KitKats, gotta love em. Each bar consists of fingers composed of three layers of crème-filled wafer, covered in an outer layer of chocolate. Each finger can be snapped from the bar one at a time. It is not just a chocolate bar; it is a way of living. Who did not ‘have a break’ eating a KitKat?

Apparently the orangutans in the rainforests of Indonesia are not that fond of the chocolate treats. Greenpeace holds Nestlé – the producer of KitKat – responsible for destroying rainforests to get cheap palm oil, a key ingredient of the chocolate bar. The rainforests are also the natural habitat of the orangutan and having a break while your own home is destructed is pretty difficult.

Today Greenpeace released a commercial in the typical KitKat style in order to raise awareness among the consumers of KitKat and to ask them to give the orangutan his well deserved break. It is a pretty in-your-face video in which the chocolate fingers of the KitKat turn out to be the fingers of the orangutan and the crème-filling is its blood. Bon appétit!

In general I am not a fan of the use of shock advertising in the social sector, because it seems to have lost its effect a long time ago. In this case I do like the video, because the message is not only direct, but it also takes away your appetite. The association of the orangutan’s hairy and bloody finger with this chocolate bar will make me think twice when I need a break.
Besides that the video’s direct style fits an organization like Greenpeace and the fact that it is a spoof on a KitKat commercial gives it an interesting mix of humor and seriousness.

Don’t just give the orangutan a break, but stop Nestlé from destroying rainforests for palm oil. You can read more and take action by clicking here.

I wrote this post for social advertising blog Osocio.

After all those positive messages about Nike on this blog I wanted to write a more critical one this time. Nike is one of the companies adjusting itself to the new media era very well with examples like Nike+ and recently the Chalkbot. When I ran into this article after reading something about it on Twitter I thought I needed to write a critical article on the way Nike apparently tried to control social media. But just on time I found out I needed to be critical towards myself first. The story the article tells and I wanted to re-tell for my own audience is the following:

Nike is known for sponsoring the finest athletes and basketball player LeBron James is one of the Nike’s biggest stars. During a training camp earlier this month James was ‘dunked-on’ by 20-year-old nobody Jordan Crawford. It is seen as an ultimate disgrace for a player and it’s something that does not fit an image of a super star. With this reason Nike demanded CBS immediately to erase the video tapes of the dunk. End of the story? Actually this created the story. Unsurprisingly the ‘hidden’ images found their way to YouTube . The dunk is hardly noticeble, but because of Nike’s attempt to censorship became a hit on internet (and now I am writing about it).

Social media are really difficult to control and the best reaction of companies would be to acknowledge this. Nike’s fail to control social media and the puclicity it generated, is known as the Streisand Effect:

“The Streisand effect is an internet phenomenon where an attempt to censor or remove a piece of information backfires, causing the information to be widely publicized.” (Wikipedia)

When discussing the article with a friend he asked me how I could be so sure of the story. I got the article from the website BrandRepublic which is a website I trust, but after checking again it was part of the forum section. The article does not have any link to a source and after ‘googling’ the story once more I did not find any really trustworthy source at all. Moreover the video supposed to be the ‘evidence’ is not showing very clear images of LeBron James being ‘dunked-on’.

Where I wanted to criticize Nike for a wrong approach to social media, I could be doing exactly the same! Since I was not completely sure the whole story actually happened I did not have the right to write about it so easily. It could be even a false story attempting to harm Nike. How many times do we read something on the internet and take it for granted without thinking twice about the source?

If Nike did what the article says it did, it would have been pretty stupid. Social media have big advantages for companies, but can create bad publicity too. It’s all about the reaction of the brand. Nike could give a contract and an advertisement to the young basketball player who gave LeBron James a human face. Turning a bad moment into something good. But the final conclusion of this post is that nobody really can control new media and take them for granted. We should not even try! Stay critical!

After the celebration of 60 Years of Soles & Stripes Adidas Originals Argentina decided it was time for a fresh layer of paint in their store in Palermo, Buenos Aires. Instead of doing it the traditional way they asked local artists Gualicho and Pum Pum to decorate the shop. Pum Pum painted his characteristic rebellious and naieve figures in the fantasy world created by Gualicho. The result is a balanced combination of art and marketing which should inspire more companies. In a globalized world were most shopping streets look the same the collaboration of brands with local artists is the way to go. Both from an ethical, design and commercial point of view.

