Facebook recently introduced the ability to livestream, and this promotes to an even higher degree the breakdown on privacy, but also the increase of interconnectivity. For the uninitiated, how a livestream works is in the name: it is a video, like the kind on YouTube, that is playing live, as in, if you are watching, it is happening right as you are watching, except maybe off by a few seconds.

And this is astonishing technology. Sure, it might not seem that impressive at first glance, but the fact Facebook gives this power to anyone to use, for free, means that connectivity is increasing. And so is the lack of walls.

As a person who recently tried out the function, the thing that becomes apparent is that people are viewing you right then. Which, as I said: is how the system works. But that reality does not sink in until you start. There is no chance to edit later, or fix flubs. The concept of stage fright is inherent the second you know someone is “present”.

And it’s recorded. Permanently existing somewhere, on some server—unless you delete the video (and they might still save the file somewhere: who knows?). Remember that too. The idea of constant monitoring that novels like 1984 raged against, is being willingly used. And the funny thing is that because we get to choose to some degree when technology is observing our lives, we seem to lose a lot of the concerns.

Like all social media, livestreaming promotes placing yourself, all of yourself, out there so you can be more personal with the world. If you felt connected to the people you watch on certain shows before, then just wait until you watch the person live.

Sure, these videos might remove a little of the magic inherent to life’s mysteries, but knowing someone is somewhere while they are there, is still incredible technology. Yet again: incredible. If you thought video chat letting you bring one person to a vacation with you was cool, if you thought letting one person join you on your errand to somewhere like Nature’s Food Patch was an interesting trick of the new world: well, now you can bring a whole group of people with you.

And, livestreams have changed media in other ways. Livestreaming while playing a game, livestreaming while building crafts, while having a political discussion, playing music, cooking, what have you, garners an audience. Viewing something happening as it is happening, no matter the barriers of space, takes the mundane and stale and makes the experience new and interesting. It’s reality television’s draw on hyper drive.

Livestreaming is effective because humans like being around other humans. And now, one can be with thousands of their fellow man from the comfort of their own home. It’s not quite filming, it’s not quite theater. It’s not even exactly candid camera. It is the direct link between viewer and presenter, between friends/strangers and another’s life.

And this can lead to beautiful things. And things no one has ever conceived of. Yes, some horrible outcomes can, and did, and will, happen: but with how livestreams conceptually link to what we all already promote through our social media use, be we a company or an individual person, it’s not going anywhere, anytime soon.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com

If only a company’s advertising moved as fast as the media advertises a scandal. If only the fact a place is selling nice products could get out to people as quick as the random horribleness that is on the news and on the internet.

Because we are ever closer coming to a hive mind, but only when the information is big and dramatic. Tell me: how did you hear about the newest political argument or extreme situation in the world? Was it by sitting down at the television and going with the mindset of: “I want to understand what is happening in the world today, I want to be a well-informed member of society”?         

Or did you get it through osmosis. Or by accident.

I am a fan of the way the world is with technology. There are moments, because of technology, where I feel more connected to humanity than I ever have before.

But that same connection means I, and I’m betting I am not the only one, hear about things by osmosis—and with bias. The news of president-elect Trump being held as the winning vote (if he is not already the President of The United States by the time of this article going live) came to my attention because I was on Facebook and someone celebrated.

Now, I somewhat bemoan the dwindling of newsprint, as I’m sure does places like the Tampa Bay Times—as the romantic idea of the newspaper is such a beautiful thing. But it’s too fast now, the world, when it comes to breaking news. We know information almost instantly. Humanity is only one technological advance away from wireless headphones keeping us culturally informed via little unobtrusive voices—if we don’t already have that.

As another example of the quick information-spreading phenomena that various company’s advertising departments wishes it had, my timeline had people posting paragraph long, somewhat researched, rebuttals to Meryl Streep’s statements at the Golden Globes—a television moment which I only had glimpsed because the television happened to be on around me—in minutes. Almost like people had arguments prepared beforehand.

And though a business does not often have that kind of power, there is potential for it. If worked at hard enough. I am not promoting someone does something bad and horrible to ring the media circus’ dinner bell. But I am promoting the opposite. If someone does something good and wholesome, they may earn the same attention. If a company could, or would, stand up for something important, then that has the potential for spurring advertising at the fullest measure. Sure, it’s a little hollow, a little manipulative, but good actions for the world are good actions for the world.

Now, some might not like corporations weighing in on the world’s events. But, in this age, someone will always object, and if done with the right tact, you can have the hive mind of the internet focus on you for a moment, and the majority might not even be angered.

Cultural or societal news is beyond “trending” at this point. Trending does not even describe how society through the pulse of the internet can just know things. How it can be thinking about things like it was there witnessing the event in real time.

And, if you’re clever, you can have them thinking about you. Because that’s all advertising is about. And attention, is power.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com

Is it just me, or does the world of education seem to have a PR issue nowadays? Wasn’t attending college and other forms of higher education an act of stability? The, for lack of a better pun, most educated life decision for the average person? The thing we all grew up knowing we would do, as a given, assuming you were not in a financial situation which made it not possible?

Well, that doesn’t seem to be the case anymore. This is more speculative than some of my articles, and, perhaps, it is the biased media that swings my perspective in this direction, but everywhere you go, you hear about problems of employing people. Of people coming out of schools not actually fit for the job they were hired and trained to do. And, of course, the one-thousand-pound elephant in the room which is the dreaded “Student Loan Debt.”

Now, some degrees, some would say, were always useless for an actual paying job. The English major or the human studies major or the art history kid working at the range of fast food joints like the ones on Gulf to Bay right out of higher education is a prevalent stereotype. But the problem now seems to extend to many potential vocations.

And, again, this could be the media/internet inflating a situation beyond what is happening. Confirmation bias or panic or shoddy surveys. The unemployment or wrong employment numbers are not concrete. It would not surprise me if the employment rates and dropout rates for college and high school were much less scary than what’s told. Fear sells after all.

But, I kind of doubt it’s that far off the mark. I know how we compare to other countries in all our major subjects. It makes sense.

