Behind The Scenes At The Simpsons

Via Slashdot, The Seattle Times has a great article on how an episode of The Simpsons comes together. Snippet:

Each week, it begins at the "table read" on the Fox studio lot. Here, cast members try out a new script as writers and producers take careful notes, sometimes based on the reactions of the roughly three dozen guests ringing the room in padded blue chairs.

Part assembly line and part creative gestation, it will take another nine months for the finished episode to see the light of a television screen.

And you thought putting a "Simpsons" episode together was some chaotic laugh riot thrown together in a week?

If you're a Simpsons fan, check it out.

-aB

Do You Squidoo? I Do.

Squidoo.com is a new spin on consumer generated media (CGM). It's not a wiki, it's not a blog, it's something somewhere in the middle.

Those who write on Squidoo.com are called LensMasters. What they write are called Lens.

I took a stab at writing a Squidoo Lens a few weeks ago on Personalized Media. You can take a look at it here at www.squidoo.com/personalizedmedia.

As we start 2006, it's going to be interesting to see where consumer generated media is going. CGM is a lot of work for writers. Are today's blogs going to become the GeoCities or Tripod ghost towns of this decade? Remember those? Free Web sites! Many set them up (or just registered for them) but never went back to update.

I like the Squidoo.com idea. I don't quite understand the revenue model, but I am sure that Seth Godin and Friends have thought about that.

-aB

The new "Earn Money Working From Home..."

Have you ever seen those homemade signs that are attached to utility poles, usually around stoplights? They say, "Earn $$$ working from home!" and include a phone number.

Usually, they're either a Ponzi scheme or a job stuffing thousands of envelopes a day. Fun. Joy.

Well, our friends at Amazon have decided to take this idea to 2.0 with their Amazon Mechanical Turk concept. They promote it as:

Complete simple tasks that people do better than computers. And, get paid for it. Choose from thousands of tasks, control when you work, and decide how much you earn.

It's an interesting premise. There are a lot of jobs that a human can do quite easily, but a computer has difficulty in completing. I decided to take a look at the HITs (Human Intelligence Tasks) that were available.

If you're expecting big bucks, keep on looking. Only three HITs came up for me, two had no "reward" (payment) and one was paying $0.02 to listen to songs and determine the exact name of the album's primary artist. The good news is that there are 105,035 songs available to identify, or about $2,100 for a lucky audiophile.

Very interesting premise. Most HITs require Qualifications, either a fancy resume or experience in delivering high qualiy answers. I assume the rewards for higher end tasks are higher than FREE or $0.02.

Take a look at the site here.

-aB

I Bet the Neighbors Love It. Not.

Meet Carson Williams. He has done some decorating for the holidays. About 25,000 lights twinkle in his front yard. Did I mention they twinkle to music? To Trans-Siberian Orchestra's "Wizards in Winter"?

It's great. No, it's awesome.

Take a look at a 3 minute video here.

Read about it in The Cincinnati Enquirer here. Thanks to AdRants.com for the link.

You have to check it out. Still laughing.

-aB

New SBC/AT&T Logo...

SBC's acquisition of AT&T is finally complete, and last week they launched the new AT&T logo. What do you think?

I like the way it looks - it's definitely more "AT&T" than "SBC," but it doesn't say anything to me. It just looks like the "Death Star" AT&T logo gussied up a bit and tilted on its axis.

Now, for SBC, anything is better than their dreadful logo:



But I don't see any SBC branding in this new logo at all. With the amount SBC has seemed to spend on national marketing over the past year, that would seem to me to be a mistake.

I blogged on the Sprint/Nextel new logo here, not realizing that it's main graphic is a representation of the "pin drop" (very cool once you see it). But the new Death Star doesn't tell us anything, other than AT&T is about world domination.

Love to hear other thoughts...

-aB

Gladwell's Blink To Be a Movie, With Leo...

The Tipping Point author Malcom Gladwell's latest book Blink is to be a movie.

And Leonardo DiCaprio will be the star in the adaptation of this best-selling non-fiction pseudo-business book.

Here's a snippet about the book:

"Blink," published in January, is a story about rapid cognition, about the kind of thinking that happens in a blink of an eye. Author Malcolm Gladwell posited that when you meet someone for the first time, or walk into a house you are thinking of buying, or read the first few sentences of a book, your mind takes about two seconds to jump to a series of conclusions. "Blink" is a story about those two seconds when instant conclusions reached by people are really powerful, really important and, occasionally, really good.

