Scrapbook Assignment #7

http://berkeleybeacon.com/2011/11/students-spot-pesky-pests-in-dining-hall/

My analysis concerns an crisis that hit close to home. On Monday, November 9th, Emerson College freshman Kristin Brice spotted a mouse in the dining hall. When she went to report the mouse to a dining hall staff member, the worker told her that it was not unusual to see a mouse in the dining hall. Reports of botht he sighting and the workers response reverberated through social media, and soon most of the college had at least a colloquial understanding of the incident.

The two responsible parties took vastly different approaches to resolving the crisis..

Aramark, whose workers created an eating climate that was condusive to rodent life, issued no statement or took any action to eleviate the matter. Aramark is a behemoth corporate entity, so it is more than likely that any person with the authority to represent the company in an official matter had much more important matters to attend to. As long as their contract held (which I fault Emerson for not including passing health inspections as a term of agreement for), the company would not need to even acknowledge the Emerson student community's displeasure.

Neal Lespasio, the director of facilities at Emerson College, took measures to address the problem. He produced a quote on the record saying that ,"During Thanksgiving break we will take a significant look and clean the areas as much as possible." He also vowed to set up traps in the dining hall to catch the pests. In addition, he accepted responsibility for the action, saying that, "any abatement and cleanup is the responsibility of the Facilities Department."

Moving forward, I would recommend that Lespasio make the mouse traps as visable as possible in the dining hall. Students are already aware of the fact that mice inhabit the dining hall, so he should try to make the action his department is taking to fix the problem as visible as the problem itself. Even after taking the best action possible, a mouse could still slip into the DH, so he should try to illustrate that they are doing their best to address the student's needs.

Other than that, I would leave the situation as is. Emerson College students have notoriously short attention spans, so this crisis will likely blow over in a week when a shocking revelation about something else relevant to the school comes to light. 

Scrapbook Assignment #6

This scrapbook assignment was assigned while I was sick. I admit that it slipped by me and I did not realize that I hadn't done it until i started compiling my notes.

Scrapbook Assignment #5

Senator Sherrod Brown -  http://www.sherrodbrown.com/

The first thing I noticed about this Senator's campaign page is that it is not search engine optimized. I had to scroll down to find the link, which is not ideal for drawing in new members to his organization. He should take measures to get his campaign page to the top spot when people search his name so even people with a remote interest in who he his will instantly be drawn to it.

The second thing a noticed about his page was that it was cluttered. The Senator's campaign staff went to great lengths to incorporate social media into the website, but they went a little overboard. This abundance of plug-ins gives the website a hectic and unfriendly feel.

As far as relevance goes, the website is on the cutting edge as far as Twitter and RSS feeds go, but is far behind in other key areas. For instance, Brown hasn't uploaded any new pictures to his integrated flicker account in over 6 years. He either needs to upload more photos or take the link down.

Scrapbook Assignment #4

1. Old Spice - Scent Vacation - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3R2cnxz27LI&feature=relmfu

In this commercial, the old spice man visually illustrates what men would smell like if they used Old Spice deodorant. His ripped physique, coupled with the various romantic and awe inspiring situations his character is thrust into communicate a difficult, complex message without the use of words.

2. Humble - The Power to Melt Glaciers - http://www.google.com/imgres?um=1&hl=en&sa=N&biw=1024&bih=624&tbm=isch&tbnid=CtT_IZMsUjA16M:&imgrefurl=http://www.grist.org/article/2009-11-18-oil-enough-energy-to-melt-glaciers&docid=PwQipU-_Bz5UIM&imgurl=http://www.grist.org/i/assets/2/humble-oil.jpg&w=800&h=496&ei=VszoTuyTEcTX0QHl1Yi6Bw&zoom=1&iact=rc&dur=276&sig=115688018956855270653&page=1&tbnh=112&tbnw=181&start=0&ndsp=15&ved=1t:429,r:1,s:0&tx=125&ty=48

In this two page print ad, Humble helps illustrate just how much energy it supplies by staking out how much energy it produces in terms of tons of glacier, and then showing the reader a picture of a glacier to give them a good sense of scale.