And... this is a PR nightmare for a lot of groups, and it feeds into common economic worries. If schools are not trusted as much, and, indeed, if being so far into debt is such a Faustian bargain, you get less and less people enthused about attending schools. And, if less and less attend, or bother to give it their mental all when they do attend, the people who can vouch for the benefits of higher education become fewer and fewer.

The result is we get stupider as a nation. If the schools aren’t already contributing to that problem.  

But, that’s not the end of it. Because the companies hiring also have an issue: when school is not a useful measuring stick anymore they lose stability. How do you determine who to hire when you can’t trust credentials? You must smile and take your chances or take the huge amount of time to test every single person interested in a job.

And they have a similar problem if they do trust the schools. Because, apparently, they’re not getting the best people always, and with fewer applicants to choose from, the competition will get more and more difficult to decide upon. And then, as a smart business, they’d only hire the already experienced, and the youth then don’t have jobs, and everyone gets mad at them for not having jobs, and people go on support mechanisms like welfare.

This sounds like a slippery slope argument, and it kind of is, but the situation has doom and gloom. It’s not PR anyone wants, especially not the ones who oversee the children and young adults forming the next generation.

And, I hate to be the complainer. But it’s not something I personally can help fix outside of discussing it. The only answer is not an easy one. The education system would need sweeping reform and change. To improve itself and its PR so people trust it more again. And then make the debt it causes not so crippling. It’s not an issue easily brushed under the rug. You can’t slap an A+ on it and hope for the best.

But here’s the funny thing, and the hopeful thing. The people equipped to do it, to solve it, might not be from the biggest, most well-funded places. People already smart enough to do what needs doing exist somewhere. We need to find them and accept their solutions even if their accreditations aren’t top notch. And then we can get the world back to where accreditation means something concrete again.

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More than one form of advertising exists. Some of it is specific to companies, made by them, and set to sell something. But, there exists another type of advertising…one not meant to get across the idea to spend money, but to make someone out as more and more powerful.

And, in the today, in the now, with the media landscape as it is, that advertising focuses squarely on celebrities. And sure, that’s not new news, but who can be a celebrity has changed. First off, fame has layers now, more than ever. If you go into the maelstrom that is YouTube, you will find plenty of people who you could certainly call famous, and yet, outside of their subculture, the random person will not even know their names. Besides, perhaps, the children of the local high schools like Clearwater Academy International, Washburn Academy, The Learning Connection, Delphi Academy, or the simply named: Clearwater High School. But that is not the everyman population of the work-a-day world.

Subcultures grow through, and some become common enough random people know them. And, I’m sure you have already guessed going off this article’s title which subculture got enough advertising for the news and the world to give them more than a passing glance: the nerds. The geeks. The dweebs. When else in history does the average person not only recognize who people like Stephen Hawking and Neil deGrasse Tyson are, but has also seen them interact with the media at large?

In what other world—because this age does seem like a new world—does the author of a fantasy series become a household name (and the fact you probably thought of a different person than I intended proves my point)? Actors can become known not for who they are, but for what nerdy character they play.

This is the new nerd, the bigger than life nerd. For some beautiful reason, the outrageous, obsessive, risk-taking social rejects get all sorts of documentaries made about them. Gets major actors playing them in multi-million dollar films.

For an easy example, I can’t imagine any other situation where something like The Imitation Game would not only be a movie, but a movie which glorifies not the smooth overly square-jawed man in a three-piece suit, but the hard-working smart guy who almost no one likes to be in the room with.

You can make all the derisive comments about the “special snowflakes” and the “precious millennials” you desire, but we are in a world which is now advertising that perhaps we need a little less of the men who waddle in and take out many with guns, and more of the clever and odd and the nerdy.

Nerds love a good power fantasy, perhaps because for a long time they did not feel powerful (like many other groups). But now, along with other “minorities” of subcultures and actual minorities which were marginalized, being us, being nerds, is taken by advertising to be a power fantasy.

And I think we could get used to that.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com    

When I said advertising from Disney made nerd culture spread faster, I was not just pointing at them because they are a large company, and an easy source of reference for the average reader—though that was a perk. I chose them because they own Marvel. And if one franchise could bare the label of what made nerds cool, that would be it.

The Avengers changed everything. Changed how the movie industry regarded interconnected stories and franchises. It made spin-offs and connected television shows more wanted. No matter how many of the D.C. movies like Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice or Suicide Squad flop critically, the amount of power and money The Avengers made makes the pull too strong to not keep trying.

The logic is this: do it right, just once, and it will all be worth it.

And, as the corporations and the money-hungry eyeball-demanders fight, we all get new stuff.

Now, the backlash is (because there is always backlash) some nerds begrudge the people who suddenly have an opinion on the argument of D.C. versus Marvel, or whether “gamer girls” are in it for some sort of popularity spike among the stereotypical hormone-jacked basement dwellers.

But I am not one of those people. I think it is fantastic when anyone gets into this subculture that’s not “sub” anymore. Because, now, seeing something like Doctor Strange or Rogue One: A Star Wars Story or Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them is a go-to movie for the masses.

But that wasn’t the only thing they did for the “revolution.” Another way Disney directly spread the agenda is with the amount of merchandising and branded items they let into the world. This is basic trademark building, something I’ve spoken about before, but it is still worth pointing out that for every Captain America’s mighty shield they sell, they are advertising.

Every sale. Every television advertisement. Every time someone walks into the comic book shop at Countryside, or wanders to that back part of the Barnes and Noble at Sunset Point and finds the wall of graphic novels, they are at the risk of the “infection.”

And I could keep shouting out all the examples which I think are radical, and if I had a megaphone, that might be something I’d do with it. But the point is this: Disney is big enough and wide enough and tied enough to the collective consciousness of the masses, that if they put out something, it is normal.

I say Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs to anyone who is not a rather young child, and they will know exactly what I am talking about. The movie is a piece of us as Americans. And Disney can do that anytime they want with anything. Disney decided that comic book superheroes are common to us. And so, boom, they are.

