Tag Archives: information superhighway

Twitter etiquette

Posted on February 12, 2015 | Leave a comment

When Teddy Kennedy died back in August 2009, I was surprised to learn the news via Twitter instead of more traditional news sources.

Today, Twitter breaks most big stories.

bob simonFor instance, legendary CBS News reporter and 60 Minutes correspondent Bob Simon was killed yesterday in an automobile accident in my neighborhood, yet I still heard about it on Twitter.

Then celebrities from all walks of life began making their statements of sympathy.

On Twitter.

Yet another development many a publicist and PR maven probably didn’t see coming down the information superhighway.

All those carefully worded press releases and statements of sympathy and support that once earned them an extra billable hour or six?  Gone.  Because now their clients can take to Twitter and, in 140 typo- and emoji-filled characters, sum up their feelings about the dearly departed.

And start a Twitter sh#t storm at the same time.

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Posted in Celebrities, Commentary, Death, Entertainment, Humor, Internet, News

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Know how?

Posted on October 24, 2014 | Leave a comment

The_More_You_Know_2011Matt Lauer just told me that I need to sit down with my kids and show them how to use the Information Superhighway…so one day they can navigate the road on their own.

The more you know…

Did you know NBC has been producing those cheesy PSAs for 25 years?

I think they are some of the more cringe-worthy moments in television writing history, and I only have to watch them.  The poor celebrities have to try and sell the stuff.  But the network keeps cranking it out to meet their public service commitment to the local community.

Now, I’m not saying the ideas behind the messages aren’t good.  But there has to be a more creative way to do it.  Music videos. Demonstrations. Puppets. You name it.

I think the celebrity spokespersons and the audiences would appreciate it (and actually listen to the darn things for a change).

Someone has to know that.

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Posted in Advertising, Celebrities, Commentary, Education, Entertainment, Humor, Life, Television

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Movie pre-show peeve

Posted on December 19, 2013 | 1 comment

I spend a lot of time — and money — in AMC Theatres.

So I see their pre-show policy trailer a lot. It’s morphed and changed of late, and not for the better.

Case in point: earlier this year AMC updated their brand. That’s when they debuted this policy trailer:

They must have quickly realized the glaring white background was hard on the eyes in a dark theatre, so in the summer they relaunched this version:

Personally, I’m not sure the color is the biggest problem. After the tragedy that occurred in the Colorado movie theatre, the dicey characters in trailer don’t make me harken back to iconic films…

They make me look around to see if any crazies are sitting close by.

Even more recently, AMC has added a more fully rendered version of the ‘dot people.’  (I couldn’t find it posted online.)  In this policy trailer, a bear ‘eats’ cellphone texters…and motorcyclists hit cattle on the information superhighway.  It’s all very symbolic, but clearly —

Someone at AMC isn’t an animal lover.

I miss the Inconsiderate Cellphone Man. Any chance of him coming back and rubbin’ out these dots?

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Posted in Advertising, Animals, Commentary, Design, Entertainment, Humor, Internet, Movies

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