message.

TED Talk: enthnographer Stephana Broadbent talks about how the internet enables intimacy. Not all that new, but a must-watch for social media enthusiasts and brand managers alike.

LoveJingles.com: a “why in the hell didn’t I think of this” idea that has a Swedish musician writing customized jingles and creating videos to promote them. Almost as cool as Lo Fi Love Songs by Gretel Prinn (a perfect Valentine’s Gift, hrm?).

Foodspotting: way better’n Urban Spoon.

Stella Artois YouTube Channel: Beautiful creative curation from a brand that manages the tricky balance of honoring its roots while still seeming fresh.

Well, let’s face it. The new Stella campaign in its beautiful entirety.

The World’s First Crowdsourced Magazine Cover: would have been even better if it was executed by Good (another crazy obsession of ours).

The Body Image Project: Picking up where Dove left off, and adding a dedicated social media angle. Check our their Twitter handle- great practices in a very short time.

Canon Freeze Tag: how can you NOT love this execution?!?! Besides. It features a great track from the Go Team, a band frequently heard in our cube when we need a boost mid-afternoon.

221B: a splendid use of Facebook Connect to promote the new Sherlock Holmes movie. Dark, compelling, beautifully designed and effective (NOT like Welcome to Fight Club, which we wanted to love but was just totally arbitrary).

5 Things We’re Loving Right Now:

1. GetGlue.com: Personal recommendations + Foursquare-ish gaming for all your bookish, audiophile, movie dork obsessions.

2. Shmotter.com: Like Polyvore, but better. More social functionality.

3. All Together Now stop motion animation: Better’n Bud, but obviously a tip of the hat to a great commercial.

4. Laika: dynamic, interactive type for all ya design geeks (that means you, Mr. Helvetica).

5. Sweatshoppe Video Painting: public art spectacle that simply MUST be used by a brand. For serious.

Recently I’ve found that many of my friends’ Facebook, GChat and AIM statuses have become much less about their daily routine lives, but rather hilarious statements stemming from other people’s poor misfortune. Sites such as FMylife.com and TextsFromLastNight.com, in which people submit their day ruining moment or the funniest text they received over the weekend, have been overtaking my social networks, blogs and hours of my life I could otherwise spend doing something productive.

Even more interesting about this phenomenon is the rate at which these popular sites are being picked up for book deals. Publishers are flipping these trendy sites and turning them into hardcover coffee table books that typically sell for around the $10 price point. Sites that started with small underground followings like, Stuff White People Like, This is Why You’re Fat, I Can Has Cheezburger?, and of course FMyLife, have reached the masses through these deals.

This of course brings up the question, did they sell out? A site undoubtedly loses its edge when it’s suddenly turned into something that my mom can pick up at the local Barnes and Noble on the Best Sellers rack, but is the risk worth the reward? Either way, this is a trend I do not think we will see go away any time soon, as long as there’s internet and people willing to dress their dogs in funny outfits.

It’s no surprise that most creatives are obsessed with music. From finding the perfect track to make a TV spot iconic to creating unusual (and genius) pairings to pay homage to the individual spirit of a classic brand, we LIVE music. Why? Because it fuels our ideas. Period.

Some musicians just GET branding (like Trent Reznor, who, in my eyes may just be the Bogusky of the music biz), but now, even the less web-savvy can measure their buzz using RockDex, an innovative site built to search Myspace, blogs, YouTube, music sites and more for info about any budding band (and those well on their way to complete world domination).

Other reading/exploring for my fellow music fiends:

Social Music: 5 Essential Tools for Marketing Your Band by Jennifer Van Grove (who also inspired this post- she’s a woman of my own rock-wizened heart, I tell ya)

The always insightful Ruby Psuedo’s post on how youth align certain brands with music, and the further exploration of those affiliations.

And Sleevage.com, a delicious little piece of blog heaven on album cover design. Well, just because.

EDIT: More music-related delightfulness- http://www.hypetape.com/. Hype Machine & Mux Tape hooked up and made one sassy baby. Thanks, J!

There’s probably not much to do in Brattleboro, Vermont, the hometown of 18-year-old Omegle.com founder Leif K-Brooks.  Boredom is most likely what inspired the high school senior to create the site that lets you anonymously chat with a random stranger.  While the concept isn’t new (it completely gives me flashbacks to 6^th grade slumber parties, staying up to 4am talking to boys in the AOL Disney chat room), it has created a lot of buzz lately and has continued to grow exponentially since it launched on March 25^th. 

The site is simple- with a click of the mouse you are connected to a random stranger, where you can engage most often in meaningless banter.  Since it is completely anonymous, it does appear to give people the push to be slightly inappropriate but at the same time, completely hilarious.  In the end, this probably won’t turn out to be the next Twitter, but if nothing else, a good place to vent.    

I’m always interested in how language is influenced by changes in culture and technology. Trend Central recently published a good, albeit slightly flawed (etymology of pwn is way wrong, real one found here… thanks Matt) list of new slang for 2009.  As this list indicates, two themes are really making an impact on the words we use: the recession & digital media.

It will be interesting to see how the economic downturn continues to shape the ways we communicate and the language we use.  ”Recession menus” are popping up all over New York City, and some are under very dubious disguises.  

One thing is clear: whether we’re talking about relationships or macroeconomic instability, the proliferation of micromessaging tools and platforms will continue to augment language and change standards of acceptability.  I’m still not sure I want to use “do not want!” in my business emails yet, but given what we’re seeing I can’t imagine it will be long before such obscure terms and expressions gain mainstream use.

The music industry died just a little on Tuesday, Sept 16th as MTV Networks announced the discontinuation of Total Request Live, a decade old staple of the music network.  What does this development portend besides the decline of glitter and poster board sales in the Times Square area?  Well, for one thing, I think we can understand TRL’s slow and steady demise as definitive proof that young consumers no longer respond to the show’s reliance on “the mainstream.”  We here at Mr. Youth have been saying it for a while—niche is the new norm.  In a 2.0 world, top 10 just doesn’t cut it.

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Twitter has teamed up with Current TV  to allow viewers of the presidential and vice presidential debates to Tweet  their opinions and have them appear live onscreen, giving the TV audience unprecedented access to commenting on the nation’s political discourse.
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