Latest data has Oscars Ratings up about 6% (see here and here), a little above 30 million viewers.
This was inline with what I imagined.
If you’re looking for Winners and actual info on the show, here ya go and here.
Category: advertising
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High School Musical wipes the floor with Spectacular!….
Would you ever guess that one of the big media battles would be about high school students who sing and dance?
Nickelodeon unvieled “Spectacular!” tonight during primetime. It roughly follows the High School Musical formula, which followed the Grease formula. It’s the same vanilla storyline with similarly pop, radio-ready (depending on your taste) music. The stars fit the basic good looking mold, even the “nerds” and outcasts. Heartbreak, redemption and happy endings.
So what?! Why post on this?
It’s pretty clear that Disney has a really strong multi-platform strategy that’s crushing the competition (everyone!). High School Musical and other recent Disney franchises are everywhere – in every medium, every device, every which way.
I suspect Viacom (MTV, Nickelodeon…) are looking at the particular franchises and not the overall strategy. Yes, the franchise contents matter, but I’m wondering if the multi-platform commitment and integrated promotion isn’t more important. Nickelodeon’s multi-platform approach is very weak.
Consider the website for Spectacular. A) It was hard to find in Google B) it is covered with ads for random products (including overlays) c) It doesn’t work well in firefox d) it has no merchandise or cross promotions.
Consider Nickelodeon’s retail presence. There isn’t a Nick store in every mall. Its characters are licensed out to some of the lamest manufacturers and retailers. Nick doesn’t have theme parks or any other way for fans to experience the Nick franchises.
Combine those negatives with a knock-off property that is maybe a B- TV movie and this is not looking good as an investment by Viacom.
By my estimation it’s not going to be enough for a media company to just compete on cable TV or in the box office. You have to manage all of it and manage it well.
I guess we’ll see if Nick gets some value from Spectacular! when the ratings and first revenue reports come in. My guess is that it’s a bust.
There’s something else going on here too. The economy is putting severe pressure on all forms of media companies. Media has to produce hits faster and cheaper than ever. The Internet companies compete with the film studies with the magazines with book publishers with retailers …. everyone just has a different entry point to the consumer. Worse for the media companies – users get to compete for eyeballs now too!
Based on the approach of Viacom recently – sueing YouTube/Google, removing embeds from MTV, knock-off High School Musicals… they clearly have not figured out how to compete.
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You might have seen this proposal request from Mark Cuban.
I went ahead and threw a hat into the ring with Angel Technology.
Let’s see what happens, eh?
It’s a brave new world out there, time to compete.
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What? How could that be?… Here are some more dazzling examples of “putz-on-a-page” concerning fMRI and neuroscience:
First, here’s the good news…
Brain’s blood surge doesn’t match activity
- Based on the 28 January 2009 article by the same name by David Robson
- All [….. ] are comments and edits of jhb
CONTRARY to popular belief, a rush of blood to a certain brain region [as seen in an fMRI study] is not always linked to neural activity there, a finding that may guide future brain scan experiments.
Functional MRI scans measure blood flow in the brain. Neuroscientists interpret this as a sign that neurons are firing, usually as someone performs a task, [observes or senses the environment in some way] or experiences an emotion [implied due to reports and periphery recordings]. This enables them to link the emotion to the brain region where there was [a change in the area’s] blood flow.
Now, Aniruddha Das from Columbia University in New York and colleagues have shown that blood flow can occur without accompanying neural activity. Das used separate techniques to measure blood flow and neural activity in the visual cortex of two macaques trained to carry out a visual task.
Sitting in darkness except for a light that switched on at regular intervals, the monkeys were trained to look away if it was red, and fix their gaze on the light if it shone green.
When the timing [interval] of the pauses between the light flashes [were] changed, blood flow still increased when the macaque expected [would have normally received the timed] flash, but [without a colored light cue] there was no [‘escape’ or orientation movement] or subsequent increase in electrical activity from firing neurons [in those neural areas that were shown to be involved] (Nature, DOI: 10.1038/nature07664). Das suspects that the brain sent the rush of blood in anticipation of the neurons’ firing.
