Secret Message for the Kids

Image via Fespa

What's a kid to do when they are abused by an adult? They are vulnerable and wouldn't know what to do, who to tell or where to go. 

A clever designed campaign by ad agency, Grey (Spain), for ANAR Foundation  (Ayuda A Ninos Y Adolescentes En Riesgo or Help For Children And Adolescents At Risk) was launched in Spain with the aim to increase child abuse awareness and encourage child abuse victims to reach out for help by making a phone call in discreet.

The outdoor poster ads have two seperate messages for two target groups; one aimed at adults and the other aimed at children. Each target message were designed to be visible only for the intended target group, made possible by knowing the average height and using a lenticular lens. 

Image via International Business Times

The message made visible to the adult is a general child abuse awareness message. It also displays an image of a clean face of a boy from the adult's point of view. 

Whereas, the other message aimed at children displays the same image of the child but clearly appears to have wounds and bruises as a result of violence. The important message of making a phone call along with a number are also displayed and visible only from their point of view. 

Image via Resource Mag Online - Message visible for adults 

Image via Resource Mag Online - Hidden message visible for children 

How this works is explained in the video below: 

Lots o' Love, Linda 

Here's to the Mums!

In celebration of Mother's Day 2013, Google launched a campaign to honour the mothers of the world called Here's to the Moms. There is also an additional digital page to allow users more ways to celebrate and thank their mothers by using Google products (keep in mind, I'm Australian, hence I use "mums" instead of "moms"). 

They are able to create a Mother's Day card using Google Doodle; share videos from YouTube; search Google Maps for florists near by for flower deliveries; use Google Plus to create circles and hangouts; and Google Offers for last minute gift shopping just to name a few. 

Image via Google - Mother's Day 2013 Doodle 

If you were on the Google homepage on Mother's Day, you would probably have enjoyed the fun Google Doodle of creating a Mother's Day card. To have a play with it if you haven't already or to read more of behind the scenes of the project, click here. 

Here's another touching video that I've found by Family Share.  

To the mothers of the world, never forget how special and important you are. Your hard work never goes unappreciated. The world wouldn't be where it is today without you all.  

And of course, to my very own mother, thank you so much for everything you have done and continue to do. I'm a pretty hard and stubborn kid. You have spoiled me with too much in this world and I can't imagine how it feels to raise someone like myself. Thank you so much for being brave, hardworking and never giving up on me. 

And not to mention, you are hilarious! The weird habits you have make the funny and awesome person that you are. Everyday is another episode of what I like to call it, "Keeping Up With the TRANdashians" and I can't imagine it otherwise. Thank you. I really mean it. 

I LOVE YOU!  

Lots o' Love, Linda 

Monsters University Grumblr

I've mentioned in a previous post about how genius the Pixar team is at experience marketing by creating a university website to anticipate the upcoming Monsters University film, and it never stopped from there. 

The marketing geniuses behind Pixar places more social media to clever use by creating a 'student-run' Tumblr blog called, The Grumblr. It's an easy blogging tool that allows for quick posts of photos, memes, GIFS, videos and reblogging posts that tickle your fancy. And, it's a great way to connect with Monsters Inc fans in the Tumblr community and for them to have a taste of the life of MU students. 

To make it even look more realistic, some images have been posted as 'instagram' style photos.
Here are some instagram pics posted on The Grumblr, cause any active Tumblr user knows that instagram pics are commonly posted.  

Image via Monsters University Grumblr

Image via Monsters University Grumblr

Image via Monsters University Grumblr 

Image via Monsters University Grumblr  

I'll be making more posts about Monsters University marketing communications in the future, so be forewarned.

Lots o' Love, Linda 

More Beautiful Than You Think

Being a woman, I know how hard it can be sometimes. I am also very aware of how critical we can be to our own selves. Afterall, we all seem to be our own worst critic and enemy. And most of all, those criticisms all stem from how we perceive ourselves...on the outside. 

There's always some kind of flaw that we pay the most attention to or are most self-conscious about. Ask any girl and she will tell you what they dislike about their image. Even the most gorgeous looking people will pick out some kind of flaw in themselves. I guess it's also hard cause people are always talking about people's looks. We start making comparisons and feel insecure about ourselves because we don't feel that we weigh up to society's standards. This is not to bash on girls but every now and then, I do hear and read harsh comments from other girls saying stuff like "she's not that pretty", "she's ugly", "she's disgustingly skinny", "her teeth are ugly", or "she's got no ass". 

Dove is a brand that is always on the mission to inspire women to embrace their own beauty. Agency, Ogilvy & Mather (Brazil) were the geniuses behind Dove's 'Real Beauty Sketches' campaign that went viral after its release more than 2 weeks ago. It's a clever social experiment that challenges how women currently think about themselves and to remind us that we are indeed beautiful the way we are. 

Check it out and you'll see why. 