And while that is scary to think about in terms of non-media implications, we nerds got picked as the target for elevation, so I’m not going to complain. I just hope they decide to further destigmatize video games next. Because that would be, again using this old silly word: radical.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com    

Nerds rule the world in 2017. And that’s because, with the right advertising and marketing, the label lost its stigma in almost all aspects. Everyone, yes, everyone, is practically a nerd now. Shows like the Walking Dead and Stranger Things are both hugely popular, Harry Potter and The Sorcerer’s Stone is perhaps the most read book behind the Christian bible and (regrettably) Fifty Shades of Grey, and the more I say about the current movie scene in relation to nerd culture, the more I prove my point.

It’s pervasive. It’s so easy to get into, just by osmosis. Rampant recommendations from friends and family, and the new prevalence of getting media quick, easily, and “binge-able,” makes it so anyone can enter the nerd fold with little to no issue. They may not even realize that’s what happened to them.

For instance: Game of Thrones is a fantasy series with dragons and magic. And twenty (or so) years ago, being that kind of person, the kind who likes stories like George R.R. Martin’s, would be a thing open to derision. A fringy mindset. But, now you can call yourself a nerd or geek and it’s a badge of honor, with many coming into the fold every day.

But, how did this happen? When did it become normal? What began the situation where you could wander into Countryside Mall, and there is not one, but two video game stores, and a comic book store, and a nerdy memorabilia store, which all attract not only the teenage and young adult boys you’d expect, but middle-aged women and teenage girls, and little children, and full-blown working nine-to-five adults.

Again, that all may seem normal now, but it wasn’t before.

And the reason, at least from the perspective of an everyman, who was and is in the thick of it, is a crashing, intersecting, explosion of a few factors. A stew of the following (and certainly more) made it possible: streaming services, the internet, and the entertainment industry. And the smell of this stew wafted to the noses of the majority on the backs of advertising from companies, a lot of it originating from the Disney corporation, and they all wanted a taste.

Keep in mind, some of this is speculation, but I think I’m not too far off. The internet made connecting nerds easier, and once they connected, it made organizing them possible, coming together into big enough congregations that people took notice. Comic Con and Dragon Con and E3 might have a lot to do with the outcome. YouTube sharing related videos wide and fast certainly had something to do with the outcome. And stores took notice and stocked shelves with these demographics in mind. Pop brand figurines, for instance, are ubiquitous now in most retail shops.

Advertising, at its simplest form, is the act of making something known. And, with some of the most creative people around today working on the new wave of nerdy products (fed on a steady diet of nerdy creations in their youth), they made it mass market known.

Nerds have always understood nerdy things are spectacular. And, it turns out, so does most of everyone, as soon as they are exposed to it without judgment.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com    

Well, Carrie Fisher and her mother both passed away a day apart. And hopefully, hopefully, that marks a capstone on a year which some people on the internet refer to as a “dumpster fire,” though I don’t promote that label. But, if we can just make it to the end of the year without any more tragedies or celebrity deaths that would be good.

That would be wonderful.

And, if we can make the coming year a little more in the vein of hope than despair, that would be nice too.

In fact, that’s what I am here to promote as my final article of the year. Because 2016 has been harsh. Even for someone growing okay with Donald being the new President of the United States of America, I shed a few tears over the sheer brutalizing we all received.

But, it’s almost over. And, so, like the optimist I did not think I was (but continue to prove myself wrong), I am all for us, as people, going forward to promote a year without so much suffering.

We are not defined by only our tragedies, we are also by our triumphs. Our successes. Our striving for a new and better world.

Now, on to how to go about it—even locally. Here in Clearwater we may not have seen much direct change. We are a sleepy town, which isn’t always affected the hardest by news. But, that doesn’t mean some don’t need a little hope and light.

So, here’s what I promote. First: a little calm. Sure, the political world was loud and will continue to be loud, but that does not mean we need to listen so close. Take care of yourself, mentally and physically. And, I know it sounds a little odd, especially coming from a future-excited, technology-promoting individual like me, but you don’t have to engage with news media, or even social media for a little while if it is genuinely hurting you. If you need it, distance yourself. Shut off all connected devices.

Ignoring the news may not be a socially responsible thing to suggest doing, but there will always be something on it dire and distracting and infuriating, and you can remove yourself from it for a few days, even a few weeks. It’s not like it’s going anywhere.

And the second thing I promote is to just be kind. Dark, bad things happen in the world, an unavoidable fact, and though we can’t always prevent them from happening, we can calm people and try to keep individuals from flipping out and going into a panic.

Yes, protest and standing up against injustice are right things to do. I promote that too. I promote peaceful assembly and making grievances known—especially for the underrepresented. But, I mean kindness in the day to day, not the dramatic situations. Understand that people are still reeling and try to have empathy for them without yourself falling into the same emotional spiral.

Part of the reason the world seems so chaotic this year is because of the amount of screaming happening among friends and family and perfect strangers. Fear mongering media didn’t help either. On all sides, people talked about how bad it is. This time, though not every tragedy is avoidable, or even logical, we can hold together instead of yelling and breaking apart.

If 2016 is a time of anger and upheaval, then I promote 2017 as the year of understanding and love. Yeah, it sounds a little hippy-like, but I’m willing to try it. What can it hurt to strive for peace? Really all years we should strive for that, so we may as well start somewhere.

So, why not this year, so full of yet untapped potential?

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com    

Gift cards are a stroke of marketing genius. This may not be uncommon knowledge, but since you probably received at least one gift card in the last few days, I thought I would outline the usefulness of a gift card for a company.

Now, gift cards are not as beneficial to you, as they are to their creators. Cash, if you are in the right country for it to be applicable, is acceptable in all stores—barring strange outliers. It is infinitely more useable.

But, to a company, gift cards are brilliant. They do something, several things, which is ultra-beneficial to them. Elevating the simple present way above its unassuming exterior.

The first is that it cements a brand. Even if you prefer a small mom-and-pop shop, or have inexplicably never gone to the store you got a gift card from before, you must now if you want to claim the present. Best Buy on Drew Street, Target in Clearwater Mall, Barnes And Noble on Sunset Point, these stores you may (somehow) never have set foot in before, yet now you must interact with their brands and marketing. It may even make you a regular customer.      

And, though the money from the card is not new cash, the gift card also incentivizes spending more money at that establishment—especially if the card is for a smaller amount of currency.

