February 25 2010
February 25 2010
This week it was announced that a George Polk Award in Journalism was given to a group of anonymous videographers. The video was that of the violent death of an Iranian woman (Neda Agha-Soltan) during the protests last year.
Perhaps many of you have seen the film. It is disturbing, but viewing it feels somehow necessary.
The video was first uploaded by a 36 year old native of Iran living in the Netherlands. He received the film from an anonymous doctor who sent the video clip by email with the message “please let the world know.”
After that, the video was “pretty instantly fragmented into hundreds of other re-uploads” according to YouTube. Within hours, the video was viewed by millions of people.
Some of the biggest and most respected names in journalism have won George Polk Awards–Christiane Amanpour, Walter Cronkite, Gloria Emerson, Peter Jennings, Ted Koppel, Charles Kuralt, Edward R. Murrow, Jack Newfield, Morley Safer, Oliver Sacks, and Nina Totenberg just to name a few.
So giving the Polk Award to “ordinary citizens” for the first time in the award’s 61-year old history is no minor shift. But like viewing the video, this shift too feels somehow necessary.
February 6 2010
A few of us from Plaid attended Mashable’s “The New Journalist” event at the 92YTribeca this week. It was a great talk about how social media is changing the way journalists work–most notably shifting the role of ‘reputation branding’ from the media (i.e., I work for The New York Times and therefore my work is validated) to the individual (i.e. I am John or Jane Doe and I am asking you, the public, to validate my work by following me on Twitter, etc).
What got my attention the most, however, was the opening act: Pepsi Refresh. We have written about the Pepsi Refresh in our blog before, as fans. Essentially, it is an ideas marketplace, whereby Pepsi is giving away up to $1.3 million dollars a month to people, organizations and non-profits with ideas that will have a positive impact.
The new twist, however, is learning where the money is coming from to fund this effort: its Super Bowl budget. That means that instead of investing $3million dollars for every 30 second spot, Pepsi has decided instead to invest in things like urban farming, building schools, creating new art spaces, etc.
In the first 15 days of launching its Refresh social media campaign, Pepsi received more than 1,000 ideas like this, many if which will be funded (the first set of winners will be announced in early March).
Pepsi has been a standing Super Bowl advertiser for 23 years, so this is no small departure for the company. The Super Bowl has been the grand stage for the ongoing dual between Pepsi and “the real thing” Coke.
Personally, I think Pepsi’s project feels like ‘the real’ real thing. That’s refreshing.
January 19 2010
Just today, as I was standing over plate of ‘gourmet’ sandwiches with my client trying to make a choice (chunky chicken? salami with sundried tomatoes? turkey and bacon? grilled veggie and goat cheese? some kind of tuna concoction?), my client casually asked– “are you a vegetarian?” I found that my answer about what/how I eat is not so simple. I eat meat, so I’m not a vegetarian, but I’ve seen Food Inc. recently, and I’ve read articles about how meat producers are injecting cows with e-coli killing vaccinations on their way to the slaughter house, and I have to admit that I’m freaked out about meat. Perhaps even about what to eat overall, as our vegetables and grains aren’t being treated so well either. I could see the look of horror on my client’s face as I highlighted a few Food Inc. stories, and I wanted to brush off the conversation with an easy “ah well…what can you do…” Instead, I may open this book Food Rules, An eaters manual by Michael Pollan and see if there really is a simple way to eat well. I don’t mean a balanced diet, I mean a non-toxic one.
January 15 2010
Welcome to our blog experiment.
Plaid is a branding agency in Soho, NYC. We are also a collaborative crew of creative artists and thinkers, focused on innovative ideas, branding, design, media, arts, culture and much more.
We weren’t sure at first why it would make sense for us to do a blog. It’s difficult to create an original blog. So we tested the waters by creating an internal blog for just ourselves–an uncensored, common space we could all contribute to.
We happily discovered that the variety of individuals at Plaid led to a far-reaching collection of trends, trivia, graphics, documented “firsts,” some awesome nonsense and timewasters and more than just a few cultural observations that inspired us. And since we like it, we thought others might too.
So here it is. For our first week of posts, we’re each sharing our top three entries from 2009.
We hope you’ll enjoy our finds in 2010. Let us know what you think.
The Plaid team
Carol, James, Patricia, Natalie, Tom, Josh and Hilary
January 12 2010
This National Geographic article showcases some very cool and very beautiful green roofs around the world. I love the idea of green roofs. If New York City were to build green roofs on 50% of the roofs that could be green, it would add up to more than 16 Central Parks in the sky. Green roofs can also cut energy use (and your electric bill) by up to 50%. If you are thinking about a green roof or just want to know more about them, check out this recent article in GOOD magazine too: http://www.good.is/preview/12771.
January 12 2010
…Have to applaud the NY Times multimedia team for their innovative use of media, graphics and information. At a time when the conventional newspaper (if not all printed matter) is under so much duress, this is a sign that something hopeful is happening. For all of us whose job it is to simplify communication, features like Inaugural Words are very inspiring, showing you don’t have to give up substance for simplicity.
January 12 2010
One small step for mankind. One giant step for people with large pets. This may not be the most important news of 2009, but as the owner of a 120lb Rhodesian Ridgeback, this is a major breakthrough. I can’t fit my pet in my handbag, and I don’t want to ship her like cargo…Now if only Pet Airways can pick some more exciting destinations than Omaha.
