Author: Brian Lee

Talk about overreaction…

Posted on by Brian Lee

Disclaimer: this is not an attack on anyone’s faith, just on people’s overreactions.

Recently, Dr. Pepper created an ad titled the Evolution of Flavor. It takes the traditional scientific progression from ape to man and throws Dr. Pepper in the mix, hinting that with Dr. Pepper, humans evolved. Fairly basic, and in my opinion, only moderately creative.

However, since they posted the picture to Facebook, it has become a controversy. Several commenters believe that this is insulting to their religious beliefs and state in many of their not-so-eloquently worded comments that they are refusing to buy Dr. Pepper any longer.

To me this seems a bit ridiculous. Is one tiny ad, which disagrees with your opinions, really worth this extreme of a reaction?

To me, an ad is an ad. I look at it and I understand that it is meant to target certain people and elicit a certain response … to get people to buy the product. That doesn’t mean that the ad is attacking my personal beliefs or my religion.

There are definitely certain ads that are intended to make political and social statements.  However, this is not one of them, and I wish that people weren’t as prone to jump to an overreaction. If you don’t like the ad, don’t pay attention to it. Can’t we all just take a deep breath and move on?

Food blogging

Posted on by Brian Lee

In addition to heading Revelation, I also run a dining guide called EatDrinkMadison.com. Today, the local daily newspaper ran a long feature story on the prevalence of food bloggers in town–yours truly included–called “Eat Drink Blog” (I’m hoping that my guide’s name influenced the title of the article).

What’s not printed here that I discussed in my 30-minute interview with the reporter is why bloggers are starting to be taken more seriously:

  • Content has improved over time. We’ve gotten away from the weblog (or journal) and moved more toward reviews and op-ed type blog posts.
  • Bloggers have been better at using multimedia such as photos, videos and even audio to enrich their posts.
  • The advent of social media has changed consumers to producers of the news. That, coupled with shrinking newsrooms of the traditional media, has made blogs and blogging more popular.
  • Blogs reach the hyperniche market. Targeting blogs for earned or unearned media opportunities can be cost effective when you know the 40 or 50 readers are all super fans of whatever the topic of the blog is.

To me, it’s not surprising how many food bloggers are out there. Some do it as a hobby, some for money … I added a blog to EatDrinkMadison.com (and started a Twitter account) to connect more with both residents and visitors of the area.

Creepiest Facebook App Ever

Posted on by Brian Lee

Not many people my age agree with me, but there are times when I think social media has gone too far. Case in point: the Facebook app If I Die.

This app allows you to record a message to send to your family, loved ones, and most importantly, your Facebook friends. Once your death has been confirmed it sends out your prerecorded message to your Facebook friends or posts what you have written to be your last status.

In theory I think this isn’t a strange idea. For those with a terminal illness it might be a useful way of saying goodbye, and people have been writing their loved ones goodbye letters for years. In today’s world, wanting to spread your final words to your timeline seems like a natural progression.

What really gets to me is the app’s new campaign, If I Die 1st.  Essentially, the company has teamed with various outlets and is offering to promote and share the parting words of the first person to die. Morbid, right?

Not only do I think it’s a bad idea to basically encourage people to be the first to die (imagine the problems that could arise with suicide attempts), but it’s the way in which the campaign’s video does it that really makes me uncomfortable.  The video highlights the need for fame, and since most of us won’t be conventionally famous, what’s a better way to make it happen than by having your dying words spread all over the internet?

The video itself is especially creepy, practically glorifying death and positioning the first person to die as the “winner” (Fun Fact: their website has a running total of Facebook deaths since August 2012, along with the estimated time of death of the winner).  When did our society decide that dying in order to broadcast your message to the world via social media was acceptable? I’m sorry, can’t we all just focus on living?