Christian Keysers from the BCN Neuroimaging Centre in Groningen, the Netherlands, does not believe the result is relevant to the design of previous fMRI experiments and so is unlikely to have an impact on their results. But Das says care needs to be taken in future to ensure that this misinterpretation does not lead to errors.
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The Journal of Neuroscience, December 31, 2008, 28(53)
BOLD (blood oxygenation level-dependent) Signals Do Not Always Reflect Neural Activity
Behavioral/Systems/Cognitive (see pages 14347–14357)
Anna Devor, Elizabeth M. C. Hillman, Peifang Tian, Christian Waeber, Ivan C. Teng, Lana Ruvinskaya, Mark H. Shalinsky, Haihao Zhu, Robert H. Haslinger, Suresh N. Narayanan, Istvan Ulbert, Andrew K. Dunn, Eng H. Lo, Bruce R. Rosen, Anders M. Dale, David Kleinfeld, and David A. Boas
Each year, thousands of publications present functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data that suggest that a particular brain region is active during a particular cognitive task. Casual readers [casual readers and some less casual readers] of such papers might forget [presume or not attend to the fact] that this technique does not actually measure neural activity, but rather blood oxygenation level-dependent (BOLD) contrasts.
Synaptic transmissions require large energy expenditures, and increased energy metabolism has been hypothesized to act directly on blood vessels to increase blood flow and alter BOLD signals.
This week (Feb-09), however, Devor et al. report that this hypothesis is not always the correct one. [One can only imagain that new neural pathways being laid down show somewhat different blood flow than neural activity from repetitive or redundant activities as measured by neural activity.]
As expected, stimulating the forepaw of rats increased blood oxygenation, vessel diameter, glucose uptake, spiking, and synaptic release in the contralateral primary somatosensory cortex [associated with sense reception on the forepaw]. In the ipsilateral cortex, however, neural activity and glucose uptake increased, but blood oxygenation and blood flow did not.
These results indicate that blood flow is not directly tied to metabolism, and BOLD signals do not always reflect neural activity as recorded by various fMRI devices.
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Conditioning works even if you don’t know about it…
The brain, as a physical organ, has shown classical conditioning without an agent, autonomous man or the need for an interpreted purpose.
Some other experiments have shown that monkeys fire “anticipation” neurons in different areas before they perform a movement itself. There must be some neural circuits that cause vasodilation in these areas of the brain in anticipation of the light. Reducing things down to cell membrane transport to find the ‘cause’ starts to get a little like trying to find the soul or the personality when those things are mere metaphors that allow us to communicate and, after use and misuse, come to be personified and be the thing we are trying to understand rather than the behavior of the organism.
All in all this type of reduction approach has led us to some strange interpretations for headlines in magazines and pop science-shizzle articles to attract readers but not many have the cohunes of NewScientist, a normally damn good resource who boldly stated on their recent cover: Darwin Was Wrong!
More examples of “putz-on-a-page” concerning fMRI and neuroscience:
http://neuroanthropology.net/2008/04/10/bad-brain-science-boobs-caused-subprime-crisis/
http://neuroanthropology.net/2008/06/11/wired-for-belief/
To Trust or Not to Trust: Ask Oxytocin
…magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to scan 49 participants who were given…
July 15, 2008 – Mind Matters – By Mauricio DelgadoMonkey Mating Requires Lots of Brainpower
…magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to analyze the brains of male marmoset…
February 02, 2004 – News – By Sarah GrahamIs Your Brain Thinking on its Feet?
…magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to monitor their subjects’ brain…
November 09, 2000 – News – By Harald FranzenEscape from the Insipid: Our Brains May Be Wired for Daydreaming
…magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). While the subjects were not performing…
January 18, 2007 – News – By Nikhil SwaminathanWhy the Brain Follows the Rules
…magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) scanner to see what parts of the brain…
June 10, 2008 – Mind Matters – By Caroline ZinkScientists Identify Brain Region Responsible for Calculating Risk versus Reward
…magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to investigate how 14 healthy subjects…
June 15, 2006 – News – By David BielloRight Brain May Be Wrong
…magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). As a first step, psychologist Markus…
March 24, 2005 – Scientific American Mind – By Steve J. AyanMRI Study Shows Lying Brains Look Different
…magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to study the brains of volunteers…
November 14, 2001 – News – By Sarah GrahamPolitically Correct: Why Great (and Not So Great) Minds Think Alike
…magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). Researchers focused their examination…
March 19, 2008 – News – By Nikhil SwaminathanThe Dope on Dopamine’s Central Role in the Brain’s Motivation and Reward
…magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), to examine the normal human brain…
September 15, 2008 – News – By Tabitha M. PowledgeThe Political Brain
…magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) study shows where in the brain the…
June 26, 2006 – Scientific American Magazine – By Michael ShermerCan You Believe Your Shifty Eyes?
…magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), if the behavior she had observed was…
April 19, 2007 – News – By Nikhil SwaminathanYour iBrain: How Technology Changes the Way We Think
…placed. To make sure that the fMRI scanner was measuring the neural…
October 08, 2008 – Scientific American Mind – By Gary Small, Gigi VorganBetween a Rock and a Hard Place: Thinking about Morality
…a hypothesis stemming from previous fMRI investigations into the neural…
July 29, 2008 – Mind Matters – By Adina Roskies, Walter Sinnott-ArmstrongSearching for God in the Brain
…magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI), Beauregard seeks to pinpoint the brain…
October 03, 2007 – Scientific American Mind – By David BielloNeuroscientists Take Important Step toward Mind Reading
…on functional MRI data. By analyzing fMRI scans of viewers as they looked…
May 29, 2008 – Scientific American Mind – By Christopher IntagliataSaying no to yourself: The neural mechanisms of self-control
…button press). On each trial of the fMRI study, subjects were given three…
September 11, 2007 – 60-Second Science BlogFive Ways Brain Scans Mislead Us
…at the capabilities and operation of fMRI, perhaps the most commonly…
November 05, 2008 – Scientific American Mind – By Michael ShermerBrain-Scan Cell Mystery Solved
…until now the mechanism underlying fMRI’s robust success has been a…
October 06, 2008 – Scientific American Mind – By Nikhil SwaminathanBRAIN TERRAIN
…resonance imaging (fMRI). Unlike other imaging methods, fMRI allows…
March 21, 2000 – Scientific American Magazine – By Carol EzzellFact or Phrenology?
…magnetic resonance imaging–or fMRI–has made quite a splash since its…
March 24, 2005 – Scientific American Mind – By David DobbsFreeing a Locked-In Mind
…with the advent of functional MRI (fMRI) scans, it became possible to…
April 04, 2007 – Scientific American Mind – By Karen SchrockAre You a Liar? Ask Your Brain
…Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) technology to determine whether someone…
November 15, 2007 – News – By Larry GreenemeierHypnosis, Memory and the Brain
…magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). They carefully selected 25 people to…
October 07, 2008 – Mind Matters – By Amanda J. Barnier, Rochelle E. Cox, Greg SavageCan brain scans read our minds?
…magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to analyze changes in the flow of blood…
December 12, 2008 – 60-Second Science BlogDoes fMRI See the Future?
…magnetic resonance imaging, or fMRI, to chronicle the brain in action….
January 22, 2009 – 60-Second ScienceCan fMRI Really Tell If You’re Lying?
…magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) purports to detect mendacity by seeing…
August 13, 2008 – Scientific American Magazine – By Gary StixThe Brain Is Not Modular: What fMRI Really Tells Us
…magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI). We have all seen scans with…
May 13, 2008 – Scientific American Magazine – By Michael ShermerThe Sound Track of Our Minds
…headphones while lying in an fMRI machine; each of the musical tapestries…
August 03, 2007 – News – By Nikhil SwaminathanBrain Images Make Inaccurate Science News Trustworthy
…magnetic resonance imaging (or fMRI)—the tool that creates a…
April 07, 2008 – 60-Second PsychPartial Recall: Why Memory Fades with Age
…imaging magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) to determine whether those…
December 05, 2007 – News – By Nikhil SwaminathanWhen Craving Is Better Than Getting
In a recent article about brain cells, Joshua Freedman a U.C.L.A. neuroscientist, noted that a monkey feels maximal reward not when he eats a grape but rather when he gets it in his possession, anticipating he can eat it. Reward anticipation is very strong and can have a negative impact, (think: addiction), according to researchers from Rutgers and New York universities. They studied the effect of cognitive therapy on the physiological reactions to anticipating positive reward, and the results are published in Nature Neuroscience this week. To get a handle on these cravings, researchers presented human subjects with cues for a monetary gift. For each presentation, they were asked to either think of the reward or think of something calming that was the same color as the cue (which was blue). The calming strategy cut the physiological arousal (measured by skin conductance response) nearly in half. Additionally, they found marked reductions in the activity of the left and …
June 30, 2008 – 60-Second PsychMagnetic Revelations
…magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has become the leading research tool…
October 16, 2001 – Scientific American Magazine -
Outside of the oath and benediction speech, the Jason Wu designed dress was the most discussed, blogged, reported media factoid during this crazy inauguration.
Jason Wu's Michelle Obama Dress So what’s all that free press worth?
So far, almost no traffic reported on Jason Wu’s site up until Jan 20th.
By the fact that the site is even up means perhaps not much internet business comes from all this press.
Google Trends shows a nice spike, but the name Jason Wu doesn’t even come close to Superbowl or inauguration.
Jason Wu Michelle Obama Dress Unfortunately, we’re just going to have to wait and see what impact this worldwide acclaim has for a designer. Perhaps fashion design is simply not measured accurately by online traffic. I suspect with my somewhat educated knowledge of the fashion industry and media that his reputation is now very secure and that will be a very lucrative career. He’s only 26!
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Users cry foul. Blogs rail. Someone will probably get fired or reprimanded.
[Update 1/19/09: And here’s the letter from the CEO. Read between the lines. Someone got in trouble]
And it’s all over something that’s the oldest trick in the book. And is used far more than bloggers, magazines, advertisers, publishers, tv studios and users want to admit.
In fact, TechCrunch is one of the biggest offenders. Sure, it doesn’t post payment terms on Mechanical Turk, but it does definitely feature favorable / traffic generating articles for a specific set of companies and products. Maybe it’s only out of proximity to silicon valley or the network of connections of its author but it’s still biased and borderline advertorial.
Let’s get real, people.
Advertorial is a fact of the media and retail ecology. There are certainly more aggressive efforts by some (such as Belkin) but I have yet to meet an ad agency that doesn’t employ an “organic positive word of mouth” strategy.
It’s called promotion, folks. It’s worked very well for info-mercials (paid actors dramatizing the product). It’s worked very well for direct marketing.
How is it functionality different than the individual users who post on Amazon or New Egg BEFORE a product even hits the streets? Typically big brands have this positive fan base that will say anything that produce WILL be good, regardless of whether they use the product or not. Do these same ranters have a problem with that? Just think back to the huge amount of traffic Techcrunch and other bloggers received for SPECULATING on the iphone.
There seems to be some line advertisers can’t cross. Some sacred “collective intelligence” tools should not be used for “dramatized promotion.” Yet, Google, the portal homepages, most tech magazines, news, tv shows, and almost all of Press Releases are full of this over-the-line-corruption-of-the-users-domain.
Speaking of press releases… is the whole idea of press release just as offensive? Press release pose as news but are nothing more than advertorial. Have you ever written a press release? ever been quoted in one? The whole thing is fairly questionable. Yet, the news media lives on press releases.
Again, let’s keep it real.
The vast wealth so far created online is mostly due to this battle between ad dollars corrupting the user domain. Why else would VCs and big companies fund these online companies if there wasn’t some advertising game to play? The only reasons to develop online services is to get eyeballs or sell products. The only reason you want eyeballs is to sell products.
Is there some line we can draw that says it’s “false advertising” or a subversion of the trust of the public? I don’t think so.
No online product that allows user contributions and expects to make money running ads or selling products can escape the scourage of dramatized promotion. Nor should it want to. You probably don’t matter as a service if people don’t try to abuse your system.
Social Mode 