Day: 2008-08-07

Jim Beam demonstrates just how much men want to hate us

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A note to Jim Beam: If you are so embarrassed about these ads that you don’t want anyone to see them, to the point that you’re chasing fair use political commenters from video hosting site to video hosting site with your DMCA heavies, how about issuing a formal, sincere apology instead? A company that doesn’t want anyone actually seeing their ads. Interesting.

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As tigtog said, people are up in arms about the “The Neighbours” commercial from purveyors of bad bourbon and toxic masculinity, Jim Beam.

Shonks and sensationalists

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Andrew Funnell on today’s Radio National’s Media Report [transcript] examines the reaction to ABC-TV’s Gruen Transfer from the public and from within the industry. GT was a ratings hit, is being attributed as the source of new interest in advertising as a career from bright young things, and is also accused of doing more harm than good to the industry through the panel-members playing up to an existing image of advertisers as quipping show-ponies with a cynical streak.

The range of opinions about the show is interesting, and the controversy obviously plays into why the show has been renewed. To me the criticisms of the show as lightweight ring a very loud bell, as I was disappointed by the lack of substantive discussion regarding the manipulations of advertising – they keep on circling the issue and backing off.

Anyway, one line in the program caught my attention as especially well expressed:

Contagious yawning and canine empathy

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From the BBC:

Until recently it was thought that only humans and their primate cousins displayed contagious yawning, but now it’s been shown that dogs display the behaviour as well.

Yawning, although sometimes a response to extreme stress, is more often a sign of tiredness; but the reason for why yawning is catching is not fully understood.