things i learned on tv

during the past few weekends, i've been watching tv, which i admit, i didn't used to do a lot of before. i know i shouldn't be, but i am surprised at the range of idiocy and intelligence that medium offers. but idiotic or not, i am writing some nuggets i got from the tv:

Being "In Control" is not necessarily a good thing:

in america's next top model, this girl who looks so put together, professional and an obvious A-Type person, was eliminated. why ? you ask. well, she was so in control of her faculties, she forgot that when modeling, one must show emotion: the pose is a frame that tells a story.

in life, it is important to let yourself go once in a while. life is better if we feel everything it throws at us.

Power makes people crazy:

katrina halili (sizzling-hot-oohlala) was a celebrated victim of big-bad-porno-king and she hasn't stopped at filing cases at him but also his ex-gf, his ex-friends, and whoever else is not on her side. she wielded our attention for about 2 weeks and i'm sure she feels the rush of public opinion on her side. that's a form of power too, potent but sometimes dumb.

let's not lose sight of the objective of what we do in life. don't be swayed by the rush of righteousness. everyone thinks they're right.

Cougarism is not really good for women:

i know you don't agree with me on this statement. BUT. hollywood and the press have been celebrating the rise of cougarism as a signal of women being unafraid of their choices in life. that they are OK with being in the driver seat of every area of their lives. yes, that's all well and good BUT...

the mere fact that people call women dating younger men COUGARS is derogatory in itself. men who date women 10 years younger than them aren't called anything. lechers are called DOMs but because they are lechers.

Gaya-gaya mentality is still alive in the Philippines:

this is actually connected to the last paragraph. hollywood has been celebrating cougars, and more female celebs are dating younger men. we also have ruffa and john lloyd here!

justin timberlake: billy crawford/ chris martin (coldplay): rico blanco/ etc etc etc

let's do something unique naman. in the sea of imitations, a truly unique personality will shine. i'm still waiting for that unique personality.

wish.pray.dream

i wish for you
pray for you
dream for you
To
wish for me
pray for me
dream for me

to love you

morning musings

this morning, I came across some great learnings.

Bill Bernbach: Greatness of it all

I read this article by Al Ries in the adage.com about what made Bill Bernbach great. I was shocked that it wasn't really his capacity for creativity was what made him great, but his "eye" of seeing truly great ideas. WOW.

Al Ries goes on to say that there are more people who have the capacity for creativity but very few who can recognize ideas. And this is what Bill Bernbach did with admirable skill. The article also says that people really DON'T want to be true to life, they want to show life differently, in a more idealized version.

It only underscores that thing about knowing the consumer better. Knowing the consumer better is not just making FGDs and brushing our hands off and saying, "Yes, i know the consumer", taking what they say in a sterile environment as gospel truth. Pay attention during the FGDs, consumers are sometimes pressured to say what we have conditioned them to say, what they think we want to hear, what they have already seen.

Twitter and etc.

I'm sure we have all heard of twitter by now, and the use of the internet as a medium to impart messages for different types of people. I don't need to repeat the things said by people more intelligent than me. But this struck me as particularly insightful.

I saw Clay Shirky's talk on the internet at TED.com. The most important thing about the internet is that people actually can talk-back to you. It ties in neatly with what the head of Strat Planning in Lowe, Vicky Ortega, said one of those times I was working there--advertising is a conversation between the brand and the consumer.

Before, it used to be that brands talked at the consumer. Without any guarantee if the message was being REALLY understood. Now, we are faced with that awesome thing that consumers can actually tell you what they feel AND influence others to feel the same.

Clay Shirky made an example of the earthquake in China and how China couldn't contain its citizens from tweeting or blogging as it happened. And that in the end of it all, as more stories came out on corruption, China lashed back and closed the portals to twitter (apologies, I forgot the exact terminology for this). It made crystal to me that now, we could not control what people will say about us or our brand. It's a fact that we MUST accept.

Mr. Shirky also made the example of Barrack Obama and how he handled the group of people who did not agree with one of the issues. He did not attempt to shut them down. Mr. Shirky calls it CONVENE and not CONTROL. That's freedom of thought and speech for you.

