div whisperer

LinkedIn is spamming me. Or perhaps more accurately, LinkedIn is enabling other people to spam me without allowing me a way to opt out. I’ve been critical of LinkedIn’s recent Application launch. Those problems still remain and a few weeks later, now that people are actually using them, they’ve presented more annoying issues.

In fact the homepage spam is much, much worse than Facebook. That’s right I said it. LinkedIn’s application/group spam is far worse than Facebook. The reason is simple, in my mind: corporate underlings spend more time trying to look smart than tweens and drunken frat boys.

Here’s an example of the crap I am forced to digest with my face holes every time I log into LinkedIn. I’ve highlighted in a soft yellow colour that which is unwanted crap.

Not only am I not interested in the pre-budget possibilities, I am equally uninterested in the budget itself. The real annoyance though is that I have specifically made an effort to opt-out of receiving these “reading recommendations” from people who I am not connected to and whose only connection to me is that they too took the time to join the same group.

Below is a highlighted example of my update preferences. One would think that by turning off group updates I would stop receiving them.

Continue reading Please LinkedIn, Make It Stop

The animation in this advertisement is fantastic. Kind reminds me, in terms of sheer epicness, of the Guinness award winning commercial Evolution, which is one of my favorite ads of all time (the Cannes judges agreed with me).

It’s in German, but you can’t tell until the very end - at which point you’re not sure if she’s trying to sell you something or asking if you want a spanking. The ad is called The Evolution of Technology and is actually for an electronics retailer called Saturn, if that helps you understand the concept. Probably not.

Client: Saturn Electronics
Agency: Scholz&Friends

I haven’t bought a lot of books recently. Mostly because I am an avid sponge of encyclopedic data and the web is perfectly suited to do that. I really have only one good reason to buy real books and that is to punish trees. Trees may not have a heart but they are evil to their woody core.

Everyone has jumped on the “hug a tree” bandwagon but my personal experiences make it tough to do so. I grew up in a heavily forested area. I have dozens of tree related scars.

As a child a crazy, home-schooled, girl jammed a stick into my eye and I had to wear a cage around my face for a summer. It’s a miracle that experience from my youth didn’t scare me off Team Heterosexual.

The following books arrived from Amazon recently and I intend to read them as soon as possible.

More Information Than You Require by John Hodgman

The follow up book to John Hodgman’s Areas of My Expertise which has a prized position on my modest book shelf. John is one of my all-time favourite comedians. His work on The Daily Show and in TBWA/Chiat/Day’s Mac vs. PC ad campaign is fantastic. His ability to form funny sentences with words, also well developed.

The book itself is an almanac style collection of short pieces which are just close enough to being factual to thoroughly entertain and terrify simultaneously.

My Custom Van: And 50 Other Mind-Blowing Essays that Will Blow Your Mind All Over Your Face by Michael Ian Black

I remember Michael Ian Black as McKinley in Wet Hot American Summer. He is also one of the three guys in Stella (the one named Michael Ian Black), for those who remember that show from Comedy Central, and he was the screen writer of Run Fatboy Run, one of my favourite movies, featuring Simon Pegg.

He also has a blog which features rants and commentary on his own life. This book I’m hoping is a continuation of his writing on the blog. If it’s not, I’ll likely be very upset.

Stuff White People Like: A Definitive Guide to the Unique Taste of Millions by Christian Lander

Christian Lander writes one of my favourite blogs, called StuffWhitePeopleLike.com, where he rather pointedly highlights the things which I join my pasty brothers and sisters in liking. Christian, who is also notoriously and inescapably white, does a fantastic job of highlighting why minorities think that we white people are collectively morons.

My girlfriend and I almost never agree on commercials that we both enjoy. I enjoy good advertising, and she apparently does not.

Every couple of years however there comes along an advertisement whose quality is so beyond reproach that we manage to somehow agree. Jill found this one on YouTube and gestured me over with so much enthusiasm that I assumed something must be 50% off somewhere.

It’s about time someone realized they could sell stuff to Canadians by reminding them how much they loath winter. All this commercial needs now is that guy with the beard from the old Canadian Tire commercials and Midas had a classic on their hands.

Client: Midas
Agency: DDB Canada Vancouver

Wieden & Kennedy dropped Starbucks as a client in September and I’m not sure if this is a leftover from their work or from one of Starbucks’ other agencies. I love typography ads. Starbucks is promising to give everyone who votes in the U.S. election on November 4th a free cup of coffee (while supplies last of course).

This is a great idea. From a strictly profit standpoint it is sure to drive people through there doors where they will likely realize that free coffee is good, but a not-so-free triple mocha skin milk latte is even better. I expect the financial damage will be minimal.

PR wise this is a victory because while free stuff does not make for a good sales strategy is does help a company who is better known for being everywhere than helping anywhere.

Of course this could all be a clever Republican tactic. Those democrat-leaning Starbucks drinkers end up in eight-hour lines at the polls and a bladder full of Nicaragua’s best.

My American friends, please STFIL!