Here's a snippet about the movie:

Stephen Gaghan, who won an Oscar for writing the drugs saga "Traffic," is adapting and directing the Universal Pictures project... Gaghan's take is being kept under wraps.

The studio is shelling out $1 million for the rights from Gladwell, and is paying $2 million for Gaghan to write the screenplay. If the project goes forward, the entire deal could be worth upwards of $6 million.

This should be interesting. I'm sure Malcom Gladwell is pleased. I think it's an ok book (I blogged about it here in February) but not nearly as good as The Tipping Point.

-aB

Will People Pay For TV On Demand?

Both CBS and NBC have announced today that they've inked deals with cable providers to allow their most popular programs to be available for viewing on demand - for a fee.

Want to watch CSI or Law & Order, but time-shifted (and you don't own a TiVo or other DVR)? Got 99 cents? It's yours.

Here's a snippet from the story on MSN Money:

"You can't stop technology," said David Zaslav, president of NBC Universal Cable. "People are viewing content differently and this is going to happen."

NBC Universal and DirecTV, the biggest satellite broadcaster, have agreed to make top NBC programmes available through a new digital video recorder, DirecTV Plus, which is being made available at retailers this month. For 99 cents, viewers will be able to watch top shows without commercials.

In the deal with CBS and Comcast Corp, the biggest cable operator, popular television shows can, from January, be viewed after they are aired for 99 cents, but commercials will be included. The service will be available to more than 8m digital subscribers.

This comes on the heels of ABC's deal with Apple, allowing people to download Desperate Housewives thru Apple's iTunes onto the new video iPods.

The only redeeming aspect of the $0.99 deal is that viewers will be able to see edited, commercial-free versions of the programs.

So, will people pay for the convenience? Perhaps very, very short term. But I think this time-shifting ability is going to be the expected norm - for free - very soon.

-aB

Video Games a Spectator Sport?

The new XBOX 360 comes out in a little over a month, and its flagship “must have” launch title is "Project Gotham Racing 3."

What’s so special about this game (other than the unbelievable visuals that it's purported to have)? It's a spectator feature that will allow up to 30,000 fans to watch in on online races and tournaments.

People who own the game and an XBOX Live subscription (what Microsoft makes you pay for in order to play games online) will be able to watch racing tournaments in real time. While limited "spectator" modes are available in some other games (Unreal Tournament 2004 comes to mind), never before has a gaming company capitalized on the idea that large numbers of players might want to watch other players – especially those who might be pretty good at the game.

Here’s a snippet from IGN.com:

Did I mention the other big number that Bizarre threw out at us? You've been hearing about the fantastic idea of a spectator mode from the likes of J Allard and Peter Moore. Project Gotham Racing 3 offers you a spectator mode with the ability to host 30,000 spectators on one eight-person race ... Can you imagine 30,000 people watching you play an online game? Bizarre said that if the spectator mode is successful and more than 30,000 people appear, they can expand the Microsoft servers to hold even more people...

EA has learned this with the Madden Challenge, an annual road show around the country where they find the best Madden football players and give them the chance to play for big moolah (on a televised show presented on the G4 cable network). It's great promotion for EA and the Madden franchise – still the top selling video game of all time.

But this Project Gotham Racing 3 online model is the first big stab at spectator gaming. Sure, it's interesting from an entertainment standpoint, but from a marketing standpoint – this is big stuff.

On top of the product and branding placement shown in the game itself (virtual signage, car brands, logos on the cars), and the game "sponsors" (like Old Spice's sponsorship in several EA Sports games this year), you now have the opportunity to introduce even more broadcast-like advertising into the game. Will there be commercial breaks, with 30 or 60 second packaged messages? Will the players (virtual and real) be interviewed and, like their NASCAR counterparts, name drop a half-dozen sponsors in 15 seconds? What about the play-by-play commentary? Will there be marketing messages here?

Interesting idea. While I don't believe that these events will become the Super Bowls of the future, it is another step towards (whether you like it or not) professional gamers.

And this is a big opportunity for agencies like Massive, which handle in-game product placement and other video game sponsorships. I predict other ad agenies are quickly going to create divisions to do this, and many other boutique firms will emerge.

-aB

Who DOES Own the News?

Interesting article from AP, that includes an interview with the director of BBC's Global News Division. The article discusses how user-generated news is turning the entire news gathering (and news "owning") model upside down. Snippet:

The avalanche of high quality video, photos and e-mailed news material from citizens following the July 7 bombings in London marked a turning point for the British Broadcasting Corporation, the head of its global news division said Wednesday.

