This discover comes at a timely moment, right after a talk from Naomi Klein, author of "No Logo." Sao Paulo recently engaged in an effort to clean up the urban landscape and they've done so by turning the city into an advertising ghost town. Everything has been removed, from graffiti to posters to billboards, leaving tourists and citizens alike to enjoy the purity of a brand free city.
Imagine for a moment that you were able to focus just on the architecture and nature of a city without being forced to consider advertising messages. Branding is about creating a personality in a product, but how do brands compose the personality of a city?
PingMag covered the story and quotes one Brazilian who described the disorientation and then the new identity and culture growing out of the ad free city, "My reference was a big Panasonic billboard. But now my reference is art deco building that was once covered with this Panasonic. So you start getting new references in the city. The city’s got now new language, a new identity.”
Corporations have started painting their buildings in vibrant colors in a effort to distinguish themselves; Tony de Marco has a No Logo scrapbook on Flickr documenting the changes he's seen throughout the city. It shows such a humanitarian trait of brands; their desire to express their individuality.
So if the upside is Sao Paulo shedding a superficial skin and reclaiming its truer self, then the downside is the economic repercussion. The ban started at the beginning of the year, so there aren't any real reports on how it is affecting business, but I can't help wonder how things will change to compensate for the lack of visual aid. Nature has a way of creating balance; negative space can often be the fertilizer for creativity so we might look to Sao Paulo for new ways to brand.
Tonight Naomi Klein spoke about her new book, The Shock Doctrine: The Rise of Disaster Capitalism, and discussed the ways governments exploit countries in crisis. She explained her theory in very human terms and used examples of shock treatment to illustrate her point. The premise is that during a time of crisis there is overwhelming opportunity to leveraged the situation to one's advantage in the interest of making a profit. She wasted no time citing Iraq, New Orleans, 9/11, & Sri Lanka as examples of the ways that contractors seize an opportunity to profit from others misfortunes.
Alfonso Cuaron created a short to help Naomi express some of her ideas. The video references CIA torture manuals that explain the use of psychological and physical shock to induce a form of regression to control and manipulate their subjects. Naomi goes on to parallel this effect on an individual to collective traumas experienced by entire countries. The short ends with a type of public service announcement: "The best way to arm yourself is by understanding what is happening and why: 'Information is shock resistance, arm yourself.'"
People continue to express skepticism of virtual environments like Second Life. This KQED mini-documentary changes things a bit and for the first time I feel like there are some practical applications to virtual worlds. With the use of SL, learning and group interaction certainly takes on a new dimension. Second Life is struggling because there aren't compelling reason to visit the environment, but interacting with a simulation of a real life environment makes learning online much more engaging and dynamic. Visualizing the classroom and your fellow classmates makes the educational experience more real. There additional human element lets peers establish relationships and display personality that will make long distance learning more engaging. This makes me feel like SL has just gotten off to a slow start, and now it's potential is getting recognized.
This spoof was dead on because there was seemingly no purpose to floating around Second Life. There were too many opportunities to realize how ridiculous (and boring) the experience was. I think practical applications like this educational program are going to give Second Life a Second Wind.
A balanced life is a healthier life. The weight loss landscape has changed a lot over the last thirty years. We took Slim Fast, Nutrisystem, Jenny Craig, Weight Watchers, we danced to Richard Simmons workout videos, Tae Bo & Jazzercise, we did Pilates, Yoga, Bikrim Yoga & Thai Chi, we took diet pills had lipo suction, joined Curves, hired nutritionists, did the Atkins, the Master Clense, gained weight, lost weight and used a great deal of trial and error to get a bit closer to figuring out what we're searching for. So what have we learned from all this? Well, we've discovered we aren't looking for a quick fix.
There will always be a need to lose 5 pounds three days before we leave for our spring break vacation, but our overall attitudes towards weight loss are changing. We're looking for sustainable habits that will provide long term health. What does this mean? We're shift towards being healthier individuals. It requires that we maintain a balanced lifestyle that considers, eating healthier, making more time for exercise.
Interestingly we've become a more obese country. The airline industry spends $250 million a year extra in fuel costs to fly the fat packed on by over weight Americans. The thing is, since 2003, around when Atkins died from a heart attack people started moving away from fad diets. Consumer mentality is showing signs of seeing the big picture. People are weighing the risks of heart disease and diabetes and are more willing to consider the long term benefits over instant gratification.
A few trends emerged: - Diet fatigue - Eating more reasonably size portions. - Fat can be fit ( Weight loss is not about image, it's about living longer: Scientific America) - Skinny is nice but I want to be healthy: At first companies subsidized their employee's work out plans, now they could be charging their employees if they don't stay fit. - Can we evolve into a more fit race?
Crowdsourcing - tapping the wisdom of the masses to improve upon an idea, service or product. The idea has been recently applied to the technology market where a group of online consumers discuss ideas for a new gadget, then investors will throw some money down and build a prototype. Once that's done, the community comes back to test the device, and then will ostensibly buy that product. Geocaching - an entertaining adventure game for gps users. Participating in a cache hunt is a good way to take advantage of the wonderful features and capability of a gps unit. The basic idea is to have individuals and organizations set up caches all over the world and share the locations of these caches on the internet. GPS users can then use the location coordinates to find the caches. Once found, a cache may provide the visitor with a wide variety of rewards. All the visitor is asked to do is if they get something they should try to leave something for the cache.
This discover comes at a timely moment, right after a talk from Naomi Klein, author of "No Logo." Sao Paulo recently engaged in an effort to clean up the urban landscape and they've done so by turning the city into an advertising ghost town. Everything has been removed, from graffiti to posters to billboards, leaving tourists and citizens alike to enjoy the purity of a brand free city.