As an example, if you are at, say, a Red Lobster and your card is for twenty dollars, and you take your family with you, you will assuredly spend more than the card’s value—just based on the usual prices at that restaurant. And, thus, you give them even more money than the card is worth. And you wouldn’t have even put yourself in such a situation without the card itself to get you in the door.

No matter how frugal you might be, it is way easier to end up splurging if you feel the reward is big enough, or if you feel the lack of a full brunt of a cost. It’s the same trick that a massive sale pulls. Macy’s and Steam and so many others use the same method. You end up spending more than you might with normal prices.  Buying more things, moving more merchandise, getting the stores out of the red. Because you perceive it as personally beneficial—as a victory. As a reward. It’s a classic trick of marketing.

Now with all that said, gift cards are still gifts—above all. Acts of kindness from someone: a friend, a family member, a significant other, who cares enough to get you one. It’s not as sinister as I may make it sound. Don’t not use it on principal. It’s just good, clever marketing. And, spending a gift card is a lovely additional portion to any holiday season’s events. Another wave of gifts after the ones you received from Santa and/or all the people you celebrate with. Even if all it is, is a little treat one day from a bakery or coffee shop.

So: enjoy. Have fun with it.        

‘Tis the season, after all.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com    

Three months later, back we go into the controversy of political correctness and P.R. I’ve said much on the subject over several articles, but now as we are in the winter, we have the potential for a minor P.R. gaffe which will require navigating. And since I opened the can of worms already and never closed it, let’s go right back into the maelstrom.

“Merry Christmas.”

Well, what do you say to that? Obviously, it depends on the person, but if I hear it, I go with the same response. A “Merry Christmas” for a “Merry Christmas.” Even if I did not celebrate Christmas (though I do, and adore it), I don’t mind saying what they want to hear—what is most easy for the person to accept. If I said “Happy Holidays” at that point, that would be rude, at least from some people’s perspective.

And, as I said back in September and October, the whole point of political correctness is to take other’s feelings into account while speaking. You say “bless you” or even “God bless you” when people sneeze, even if you do not believe in the connected religious aspects of that phrase, and no one bats an eye (unless some people do, in which case even I, the one promoting political correctness, think there is such a thing as choosing your battles more wisely) so, for the winter holidays, why not respond with a socially correct response?

Now, for the flip side, since I’m trying to codify this, if you are in a position where you want to initiate the festive greeting: then go “Happy Holidays.” Unless, of course, you know from previous experiences that the person you are speaking with is a person who celebrates a certain holiday. In which case, go ahead and use the appropriate greeting.

It’s not so hard to apply. If you need to put it up in writing, say you’re an employee at a local little café like Angie’s Restaurant on Cleveland Street, and you want a festive sign, then go with both the holiday that is most common in the area and a “Happy Holidays” for safety’s sake.

Again, it is simply an act of respect. Some people do not celebrate Christmas. A huge number in America do, but some don’t. And even if one cannot be bothered to learn all the alternative methods of celebration in the world, it is not hard to stick to the generic “Happy Holidays.”

Now, sure, this can backfire, oddly enough. Some can become offended by the lack of “gumption” one possesses to not choose a holiday. But, really, again, pick your battles. The fact people can become mad about people trying to be nice, and become offended by efforts to prevent offense, is too twisting a paradox to dig into now, but again, for the sake of P.R., I would err on the side of the politically correct. If uninformed to an individual’s preference, only respond with the specific holiday they said first, or stay generic.

The winter holidays, all of them, unless you observe some rather fringe traditions, focuses on things like generosity, love, family, kindness, and remembrance of the past. Be it gathering around a tree one morning, or celebrating over eight days, or seven, or any other way, the intent is the same: to bring people together.

So, as we enter this time of year, I wish you a Merry Christmas. A Happy Hanukah. A Joyous Kwanza. And for all I might have missed: HAPPY HOLIDAYS!

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com    

This article came as an idea because of the company Carvana. Carvana delivers cars to you. They allow a person in search of a vehicle to, without going to a dealership, purchase a car. Like Amazon and eBay with, well, everything, the world now has another place which promotes the usage of digital services instead of a physical store.

Now, to my mind, this promotes two things. The first is customer power, and the second is a breakdown of normal concepts of errands—of normal ideas, quick to be outdated ideas, of what it means to go shopping. Which is another sign of the world changing in new and exciting ways due to the internet.

Let’s go over the items a person can purchase online. Actually, let’s go one further. Let’s examine some of the things the internet now seeks to expedite for maximum convenience among the users of it.

In no significant order:

Amazon and eBay, which, if you are willing to wait for the product to arrive and not have the instant gratification of ownership, can allow you to purchase pretty much any standard item for delivery.

Etsy. Which is full of many handcrafted items.

Netflix, Hulu, and all the other similar groups, satisfy people’s media needs.

Match and OkCupid and Tinder and such give people a way to find someone to date.

Lyft and Uber now make getting a ride possible on a mass scale without relying on taxi services.

There are even services which allow Publix and other local stores to deliver products to a person in under an hour, and of course:  fast food delivery of the Chinese food and pizza variety has been a thing for a long time.

Now, I understand the potential concern all of this can cause. Because the more this sort of thing expands, and the more services one can obtain without leaving their house, the less reason one would have to go out in Clearwater and see the world.

And, yes, perhaps that is what might happen. But, I don’t think so. I cannot predict the outcome this will have on real-world brick-and-mortar for-profit industries—as that model may phase out of existence. But, that threat is only for the retail organizations unwilling to go fully digital.

Restaurants and fairs and concerts and bars and lounges all exist as a social location, not just a place to buy things. Sure, you might get a coffee delivered. Sure, you might even get food on par with Carrabba’s Italian Grill on Gulf to Bay brought to you. But those do not have the much touted “atmosphere” of a real physical experience. The smells and sounds and touch of a real coffee shop or bustling restaurant is not easily replicated.

If I may make another prediction, I see people not becoming shut-ins, but instead becoming more free to explore. At the beginning, I mentioned the boost of power in the customer, and that is what they will have. This is what the new system will promote. Errands would no longer be all-day affairs, as traveling all around to stores would no longer be necessary. And the purchasers would have more control of their own time.