"We don't own the news any more," Sambrook said. "This is a fundamental realignment of the relationship between large media companies and the public."

Interesting story. Check it out.

-aB

Cyan Closes Its Doors...Not So Fast, Gump

Back on September 6 I posted a blog entry about Myst game creator Cyan Worlds closing its doors. Check it out here.

Well, reporter Dean Takahashi's blog on the San Jose Mercury News site posted on Wednesday that Cyan had a "narrow escape of death" and that writing its obituary would be a bit premature. Snippet:

I was about to prepare the company's obituary. But Cyan isn't dead yet. I sent an e-mail off to Rand and he answered, "We've had a reprieve. Managed to pull a rabbit out of the hat (that I can't give details about yet), so we rehired almost everybody. Crazy industry. It's giving me whiplash!" This company has had an incredible run since Miller and his younger brother Robyn founded it in 1987. They created "The Manhole," the first game on a CD-ROM. And in 1991, they began work on Myst. They released it on Sept. 24, 1993, and they changed the gaming world.

Today, Cyan Audio Director Tim Larkin has an interview posted on his Music4Games.net site mentioning that Cyan is "going in a bit of a new direction." Check out the interview here.

Reviews of Myst V have been pretty positive. Guess I need to check it out.

Thanks to Joystiq for the links here and here.

-aB

Thank Goodness for TiVo

Last night was the LSU vs. Tennessee game. The game was supposed to be played on Saturday, but concerns about Hurricane Rita delayed it until last night. (The delay caused several other "domino" issues as well, including UT having to travel to and from Baton Rouge yesterday, and also play an away football game against a #4 team on the same day, too.)

Needless to say it wasn't a good recipe for football. Last night I was frustrated more than I had ever been watching a football game in my life.

At halftime, the game was 21-0, with Tennessee unable to get the ball past their very own 35 yard line. Awful, awful football. Ainge, our starting quarterback, couldn't do squat.

I turned the game off at halftime, something I have almost never done before. Thankfully, TiVo'ed the game from that point forward.

This morning I wake up to see several messages on my cell phone, all posted past 11:00 pm. I knew what that meant. Before listening to the messages (knowing that something must have happened), I went down and watched the 4th quarter and overtime on the 'ole TiVo. Snippet from ESPN.com:

The LSU transfer led the Vols back from a three-touchdown deficit and Gerald Riggs Jr. pushed into the end zone from a yard out in overtime to give Tennessee a 30-27 win Monday night in LSU's long-awaited, hurricane-delayed home opener.

Well, I think we figured out the UT quarterback controversy for once and for all. Sorry, Ainge. It's Clausen v.2.0!

Hopefully, Tennessee can turn a new page here. While I know traveling down there and playing on the same day was tough, there is no excuse for the sloppy play we saw last night and basically throughout the first three games of the year.

-aB

Will Political Blogs Be Subject to Campaign Finance Rules?

Looks like the Federal Election Commission is looking into regulating blogs, according to this BusinessWeek Online story. Snippet:

Amid the explosion of political activity on the Internet, a federal court has instructed the six-member Federal Election Commission to draw up regulations that would extend the nation's campaign finance and spending limits to the Web.

Right now, Internet communication is exempt from the legislation. But with $14 million spent on Internet ads and other online marketing during the 2004 campaign, you can bet the FEC is going to want to get all over the blogosphere.

With 43% of the "Top 400" blogs tracked by the recent comSCORE research report being classified as political in topic, it doesn't take much to see the implications of this. How will the FEC define a political blog? How will it be enforced?

I think we can all agree that this will be coming down the pike, sooner or later. And the debate won't be pretty. First Amendment debates never are (nor should they be).

-aB

Clever Outdoor Advertising. Love it.

Via Joystiq, Aeropause abd a few other sites, here is a link to some pictures of a transit bulletin (bus stop) advertisement for the Sony PS2 in Malasia.

Along with the bus stop roof graphic (which is very nice), there are four large panels with hundreds/thousands of the the PS2 controller icons on them. That's cool, but the clever part is that the icons are actually printed on bubble wrap.

So it's thousands of little bubble wrap pockets, just waiting to be popped.

As Joystiq mentions, this would be bloody hell for some obsessive compulsive person waiting for the bus.

Love it. Very clever.

-aB

$5 Petrol - Coming Soon to a Pump Near You?

Thought $5 per gallon gas was only in Europe? Think again. CNN reports that Katrina was only the opening act of the Gas Price Dance.

