Moonwalking

Watch this!

Laughing Babies

These commercials play on CNBC a lot during my morning breakfast. They never fail to get me smiling, no matter how groggy I am, so I thought I'd share them. They're also interesting because they appear to be videos picked up from YouTube uploads from "everyday people." Has anyone else seen mainstream media advertisements that do this?

Also, in case you're wondering who does the voiceover, it's Stockard Channing (took me forever to place the voice...). Now, if only AIG would do better than a 30 on the Corporate Equality Index.

AIG Laughing Baby Ethan Commercial

AIG Laughing Baby Jack Commercial

FreeRice.com -- Learn to Fight Hunger

FreeRice.com tests your vocabulary, and for each word you get right, 10 grains of rice are donated to the U.N. The effort began in early October and appears to be growing tremendously.

It's a sister site of Poverty.com, which is funded by the creator of TheHungerSite.com but seems intended to raise the dialogue of each country's financial commitment to ending poverty worldwide, dating back to a March 2002 agreement.

From FreeRice's FAQ:

"The rice is paid for by the advertisers whose names you see on the bottom of your vocabulary screen. This is regular advertising for these companies, but it is also something more. Through their advertising at FreeRice, these companies support both learning (free vocabulary for everyone) and reducing hunger (free rice for the hungry). We commend these companies for their participation at FreeRice."

I haven't seen anything about this in the corporate social responsibility world yet (I have been a little lax on keeping up as of late), but it's awesome to see that several companies have stepped forward as sponsors.

If you're like me and you're looking for a measurable way to make a difference, this is easy. Being a word-lover, I find it's addictive. And I'm studying for grad school admissions tests, so why not?

If you use it, make sure to disable Adblock Plus on the site -- clearly, the ads are essential!

Lastly, if you haven't already, sign the One Campaign declaration:

• "Learn to End Hunger" (9 Nov 2007, Nonprofit Technology Network)
• "What's the Word? We Can Help Feed the Hungry" (4 Nov 2007, Washington Post)


• YouTube Video: ONEbyONE

New York Times vs. Googlezon

The New York Times ended its subscription Times Select service on Tuesday [Times to Stop Charging for Parts of Its Web Site (18 Sep 2007, nytimes.com)] opening up [most of] its vault of its archives to the masses in the de rigueur, advertiser-supported fashion of the web.

"Our projections for growth on that paid subscriber base were low, compared to the growth of online advertising." - Vivian L. Schiller, senior vice president and general manager of NYTimes.com

Googlezon 1, NYTimes Goose-egg (if you haven't seen it, make sure you check out the Googlezon video)...

Now, as a general rule, I love free content. But I'm a little curious as to who actually clicks on ads. I rarely even notice text ads tacked onto search results, or on websites I frequent that use Google AdSense. I abhor most banner ads, particularly the epilepsy-inducing variety, and, even worse, the non-pop-up pop-up ads. Give me a good entertaining commercial or spiffy product placement....


Diet Coke - "Loft"

But, clearly other people click on the ads, or we wouldn't see Google gracing the cover of the Economist...


I'm a little curious as to what parts of NYTimes aren't going to be free access -- why not make the whole site free?

"In addition to opening the entire site to all readers, The Times will also make available its archives from 1987 to the present without charge, as well as those from 1851 to 1922, which are in the public domain. There will be charges for some material from the period 1923 to 1986, and some will be free."

Oh, well. NYTimes for the masses!

Lessons in Effective Communication Strategies

I really appreciate the leaps and bounds that the environmental/social justice communities have taken in terms of effectively communicating the seriousness of the issues we're facing. Like below.



Oddly enough for me, after a red-eye flight from Denver into Washington, DC (no less) on the morning of September 11, 2006, I had a full day of public speaking training at work. I had spent the weekend putting together my first halfway-decent PowerPoint presentation (IMHO) and salivating over what I could remember (or could find online) of Al Gore's presentation (which you can see in "An Inconvenient Truth").

Now, they made a movie of Al Gore giving a 90 minute presentation on Apple's KeyNote software:



Does anyone know how to find out how the movie did, in total? My Google skills
are failing me, at the moment...

You Can Sleep When You Are Dead

If this is what viral marketing is going to contribute to the world, give me more!!

• "You're supposed to add water to your Folgers?" (10 July 2006, NYTimes)


• TolerateMornings.com