“Modern Family” is a modern classic

Everyone knows the one person that sticks out in their family. Maybe it’s a dad who tries too hard to be “with it,” or maybe it’s a gay uncle who dresses like a clown. “Modern Family” has both of these people, and many more. The show is a refreshing twist of what a typical family is like nowadays. It’s not about moms and dads and their two and a half kids. It’s a show about a dysfunctional family of five, a gay couple who just adopted a baby, and a older man who married a much younger Colombian spitfire. Everyone in the show has their own distinct personality, which makes the characters that much more believable. Throughout the show I find myself relating people in my family to the characters on the show.

First I’ll start with the Dunphy family. The parents are Phil and Claire and they have three kids; Haley, Luke, and Alex. Phil tries too hard to be the cool dad, always throwing in teenager lingo. He uses this to try and relate to his kids, but it mostly comes off as embarrassing for his kids and makes viewers cringe. Claire is like the glue to the family. She is basically raising four kids, considering Phil acts mostly like a child. The oldest daughter, Haley, is a typical teenager. She always has her phone in hand and rolls her eyes at whatever her parents say. Luke is a lot like his dad, accident prone and a little slow on the uptake. The other daughter, Alex, is the smart child. She uses her brains to antagonize her siblings and tricks them into doing things. From the outside, the Dunphy’s seems like a normal family, but they have the same quirks that makes every family unique.

Claire’s brother, Mitchell, is living with his boyfriend, Cameron, and the two recently adopted a baby. Mitchell is more uptight, hates confrontation, and is struggling with raising a baby girl. Cameron, on the other hand, is more of a free spirit. He enjoys having fun, and yes, dressing up as a clown.

Claire and Mitchell’s father, Jay, is an older man who recently took a much younger, much better looking wife in Gloria. The couple seems to be a classic case of  “gold digging.” Gloria brings with her a grade-school aged son, Manny. He is something of a ladies man – though usually unsuccessful – and acts more mature than his age in the way he talks and dresses.

The show is filmed in a documentary style, similar to “The Office.” A hand-held style camera follows around characters, and they do interviews too. The storyline and acting are both very believable. I think that everyone can relate to characters and events in the show. “Modern Family” is by far my favorite new show on television in a long time.

Zombieland – Movie Review

Lots of laughs and plenty of bloodshed is the essence of “Zombieland.” In his directorial debut, Ruben Fleisher has masterfully created an artful balance between comedy and carnage. Jam-packed with flesh-eating gore, banjos to the face, and a surprise cameo appearance, this movie makes for an instant cult classic.

“Zombieland” takes place a few months after an outbreak similar to Mad Cow Disease has turned most of the world into zombies. Columbus (Jesse Eisenberg) is the only human alive, at least as far as he knows. He has always been a nervous wreck and socially awkward, which means avoiding people – and zombies in this case – comes easy to him. Columbus’ shut in personality plays to his advantage when evading the zombies. That and he follows a strict set of rules to avoid death by cannibalism.

While traveling back to his hometown, Columbus runs into Tallahassee (Woody Harrelson), a shoot-first-ask-questions-later kind of guy who prides himself on his sadistic ways of killing zombies. An unlikely pair is created with the play-it-safe rule making Columbus, and the gun toting good ol’ boy Tallahassee. The two’s differences in personality just make the movie that much funnier.

The duo comes across Wichita (Emma Stone) and Little Rock (Abigail Breslin), a pair of con artists, while they are on their way to a rumored zombie-free amusement park in California. The pair becomes four as they all travel together in search of a place free of zombies. The adventure and comedy that ensues is nothing short of hilarious.

All of the characters in the movie are great. Eisenberg puts on his Michael Cera style acting, which makes the viewer cringe and laugh at the same time. Harrelson creates a great southern stereotype, playing the boot-wearing, shoot-em-up cowboy who has an unhealthy obsession with finding the perfect Twinkie.

“Zombieland” takes viewers on an 81 minute blood-filled laugh riot.  There is more than enough gore and guts to satisfy horror fans, and instant one-liners for the comedic side. This is definitely a must-see in my books.

I Want Real News

Last week a 6-year-old boy had the whole nation holding its breath. Everyone thought this poor kid was trapped in some kind of hot air balloon contraption, with the possibility of falling out at any moment. Helicopters were called out, police chased the balloon, and every news station made it their top story. After all of the commotion during the day, we later find out it was all a hoax. The kid’s father is some kind of nutty professor with acting aspirations, and used this as an attempt to get a reality TV show.

