Advertising and News Pratfalls Through the Magic of Technology

Powerful digital technology has given us some pretty great things.

But, like driving a car, pretty much any idiot can be behind the steering wheel of technology*—and often is. There's something worrisome about a 4,500 pound vehicle hurtling through the city at 40-80 mph, driven by someone with a red rubber ball for a nose. Likewise, there is something disconcerting about massive digital power hurtling through our lives at death-defying speeds, being directed by the same clown.  

The following are odd (but harmless) ways that advertising and news stories are appearing lately, thanks, I suppose, to automated "design," lack of professional standards, and just plain goofy "thought leaders."

From Facebook:

I know my first reaction upon learning that thousands of snow geese have fallen dead from the sky in Idaho would be a hearty, "Yahoo!" But unless you do something about it, the first image on the webpage link you enter into your FB post is the one that appears by default on FB, so this logo must have been the first image (there are worse possibilities). And all those poor geese came in second place.

How can you do something about it? http://preview.tinyurl.com/otrdj7v [Open in new window]

From an online news service:

It's difficult for me give the story the gravitas it deserves, and also empathize with the injured victim, when I see a photo of a generic ambulance floating in space during what appears to be the final moments of the ill-fated planet Krypton. I thought for a moment that this might be an ad for a mobile ice-cream vendor.

I think the victim deserved something—anything—better regarding the event that left her in critical but stable condition... even if it's nothing more than a picture of the boring old ambulance that actually took her to the hospital. Everyone on the planet has a cell phone camera, for god's sake. Now that we have endless access to cheap instantaneous photography, this news service is buying generic photos of "the news."

Care to ski Paris in the summer?

That's right, this ad implies a Colorado ski lodge in the Champ de Mars (park) in front of the Eiffel Tower in Paris, France... 4,997 miles away. On a lovely summer day. But I definitely want to stay at that lodge, since you get a two-for-one: skiing Colorado and a tour of Paris.

Stock photography; take a closer look:

To read their submission rules, you'd think they haul in the U.S. Cavalry to evaluate the quality of photographers' submissions before accepting any image, but apparently no one noticed this young lady is happily knocking on a door that has a padlock the size of her head not 3 inches from her nose. At least Photoshop it. Probably nobody's home (so to speak).

The solution:

There may be very little we can do about it—the news will continue to display irrelevant stock images in an effort to grab your attention, bizarre or inappropriate images will continue to appear above headlines, FB will continue to snag the first image out of the chute when you link to a web page, and oddball images will appear among the countless stock images we have available to—as the Apple Dictionary defines it: "...add graphic pizzazz to your desktop-publishing project."

But if the driver behind the wheel will take off the rubber nose, and put on a thinking cap, some of these absurd advertising and news pratfalls might go away, and advertising and news might become better for it (providing no one is actually reading the stuff—but that's a comment for another time).


*Those behind the "steering wheel of technology" are NOT the programmers. They are the same crowd that have always given the orders, made the demands, taken the bows, reaped the rewards, and left a quivering mess in their wake. You probably know one.

Artist's/Writer's Block

Artist’s/Writer’s Block is one of my favorite topics. I don't much believe there is writer's block as we perceive it to be, and I dread it much less than I dread hypergraphia. Mark Twain reached a "block" while writing Huckleberry Finn, and simply put the book aside for a number of years-- and wrote other books! I believe it took him seven years to finish Huckleberry Finn. So his "block" was with regard to only one book. And keep in mind, he didn't worry about it-- "Ideas will come in time," he said.

As an artist, graphic designer, and occasional writer, I find that we can't always afford the luxury of being at a standstill by writer's block. We have deadlines to meet.

What I tell my students, and myself, is: "This is only one speed bump, but you have a whole life around you. Get on with life, and the work will come in time-- in fact, you're still a writer (artist) even though you are creating NOTHING!—even if you can't get out of bed that day—because everything you do makes you a better writer (or artist, or designer).”

Let me say that again in italics: everything you do makes you a better writer (or artist, or designer).

When you're stuck in bed, you experience the sensation of bedsheets, sunlight or moonlight filling the room, there are blankets to see and touch, a sitcom to watch, analyze, or criticize, a kitty to pet, or an insane wind coming up just outside your window. Sometimes you have vomiting to get through, or congestion, or chills and fever for hours: these are ALL sensations and observations that, whether you try or not, will remain with you and contribute to better creative work.

When there's no time to create-- when your day job demands overtime, when your kids need attention, when the trash has to go out, the grass has to be mowed, and tax forms must be completed-- when there are no more hours in the day, the week, the months... you are STILL becoming a better writer/artist.

Why? Because writing or art like many endeavors, is centered in who you are. So consider the difference between a teacher down with the flu, and a writer down with the flu: each will be affected and changed by the illness, and each will come back stronger in who they are because of it. The teacher will filter the illness through his teacher core. The writer will filter it through her writer core. Same illness, different filters.

My paintings get better (to me) whether or not I paint, because I get better: Every experience, feeling, discovery, observation, event in life continues to be filtered through my writer/artist core, and moves my art forward, whether or not I'm actually painting.

Writing and painting are mechanical skills. Of course each requires practice. But both are more than a skill-- they are also the ability to process our world through the mind and senses of our creative core.

When you reach what you imagine to be a writer's block, then set aside skills, put your book or painting away, and attend to the world; you will be growing as a writer/artist the whole time, and you will come back better for it. You will come back changed.

Will it solve your "problem" of being blocked? If you "believe in" writer's block then probably not. But the chances are very good that a new energy will come when you spend some time experiencing the world, solving puzzles, or come up against a deadline, but don't look for this to be a solution or cure for what ails you; it's giving necessary attention to the essential resources that fuel your creativity.