Rita was just dropped to a Category 4. That's good news. But it's still a very powerful storm. My prayers are with the coastal Texans and Louisianians, especially those already besieged by Katrina.

-aB

When the Pitch Becomes the Story

A work associate of mine, Nicholas Scibetta and I wrote the following piece for a monthly column on our corporate intranet. The column is called ".NEXT, the Bold New World of Media."

This month's column discusses an interesting change taking place today in PR firms and the media (including the blogosphere):

When the Pitch Becomes the Story

We’ve seen several examples over the past year of public relations professionals getting dinged by bloggers. Respected companies like American Express, Mazda and Dr. Pepper all received negative criticism when PR pros tried to unsuccessfully work with them. In general, the PR pros did two things wrong: They didn't fully disclose their clients' identity and they assumed incorrectly that bloggers lived by the same journalistic "code" as their mainstream media counterparts.

This unwritten code states that journalists will accept "off the record" comments as just that – off the record. The code also includes that reporters won't write about the "pitch," the actual act of marketing and presenting a story to a reporter.

Bloggers have proven that many of them don't adhere to this same code (and honestly, do they have to?). They often publish off the record statements in their posts and discuss the actual story pitch process. But traditional journalists still adhere to the code on their personal blogs, right? Wrong.

We know examples of journalists who have honored a media embargo with their traditional print publication, but posted the same story on their blog hours before the embargo was lifted. We know examples of reporters writing a balanced story for their employers' publications, but then writing different versions of the same story on their personal blog. This "inside baseball" is something we need to consider in public relations.

Journalist blogs have certainly created more transparency in the newsroom. Take Brian William's blog, "The Daily Nightly." Here, Brian writes daily about the goings on at NBC News, even providing us insight on how the day’s leading stories are selected. On his blog, Brian provides a glimpse of the editorial process to put The Nightly News together, including behind-the-scenes conversations between producers as to why and why not certain stories made it to air or didn't. Many newspaper outlets are encouraging their editors to write more about the why they cover what they do and how they go about doing it.

A recent story in The New York Times discusses how papers in the McClatchy Group, which owns the Sacramento Bee, The Star-Tribune(MN), and The News & Observer in Raleigh, N.C., are "undertaking 'accuracy audits' in which they survey people who appeared in articles to see if they were represented properly." Going even a step further, "some papers have invited citizens to sit in on their Page 1 meetings." CBS News' recently launched website features an ombudsman charged with, among other tasks, answering viewer questions about the workings of the news division.

This trend of "full disclosure" can be closely associated with the media's desire for the appearance of transparency and attempt to remain "sticky" with their current viewers/readers, while also attracting new ones. Living through the recent scandals involving the accuracy of quotes and existence of actual inside expert sources has put media somewhat on the defensive. This trend is certainly exciting. It's fun to have a view into the editorial process. But as public relations professionals, it should give us pause. It changes the rules. This isn't necessarily a bad thing – but it’s something we need to be ready for.

We need to ensure that our "pitch" can be distributed. We need to ensure that any additional background information that we give to a reporter can be published – either in the traditional publication or on their personal blog. And we might even want to consider the reporter's personal opinions and stance when we pitch them. While most journalists will work to deliver a balanced piece to their editor (as they are obligated to do), their personal blog, which might have a sizeable audience of its own, may share a different story (again, that's the reporter's discretion). Do the research, understanding the reporter's leanings can help you land a pitch and quite possibly prevent you from putting your client in a potentially adverse situation.

So the takeaway for today? Always pretend that you’re pitching Don Imus – someone famous for broadcasting the PR "pitch" as much as the story itself.

-aB

REUTERS: Proof That The President Pees

This image, with the following slug, went out on the Reuters wire today:

U.S. President George W. Bush writes a note to Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice during a Security Council meeting at the 2005 World Summit and 60th General Assembly of the United Nations in New York September 14, 2005. World leaders are exploring ways to revitalize the United Nations at a summit on Wednesday but their blueprint falls short of Secretary-General Kofi Annan's vision of freedom from want, persecution and war. REUTERS/Rick Wilking

Surprise! Presidents pee, too. They also eat, brush, floss, scratch, poop and probably sing in the shower. And, according to our former President Carter, they also "lust in their heart."

No matter which side of the political fence you stand on, it’s pretty obvious the objective of this wire release and its bias. What's the journalistic purpose of this story? Did we not realize that the President had bodily needs before this important news story?

