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lin. woods’ resume lin. woods inspired media. media kit (1 )
. she is also the president of the faith based media and entertainment firm, lin. woods inspired media and the editor of
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about us - lin. woods, editor, urltoken | lin. woods inspired media
in 2000, woods returned to st. louis and created the inspired company. through this faith - based media business, she created the inspired entertainment seminar (educational series hosted on college campuses), the inspired entertainment report (aired in more than 50 markets via abc radio networks’ rejoice musical soul food format) and provided script writing services for general mills’ serving up soul radio show. it currently produces lin. woods gospel entertainment podcast, available on itunes .
out of hours contact: aimee remey investor relations, inspired entertainment inc. telephone: + 1 646 620 6737 email: aimee. remey @ urltoken
lin. woods inspired media is a faith - based and family entertainment site with an african american focus. created by a family entertainment / faith base editor and writer, it features positive entertainment articles, faith - based celebrity interviews, beauty news, inspirational music reviews, tv / film news and positive lifestyle tips. it is all designed to inspire your life .
inspired entertainment, inc. announces third quarter 2017 results to be released on august 7, 2017 at 7: 30 am et; conference call to follow
. participants should ask to be joined into the inspired entertainment call. a replay of the call will be available one hour after the conclusion of the call until
ads are meticulously timed and spread through multiple channels, said an entertainment industry source .
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left behind games inc. publishes christian video games and is a christian social network provider. their trade names include inspired media entertainment, lb games®, cloud 9 games® and mypraize®. the team believes that their products are quality interactive and entertainment experiences to perpetuate positive values and appeal to mainstream and faith - based audiences .
over the past decade, woods has been aligned with the top industry urban entertainment publication, the urban network. she was the editor - in chief of its 2001 spin - off, urban inspired. today she is both a partner and the family entertainment / faith based writer and editor for
your daily dose of the latest in fashion, beauty, and entertainment — delivered straight to your inbox .
if someone is having a bad day and reads my blog, hears my inspired entertainment report or checks out my celebrity interviews on my podcast and is touched by one of those experiences, i’ve achieved my goal, which is to inspire, encourage and uplift lives through media. ”
social media has transformed how culture works. digital crowds have become powerful cultural innovators—a new phenomenon called crowdculture. they’re now so effective at producing creative entertainment that it’s impossible for companies to compete .
[ gay talese can’t name a single woman writer who inspired him. twitter has a few suggestions. ]
hampton said he would also like to see celebrities address “thug brutality” on social media .
we launched inspired virtual races at the beginning of 2014. since then, inspired and sisal have been working together to constantly innovate contents and services for ensuring an extraordinary player satisfaction and a highly profitable business. thanks to the successful partnership with inspired, sisal became one of the online market leader in italy in virtual sports .
theory - 3 media’s third ski movie released in 2007 a high definition project documenting the free skiing travels of the pacific northwest. produced by: theory - 3 media [ … ]
yes, gay talese actually admires many women writers. social media, not so much .
the films were launched with tiny media buys and then seeded out on social media platforms. both were extremely influential, were watched by tens of millions, generated huge media hits, and helped drive impressive sales and profit gains. each won the grand prix at the cannes advertising festival .
then, wanting to give his own amen to the moment, timberlake simply wrote a basic tweet saying
# inspired .
social media was supposed to usher in a golden age of branding. but things didn’t turn out that way .
yes, gay talese actually admires many women writers. social media, not so much. - the washington post
the social media calls by heads of respected news outlets for an appropriation prize showcase
a media that is woefully lacking in inclusion
and that
is ill - prepared to actually have the debates ,
wente said .
24 / 7 support inspired provides training on all aspects of using the virtuals dashboard to enable an operator to be as self - sufficient as they wish in their management of the events schedule. inspired’s dedicated virtuals support team is also on hand to assist anytime 24 / 7 / 365 .
he is critical of the game on other grounds, though, saying that in trying to deliver entertainment as well as a message, the developers have fallen short on both .
inspired is a global games technology company, supplying virtual sports, mobile gaming and server based gaming systems with associated terminals and digital content to regulated betting and gaming operators around the world. inspired currently operates more than 27, 000 digital gaming terminals and supplies its virtual sports products in more than 40, 000 venues and on over 100 websites in 30 countries. inspired employs over 800 employees in the uk and elsewhere, developing and operating digital games and networks .
years of proven results: case studies from industry leaders from zero to €1. 2bn in 12 months. the inspired success of the italian virtual sports market
virtual rush trotting was developed especially for the italian market after inspired’s product team analysed the most popular sports for live betting in italy and responded by creating trotting .