Source: Atypica

According to blond Republican strategists, apparently. In the Fox News show of Bill O’Reilly two very world wise ladies got the chance to scare the poor viewers. I’m closing my doors tonight!

This is the response of a citizen of Amsterdam giving his opinion using… facts!

Source: BoingBoing

In the commercial a group of soldiers are patrolling the West Bank Barrier when suddenly a football appears from the other side of the wall. After shooting it back, the same happens and before they know a whole group of soldiers is having fun with a ball and an invisible enemy.

Unsurprisingly the ad has been heavily critized for not taking serious the Palestinean suffering in the conflict. This lead to ‘parodies’.

When a Palestinean YouTuber had the courage to see what happened in real his pass to the other side of the wall was answered by a salvo of tear gass granades. I did not see this video yet btw. Probably a more realistic reaction.

Not sure what to think of the intentions of the phone company and less of the results of the spot. The conflict is too serious to almost compare it with a game of football. And who shot the ball first?

Source: Chunnel

Now I finished my MA New media & Digital Culture at Utrecht University it’s my turn to practice what I have been preaching. Together with Fausta | communicación + diseño from Buenos Aires I created a new look for my website. It contains great illustrations reflecting my complex, but colorful identity. This blog will get a small update too. I never knew making a personal website would be that complicated. At the end it’s a feeling whether the site reflects your own identity or not. I think it worked out well.

Besides the design I will be using the tagline ‘digital thinking in an analog world’. In the world of digital communication the online and offline are often seen as seperate entities. In my opinion there is no difference, everything happens in one ‘real’ analog world. Digital media are adding options, extending this world and changing ways of thinking, but are not something cyborg-like, dehumanizing, and splitting the world in two. I will write a longer blog post soon to elaborate on this idea soon.

Anyway, I’m looking for a challenging job. Something in the direction of digital marketing. Check my CV/Resume here and contact me in whatever way you like. The options a many. Please let me know what you think of my new website and any advice is more than welcome!

The revenge of the nerds started already in 1984 with the movie The Revenge of the Nerds. The nerd is also coming back in the American Pie movies, even that you might argue whether they are really portrayed as hipsters. The American bands Weezer, The Barenaked Ladies and Wheatus are known to make geek rock. In 2006 the band Hellogoodbye released the music video for ‘In Your Arms’ in which the nerdy band members are very successful in their love lifes.

In 2007 CBS started broadcasting The Big Bang Theory starring two equally geeky main characters. In Spain they celebrate the Nerd Pride Day (Dia del Orgullo Friki) on May 25th since 2006 claiming the right for every person to be a geek.

But my conclusion that the nerd has become the new cool is based on the first Dutch Nerdcore Event organized in Amsterdam on February 26th of this year. According to the website Nerdcore is “a subgenre of hip hop music characterized by themes and subjects considered to be nerdy. In the past geeks and nerds were the exception to the rule, but today most people under 40 have at least one ‘geeky’ hobby or interest. Nerdcore rappers rhyme about anything, but there are some hot Nerdcore Favorites: video games, Star Wars, science, cult films, anime, comic books, computers and ofcourse the internet.” On the event famous Nerdcore rappers like Mc Lars, YtCracker and Beefy will rap about gangsters, bitches and homies, but also about programming, hardware and video games. The Nercore-event is organized by Dutch internet company Enrise probably to find those fine cool geeks and offer them a job. Pretty smart if you ask me.

The question is whether all of this is really good news for the nerds. How long will the concept of the nerd exist if the nerd is the new cool? Are they finally defeated after a history of being the outcast? Did the cool guys win at the end? Or are the cool guys actually super uncool?

Probably the real nerd doesn’t care about all of this and THAT is really cool!

Cruz Roja campaign Argentina

De hitte in Argentinië geeft je vaak het gevoel te smelten, maar in dit geval gaat het om een campagne voor het Argentijnse Rode Kruis. In de straten van Buenos Aires vraagt de smeltende man de aandacht van de voorbijgangers om op een verantwoordelijkere manier met het milieu om te gaan. Iets dat je men overigens in Argentinië nog wel vaker mag roepen.

Bron: Osocio