Who is your favourite RHOV?

Vote here. Looks like Mary is in the lead with 49%. And Jody is in dead last with 3%. I think she could be well on her way to being the most hated housewife in the franchise history...If I recall the runners for the title were Danielle Staub, Jill Zarin, and Michaele Salahi.

Danielle Staub, once a Real Housewife of New Jersey is now a contestant on Famous Food. She is known for having a criminal record, being a stripper and the one who got Teresa Giudice so angry she flipped that table. The table flip seen around the world.

Jill Zarin, owner of Zarin Fabrics and former best friend to Bethenny Frankel. While Jill claims to have "made" Bethenny, ironically Bethenny is probably more well known than Jill. Bethenny now has her own spin-off show, a line of alcoholic drinks, and was recently on the cover of Forbes magazine. I think the public turned on Jill around the time she turned on Bethenny. But I personally don't think she belongs on the list.

And Michaele Salahi is the famous White House party crasher. She was dating the guitarist from Journey for awhile. But I resent the idea of evening googling her to find out what has happened with that.

Real Housewives of Vancouver: First Impressions

While I missed the premiere of Real Housewives of Vancouver but at 4:00 am yesterday I sat down to watch the 2 hour special. You can watch it too on Slice.ca. Their bios are also available.

LR: Christina, Reiko, Jody, Mary and Ronnie.

Here are my first impressions:

First, I would like to say that I am jealous of these women’s wealth and bodies. For the most part these women all have way better bodies than me. I would like that disclaimer on the table before I start.

The most glaring issue for me is Jody. Normally, I would love a character like Jody. She is self made, opinionated and not afraid to say it how it is. However, there is a line to between being honest and being detrimental.

While I think her conversations have been clipped to make her into a more polarizing character than she would otherwise be, I think there is a certain amount of true crassness. At one point in the première she calls one housewife, Mary, out for having an affair.

To be fair Mary was dating the guy first. The guy cheated on her started dating the girl he cheated with and now Mary is still sleeping with him being the other woman. Jody proceeds to tell Mary that she has poor morals, she needs to dump this guy and that she should go to therapy. Most of which sounds rather legitimate in writing but watching the whole scene play out there was a serious attack on Mary.

While I, having a friend in a very similar situation, not too long ago have also said similar things about situations like this. The problem with this whole scene is the viewer doesn’t know the kind of relationship that Mary and Jody had prior to this whole conversation. As such, the comments make it seem like Jody is out of line. Even without context, Jody is out of line, but sometime to put it in vulgar terms is the only way to get something to resonate.  

Drag Queens protest in Chicken Bikinis

Because protesting with billboards is so outdated.

As seen by the image of the protesting cows which was part of Chick-fil-A's past marketing campaigns.

As a Canadian the American fast food franchise Chick-fil-A means nothing to me.I do remember hearing something about people who dress as Cows get a free meal. 

When looking up Chick-fil-A restaurants amongst all the drama, I found that Chick-fil-A does have a cow appreciation day July 13, 2012 where customers who dress as cows do in fact get a free meal. 

Now a NYU student has started a petition because allegedly Chick-fil-A has donated money to anti-gay groups. Many news groups are reporting this including the NY Daily News and Huffington Post. This was apparently revealed in 2009, but the petition has brought the issue new life. 

The verbiage around on Chick-fil-A’s website is minimal until you click on their ‘Closed on Sunday’ policy page. Here the Christian fervor is apparent with quotes like “Cathy believes that by giving employees Sunday off as a day for family, worship, fellowship or rest, the company attracts quality people.” And “To glorify God by being a faithful steward of all that is entrusted to us. To have a positive influence on all who come in contact with Chick-fil-A.”.

 

Because of this NYU petition three drag queens Willam Belli, Detox, and Vicky Vox have decided to create this parody video to the song “Hold On” about Chick-fil-A. The song is SUPER catchy. And the branding is amazing! 

I’ve seen big name companies who have failed to brand this well: BMO don’t use a couch that looks like the match to TD’s iconic green chair in your commercials, it sends confusing signals.  

Even if you don't care about the issue watch this video! It is amazing!

Porn Star stands up for Female Rights

 

This video was created in honour of Equal Pay Day in Belgium where the wage gap is 22%. Ie. A man earns 22% more than a woman in Belgium. Sasha Grey, happily, glumly suggests porn to any woman looking to out-earn a man.

According to Adfreak, women are encourage to get temporary tramp stamps that read “Close the wage gap, become a porn actress." 

I understand wearing low cut shirts in Boobquake (a movement to prove an Islamic preacher that a woman’s sexuality does not in fact cause natural disasters) and the skanky attire for the Slut Walks (a reaction to the Torontonian cop telling female student if they want to avoid rape they shouldn’t dress like a slut). 

However, I don’t see how an underlining and amplifying our sexuality is appropriate in this setting. In a male dominated workforce the tramp stamp will only hurt your creditability.

The Sexless Origins of Kellogg's Corn Flakes

Now I’ve heard plenty of stories on how products got created over the years. But Kellogg’s Corn Flakes sanatorium origins are certainly something. They were invented when two doctors tried to reduce the patient’s sex drive.

Take a listen. This radio segment for CBC radio, also talks about the origins of the Popsicle, Viagra and Playdo (But anyone who has watched How Do You Know has heard that story). 