the global islamic media front has released a game called quest for bush, in which players aim to kill the us president .
inspired is a global games technology company, supplying virtual sports, mobile gaming and server based gaming systems with associated terminals and digital content to regulated lottery, betting and gaming operators around the world. inspired currently operates approximately 30, 000 digital gaming terminals and supplies its virtual sports products through more than 40, 000 retail channels and over 100 websites, in approximately 35 gaming jurisdictions worldwide. inspired employs approximately 800 employees in the uk and elsewhere, developing and operating digital games and networks .
a painter' s work is equated to
cultural genocide
after she' s accused of appropriating elements from indigenous styles — she says she was merely inspired .
woods became a celebrity journalist after taking on the host / writer / co - producer duties at the syndicated entertainment news program inside gospel (which boasted five million listeners world - wide) .
don’t go yet! try out our entertainment newsletter. you’ll get celeb tidbits, late - night highlights, and the latest on tv and movies in your inbox, six days a week .
historically, cultural innovation flowed from the margins of society—from fringe groups, social movements, and artistic circles that challenged mainstream norms and conventions. companies and the mass media acted as intermediaries, diffusing these new ideas into the mass market. but social media has changed everything .
i forget this forum sometimes... i was truly inspired by @ ijessewilliams speech because i really do feel that we are all one... a human race
companies have sunk billions of dollars into producing content on social media, hoping to build audiences around their brands. but consumers haven’t shown up .
julianne hough' s ill - advised halloween costume reignited the question: is it ever ok to appear in blackface? perhaps those defending the 25 - year - old actress have forgotten the painful history of blackface in entertainment and media. classic films often serve as a reminder of our nation' s ugly racist past whenever we dust off our vhs tapes .
social media binds together communities that once were geographically isolated, greatly increasing the pace and intensity of collaboration. now that these once - remote communities are densely networked, their cultural influence has become direct and substantial. these new crowdcultures come in two flavors: subcultures, which incubate new ideologies and practices, and art worlds, which break new ground in entertainment .
the debate over cultural appropriation is ongoing, but the response to it is changing, now that collective voices can find common ground on social media .
correction: a previous version of this article referred to
birth of a nation
as the first feature - length film. it was not. a quote from downy cited to entertainment weekly has also been updated .
marketers originally thought that facebook, youtube, and twitter would let them bypass mainstream media and connect directly with customers. hoping to attract huge audiences to their brands, they spent billions producing their own creative content. but consumers never showed up. in fact, social media seems to have made brands less significant .
chipotle’s films are wrongly understood simply as great examples of branded content. they worked because they went beyond mere entertainment. the films were artful, but so are many thousands of films that don’t cut through. their stories weren’t particularly original; they had been repeated over and over with creative vigor for the previous decade or so. but they exploded on social media because they were myths that passionately captured the ideology of the burgeoning preindustrial food crowdculture. chipotle painted an inspired vision of america returning to bucolic agricultural and food production traditions and reversing many problems in the dominant food system .
social media allows fans to create rich communities around entertainers, who interact directly with them in a barrage of tweets, pins, and posts. sports teams now hire social media ambassadors to reach out to fans in real time during games, and once the game is over, the players send along insider photos and hold locker - room chats. beyond the major platforms, new media sites like vevo, soundcloud, and apple music are spurring even more direct digital connections .
talese, 84, a pioneering magazine writer of the 1960s new journalism movement, stunned some audience members saturday at a boston university writing conference when he reportedly couldn’t name any female journalists who inspired him .
inspired by photographs passed down from scott' s grandfather, filmmaker rey scott, the works in this series mime the harrowing episodes of his travels and subsequent 1941 oscar - winning documentary ,
kukan .
so, when timberlake tweeted that he was
inspired
by jesse' s speech, it just struck a lot of people as odd at best and grossly aloof at worst. i think justin timberlake was genuinely inspired when he heard the speech, but that when he heard the last part about
trying us on like costumes
that it probably never occurred to him that some think he does just that .
inspired’s virtual sports are now available to italian players in over 7, 000 betting venues and on all of the main websites. it is also the only provider that supplies virtual sports for mobile. the mobile channel is a huge area of growth and is driving 30% of the online operators’ revenues. it currently facilitates approximately €85 million a month in bets across the whole of its virtual sports portfolio in italy. inspired now supplies over 90% of the land - based and online virtual sports market in italy. from a standing start, inspired’s software has supported the development of a €1billion p. a. market in just six months .
inspired’s virtual sports were selected as the products of choice by all of the major italian operators including snai, lottomatica, sisal, eurobet, cogetech, intralot, gamenet and microgame, sommettendo. it, and betflag .