Which is more time for people to go and party at concerts, go and meet people for drinks, go and see the world. Sure, some might find it as an excuse for the lifestyle of a shut-in, but the majority will, and already are, getting a liberation of time and effort, which can find usage toward creative and positive outlets. Volunteering, charity work, time with friends and family.

Browsing the shelves may not be the same, but the urge for a human connection doesn’t die. No matter how convenient things get.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com 

Art is everything to marketing. Artistic expression is the purest form of communication we have as a species. It says something without even needing to verbalize it, and it can communicate ideas and concepts not easily defined or confined to one word, one sentence. It can take an entire book to tell something important, or a movie, or a song, or a play, and effective marketing relies on art in every facet—because marketing is communication.

Why does a painting go for millions? Because it communicated something so strongly that enough cared to listen. Why do the advertisements and marketing methods for Apple and Google work so well and have as many views as they do on YouTube? Because they show the power of the product. They communicate their product’s elegance and efficiency.

A random survey on the internet says (though surveys are not the most trustable or reliable sources of news—shocker I know) that the most coveted jobs in the world are creative ones. Well, if that’s true, it’s understandable. But, I do want to add the caveat that all jobs are secretly creative. If done to the highest levels, they are art.

A call center employee is not only working the art of communication in the more pedestrian sense. Even if he is on a script, his inflection, his timing, his intention, these determine the art of the sale. They set apart the skilled from the amateur. 

An “artist,” and I am guilty of spreading this idea too, is a term with a lot of marketing behind it, some of which convinces some that they cannot be artists. Anyone, if given the right training, can be an artist. Sure, it might have seemed silly when the term first hit common parlance, but a “hair stylist” at a barber shop like Great Clips at Clearwater Mall, or a “barista” at the local Starbucks anywhere in Clearwater and beyond, is an artist. They have a complex craft with a huge potential learning curve. 

If you doubt me, then let your adult sister/brother/friend with no experience cut your hair. I dare you. 

So, that’s the marketing of this article. That’s the first thing that needs to change. I am all for people who want to be writers, musicians, painters, etc. Believe me, I want more of those working professionally.  But for the people who don’t want to be those sorts of things, who prefer the likes of engineering or computer sciences or the service industry, they still can be artists.

If you are in a job which you feel is not letting you create enough: well, I think there is something you can do to bring esthetics into your work space. However subtle it may be. Everyone is born with creativity. It is a learned thing and an innate thing—and beauty does not have to only come from a few sources, a few people, a few job types.

So, make something worthy of your artistic drive in whatever medium you choose.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com 

People saw Star Wars: Episode VII The Force Awakens on Christmas day last year. Though not what you would call packed, Countryside Mall’s theater contained people watching the new round of the sci-fi series. How many of those people did that because they had nothing to do on the holiday is a sad speculation I am not willing to elaborate on, but Lucas and Disney made money that day. And was it intentional beyond normal parameters? Is Disney advertising for watching a Star Wars movie on Christmas day as a potential “tradition”—at least until the new trilogy and companion trilogy finishes?

It might be hard to recall, but when the advertisements for The Force Awakens began, they advertised it as coming out in “December 2015,” which marked it as coming out around Christmas time (I even remember seeing an advertisement saying it came out “Christmas Day.”). But, I wonder if this was part of the plan? Sure, it may just be because they had the movie ready to go, but they do schedule these things with a lot of stuff in mind, so why around Christmas?

One potential alternative to my theory is the toys. Star Wars makes a lot of money, astronomical amounts of money, on merchandising and tie-in products, and if the movie is just hitting the eyeballs of the new, young generation, they will clamor for the toys showing up underneath the tree. Heck, I wouldn’t mind a little figurine or a nice light-up lightsaber, and I’m an adult. I can only imagine the number of preteens and young children taken to the movies by their families—those nerdy families who want to share the most famous movie series of all time—walking away with a craving to cuddle a Chewy doll, or run around with Han Solo’s blaster (which you can, assuredly, buy at Target in Clearwater Mall.)

But, as I said in the beginning of the article, I think they also wanted the movie to become a linked franchise to Christmas time. A lot of the target audience is around—free from school, and in a softer version of what the Saw franchise did to itself with Halloween, they could become an expectation of the holiday.

Now, it takes a lot to shove oneself into existing Christmas traditions. It’s got its work cut out for it if indeed this is the plan, but if someone, anyone, can manage it, well, this is Star Wars we are talking about. They are powerful in a way difficult to comprehend. Their advertising, with the right announcement, can cement it as a thing kids grow up watching on the 25^th, just as easily as A Christmas Story, or the Claymation Rudolph The Red-Nosed Reindeer, or, and you might accuse me of blasphemy for saying this: Dr. Seuss’s The Grinch Who Stole Christmas, even without being tied to a holiday. We do live in the world of franchises, after all.

So, we’ll see if I’m right. We’ll certainly see. With Rogue One coming out this year, a pattern may form, or perhaps not even Star Wars can take control of the holiday. The force of their advertising will decide.  

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com 

I’m late to this party, but can we please talk about this for a second? This advertising from Starbucks is...well...brave. Watch this video posted around a month ago, from Starbucks’ official YouTube channel:

Now, for the unenlightened, or anyone who doesn’t bother to know about strange P.R. kerfuffles from coffee shops, last year Starbucks deemed to remove any Christmas-related symbols from their cups. Leaving nothing to make it specific to a holiday—though keeping in the red and green color. And a lot of people, or at least the internet and media made it seem like a lot of people, got rather up in arms about the whole thing. Wrapping the incident into the “war on Christmas” party which also rears its ugly head around now.

And, I don’t personally have an issue one way or the other with it. They are a private company, and I don’t go and drink coffee at the Starbucks on Cleveland Street or anywhere else often enough to have a strong opinion. But, I will say using that controversy now as advertising, is darn clever. The ad may as well say: “come at me”.

And controversial publicity is often good publicity, so I can only imagine how it played out for them—and how much money they made. But, in a move also calculated to perfection, they added this advertisement to hit the critical mass of effective advertising.

