What is popular is not always right. What is right is not always popular

Twitter. We all know of it. Some of us have accounts on it. Some of us are regular tweeters.

Today twitter can be used and manipulated to give businesses, projects and individuals exposure and build up an interest in them. Having twitter can elevate a designers credibility within the industry and ultimately can increase their chance of finding work.

A social infographic by website-monitoring.com found that in 2010:

There are more than 106 millions accounts on twitter

The number of twitter users increases by 300,000 every day

Twitter gets more than 3 billion requests every day, generated by over 180 million unique visitors

Tweeters are sending 55 million tweets per day, so 640 tweets per second

Twitter’s search engine gets 600 million queries every day

In a nutshell, that means that there is potentially a massive audience to your tweets and your channel. Twitter allows users to become integrated within a huge network, and to increase the change of getting noticed tweets should be interesting, relevant and of a subject that the target audience are searching for. 

Twitter is a very current network. Not only in terms of its popularity at present, but in contexts of the way it operates. If a topic is noticed to be trending, it will be added to the trending topics list which is visible to all tweeters. Trending topics are heavily searched both due to them being related to popular talking points, and also because people may want to investigate as to why a topic may be trending if it isn’t immediately obvious.

This leads to people tweeting about trending topics to increase channel exposure. On occasions, this could work, however the magnitude of twitter means that a topic that is trending is likely to be tweeted about hundreds of times an hour. Therefore tweets easily get lost amongst others about the same trend, however once a topic becomes popular enough to be trending, there will be an additional surge of interest, until other topics overtake it.

Today (15th January 2010), one of the trending topics was ‘RIP NELSON MANDELA’. Needless to say I noticed it immediately, reading it gave me a feeling of sadness. It said that Nelson Mandela, a truly phenomenal character and inspiration had passed away. I looked through the news headlines and there was no mention of it, I googled it and still nothing. I realised that it wasn’t true. It had been fabricated, spread, re-tweeted and following that; once people had realised that it was in fact incorrect information they continued to register their disgust whilst continue to quote the trending topic, thus keeping the topic in the spotlight.

The fact that someone would formulate then tweet something so awful is very disrespectful to Mr Mandela, his family and everything that he has strived to work for and establish over his life. However the nature of twitter and its users has meant that people have latched onto this worldwide trend, and although are predominantly expressing their disgust in it, it is continuing to raise the profile and ‘popularity’ or the topic.

Is it right to tweet about something just because its trending? There’s nothing wrong with doing it, it just doesn’t exactly promote your own imagination and originality. However when it’s regarding something as sensitive as mortality, especially of somebody as righteous as Nelson Mandela, more thought should be given as to the consequences of tweeting about it.

A prime example of what your mother always told you: What is popular is not always right. What is right is not always popular

Expletives in Advertising: Clever or Careless?

As a child growing up I didn’t encounter “the naughty words” until the later years of primary school. Even when I became aware of their existence, regardless of whether I knew what they meant or not, I knew of their status as a “naughty word.” Following my awareness of the words, I only remember very few occasions of hearing somebody using any of these words, despite my eager hoping that I would.

Nowadays, walking down the street, sitting on the bus and out shopping, I regularly hear many examples of these words being used. Yes, my maturity level has advanced significantly from the 10 year old I once was however what about the 10 year olds of today? Do they still consider these words “naughty words” or do they talk back to their parents using them?

These words have become more integrated into the language and like it or not, swearing has become more acceptable and is no longer seen as taboo.

Is it acceptable? Well, we say thousands of words every day, why should these words hold such negative importance? Surely if children grow up seeing these words as being just an extended vocabulary, they won’t be used with malice and hatred? As the mainstream attitude to swearing has changed, even if individuals take a stand by not saying swear words, there will always be people on the flipside putting a curse word into every sentence that they say.

So how does this affect advertising and product marketing? Well this comes down to the market you are targeting. By putting an expletive into a brand name, a product or an advertising campaign, the size of the market sector will decrease staight away. Parents with small children will avoid the stores like the plague, middle class may label the brand as ‘common’ and although an expletive in a store window might attract attention for its boldness, it will rarely attract interest, apart from potentially teenagers without an income.

Featuring a swear word not only immediately affects customer interest, but also in the long term impacts the brands reputation. If consumers consciously decided against buying products because of the advertising campaign, the association will remain and it is likely that in future the customer will develop a stigma against purchasing from the brand.

Consumers aren’t looking for cheap, but for value for money. The use of an expletive would ‘cheapen’ the brand perception. Product pricing therefore would be very challenging; price it highly and consumers will turn to competitors who supply alternatives without the negative perception, otherwise if priced reasonably, its perceived value would be so low that consumers could easily buy from other cheaper stores and still fell like their purchase is more valuable. It almost works as a competitive disadvantage.

Swearing in advertising is a very risky strategy. Its long term effects are felt by the brand and unfortunately, more strongly, by the youth of today. It blurs the boundaries of what is right and gives the perception of these words having little impact when used publically. Swearing isn’t a crime, but morally its consequences for the attitudes of children today aren’t reversible. Their more relaxed attitudes will continue to push these boundaries.

The Traffic Light Tree

You've seen Westminster, you've seen Trafalgar Square and in most likelihood you've seen Oxford Street. However London boasts far more than the clichéd locations within the pages of your standard travel guide. Some of the best and most unusual sights are sitting around the most unlikeliest of corners and unbeknown to most of the city.

Image Copyright Dan Scar 28/12/06   http://citynoise.org/article/4212

A prime example of this is a piece of sculpture referred to as the traffic light tree. It is set in the Docklands area, with a backdrop of Canary Wharf. The artist Pierre Vivant has been quoted explaining the nature of the sculpture and the choice of location: "The Sculpture imitates the natural landscape of the adjacent London Plane Trees, while the changing pattern of the lights reveals and reflect the never ending rhythm of the surrounding domestic, financial and commercial activities"

It is located on the roundabout at the junctions of Heron Quay Bank, Marsh Wall and Westferry Road.

An interesting observation of this sculpture is how the road users interact with it. The cognitive response of drivers who are unfamiliar with the area and haven't come into contact with the traffic light tree is to try and figure out how they are to progress past the roundabout despite mixed signals. The 'tree' contains 75 sets of lights which are each controlled by computer.

The traffic light tree was recognised as the favourite in survey commisioned by Saga Motor Insurance to find the best and worst roundabout in the country. It remains today to be just as unique as when it was initially installed.