 Both images via Ad Week. Sketches by Gil Zamora 

There are a few parody versions using men created that are also online. They're pretty funny! 

Here's one created by New Feelings Time.

For more sketches and videos from this campaign, click here. 


Lots o' Love, Linda

Powerful Image of Peace and Hope!

Image via News -  Boston Magazine. Photo by Mitchell Feinberg

One hundred and twenty pairs of running shoes were arranged in a colourful heart as the cover image of the May issue of Boston Magazine. These shoes belonged to some of the participants at this year's Boston Marathon. The issue also features a piece of  individual photos of 15 pairs of runners with each their own story of their response to the tragedy. 

Within 18 hours of its release on Twitter, the image was re-tweeted 1,063 times. A digital page was also launched so more people from around the world are able to post photos of their shoes and share their own story in relation to the Boston Marathon. 

There has been a great deal of kindness, support and resilience from people around the world for the people of Boston. Hope these are inspirational.  

Here are some of the individual photos of shoes and stories: 

Image & abstract via Boston Magazine -  Photo by Scott M, Lacey

Image & abstract via Boston Magazine - Photo by Scott M, Lacey

Image & abstract via Boston Magazine - Photo by Scott M, Lacey

Lots o' Love, Linda 

Media Response to Boston Marathon

Image via Business Insider.  Photo taken by Chris Roan 

Many of us, especially those who were there, may still be making sense of the recent tragedy of the Boston Marathon bombings. While this post is not going to recount of what happened on April 15th, this is more so about the response to it, particularly in the community and media. As a marketing student, I was also really interested in the social media response and PR activities involved. 

Where were you when the Boston bombings unfolded? Or HOW did you find out about the Boston bombings? Me? It was early Tuesday morning (Australian Eastern-Standard Time) on my commute to uni when my Twitter timeline was bombarded with tweets mentioning "Boston", "Boston Marathon", #prayforboston and #bostonstrong. 

All of the information I was receiving came from no other than the micro-blogging platform, Twitter. I did come across a couple of posts on Facebook, but those were only a fraction to the continuous developing updates and action on Twitter. Whether it be links to articles from official news services or tweets from actual witnesses who were there at the time of the marathon. Pretty much, most of the tweets on the timeline had a mention about it. Perhaps, it had a lot to do with the majority of my "following" list being Americans, but Australian journalists were also tweeting about this as the news developed.

It's fair to say that Twitter was the preferred source for readily accessible information when it comes to developing and breaking news. According to Mashable, Michael Sippy (Twitter VP of Consumer Product) revealed that 'Boston' received an increase of 20,000% of mentions on Twitter in response to the tragedy.  

Twitter users quickly made re-tweets, but most of us don't stop to think before we hit the re-tweet button. We don't assess whether the information we're reading is correct or whether the source is valid and reliable, nor whether the charities that pop up in response are legitimate or scams. For this reason, comes lots of complications and challenges when it comes to utilising Twitter as a news platform.

There are many flaws and interesting things to think about in terms of journalism which are also well discussed in the following articles; Simon Rickets (The Guardian), Hank Stuever (SMH) and Mathew Ingram (Paid Content).

Ever since the FBI revealed blurry images for the public to help identify the suspects, I was following the coverage via Twitter up until the final capture of one of the two suspects. I was glued to Twitter, and noticed a lot of the mistakes that were being made by journalists and social media users, as the interplay between the two was intriguing but also very conflicting.

Journalists were competing with each other to be the first to report the news. Even mainstream tv news broadcasts seem to have failed to respond as quickly for news delivery in comparison to digital media. 

Of course, we all know that journalism is a business but reporting without verifying the information first can be damaging to the investigation and those affected. This was particularly evident in the case of Sunil Tripathi. An innocent Brown University student who had been missing for a whole month, was speculated as a bombing suspect on Reddit. Some journalists I was following also tweeted this information immediately without confirmation  because they heard the name on the police scanner. NBC's news reporter, Pete Williams was praised as the hero reporter for his careful and accurate reports and challenged the speculation that was already being reported such as the case of Tripathi. Unfortunately, Tripathi had recently been found deceased and had nothing to do with the Boston tragedy. My thoughts are with his friends and family. RIP.  

While digital news is on the rise, and many flaws that come with them, they are still valuable. It's not all bad news when it comes to social media and it can't entirely be dismissed. As shown in the case of a higher-resolution photo of one of the suspects was supplied to assist in the suspect's identification. And Watertown resident, Andrew Kitzenberg who captured photos of the shootout in his neighhourbood and documented them onto Twitter. His first hand account is available on his blog (Get On Hand), in which he kindly asked news and media outlets to make a contribution to The One Fund Boston upon using his images. 

Only mistakes that are continually made without acknowledging them will cause the journalist and news organisation's brand to lose credibility. 

Lots o' Love, Linda