in talking to singer erykah badu for a story in interview magazine, lamar said he shies away from social media so he doesn' t get caught up in the hype .
the debate over cultural appropriation, its freedoms and limits is nothing new, but the response to it is changing, now that collective voices can find common ground on social media .
the fbi wednesday arrested an ohio man for allegedly plotting an isis - inspired attack on the u. s. capitol, where he hoped to set off a series of bombs aimed at lawmakers, whom he allegedly considered enemies .
much like the epic plots of 1940s cinema, scott' s large - scale mixed media paintings in
kukan series
depict the peaks and valleys of heroic characters and sweeping adventures .
farrah abraham caused a stir during sunday night’s mtv movie & tv awards after she appeared on the red carpet wearing a bollywood - inspired outfit, complete with henna art (mehndi) on her hands and a bindi on her forehead .
as a central feature of their digital strategy, companies made huge bets on what is often called branded content. the thinking went like this: social media would allow your company to leapfrog traditional media and forge relationships directly with customers. if you told them great stories and connected with them in real time, your brand would become a hub for a community of consumers. businesses have invested billions pursuing this vision. yet few brands have generated meaningful consumer interest online. in fact, social media seems to have made brands less significant. what has gone wrong ?
how did this happen? the story begins with the youth subcultures that formed around video games. when they landed on social media, they became a force. the once - oddball video - gaming - as - entertainment subculture of south korea went global, producing a massive spectator sport, now known as e - sports, with a fan base approaching 100 million people. (amazon recently bought the e - sports network twitch for $ 970 million. )
these early (pre - social - media) digital efforts led companies to believe that if they delivered hollywood - level creative at internet speed, they could gather huge engaged audiences around their brands. thus was born the great push toward branded content. but its champions weren’t counting on new competition. and this time it came not from big media companies but from the crowd .
theory - 3 media, a wonderfully small, goofy collaboration of canadians and americans, brings you safety meeting this summer. a film about spiny floppy things, big lines, [ … ]
lin. woods is a 20 - year veteran family entertainment and faith base editor, speaker, writer, voice over talent and children’s book author (kenny can: don’t judge me). this fearless woman of faith was raised in st. louis and in the church .
copyright © 2018 salon media group, inc. reproduction of material from any salon pages without written permission is strictly prohibited. salon ® is registered in the u. s. patent and trademark office as a trademark of salon media group inc. associated press articles: copyright © 2016 the associated press. all rights reserved. this material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed .
woods lives her life empowering others to their greatest potential through inspirational media. she says, “i believe we are all here to uplift one another. that’s why i write inspiring news and content .
this early form of branded content worked well because the entertainment media were oligopolies, so cultural competition was limited. in the united states, three networks produced television programming for 30 weeks or so every year and then went into reruns. films were distributed only through local movie theaters; similarly, magazine competition was restricted to what fit on the shelves at drugstores. consumer marketing companies could buy their way to fame by paying to place their brands in this tightly controlled cultural arena .
erika gentry, a multi - media artist and educator, will share her art projects during a 6: 30 p. m. sept. 21 presentation at the napa valley college performing arts center .
social media has expanded and democratized these subcultures. with a few clicks, you can jump into the center of any subculture, and participants’ intensive interactions move seamlessly among the web, physical spaces, and traditional media. together members are pushing forward new ideas, products, practices, and aesthetics—bypassing mass - culture gatekeepers. with the rise of crowdculture, cultural innovators and their early adopter markets have become one and the same .
five days after beyoncé’s super bowl half - time show in which dancers were clad in black panther inspired costumes and one dancer held up a
justice 4 mario woods
sign, the controversy continues to grow. there’s an anti - beyoncé protest rally in front of the nfl headquarters planned for feb. 16, a boycott beyonce sign - up page, and a social media hashtag # boycottbeyonce that people are using when addressing the performance - - from both sides of the issue .
in subsequent tweets, while his intentions again seemed pure, he doubled down on the
all lives matter
motif saying
i was truly inspired by jesse williams' speech because i really do feel that we are all one... a human race .
social media helped stoke the controversy following beyoncé’s performance, but treva lindsey, assistant professor of women' s, gender, and sexuality studies at the ohio state university, said facebook and twitter are not to blame .
the campaign to defend the constitution and the christian alliance for progress, two online political groups, plan to demand today that wal - mart dump left behind: eternal forces, a pc game inspired by a series of christian novels that are hugely popular, especially with teens .