Watching this made the inside of my head go “boom.” This is practically a mike drop of ingenuity. They hit all the bases. They involved the customers and thus made the P.R. for the company even stronger. They created—like the gingerbread latté—an artificial scarcity specific to the holidays. They brought attention down on them to make the blow hit as hard as they could to the right eyes. And did it with flair.

Because I hope I am not alone in saying that those cup designs are beautiful. They are stylish and sync up well with the general esthetic of the brand. That of minimalism, but friendliness. The same simplistic setup which Apple and Google and Facebook and Best Buy all use to great success.

And, if you look over the designs, they are apparently cool with bringing back the Christmas iconography again. Which, funny enough, might make (or likely already made) a whole different group mad. But, that’s neither here nor there for our immediate purposes. And all I can say is, regardless of how you might feel about it, and what this may or may not represent, you must at least give some props for them doing something with so much gumption, and being confident enough to take a stand, and to do so in a way that no matter how many people it may make mad, they will still probably rise above and succeed.

Also, the fact the previous sentence, taken out of context, could be construed as talking about President Elect Trump is not lost on me. But hey, whether for delicious drinks or the political parties: good advertising is good advertising.
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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com 

What are you hoping to get for Christmas? I know you can’t tell me because I’m words on a screen, but it is something all observers of the holiday think about. If you are living in a first world country, your answer will probably include some sort of technical device. I mean, with the iPhone and Samsung and Google devices coming out whenever there is a modicum of an update to what we can do with present hardware, and those same products are made readily available all over the place at tech shops like the Sprint Store or Target or hhgreg in Clearwater Mall, it’s easy to see why this happens. Especially among the younger people of the world, myself included. Christmas is the one time (outside of a birthday) where it is socially acceptable to ask for items of a ridiculous price tag. And the reason that this happens, the reason we all go along with it, is in no small part because of advertising.

And I mean this in both “social advertising”, and actual on-the-screen advertising. Sure, the festive ads for getting the latest smartphone can certainly make the idea appealing, but it’s also because of the social expectations of Christmas. Beyond the previously mentioned acceptance of asking for big stuff like a television and not thinking it odd, there’s also the ingrained idea of the specialness of Christmas. Left over from when we were kids, or perhaps still in full effect with children we may have.

Opening presents under the tree is such a necessity, such a staple, such a preconceived absolute, that to defy the tradition would be madness, and the smile of a kid getting the thing they dreamed about we recall as so special, by our own experiences, that we never want to let go of it from the world.

Now, I usually am willing to point out when capitalism is being its usual flawed—but the best system we have—self. But, in this case, I am part of the problem. I too use the advertising phrase burned right into the mental dictionary of people which is: “come on, it’s Christmas”.

Come on, Bobby should get a new phone. Cynthia that iPad. And Terry the new shiny Xbox or PlayStation. After all, it’s Christmas. We’re told Santa rewards the nice, and thus we expect to get a big reward if we are—or even if were not. And, if there’s somehow nothing under the tree (even if the alternative is only something I bought and wrapped for myself), then I too would feel sad and like Christmas did not come.

Sure, materialism is not inherent to the holiday, and should not be. But that doesn’t mean it’s not part of it for many people. And I do not fault those who have the means to expect the newest tech gadget. The knowledge of someone caring enough to find the right thing, and wrap it, and the joy of new tech as the year comes close to the end, is a Christmas memory. It does stay with a person.

Now, don’t be greedy. Don’t be demanding. The thought is, above all, what counts, but if you really do want the new tech: put it on the list. You might not get it, dear reader. But, if that’s what you want for Christmas, there’s (usually) no harm in adding it.

Just don’t let the advertising consume all of yourself. And always remember to give, no matter what you receive.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com  

Nostalgia is the way of current advertisements. I’d say—by cursory glance—that about half of movies coming out now are based on previous intellectual properties. For every new thing, we bring back an old thing. This is because they expect us to buy what we already know. This world flies so hard and fast toward the future that some appreciate the flying back for a time.

Ghostbusters was a recent example of people milking the past (and I liked that movie despite its flaws) and recently we also had Trolls as another nostalgia product.

But, while some may use nostalgia to advertise old stories and characters, what about another aspect of those bygone times: the product advertisements?

Before we had a bevy of ways to view something without many ads, we all had to crowd around television sets and watch advertisement-heavy cable programming. And those advertisements now have their own sort of nostalgia. Some as recognizable as the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles or the Care Bears.

And, since it’s December, I figured I’d narrow the focus to more winter and Christmas-friendly fair.

Here’s one you all will know:

Takes you back, doesn’t it? Back to when a television set could crackle? Brings back that moment of staying inside on early morning Christmas day and watching television after opening presents.         

And doesn’t it seem so much more humble and warm than current commercials? Sure, nostalgia goggles are almost assuredly tinging my perspective, but, at the same time, look at this classic:

The soft, muted energy. It’s not bombastic. It does not try to sell with power fantasy, or gorgeous women, or thumping music, or even go weird to make someone do a double take. This, this little advertisement, tells the simple story of a kid who needs a warm cup of soup. The song is calming, friendly, and it’s not flashy. Sure, it doesn’t snow in Clearwater, but I think anyone can enjoy this as a piece of media regardless of your normal weather expectations.

In fact, looking at a lot of classic advertisements reveal perhaps the nature of the bygone compared to the contemporary: a sense of “pleasantness”. A lot of advertisements nowadays are grabby: “buy, buy, buy! Oh, please buy me!”

And sure, old media has that too, in spades, but these few, these few classics, were calm and showed something nice and happy, perhaps even a little silly, and made the product out as a friend.

You can imagine the red and yellow M&M as a buddy, just as much as you might be able to with Frosty the Snowman. It not only harkens back to what our brains perceive as a simpler time, it’s also a simpler presentation.

The holiday season is, I think, geared toward simplicity—at least in theory. Oh sure, consumerism and such, but if there’s anything the myriad of Christmas specials tried to teach, it’s that we need to get to the root of the holidays more: closeness. To enjoy the basic things of life like friendship, and family, and love—for at least a little while.          