I can understand how the media would make the story breaking news at first, since there was supposedly a kid trapped in a balloon that was gliding across Colorado. But, what I can’t understand is why the media are still making this whole ordeal newsworthy after we found out it was a hoax. The balloon boy story has been the biggest story all week, dominating over real issues like war or the swine flu. Even a debate as to whether Obama really deserves the Nobel Peace Prize would be more relevant than the balloon boy. This is just the latest incident in irrelevant news stories to be covered non-stop.

When I see a story like this still being talked about a week later, it makes me wonder who is still interested in this. I talk to people in school and work, and they agree that they are sick of hearing the same story. But, somehow it is still the top story.

This doesn’t just apply to the balloon boy incident. There are a number of irrelevant stories that have circulated for weeks on major news networks. Jon and Kate Gosselin getting a divorce and bickering back and forth is one. Another could be about Nadya Suleman, better known as the “Octomom.” The rumors and gossip surrounding Michael Jackson’s death was in the media for months, and it still continues. Stories like these have no real news value. These stories don’t directly affect the American public the way health care reform or a war in Afghanistan does.

So I go back to my original thought of why these stories are still in the headlines. Everyone I talk to gets sick of hearing about it after a couple days. It is confusing to me because it seems that me and the people I talk to don’t care about these stories, yet, they are still in the news.

When I turn on the news I want to see relevant stories. I want to see stories that affect and inform the general public. I want my news to be real news and less like an issue of The National Enquirer.

Communicating During a Crisis

Today there was a bunch of craziness at USF. From about 2 p.m. until almost 6 p.m. there were alerts going around that there was a gunman on campus and a guy with a knife. I was home at the time, so I got to watch the news and read about it online.

The interesting thing about this is the way me and my fellow students used Facebook and Twitter to talk about what was going on. After everything calmed down, I took a step back and realized how amazing the use of social media was in this situation. Hundreds of my friends – so probably thousands of others who are not my friend – were writing posts and tweets about the incident. It was amazing to me how fast people updated anything they knew about what was happening.

I guess I am thankful that technology is so advanced that information like this spreads faster than wildfire. Without text messaging and Twitter, I probably would have gone to my afternoon class as if nothing was wrong.

Even though what happened today was not a cool scenario, it was awesome to see so many people get together to inform and discuss a situation as it is happening.

A New Direction

Last Thursday I went to my first PRSSA meeting at USF. I am a member, but my class schedule conflicts with the meeting time. However, this past Thursday I had no class, so I went.

I am so glad I did. There was an awesome guest speaker that day. Jack Glasure, Executive Vice President of French | West | Vaughan (FWV), came to speak with us about his company, and what we as PR students need to do to prepare.

The biggest thing I took away from that morning was that I need to be an expert in something. I am expected to know everything about the basics of public relations – ethics, writing, press releases – but, I need to master a topic that will set me apart.

So, I started thinking about things that I am most interested in and have the most knowledge about. A few things came to mind; sports, music, health and fitness, and movies and TV.

I asked Glasure what topic he thought was under-represented. He told me movies.

Great, I love movies. I have always loved movies. I am great at knowing actors names and what movies they have been in. Now, I am thinking to myself, I want to become an expert in the topic of movies. Then I decided that I like TV equally, so I threw that in there too.

I figure I should blog about movies and TV now too. I even got a magazine subscription to Entertainment Weekly.

I am ready to conquer the world of movies and TV.

Social Media Immersion

Everybody in communications understands – or at least they should – how important social media are to a companies success. One of my biggest gripes about some marketing tactics are how they jump in to the social media scene and blast you with their campaign. They don’t take time to understand that medium’s culture. I think some companies jump in too early, when really they should be dipping their toes in first.

I think it is easy for a company, especially one that may not understand social media, to want to immerse themselves in the culture. Social media is probably the biggest trend in the Internet age. Companies know there are millions of people using social media Websites, and they just want a piece of the action. All they want to do is make their business more successful by getting involved. These companies need to take a step back, do their research, and then dive in.

While reading Fishing Where The Social Media Fish Are, I couldn’t help but nod along the way. Jason Heller makes some great points about how companies just want in on the social media action. Heller uses a great analogy, comparing companies to fisherman and consumers to fish. He is totally right. So many companies just see where the mass of people are – or fish in this case – and cast out their line. If a fisherman tries to go fishing with nothing on their line, they won’t catch anything. However, if a fisherman knows what a particular kind of fish like in a specific type of setting, they may get some bites.