as one of the largest operators in italy, with over 800 venues, it felt like a natural fit for us to partner with the leading supplier of virtual sports in italy. gtech has been the first italian company to go live with inspired virtual sports for both the online and the retail market and we have been very impressed by inspired since the beginning, but the biggest winners have been the customers. the company is constantly innovating, its cutting - edge virtual sports platform and library of exciting games ensures that user experience is second to none .
on oct. 5, 2 rules fine art, will unveil its latest solo exhibition by painter, mixed media artist and photographer michelle scott, featuring pieces from her most recent body of work ,
kukan series .
to brand effectively with social media, companies should target crowdcultures. today, in pursuit of relevance, most brands chase after trends. but this is a commodity approach to branding: hundreds of companies are doing exactly the same thing with the same generic list of trends. it’s no wonder consumers don’t pay attention. by targeting novel ideologies flowing out of crowdcultures, brands can assert a point of view that stands out in the overstuffed media environment .
coca - cola offers another cautionary tale. in 2011 the company announced a new marketing strategy—called liquid & linked—with great fanfare. going all in, it shifted its emphasis from “creative excellence” (the old mass - media approach) to “content excellence” (branded content in social media). coke’s jonathan mildenhall claimed that coke would continually produce “the world’s most compelling content, ” which would capture “a disproportionate share of popular culture, ” doubling sales by 2020 .
entertainment “properties”—performers, athletes, sports teams, films, television programs, and video games—are also hugely popular on social media. across all the big platforms you’ll find the usual a - list of celebrities dominating. on youtube musicians rihanna, one direction, katy perry, eminem, justin bieber, and taylor swift have built massive audiences. on twitter you’ll find a similar cast of singers, along with media stars like ellen degeneres, jimmy fallon, oprah, bill gates, and the pope. fans gather around the tweets of sports stars cristiano ronaldo, lebron james, neymar, and kaká, and teams such as fc barcelona and real madrid (which are far more popular than the two dominant sports brands, nike and adidas). on instagram you’ll find more of the same .
gaming comedy is just one of hundreds of new genres that crowdculture has created. those genres fill every imaginable entertainment gap in popular culture, from girls’ fashion advice to gross - out indulgent foods to fanboy sports criticism. brands can’t compete, despite their investments. compare pewdiepie, who cranks out inexpensive videos in his house, to mcdonald’s, one of the world’s biggest spenders on social media. the mcdonald’s channel (# 9, 414) has 204, 000 youtube subscribers. pewdiepie is 200 times as popular, for a minuscule fraction of the cost .
last night katy perry, dressed in a modified kimono with her face heavily powdered, opened the american music awards with a geisha - inspired performance of her new single, “unconditionally. ” within minutes, complaints about her get - up as an offensive example of cultural appropriation and stereotyping flooded in on social media, as did reactions to those reactions: virtual eye - rolls, posts predicting the furious arrival of the pc police, and several comments along the lines of “just wait till tumblr gets mad at this! ”
while promoters insist that branded content is a hot new thing, it’s actually a relic of the mass media age that has been repackaged as a digital concept. in the early days of that era, companies borrowed approaches from popular entertainment to make their brands famous, using short - form storytelling, cinematic tricks, songs, and empathetic characters to win over audiences. classic ads like alka - seltzer’s “i can’t believe i ate the whole thing, ” frito - lay’s “frito bandito, ” and farrah fawcett “creaming” joe namath with noxema all snuck into popular culture by amusing audiences .
there’s also something peculiar about her pairing of japanese— and chinese — imagery with the song “unconditionally, ” which was originally inspired by a trip to madagascar. maybe it’s just the track’s pounding percussion that inspired the theme and (what looks like) taiko drumming. but considering how prism is perry’s most spiritual album to date, the performance suggests perry’s taken up an eat, pray, love style reinvention centered on eastern spirituality—with “eastern” construed as broadly and monolithically as possibly, encompassing the shinto - shrine imagery of her ama’s performance, the karma shout outs on prism ’s “legendary lover ,
and on .
inspired are the creators and world leaders in the field of virtual sports. its award - winning visual effects team have been recreating the action of some of the most famous sporting events and athletes from around the globe. with over 15 years of visual effects experience, the magic of virtuals continues to amaze players !
as a little boy, lamar got to experience hip - hop firsthand when the video for tupac shakur and dr. dre' s
california love
was filmed near his compton home. the 8 - year - old made his way to the set, and
it just inspired me ,
lamar recalled .
talese said he thought the question from an audience member was specifically asking about his formative years — whether any women journalists inspired him when he was a young man. and his answer to that question remains “no, ” according to the globe, because there frankly weren’t many women journalists making their mark at that time .
such forward - looking statements are subject to known and unknown risks, uncertainties, assumptions and other important factors, many of which are outside of inspired' s control that could cause actual results to differ materially from the results discussed in the forward - looking statements. additional factors that could cause actual results to differ materially from those expressed or implied in forward - looking statements can be found in inspired' s most recent annual report on form 10 - k and subsequently filed quarterly reports on form 10 - q and current reports on form 8 - k, which are available, free of charge, at the sec' s website at urltoken .
passionate about her faith, inspirational music, radio, speaking and writing, the magna cum laude graduate of fisk university - nashville started in radio as a copywriter and on - air personality at what is now clear channel radio - st. louis. from there, the 2005 who’s who in st. louis honoree moved to los angels and landed various positions in entertainment .