And these advertisements, whether intentionally or not, captured that perfectly.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com  

I don’t watch NBC’s The Voice. That’s not anything against the show—I just don’t watch contests. Or many television shows at all, to be frank. But I know someone who genuinely enjoy it to the same degree I like the BioShock franchise. And, for what it is, The Voice does something which elevates it above most others. A marketing trick only possible on a mass scale in the modern day.

The technique in question is: connectivity of the audience to the work. I don’t mean this in the sense of likable characters, or making a communicative emotional link that all art strives to do—though they do have that, and I’ll get into it later—what I mean is The Voice literally has a phone app which lets you influence the show’s outcome.

And this does more for the fans than perhaps any social media could. Sure, a bunch of behind-the-scenes stuff and frequent clips and tweets and Facebook updates help create involvement between the audience and the show, but the voting app trumps all of that in direct connectivity.

Because it makes the audience care more.

As a related example, I can’t get into sports. I don’t find it satisfying to watch someone win unless I know them, or have some vested interest in their struggle. But it can be done. The Clearwater Academy Knights, for instance, a high school football team (and I do not care about football), managed to make me bother to learn the rules of the sport and engage with it because the guy who got the touchdown was a person I’ve met.  

And The Voice does a form of this technique. Some people on the show have sob stories to melt a thousand hearts, or a wonderful personality, or are just physically attractive, or are so young they impress by their blooming talent. And The Voice deepens connectivity by tying the fates of these people to, yet again, the viewer’s choice.

Did you bother to tune in on the news’s coverage of the recent election? Did you see the looks of happiness/horror as the outcomes came? The Voice and the election are in whole different leagues of comparison in importance, but people wanted who they voted for to win—obviously. And, in this show, you can feel the same type of tension when they declare the winners. The idea that the viewer added to the collective will for this one person to succeed makes said viewer invested in seeing if things pan out in their will’s favor.

You, the viewer, determined the outcome. It’s a power fantasy which isn’t even really a fantasy. You are not only a customer or a viewer. You’re a judge, a decider. A hot shot like Adam or Miley. So long as you view the show live.

The marketing power of The Voice is why it’s still around when so many other music shows die. They took their marketing and advertising and perceived openness (whether they manufacture said openness or not is another matter entirely) and hit the sweet spot. And it’s a lesson worth learning, don’t you think?

So, won’t you turn your chair to this new idea? And bring it on your team? Give the customer a little power, and they will come back again and again for many seasons to come. Because you made them feel like their voice...was heard.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com  

I’ve alluded to, but never truly speculated on what might happen if what I coined the “media bubble” pops. What if the thing I tried to promote toward not bursting, does anyway? What is the potential fall-out?

As a refresher for those who’ve not read my articles on the deluge of media we get in the modern day, I will summarize about a thousand words of thought: we get so many forms of entertainment that companies market hard just to keep you from flitting to another company—and cause some long-term problematic issues consequently to do so. And with the addition of things like YouTube and SoundCloud and Amazon’s CreateSpace making it easier to add to that mass of entertainment, it’s impossible for one person to enjoy everything they have an interest in nowadays.

So, what might happen if this does come to a head? What might occur if the number of creations get so monumental that it somehow breaks the system? Answer: a bunch of media people will be out of a job.  To even attempt and keep up with the media, people would have to devote most their time on it—which isn’t feasible for sustained personal economic stability. So, they should stop watching.  And without that viewership, hundreds of smaller and even some larger media companies will fall out of life.

This outcome puts a lot, a lot, of people out of jobs, which would cause such a flux it would be hard to grasp what all those people could do in the aftermath. Tons of individuals qualified to make professional media or similar would filter back into the rest of the workforce, and the workforce might not be able to take it. I don’t care how many open positions Clearwater Mall’s shops need, or how many more retail buildings we could build downtown, it’s not nearly enough. The world does not have enough space for all of that. An entire industry dying is not short-term positive.

Now, I am not a scientist, social scientist, or economist, so I can’t say what the exact outcome would be, but it would certainly be like shuffling a massive deck of cards made of the world’s economy. 

But here’s the kicker. If media does blow up and become staggered and crashed, and there are no more media creators but a few: the bubble will inflate again. Just will. The supply will fall below the demand again, and people will step in to fill the gap.

I don’t promote letting any of this happen, but the cycle might be so ingrained now it can’t escape its own gravity: bubbles inflating if one ever pops. And we will, for the rest of the human experience, have this as an occurrence and a balance we need to keep healthy. Or else we kind of promote a serious negative upheaval.

But, that’s just one man’s speculation. We do have a bubble, that much is for sure—and I don’t want to know what happens if it pops. I do not promote getting to see it outside of perhaps a dystopian novel or movie.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com  

As a person who writes a lot of articles, with a lot of opinions in them, I must promote that counterarguments to my opinions have their validity—at least for my more subjective and biased statements in the realms of sociological and political ideas.  

As you may know from reading my articles, I am a proponent of technology. I promote many things futuristic and technological. An entire four-part article series by me helps lay out some of my opinions on humanity’s future. But, that doesn’t mean someone doesn’t have a good counterargument to my opinions. Those who promote the stopping of certain advancements and careful control of certain aspects have their points. And nowhere are those sorts of points more effectively laid out than in the genres of science fiction and dystopian fiction.

And that’s where Black Mirror comes into the picture. A series currently on Netflix from over the pond that is, as many others pointed out before me, like a modern-day Twilight Zone. And, if you are of a nerdy persuasion, I don’t need to tell you why that is an interesting and enticing comparison.

Now, what is a black mirror, I hear you ask? Why is that the show’s name? Well, it fits right into the theme of the series. Black Mirror looks at various versions of our future either immediate or a bit far flung out (I haven’t seen every episode yet, so there may be exceptions) and shows how things can go wrong. But not in the more extreme ways of Hunger Games or Brave New World—instead much more close to home. These are likely worlds. Feasible in the next decade to century.