From listening to CBC radio today, I also learned that when male fruit flies can't mate they are more likely to eat alcohol soaked food.  

Dear Cars.com, I'm worried

Oh Cars.com I think Freud would have a field day. First you have your Super Bowl ad that was very phallic in nature with the second head (a common euphemisms for this member) grows out of a man’s back from a long stem.

 

Now Cars.com has a head appear in a woman’s beehive. A face bracketed by hair all around…No one else is saying it, but I’m just saying. This is the female equivalent of the first commercial; in more than just a gender targeted way.

The fact they chose to have the face in the beehive instead of coming out of her back like the first commercial is proof enough to me that this was intentional. If not the creative director needs to get to therapy ASAP, their subconscious is on overdrive. 

I guess time will tell if this subtle, sort of subtle, sexual reference will translate into sales. I mean, these ads could easily be tweaked to be Viagra commercials.

If only time would provide me with the answer to why mannequins have nipples. I’ve always presumed it was to create a sexual appeal in order to increase clothing sales. I just would like some confirmation. It’s hard living in a world without answers.  

Lamp Post

 

If I wasn't addicted, I am now! But seriously, McCafe Mocha, it's kinda a big deal.

Quick Response on Condoms

Quick Response on Condoms sounds useful. However, not when it is refering to scanning a Quick Response code on a condom. 

Now I have seen some awesome applications of QR codes. Like Heineken at a music festival. While this is innovative I question this campaign. In fact, I have more questions than I can vocalize type.

Planned Parenthood is attempting to convince Americans that safe sex is happening all over the US, mostly the southern part of Canada and one person in Queretaro, Mexico. 

55,000 condoms were distributed in Washington State all with QR codes on them. Before you get busy, they want you to scan the QR code and clock in your location so that teenagers and young adults around the world know they are not alone in their desire to avoid children and Chlamydia. See the website the QR codes lead to.

The current metrics of this campaign are: the site has had 65,000 visitors and 4,500 check-ins. The metric I am most curious about is the conversion rate, what percentage of the 4,500 actually have sex after they took the time to scan the QR code? (Oh, marketing jokes).

The Huffington Post has pointed a fundamental error with this campaign. 70% of condoms are bought by women. While 60% of all QR codes are scanned by men. 

I question the last stat because Adweek reported that women’s magazines were the biggest users of QR codes. The article doesn’t actually say the women are using the QR codes so I suppose these two “facts” aren’t in conflict. If they are both true maybe Planned Parenthood and women magazines need to question their tactics.

Up date: CEO of Planned Parenthood was arrested for exposing himself (according to CHCH news). I hate that this will be used as ammo to continue branding birth control users as unethical, horrible humans. And Sir Richard’s Slut campaign was starting to fight back…

Not sure I believe that slut can be appropriated and made into an empowered term. In fact, I’m strongly opposed. But the ‘Slut Walk’ was a good movement.   

Good Christian Bitches

Now I was rather disappointed with the GCB (Good Christian Bitches) premiere too. I had super high expectations for the following reasons:

1) Kristin Chenoweth, she is amazing. She played the original Glinda in one of the best musicals of all time Wicked. So when I saw she was part of this series I squealed and proceeded to sing “I’m going to make you Pop-u-lar” 

2) The trailer made me think of the Real Housewives series.

I have decided to give the show a second try, as sensational as the plot was it couldn’t rival the cattiness I have grown to love on the Real Housewives.

HOWEVER, it appear that many women were offend by the title Good Christian Bitches as they believe it was some type of oxymoron instead of an archetype commonly found it literature.

Christian publisher Tessie DeVore commented to Fox News "I find the title offensive. I don’t think those two words should be combined," DeVore said. "A show like this can damage perceptions [of Christians in this country].". Fox News being the perfect outlet for such opinions. Which apparently many religious groups share.

As such Kraft has pulled their ads for Philadelphia Cream Cheese from this show. To be fair Kraft has released the following statement:

Want to go to Toronto Fashion Week?

 Click this link.

No it’s not a contest. It’s a link to Maybelline's Youtube channel, they will be streaming Toronto Fashion Week. While you're there you can get beauty and fashion tips. This is a good way to leverage the sponsorship into actual sales.

It will be interesting to see how MasterCard (the title sponsor) gets sales from this. I guess they are creating the brand identity of fashion forward and edgy. Maybe fashion fanatics will remember MasterCard supports Fashion Week when choosing a credit card. Although I doubt it.

The sponsorship is def. a better fit for Maybelline.

Uni-brow Candy.

Yummy!?

These latest commercials from Skittles are shocking…For lack of a better word. While they may not be sexually explicit they are just as gross as the unauthorized Skittles commercials created by The Brothers.

Check them out:

More Dictator Anyone?

This is the newest print campaign for Amnesty International “a global movement of 3 million people committed to defending those who are denied justice or freedom”. 

This cake is an image of Fidel Castro, if you didn’t realize. To be honest I almost didn’t recognize him, it was the hat that caught my attention. This is an interesting visual way to get the viewers attention. I feel like the image makes the act of overthrowing a dictator seem more carefree and effortless than the current events in Syria would suggest. 

From the visual and caption “50 years together with you cutting down the voice of oppression” it is clear Amnesty International wants the viewer to realize they “just celebrated their birthday”. I understand the “birthday celebration”-esque campaigns for products like Oreos but the schema is too jovial for a charity as somber as Amnesty International.