3 .
swing time
( 1936) this is widely considered the best dance musical by legendary acting partners fred astaire and ginger rogers. inspired by real - life tap dancer bill
bojangles
robinson, astaire mimicked the actor' s style and appeared in blackface for the musical number ,
bojangles in harlem .
the journalism legend was distressed to see his reputation damaged by the “irresponsible form of journalism on the internet these days, ” he told leung. (talese appears not to have an active social - media presence, not that there’s anything wrong with that .) “
11 .
tropic thunder
( 2008) robert downey jr. was initially wary of what the media reaction to his character - - a white method actor who undergoes pigmentation alteration surgery in order to play a black army officer - - would be in the ben stiller - written film. on playing a black sergeant (or really, a white actor playing a black sergeant), downey jr. told entertainment weekly :
i dove in with both feet. if i didn’t feel it was morally sound, or that it would be easily misinterpreted that i’m just c. thomas howell in [ soul man ], i would’ve stayed home. ”
as a result, they enjoy intense customer loyalty and superior sales and profits, and garner loads of free media coverage. in business, few achievements are more prized than creating an iconic brand. yet the two dominant branding models are not designed to do the job .
the rapper has been dominating social media and energized the music industry with his new album ,
to pimp a butterfly .
he broke a spotify record this week when the album was streamed more than 9. 6 million times around the world after its surprise release monday .
then, perhaps not surprisingly, the controversy started. almost immediately, game reviewers, the media and various religiously - affiliated non profits declared that the game rewarded players for killing characters who did not convert to christianity. while widely reported, this turned out to not be true .
invoking the styles of (and nostalgia for) the 1940s era of global cultural and political adventure, these mixed media paintings continue the journey started by her grandfather and the 1941 film ,
kukan ,
bringing the story back around and exploring these themes from a contemporary vantage .
do you ever witness news or have a story that should be featured on pulse nigeria? submit your stories, pictures and videos to us now via whatsapp: + 2349055172167, social media @ pulsenigeria247: # pulseeyewitness & dm or email: eyewitness @ urltoken. more information here .
take the personal care category. three brands—dove, axe, and old spice—have generated tremendous consumer interest and identification in a historically low - involvement category, one you would never expect to get attention on social media. they succeeded by championing distinctive gender ideologies around which crowdcultures had formed .
these three brands broke through in social media because they used cultural branding—a strategy that works differently from the conventional branded - content model. each engaged a cultural discourse about gender and sexuality in wide circulation in social media—a crowdculture—which espoused a distinctive ideology. each acted as a proselytizer, promoting this ideology to a mass audience. such opportunities come into view only if we use the prism of cultural branding—doing research to identify ideologies that are relevant to the category and gaining traction in crowdcultures. companies that rely on traditional segmentation models and trend reports will always have trouble identifying those opportunities .
inspired by photographs passed down from scott' s grandfather, filmmaker rey scott, the works in this series mime the harrowing episodes of his travels and subsequent 1941 oscar - winning documentary ,
kukan ,
revealing uncharted war torn china during the late 1930s and 1940s and his relationship with the film' s chinese - american producer, li ling - ai .
“there has never been a sustained moment of racial harmony in our nation' s history. this moment is no exception. i think that there is heightened awareness of existing tensions and a growing public discussion around issues of race and racism ,
lindsey said. “social media provides a new space for these discussions to occur. it also allows for people to be ‘anonymous’ in particular ways, which can promote more vitriolic rhetoric. social media has been one of many platforms for racial justice activists, but it has also been a platform for people to espouse bigotry and prejudice. ”
the biggest challenge was building a whole new market from a standing start. with that in mind, inspired’s first priority was establishing a local presence via the formation of an office in rome and the appointment of a local team. it also heavily invested in r & d to learn about the italian player, to ensure that the content it developed was relevant and engaging .