So, let’s get back around to the question: what’s a black mirror? Well, turn off the computer or phone you are reading this on, and it will stare right back at you. A little mirror screen making the reflection tinged dark. That’s a black mirror. Pay attention as you peruse Clearwater, standing in line at the doctors, in the grocery store, or a quiet dinner at P.F. Chang’s in Countryside, and find the people not talking and looking down or standing eerily still with nothing but their thumbs and palms moving, and you will see many people holding a mirror to themselves—and to society.

Now, as you can probably guess, this show and its stories are not for the faint of heart. If I am going to promote you watch it (and that is what I am doing right now) I must warn that this is an adult show. Do not let kids under thirteen, at least, get an eyeful. Beyond swearing, Black Mirror goes into places an adult will be uncomfortable with, and though the messages this show states are exactly the sort of lessons a kid in this modern world should, and perhaps must, learn, it’s a bit more intense than one might assume. Haunting even, in certain cases.

But, again, I do think you should watch this show. I think it might be required viewing for all owners of a computer or phone or a tablet device. I promote the technological future promised by the hopefuls of the science fiction community, but as I said at the beginning of the article: I am open to a well-reasoned counterargument. And when said counterargument is in a pretty package like this, with top-notch acting and superb “showing not telling” writing, I must concede that the future has the capacity to not be as rosy-tinted as I like to think. At least, not if we don’t learn from the projected outcomes thought up in stories and shows like this.

But, at least, unlike the characters, we do get the chance to think of it ahead of time.  

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com  

Mudslinging is a part of the way politicians go about advertising. It just is. I am not a fan of the practice, but it is how America works right now. But, the election is over, and the president-elect chosen, so why is the hostility still at a fever pitch?

Why is political discourse at such an all-time rage? It’s like a rowdy sports game crowd around here lately.

Now, you could blame Trump. He does have a habit of saying things which anger and offend others, and you could argue that he sets an example, and thus we are more hateful than ever—or at least, the more hateful feel free to express their hate.

But, I’d argue that’s not the main reason. Not the advertising. Not the mudslinging. Not the rhetoric. Again, that happens all the time. Political figures have been trying to yank their opponents off their high-horses for centuries. And even people saying horrific things about minorities is not a new concept in politics. We had elections back during the time of slavery, so it’s not like modern day is going to be more offensive and wrong than that.

So, then, why are we all so angry at each other? Well, there’s a few easy culprits. One is social media. Yep, social media. Who doesn’t have a person or two who spouts political something or other related to the side you don’t like? Now, I’m all for popping the echo chambers of the world and making everyone look at each other as people, and accept other’s rights to differing political opinions. But, I’d much rather have that kind of discussion over a peaceful cup of tea or coffee at the Starbucks on Cleveland Street, or Gulf to Bay, or in Clearwater Mall (there are a lot of them to choose from), than on the internet where anyone can jump in with a shouting, venomous comment.

As a writer, I do stand by the value of the written word, but tweets and hashtags and memes are not the best forms of communication, and the lack of a real person in front of your face makes it much easier to blow up and be more and more aggressive.  

Another culprit is (say it with me now) the news. Every news channel, comedy news show, talk show, or even skit show seems to have such a heavy bias which they hammer on to the point it riles people. I am not labeling comedy, or satire, as a bad thing, but these shows are so set to one mindset with so little lee-way—and we expose ourselves to it so much—that we can’t help but find ourselves riled up by media intended to entertain and draw viewers.        

It’s a systemic problem. The news, annoyingly, is like any normal television show in relying on view count, and, thus, becomes ruthless and rampant in spreading inflammatory statements. Neither censorship, nor “neutering” the facts, is a good solution to this, but if we continue with angry media, we get angry people.

If we calmed it down, we might get somewhere. I believe we, as a species, are capable of logical discussion without screaming or name-calling. I think we can, with some effort, be rational people even when talking about deeply controversial things. We need to make a stronger effort to resist kneejerk reactions.

And, as to the mudslinging in political advertising, well...that might take a little longer to remove. But, like any desired change, we can get there—one step at a time.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com   

Not the first time I’ve addressed this. Not the first time I’ve looked at the overabundance of media—or how marketing keeps it going along. But this is the first time (I think) I’ve addressed this topic on how it has a detrimental effect on culture.

Now, before I begin, let me say that everyone consuming art—especially with how good the art has been lately—is not a bad thing on its own merits. The public discourse of consumer fiction is at an all-time high, at least if you take the internet into account. Intelligent discussion of media is rampant and in-depth.

But, that doesn’t mean we aren’t getting some issues here. The biggest is the supply glut: how much sheer stuff is coming out for entertainment. If humanity did not need to make money, or produce (how terrible a society that would be) then maybe, maybe, a person could take the time needed to go through all the media which they have an interest in—but I doubt it. That would require someone to not even interact with the outside world. Not a breath of fresh air. Clearwater beach would be empty, and Clearwater proper would be a barren wasteland in this hypothetical situation. It may as well be a full-time job.

In fact, some people have made it their full-time job. But that doesn’t address the problem here for everyone else. Marketing, advertising, our entire economy, relies on people producing, and so we hit this desperate cycle.

Let me explain. People only possess so much time (obviously) and thus only watch a few shows, video, movies, etc. The media market, however, can’t survive without viewers. So, they do everything they can to make you pay attention to them and preferably only them. An attention war. And the weapons are often either making things shorter and shorter (thus more easy to commit to) or better and better quality.

Say what you want about the “free market,” but at least in the media arm’s race, the system works too well. Humanity’s inundated with media which is so eyeball demanding that one desires, no: craves, to watch it all. Media has become a social necessity; the main way people seem to hang out with each other. And with the political environment and the rest of the world being the way it is, art is also the only safe thing—it seems sometimes—to talk about without massive heated arguments. And even that does not always work.    

I’ve alluded to a bubble popping in another article, which I still stand by if this trend continues. But when it does pop, I have no idea what the outcome will be. Media is now a good chunk of our reality—at least among the “First World” countries. And when it becomes too much, so large it causes apathy in someone seeking entertainment (which may already be happening) I don’t think humanity will let go. Instead, we might need to embrace this future even further.

And in that sense, I guess the marketing worked better than expected.

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If you liked this article, you can read more of Brandon Scott’s work over at The Hive, or on his website: www.coolerbs.com