The bottom line is that it’s important to understand your consumers. Companies need to put themselves in the consumers shoes. If you learn about and understand your audience, you can better market to them.

Can you define “best”?

Every day we are bombarded by advertising. It’s on television, magazines, billboards, the Internet, and even on the clothes we wear. We will actually pay a company to be a walking advertisement for them.

Research shows that the average American will see about 600 advertising messages per day. That is a lot to look at, though, most of it we see without even thinking about it. When you really look around you, you may notice company logos or advertising slogans that you never pay attention to. I guess this just means that we have become desensitized to the idea of ads.

In this new age of advertising, companies have so many platforms through which to reach consumers. The world of advertising has become a competition to stand out from the average. Since we see 600 ads per day, what can a company do to make you notice them. Does it need to be bigger, louder, or shinier?

This all kind of gets off topic from what I really wanted to talk about. What I really wanted to talk about is how companies will word their advertisements, and how we, as consumers, need to understand this to make better decisions.

How many times have you driven past a pizza place – or any company for that matter – and seen written across their name, “The Best Pizza in The World.” Do you believe it? Would you stop in for a slice? I mean, how can you not, it says it’s the best pizza in the world. But, can you define the word “best” for me? What’s more, define the word “greatest”, or “coolest.” You really can’t. These words are only used as a matter of opinion. So that pizza place can claim they have the best pizza in the world, but there is no way of measuring that. I suppose you could poll people, or have a contest, but otherwise that pizza place can claim their pizza is the best and not be wrong.

This is just my small example of how to better analyze what you are being shown every day. It is important to be smart consumers and not take everything at face value.

I feel like there are a ton of examples like this. For example, when you see an ad for an upcoming movie, how often do you see them quoting people who call the movie, “Brilliant” or “The Best Movie of the Year.” Who is saying that? My favorite thing to do when I see these commercials is try and read the fine print of the source of the quote. Most of the time it is some odd-sounding Website that I never heard of. For all we know, the movie companies paid some 30-year-old blogger in Minnesota who lives in his parent’s basement to write them a good review.

All I’m saying is look a little closer at the things you see. Maybe you will be surprised with what you find. Or maybe you will think a little more critically about where you buy your pizza.

What to do?

So I started this blog, but I didn’t think too much as to what direction I wanted it go. I have been told that it is important for a blog to have a goal or message of some kind. As a PR student it would make sense to talk about PR stuff. But, I don’t want think I want to write about that. I know that I need some kind of direction. I think I am going to write more about every day observations and other things I notice in my day. People and their decision making are very interesting. I want to bring up questions that may make readers think. I believe there are things in life that people go through every day, but they don’t dig deeper than the surface. I like to question common beliefs. I want to examine the previously unexamined.

Maybe that all is a bit overboard, but we’ll see.

I think I want my blog to read as a combination of a Seinfeld episode and a little kid who asks “why?” all the time.

The Internet and Social Media Today

Society today is much different than it was 30 years ago. Today, there is Facebook, Twitter, WordPress and Digg. All of these tools can be used to see what millions of people are saying about different companies.

The rise of the Internet and other Web-based communication has revolutionized the way companies interact with their customers.

David Scott, author The New Rules of Marketing & PR, does a great job of explaining how to use all of these tools to benefit a company.

Scott’s underlying theme throughout the book is that companies can use Web-based communication to see what consumers are saying about them, interact with their consumers, and give information to consumers.

The only way for companies to be successful today is by using the Internet. Millions of people are using the Internet to chat with friends, write letters, and even go shopping. People can even write reviews about products, so that other consumers can see what they think.

Today, everything is done with the click of a mouse. Scott is right on in his overall agenda that the Internet is vital to reaching consumers.

Scott discusses the old rules of marketing and PR, and the new rules of marketing and PR. All of the old rules are obviously outdated. None of them incorporate any kind of Web-based communication. We live in a different time where the rules need to be updated, and Scott does a great job of doing just that. Many of the new rules take in to account today’s general public. Society has a different view than it did 30 years ago. As Scott says, “People want authenticity, not spin,” and, “People want participation, not propaganda.”