dove leads the body - positive crowd. axe’s aggressive stand set up a perfect opportunity for another brand to champion the feminist side of this “gender war. ” dove was a mundane, old - fashioned brand in a category in which marketing usually rode the coattails of the beauty trends set by fashion houses and media. by the 2000s the ideal of the woman’s body had been pushed to ridiculous extremes. feminist critiques of the use of starved size 0 models began to circulate in traditional and social media. instead of presenting an aspiration, beauty marketing had become inaccessible and alienating to many women .
but the debate quickly moved in a different direction online when prominent leaders in media, including former rogers executive ken whyte, national post editor in chief anne marie owens and cbc managing editor steven ladurantaye, began offering up money to support the so - called appropriation prize mentioned in the op - ed .
the bête noire of the preindustrial food movement is fast food, so the idea that a major fast food company would promote that story was particularly potent with the crowd. chipotle was taking on pink slime! moreover, boutique locavore food was expensive, but at chipotle people could now assuage their worries with a $ 7 burrito. because they tapped into anxieties percolating in the crowdculture, chipotle’s films never had to compete as great entertainment .
“rebecca solnit’s book, “river of shadows, ” inspired me to explore the phenomenon of the “persistence of vison, ” the way we experience subjects while moving, but looking out from modern transportation versus the 1880s railroad era. the parallel is photography, and the way we view the world. i explore how we see the world today through the use of the mobile device. ”
the latest controversy to spark an outcry online: an editorial written in an obscure literary publication that most people have never read. a few tweets later, it has not only revived a conversation about appropriation, but has also led to the editor' s resignation and a series of contentious posts from media heads .
this weekend' s arrival of
ghost in the shell ,
the live - action adaptation of the landmark japanese anime film, is being met with criticism from the media action network for asian americans (manaa), which is condemning what it calls the
whitewashed
casting of scarlett johansson in the lead role .
she worked in casting at warner bros. television and artist development at warner bros. records. after these stints, she launched her own media company, lin. woods associates. the company produced syndicated radio shows and provided scriptwriting, voice - over and production services for companies such as warner bros. records, virgin records and motown records .
the alleged activities of cornell highlight the continued interest of us - based violent extremists to support designated foreign terrorist organizations overseas, such as isil, by committing terrorist acts in the united states, ” the bulletin read. “terrorist group members and supporters will almost certainly continue to use social media platforms to disseminate english language violent extremist messages .
the rise of new technologies that allowed audiences to opt out of ads—from cable networks to dvrs and then the internet—made it much harder for brands to buy fame. now they had to compete directly with real entertainment. so companies upped the ante. bmw pioneered the practice of creating short films for the internet. soon corporations were hiring top film directors (michael bay, spike jonze, michel gondry, wes anderson, david lynch) and pushing for ever - more - spectacular special effects and production values .
the bet awards were sunday night. even though bet is no longer black - owned (viacom owns bet), the bet awards are one of those sacred nights where unapologetic blackness is celebrated without explanation or hesitancy. social media has breathed new life into such awards shows, allowing millions of people to share each high and low moment together on twitter .
lyndon was immediately swept up in the national media, including an interview on the fox news cable channel that left him feeling battered. “i learned from that that fox is not necessarily right leaning, ” says lyndon, who describes himself as a political moderate who was naive about the amount of controversy the subject matter of his games would generate. disappointing sales followed .
a spot on gangneung' s jumunjin beach has become a bustling tourist zone after guardian shot a scene there. recent social media photos showed lines of visitors waiting to pose for photos. merchants have set up shop nearby with signposts that read ,
muffler, flower and umbrella can be rented for 1, 000 won
, allowing visitors to recreate the scene from the show .
a brand can sustain its cultural relevance by playing off particularly intriguing or contentious issues that dominate the media discourse related to an ideology. that’s what ben & jerry’s did so well in championing its sustainable business philosophy. the company used new - product introductions to playfully spar with the reagan administration on timely issues such as nuclear weapons, the destruction of the rain forests, and the war on drugs .
because stereotypes remain harmful. almost a decade ago, gwen stefani, inspired by the street fashions of japanese youth, introduced the harajuku girls, a foursome of backup dancers who doted on her from behind, never spoke in public, and whose names were taken directly from stefani’s clothing line. comedian margaret cho, in a 2005 blog post that’s still depressingly relevant, likened them to a “minstrel show” —the same wording new york ’s jody rosen used to describe miley cyrus’s vmas performance earlier this year .
that' s why i try my best to stay away from social media as much as possible ,
he said with a laugh .
when you go on your twitter or look down your timeline and it' s all great positivity, i love that. but at the same time, it can really divert you from what your purpose is or what you' re trying to do .
