“Come in, my little pretties,” lured the witch in Hansel & Gretel, as the door banged shut behind the wee ones. Today’s brand marketers and media mavens aren’t exactly summoning kids into an icing laced gumdrop gingerbread house, but it’s pretty dang close on a few media and marketing fronts. There’s enough subversive enticement to … [Read more...]
This landed in my e-mail from some pals of mine, and it seems worthy to toss out there to get kids thinking along these lines and open up some dialogue. Yes, I’m being ambiguous on purpose so I won’t spoil the fun. To challenge yourself, write down your guess after reading each clue; then, after reading all the clues, see which (if any) of your guesses is … [Read more...]
I left my ‘round-up’ ritual back in my editorial magazine days but my au courant colleagues and content partners have worthy ones so I’ll defer to their musings. Ypulse publisher, Anastasia Goodstein posted “Reflections on the year in youth culture” which gets my vote for the most articulate wrap up of four key trends: The ‘totally … [Read more...]
I’m baking homemade apple-cranberry pie for my pile of holiday guests arriving, and the scent of cinnamon wafting through the kitchen makes me realize this is one sensory, tactile, shared experience with my child that surely can’t be replicated with a media experience…Even in the surreal 3-D virtual world of Second Life. What is Second Life? A simulated … [Read more...]
Free Range Studios is at it again. Their brilliant parodies that lit up the web with pass around power are touching on new turf with global warming, fast food slams, and who knows what else in the hopper. Teens love these viral firecrackers because they pack a walloping punch riffing off pop culture and current affairs. Mind you, they favor teen intelligentsia, not a … [Read more...]
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