According to Scott, “blogs have burst onto the content scene.” He is absolutely right. It seems like everybody has something to say on their own blog. Blogs are quick, easy, and free ways to write about anything you want. Scott says that it is important for companies to be reading blogs to see what people are saying about them. This is an easy and free way to get instant, unfiltered feedback about your company. Anyone can see what hundreds or thousands of people are saying about any given company at any given time. Companies can use this tool to help shape their company to better suit what their consumers want.

Similar to blogs, forums and wikis allow people to post comments and discuss topics. People use forums to do research about a product or service they might purchase. It is important for companies to see what people are talking about.

In the book, Scott gives an example of how a bad product review can spread like wildfire. This just goes to show important it is to know what people are blogging or posting about your company. In the example, Sony was the company getting the bad review. After a negative blog was posted about a Sony product, Sony did nothing. Scott says that this was the problem, and he couldn’t be more right. Sony should have been in the blogs and forums addressing the problem. Because Sony did nothing, it hurt their image.

A well known part of public relations is to know your audience. Scott addresses this when he talks about reaching buyers directly. One thing a company must do is let the public know their expertise. There has to be something that sets you apart from the rest, and this is what you should be selling to consumers. Scott makes this point, and this should be the backbone of any company. Scott goes on to talk about how companies need to market to their personas and niches. All of this is common knowledge, even to today’s society. It is obvious that a company will market to a group of people who are more inclined to buy their product. Although useful, many of Scott’s points about how to market seem very basic, just expanded on. To understand who to market your product to is something anyone can learn in a basic marketing class.

When it comes to news releases, Scott has come up with some new rules for this too. He makes it known that news releases are not just for the newspapers anymore. Compared to an old news release, Scott says that it is better to write news releases more often, include offers to consumers, and to include links to your company’s Web site. These are all great ideas. It makes sense to write news releases often, even if there is not a big announcement. This way, the company name can be seen more. It is also smart to include offers or deals in news releases. If Gap is sending out a news release, it would make sense for them to mention a new pair of jeans offered at a limited time price.

Social networking has become a way for millions of people to interact with each other. Everybody and their mother have a Facebook or Twitter account. Most people probably don’t have a blog, but most people definitely have a Facebook page. Scott mentions this as another great way to see what people are saying about your company and to create your own page to promote your company. Scott says that when marketing on Facebook, it is important not to generate hype. It makes more sense to send out little announcements, and not barrage your customers. Scott says that making a Facebook group is an easy way to expose yourself to consumers. This is a good idea. A company can create a page and non-intrusively invite people. Then the company can make little announcements, give advance notice to sales, and offer coupons. All of these things will make consumers feel special; as if they are part of an inner circle.

The New Rules of Marketing and PR is a great book for anyone in the field to learn about up-to-date ways to market and communicate with consumers. Even though some ideas seem obvious, Scott goes in to great detail about how to implement his idea. He even gives examples of how these ideas have worked and how they failed.

The technology today is immensely different from years ago. The way companies market and communicate to consumers has changed with the arrival of the Internet and all the Web-based communication that has been created since. Every company needs to step in to the twenty-first century and use the Internet to their advantage. Scott’s book is an excellent tool to make this happen.

What can social media do for you?

As a communications major in college, I find it very important to be in the loop when it comes to social media. Everybody (pretty much) has a Facebook, and I guess if you are still in high school, maybe a MySpace. But how about Twitter? A blog? In some surveys I have read, most students don’t have a Twitter account and just as many have never even heard of Twitter. Even less people write blogs. Personally- unless you have important information you feel necessary to disseminate to the general public – I don’t know why people write blogs. The only reason I even have a blog is to get experience in a new social media format. But that is just it, I am doing it for the experience.

I would hope that people majoring in communications are trying to use social media to their benefit. Social media are free services that help you portray yourself any way you want. They are also a great way to gain experience, so that one day you can tell an employer that you wrote a blog or managed a Twitter page. This can work in your advantage, yet, it seems that many people don’t think about what they are posting all over the internet. It should be well known by now that potential employers are googling and probably facebooking you. So why would you want 500 pictures of you at a club holding a drink? Or even updating your status saying how bad of a hangover you have? It’s one thing to do these things, but it is another to post it for the world to see. But I digress.

Social media are being used more and more every day. My generation is the one that will be expected to know how to use social media to help organizations communicate with clients and the public. We have, and are, growing up with it. I just think it’s important to learn and use as many different social media outlets as possible to give yourself an advantage.

So get on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, LinkedIn, WordPress, Blogspot, Wikipedia, Digg, Flickr, YouTube, and whatever else you can. Just use it to your advantage.