what happened? the issue is, social media has transformed how culture works, in a way that weakens certain branding techniques. it has united once - isolated communities into influential crowdcultures. crowdcultures are very prolific cultural innovators. their members produce their own content—so well that companies simply can’t compete. consider that people making videos in their living rooms top the charts on youtube, which few companies have managed to crack .
we' ve been floating this country on credit for centuries, yo. and we' re done watching and waiting while this invention called whiteness uses and abuses us, burying black people out of sight and out of mind while extracting our culture, our dollars, our entertainment like oil, black gold. ghettoizing and demeaning our creations, then stealing them, gentrifying our genius, and then trying us on like costumes before discarding our bodies like rinds of strange fruit. the thing is though, that just because we' re magic doesn' t mean we' re not real .
a wave of criticism quickly found the ad on social media. from offense that a difficult resistance movement was co - opted to sell pepsi products, to dubiousness and disgust at the commercial' s implication that relations between law enforcement and marginalized groups would magically heal if people were only nicer to the police, to disdain over the role given to the white jenner in negotiating the peace, twitter users reacted with outrage to the ad .
nike’s approach, launched in the 1970s and perfected in the 1990s, was to tell stories of athletes who overcame societal barriers through sheer willpower. but a decade ago nike abandoned its competitive - underdog ideology to go all in on branded content, using famous athletes to make entertaining sports films. under armour stepped into the void, producing arresting new ads, such as “protect this house, ” that championed the same ideology and took off on social media .
the jack daniel’s distillery was in a rural region of tennessee that the postwar mass media portrayed as an impoverished land of hillbillies. yet in the american imagination, the area was also one of the last authentic pockets of the frontier, where davy crockett and daniel boone had gotten their start. so when american men yearned to revive the ideology of the frontier, the whiskey offered great potential as a symbol. this theme was first hit upon by men’s magazines (
chipotle took advantage of an enormous cultural opportunity created when the once - marginal movements that had challenged america’s dominant industrial food culture became a force to be reckoned with on social media. the chain jumped into the fray as a champion of this crowdculture’s ideology. by applying cultural branding, chipotle became one of america’s most compelling and talked - about brands (though recent food - safety difficulties have dented its image). specifically, chipotle succeeded by following these five principles :
this press release contains
forward - looking statements
within the meaning of the
safe harbor
provisions of the private securities litigation reform act of 1995. forward - looking statements may be identified by the use of words such as
anticipate
,
believe
,
expect
,
estimate
,
plan
,
outlook
, and
project
and other similar expressions that predict or indicate future events or trends or that are not statements of historical matters. these statements are based on inspired' s management' s current expectations and beliefs, as well as a number of assumptions concerning future events .
to anyone who thinks the media has gone overboard scrutinizing pop for excuses to be outraged, look no further than the coverage of last night’s show. “katy perry kicks off amas with beautiful moment, ” reads a since - updated headline on the associated press story. subsequent paragraphs fawn over the performance, saying she looked like
princess out of a classic japanese painting” (originally a “princess out of a classic anime drawing” in an earlier draft) without mentioning that someone might find elements of her performance objectionable .
these celebrities are all garnering the superengaged community that pundits have long promised social media would deliver. but it’s not available to companies and their branded goods and services. in retrospect, that shouldn’t be surprising: interacting with a favored entertainer is different from interacting with a brand of rental car or orange juice. what works for shakira backfires for crest and clorox. the idea that consumers could possibly want to talk about corona or coors in the same way that they debate the talents of ronaldo and messi is silly .
to solve this puzzle, we need to remember that brands succeed when they break through in culture. and branding is a set of techniques designed to generate cultural relevance. digital technologies have not only created potent new social networks but also dramatically altered how culture works. digital crowds now serve as very effective and prolific innovators of culture—a phenomenon i call crowdculture. crowdculture changes the rules of branding—which techniques work and which do not. if we understand crowdculture, then, we can figure out why branded - content strategies have fallen flat—and what alternative branding methods are empowered by social media .
pepsi and kendall jenner are both facing a barrage of controversy after the release of a commercial that stars the supermodel and features a story seemingly inspired by black lives matter and other protest movements. in the ad, a blond jenner, off on the sidelines doing a photo shoot, watches the progression of a protest march that features predominantly people of color. after one of the protesters signals her to join, she strips off her wig, walks through the crowd, picks up a pepsi, and hands it to a stoic white police officer nearby. everything stops for a second. then the officer drinks from the pepsi, the crowd of protesters erupts into cheers and applause, and the tension—historically based on centuries of institutional racism—dissipates .