I’m just curious why we didn’t see a photo wire release like this about six years ago…



Just having fun with the camera phone.

-aB

Bypass That Customer No-Service Phone Tree...

Tired of the ridiculous IVR phone trees and other firey hoops you have to jump through to speak to a live human anymore? Me, too.

That's why I was very excited to come across this "Find-A-Human" Web page, listing the "back doors" and other secrets to quickly speak to a live human at about 60 businesses.

The tactic recommended for Cingular - to pretend like you're cancelling the service to get a live human IMMEDIATELY is one that I figured out a long time ago and have used successfully for Comcast, Chemlawn, and Chase. They all go to the same customer service operators - it's just a matter of where you are placed in queue.

Good site!

-aB

NerdTV

I've always been a fan of Robert X. Cringely's books and specials on PBS. He has a new show, called NerdTV that, in his words is the "Charlie Rose for geeks."

The NerdTV Web site provides video of the entire shows, transcripts and MP3 files of the shows, all under a Creative Commons license. Pretty neat stuff. Snippet:

NerdTV is distributed under a Creative Commons license so viewers can legally share the shows with their friends and even edit their own versions. If not THE future of television, NerdTV represents A future of television for niche audiences that have deep interest in certain topics.

This week's show is an interview with Andy Hertzfeld. Andy was the original Macintosh systems programmer and someone I'm a pretty big fan of. I blogged on Andy's book, Revolution in the Valley - The Insanely Great Story of How the Mac Was Made here on GumpRants.com on April 28. Take a listen to Andy's interview, and check out the book here.

Good stuff.

-aB

Myst Creator Cyan Closes Its Doors

Remember Myst? I do. I remember purchasing a copy of this game when I was still in college, right before finals (very, very bad idea). It was the first computer game that so captivated me that I remember playing for 12 or so hours straight. I was enthralled by it, not only by the game itself, but by the idea that you could become so immersed in what really was just a highly rendered slide show. It was eye candy, on a whole new level. And a demonstration that good content trumps almost everything else.

(Aside: I wasn't the only one enthralled by Myst. It ended up selling over 12 million copies and being the top-selling PC game of all-time until The Sims came around a few years ago.)

Myst producer Cyan closed it's doors on Friday, a few weeks before Myst V hits the shelves.

So, why is the creator of one of the best selling games of all-time closing? My rant is that Cyan didn't keep up with the technology evolution in PC gaming, something that changes even faster than Moore's Law. The Myst successors like Riven and Uru were good games, but still not 3D-based, years after full-screen animation began to be the expected norm for PC-based video games. Now it wasn't only Cyan and Myst that didn't keep up - the entire "adventure game" genre was impacted the same way.

Also, Cyan really didn't stray far enough from the Myst franchise. All of their games were Myst-based - all sequels. The Myst franchise got tired (not a huge surprise after twelve years) and they didn't have any other game brands (or seemingly ideas) to fall back upon.

So long, Cyan.



-aB

Corporate Generosity

I'm usually not a fan of Wal-Mart, but this announcement changes that:

BENTONVILLE, Ark., Sept. 1 - Following President Bush's announcement today that former Presidents Bush and Clinton will lead a nationwide fundraising effort to help the victims of Hurricane Katrina, Wal-Mart President and CEO Lee Scott contacted President Clinton and the White House and committed $15 million from Wal-Mart to jump-start the effort.

As part of this commitment, Wal-Mart will establish mini-Wal-Mart stores in areas impacted by the hurricane. Items such as clothing, diapers, baby wipes, food, formula, toothbrushes, bedding and water will be given out free of charge to those with a demonstrated need.

Wal-Mart previously donated $2 million in cash to aid emergency relief efforts and has been collecting contributions at its 3,800 stores and CLUBS, and through its web sites www.walmartfacts.com, www.walmart.com, www.walmartfoundation.org, www.walmartstores.com and www.samsclub.com.

Through its Associate Disaster Relief Fund, the company will also give displaced associates immediate funds for shelter, food, clothing and other necessities.

Wal-Mart Stores, Inc. operates Wal-Mart Stores, Supercenters, Neighborhood Markets and SAM'S CLUBS in all fifty states. Internationally, the company operates in Puerto Rico, Canada, China, Mexico, Brazil, Germany, United Kingdom, Argentina and South Korea. The company's securities are listed on the New York and Pacific stock exchanges under the symbol WMT.

Remember, you can give too, at www.RedCross.org.

The Gulf Coast needs our prayers and financial support.

-aB