What's the point?

The point of all this is, that life leads us to different avenues. We must accept and flow with the tide. Life has given us the internet and made it increasingly social. Face-to-face interaction has become very limited but more portals are opened for opportunities to know other people.

Fascinating! It really is up to us on how to use these things to our advantage. Fingers-on-keyboard power!

pluck in moderation

This is a pet peeve of mine, overplucked eyebrows.
I know that I have been, at one time or another, victim of the overplucked eyebrows but please girls, when you do it on purpose, it's simply not good.

Plucking eyebrows show that you care about the face that you are presenting to the world. And it is great that you care. But as with a lot of things, moderation, dears. moderation.

Friend, DeFriend, Friendlies

In school we were taught about the levels of friendship.
1. Acquaintance:
Those who you knew the name of, knew some things about, were on "Hi-hello-howareyou" basis but you didn't really know them.
2. Friends:
These are people you actually talk to about different topics. It may be a specific topic but may be anything under the sun. There is a connection between you and you see your friends semi-regularly.
3. Best Friends:
These are people who you spend a LOT of time with and share your lives with. You are included in their lives and they include you in their life.

But, with the advent of Social Networking sites like Friendster and Facebook, the friendship levels have become more like actions.
1. Friending someone means that you have actually sent them a notification that you want to be friends with them. To which this someone would probably say, ok, i will accept or they will IGNORE.
2. Friendlies are a category of friends that you have only a digital association with. I am borrowing loosely from Seth Godin on this category of friend.
3. Defriend is the harshest thing ever. You are already friends, but something went wrong and you have been erased, obliterated, taken out of the friends list. OW! right? Well, only recourse here is to defriend your friend and now you are ex-friends.

What is the point of this? Well, our friendships have changed substantially, I think that the biggest paradox of this is that as we add to our friends list, we have actually made ourselves more isolated.

Face time has become facebook time. And it's not necessarily a good thing.

falling in love at a coffee shop

This is the beauty of the net.
I came across this wonderful song which I am publishing here. I hope that Landon Pigg doesn't mind. I think it's very sweet.

I think that possibly, maybe I’m falling for you
Yes, there’s a chance that I’ve fallen quite hard over you
I’ve seen the paths that your eyes wander down, I wanna come too
I think that possibly, maybe I’m falling for you.

No one understands me quite like you do
Through all of the shadowy corners of me

I never knew just what it was
About this old coffee shop I love so much
All of the while, I never knew

I never knew just what it was
About this old coffee shop I love so much
All of the while I never knew

I think that possibly, maybe I’m falling for you
Yes, there’s a chance that I’ve fallen quite hard over you
I’ve seen the waters that make your eyes shine, now I’m shining too
Because, oh, because I’ve fallen quite hard over over you

If I didn’t know you, I’d rather not know
If I couldn’t have you, I’d rather be alone

I never knew just what it was
About this old coffee shop I love so much
All of the while, I never knew

I never knew, just what it was
About this old coffee shop I love so much
All of the while, I never knew
All of the while, all of the while it was you

Wow, right? It's saccharine sweet. Just like the brown sugar that you put in your coffee. I am a big fan of coffee shops and I think that the reason why they have become so popular is that you can have a decent conversation in them. Just hanging out, no blaring music, no shouting people, just you and your friend/s or loved one with coffee.

Kudos to Landon Pigg, and this song was used very well in a Diamonds commercial. It was the perfect song for that TVC. Great!

blogger reveal thyself

i have had an epiphany recently about blogging.

background, i love writing and i seem to have a facility for it (i'm sure people would disagree with this, thus the italicized SEEM), but i find it terribly revealing. when you write, you open up a part of yourself for everyone to read (and criticize).

back to epiphany, i can't say that this is the first time i have seen a blog or even written one, but i recently had a chance to read blogs and see discussions on them and i had enough on them to form an opinion.

blogging has opened up opportunities for people to express themselves without fear of recrimination or judgement. read and then analyze on your own time, and give your opinion if you wish. it has opened up the world of opinion, to anyone and everyone. it's freedom of expression at a push of a button.

opinions are ideas and opinions form ideas.

exciting!