Scrapbook Assignment #3

LULZSEC

Lulzsec does not have any formal campaign structure or goals that they are working for, so I doubt they performed much research before they started hacking publicly. One research prerequisite would be to find out what the internet privacy laws are, and to find out they can hide behind them to avoid getting arrested.

In addition, Lulzsec members would have to learn how to conduct the hacking itself in order to be a productive member of the group.

Other than that, Lulzsec members likely scan the daily news and wait until targets come into the spotlight.

SWOT ANALYSIS

Helpful
Strengths: Decentralized (hard to catch and snuff out), unpredictability, their actions translate very well into media, have intimate knowledge of the nooks and crannies of the internet, leveraging low cost resources into high yield media
Opportunities: the element of surprise (people hadn't seen any large scale hacking attacks like this one before)

Hurtful
Weakness: immature, no centralized message, illegal, target audience doesn't understand what they're doing or why,
Threats: government officials, law enforcement officers, rival hackers, corporations

Scrapbook Assignment #2

1. Yes Men apologize for Bhopal - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LiWlvBro9eI

The Yes Men are a duo of con men who forward the cause of environmental activism by tricking people into believe that they are executives of companies that cause significant environmental harm and apologizing for their company's actions to the public.

In this interview, one of the Yes Men has tricked a reporter for the BBC into believing that he is the spokesperson for Dow Chemical Company. In the live interview, the Yes Men imposter publicly apologizes for the Bhopal disaster in India, a gas leaked that killed over 25,000 people 26 years ago, and promises billions of dollars in reparations to those who were affected by the incident.

While the arguments that he makes for why the Dow Chemical company would want to pay the reparations are persuasive, the overall nature of the act is coercive. The Yes Men is getting Dow Chemical Company on the record as having apologized for the incident so they will either have to follow through with what he has pledged or take a major PR hit.

I do believe that the tactics were justified in this situation because the only damage caused by the action was that the Dow Chemical Company was forced to face responsibility for causing the largest industrial disaster the world has ever seen.

Greenpeace Banner Hang on Mount Rushmore - http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/07/08/AR2009070802246.html

Greenpeace is an environmental organization that frequently uses non-violent but confrontation action to earn free media and forward their cause.

In this action, a team of Greenpeace activists slipped past the security at Mount Rushmore and unfurled a giant banner that read, "AMERICA HONORS LEADERS NOT POLITICIANS: STOP GLOBAL WARMING" over one of the president's faces.

This action was undoubtedly coercive, as the sheer insanity of what they did forced their soundbite into the public dialogue.

I do not believe their actions were justified, because President Obama was already working diligently to solve the climate crisis already. Performing such a drastic action only marginalized environmentalists as extremists, and was most likely counterproductive to the cause.

Scrapbook Entry #1

1. Starburst Contradiction Commercial - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2k4iZqbDsMs

In this commercial, Starburst attempts to INTENSIFY the uniqueness of its product by ASSOCIATING it with rareness of a person being born with both Scottish and Korean ancestry.

They also downplay the fact that Starburst is far from the only solid fruit chew on the market by omitting any knowledge of any other product with similar characteristics.

In addition, the ad attempts to confuse the user by upping the tempo of skit and having the main character talk in a high volume, socially unacceptable way. The viewer is more drawn into the character's eccentric speaking style that he or she is on properly thinking about what he is saying.

2. Audi - Release the Hounds Commercial - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3snyXTNmFm8

Audi intensifies the lack of choice in the luxury car model by associating it with being in prison. they accomplish this by featuring rich people locked behind bars in a luxury prison.

The company adds to its intesification through composition at the end of the commercial when it juxtaposes the Audi and the freedom it brings  with the Mercedes-Benz and its one-way ticket back into luxury prison.