before social media, the influence of these works would have remained locked within this small fraction of society. instead, crowdcultures grabbed the critiques and blew them up, pushing industrial food anxiety into the mainstream. news about every major problem linked to industrial food production—processed foods loaded with sugar, carcinogenic preservatives, rbgh in milk, bisphenol a leaching from plastics, gmos, and so on—began to circulate at internet speed. videos of the meatlike substance “pink slime” went viral. parents worried endlessly about what they were feeding their kids. crowdculture converted an elite concern into a national social trauma that galvanized a broad public challenge .
or consider red bull, the most lauded branded - content success story. it has become a new - media hub producing extreme - and alternative - sports content. while red bull spends much of its $ 2 billion annual marketing budget on branded content, its youtube channel (rank # 184, 4. 9 million subscribers) is lapped by dozens of crowdculture start - ups with production budgets under $ 100, 000. indeed, dude perfect (# 81, 8 million subscribers), the brainchild of five college jocks from texas who make videos of trick shots and goofy improvised athletic feats, does far better .
“black women around the country, on both social media and in mainstream publications have rushed to praise the video and the artist for affirming the political moment of black lives mattering, and the uplifting embrace of forms of southern black culture, ” rooks told fox411. “on the other are pickets and boycotts and rage, mostly by whites. what this moment tells us is that as much as we might wish differently, race often still functions as a hard and fast dividing line. it also tells us that black women who perform at the super bowl bring simmering cultural tensions to a full boil, along with really high ratings. ”
while they diminish the impact of branded content, crowdcultures grease the wheels for an alternative approach, cultural branding. in it, a brand sets itself apart by promoting a new ideology that springs from the crowd. chipotle did this successfully when it made two short films critiquing industrial food, tapping into a movement that began in the organic - farming subculture and blew up into a mainstream concern on social media. other good examples come from personal care. axe revived its brand by becoming an over - the - top cheerleader for the “lad” crowd that arose as a response to politically correct gender politics. dove championed the other side of the divide, with campaigns that spoke to crowdculture concerns about unhealthy beauty standards for women .
challengers to the industrial food ideology had lurked at the margins for more than 40 years but had been easily pushed aside as crazy luddites. small subcultures had evolved around organic farming and pastured livestock, eking out a living at the fringes of the market in community - supported agriculture and farmers’ markets. but as social media took off, an influential and diverse cluster of overlapping subcultures pushed hard for food innovations. they included advocates of evolutionary nutrition and paleo diets, sustainable ranchers, a new generation of environmental activists, urban gardeners, and farm - to - table restaurants. in short order, a massive cultural movement had organized around the revival of preindustrial foods. chipotle succeeded because it jumped into this crowdculture and took on its cause .
a decade in, companies are still struggling to come up with a branding model that works in the chaotic world of social media. the big platforms—the facebooks and youtubes and instagrams—seem to call the shots, while the vast majority of brands are cultural mutes, despite investing billions. companies need to shift their focus away from the platforms themselves and toward the real locus of digital power—crowdcultures. they are creating more opportunities than ever for brands. old spice succeeded not with a facebook strategy but with a strategy that leveraged the ironic hipster aesthetic. chipotle succeeded not with a youtube strategy but with products and communications that spoke to the preindustrial food movement. companies can once again win the battle for cultural relevance with cultural branding, which will allow them to tap into the power of the crowd .
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a new christian video game has sparked calls for a boycott from groups who say it is
training for religious warfare
.
the game, left behind: eternal forces, is based on a wildly successful series of novels about the struggles on earth after true believers ascend to heaven .
players can command the army of good - the tribulation force - against the anti - christ' s global community .
the game' s makers reject criticism, saying their detractors
have a clear hatred of biblical christianity
.
an alliance of liberal groups including the christian alliance for progress, the campaign to defend the constitution, and talk2action, have urged the giant retailer wal - mart, among others, to stop stocking the game, which was released last month .
it' s about religious warfare. the way to win is to convert or kill. you have both the inquisition and the crusades ,
says frederick clarkson of talk2action .
anybody who is not a follower of jesus is the enemy ,
he claims .
mr clarkson is particularly concerned that the $ 39. 95 (£20) game - which is rated for teenagers due to violence - is being marketed through churches.
inspired media entertainment , also known as left behind games , was a christian-themed gaming company most notable for its work on left behind : eternal forces . the company closed their office , shut down operations , and laid off all of their employers at the end of 2011 . 
inspired media entertainment, also known as left behind games, was a christian-themed gaming company most notable for its work on left behind: eternal forces. the company closed their office, shut down operations, and laid off all of their employers at the end of 2011.
inspired media entertainment, also known as left behind games, was a christian-themed gaming company most notable for its work on left behind: eternal forces. the company closed their office, shut down operations, and laid off all of their employers at the end of 2011.