Do you feel guilty when purchasing your iphone5 that can take a Chinese worker on the Apple assembly line months or even years’ worth of salaries to buy? Well, don’t be. Leslie T. Chang is going to tell you why. (click the tiny box below to view the video if it doesn’t show up or go to http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bc2wVyl8RLI&feature=plcp)

I know what the media have been telling you by disseminating images and stories that highlight the humblest outlook of those “faceless” workers in China. A very typical story headline would read like this: “How Many Years Could It Take for an iPhone Builder in China to Buy an iPhone?” In most occasions, this is a perfectly legitimate question that can reveal an interesting fact ignored by most people. However, when news publishers tailor this question to frame a story that shames Americans for exploiting the living conditions of those “poor” workers overseas, they tend to forget to mention the alternative outlooks. 

What if those “faceless and poor” workers bluntly don’t care if they can buy an iphone, and what if they simply don’t see themselves as “poor” “faceless” beings? These are questions that not many Americans would ever get to verify as they may never physically travel to China to find the answers. The physical distance between a random consumer and remote information is essentially why media outlets are needed.

Inevitably, media outlets worldwide have become the primary contributors to the general public’s perception of the world beyond their own physical living space. There’s really no getting around it. I mean, as a citizen on American soil you can rarely get 1st-hand information on your own president’s activities without relying on a third party- a twitter account, a journalist, the facebook page of the president/the White House, the newspaper, or someone who works directly under the guy,…-unless you yourself have immediate access to the president. On this premise, finding out how many innocent people have been killed in the pursuit of the infamous terrorist who have been reportedly “assassinated” this year would simply be mission impossible for many of us. 

Nonetheless, we receive tons of information that we cannot ever physically verify every single millisecond, and we often end up allowing the info distributors to paint our perception of reality for us. No, they cannot change our physical reality that easily, but they can alternate our ideas about the world. Sadly, not many of us contemplate on this when information hits us from all angles.

Even more unfortunately, there aren’t (comparatively speaking) that many reporters and outlets out there that advocate for and seek to prove the legitimacies of alternative questions that simply get banished by mainstream media. This is why I felt so blessed to hear Leslie spoke on TEDTalk. We need more people with critical thinking in the world as well as responsible informants like Leslie.

written by: Daixin Neill-Quan

A successful advertising campaign should not only draw sales but also cast long-lasting impacts that make the brand and the message memorable. Although it is a cliché to use, the “clutter” is becoming harder and harder for advertisers to get through. Combating existing advertisings that have occupied valuable headspace of the target audience to obtain a spot in long-term memory requires three things: distinction, distinction, distinction.

What helps the ad pops makes it last. The series of advertising shown below demonstrates this concept perfectly. I’ve stumbled upon a set of “horrifying” billboard ads online for a few times and couldn’t help laughing out loud every single time. It’s very likely that you’ve already seen them, and if that’s true you can definitely REMEMBER them.

(Picture source: www.adverblog.com/2011/05/22/the-male-stripper-blackmail/)

A random middle-age man with choppy arms and huge guts magically appeared on a massive billboard by the road. He started down at the crowd with arms across his chest, as if the world should simply worship his grace. “The sooner you advertise here the better” That’s all that he’d got to say. In the first stage of the campaign, a puzzle was laid. “What does he mean by that, is something gonna happen if nobody purchases the spot? I wonder what it’ll be…” Just like that a seed of curiosity lingered into the viewers’ hearts.

Some time down the line, the billboard got naughty. Drivers and passengers woke up one morning and got greeted by the same guy, with a half-exposed belly between a tight tank top and a loosen belt. The threat now became apparent- the man is going to strip down if nobody buys the spot! Imaginably, the crowd’s now getting nervous. Those who had never paid attention would now see because the buzzes were taking off among their more attentive friends.

Days and days went by, still no phone call was made. The man was pissed, and he revealed both his sturdy thighs and his hairy chest. He looked confident and mean, reaching into the viewers’ stomach while challenging their limit of tolerance. People could feel the tension in the air, “what is he gonna do now?” they all asked, yet nobody wanted to know the answer…

“Ya think I’m joking don’t ya, but I’m not!” Everybody could now read this invisible line by gazing into the man’s flirty smile. With both hands on the sides of his underpants, he’s getting ready to showcase his private gears to the entire world. Children were hiding and adults ran away screaming for help. Would some one please save the grace of our world?

“Bam.” the hero rised up and brought upon salvages: Radio 2 KO the big bad guy and took his place. “PHEW…!” the billboard exclaimed “THANKS, RADIO 2.”

*The End

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Yes, business is getting hard as fewer and fewer sponsors are purchasing spots, but that is no reason for the ad industry to get lazy by simply sticking “YOUR AD HERE” on their spots. Nobody would be convinced if a company can’t even attract clients to its own advertising domains by using creativity. Plus, no sponsor would be willing to spend precious dollor on a team that supports “YOUR AD HERE” when he/she can hire the creators of the blackmailing male stripper. 

Imagine. You are cruising at 85mph on the highway when a wild billboard suddenly pops into your horizon. It appears larger and larger as your car continues to move forward. You have no intention to even take a peak at that lamest pick up line because your expensive attention simply deserves more interesting things than ”YOUR AD HERE!” 

(picture source: http://www.lindsayburoker.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/03/advertising-ebooks-authors.jpg)

In a world full of creativity and unlimited technological potentials, an uncreative billboard like the one pictured above is losing the battle to all those glamorous digital advertising platforms out there. An ad in the digital era, whether digitally based or not, should be at least informative, entertaining, or useful. If a creative message does not possess one if not all of these features, then there the sponsor’s pocket book is gonna have a bad time.

I say this not just because it is my personal opinion. Mike Yapp, Director of Google’s Creative Development Group, said during a seminar on AD 3.0 “If it (a digital advertising) doesn’t entertain, inform, or provide utility you’ve got problems”. Indeed, billboard ads don’t fit into the category of digital ads at all. However, the company that owns these “YOUR AD HERE!” billboards are betting their hard-earned money against their competitors, including digital advertising platforms. If there is one thing that can save traditional media from the losing battle against the new, I’d say it is creativity and context. Apparently the advertising team behind this billboard is too occupied to create a message that effectively utilizes its context to draw attention.

What do I mean by that? Check out the next post here and see for yourself!