"If you don't feel good about things you suck."
Maybe if you go to this college, and make it out alive, you'll be fine.
(Watch the whole thing. Really.)
"So when someone turned you down because you didn't work for three years? Your experience and talent obviously sucked."
I prefer organized religion to crap like this and "The Secret".
The best are the books/movements (I guess the Secret is one of these too?) that blame your dying of cancer on your not being sunny enough. Those are great. xoxo!
It's very obvious that whoever came up with these billboards has not had to look for a job in this recession. The one in the picture is particularly untrue.
No, it's comforting - if you're getting pummeled in this economy, it must be because you lack experience and talent.
Hysteria feeds recessions. Hysteria! Someone give that man a goddamn Nobel prize.
This is the best college-ish commercial ever.
Let's just call it a commercial for science. I have inside knowledge that it is completely sincere.
These chirpy "the job issue isn't real!" are all over FB, along with "Love triumphs over all!" and "Be an indivdual!" memes. After I see a few of these images, I feel like sending Attila the Hun some money to help furnish another Golden Horde.
Ah, wonderful, an anonymous donor. And purportedly designed by the same guy as those "-- God" signs.
Was it Moby who was saying he couldn't tell when Autotune was being used? Anyway, whoever it was should watch the video in 10 and report back.
2 is insane. I don't think I could watch 10 all the way through without muting it and I didn't mute it.
I don't think 10 needs to be watched to the end, the way 2 does. Just until you appreciate how sincere and enthusiastic they are.
10: Whoa, indeed. It's fascinating, sometimes, the things that get green-lit.
2 is great.
I think of autotune* as humanity thrusting itself into the Uncanny Valley in hopes that technology follows along.
* Or rather misuse thereof, yadda yadda.
And oh my sweet jesus, 2 really is the best goddamn college commercial ever.
I had somehow avoiding watching 2 when it was linked previously. That... did not at all go where I was expecting!
Yeah, during the penultimate scene I was a little gobsmacked, but still thought they were going to somehow work it into something about "and we're located near a world-class hospital!"
2 is pretty awesome even if you're deaf. Although its probably more witty and less slapstick if you're not.
10 is (surprisingly?) captioned, but does a semi common thing where, while all of the spoken words have textual representation, none of them are attributed to any speaker. Sometimes you can see the speaker, so it doesn't matter, but a bunch of the time you can't. It turns out to be surprisingly significant whether a narrator is saying something or if it's a quote drone earlier or whatever.
My takeaway was to think about captioning laws and recent lawsuits wherein people try to get out of captioning stuff, rather than actually thinking about the (pretty great) videos themselves.
Although its probably more witty and less slapstick if you're not.
Not really, actually, AFAICT. The humor is pretty much slapstick all around. The words mostly serve to give the ostensible message promoting the school.
10 is (surprisingly?) captioned, but does a semi common thing where, while all of the spoken words have textual representation, none of them are attributed to any speaker.
That's interesting, and not an issue that had occurred to me before, although now that you mention it I recall seeing a lot of captioned stuff where the captions do in fact indicate who is talking. The captions in this case are mostly because of the Autotune distortion (and to a lesser extent the Norwegian accents) making the words pretty hard to understand at times.
25: I'm not sure why they captioned it, but it's song lyrics, some of which are originally spoken by people in the video, all of which are autotuned.
2: They are apparently at least a locally well-known comedy duo, so people in the target market may have known something a bit off was coming. I'll check with my peeps for any further local context.
Well, I had no idea that the words were lyrics (or autotuned). So, huh. Are the words from songs?
Usually, (good) captions will tell you not only what the words are but also any relevant other information. This is a key difference between "subtitles" and other options (often "English for the deaf or hard of hearing"); the captions are supposed to include speakers and tones and off camera sounds and whatnot. Not always important, but then occasionally really vital for understanding what is going on.
Are the words from songs?
No, it's the random crap the people are saying about science, autotuned. Because science is beautiful, I guess?
The whole concept of autotuning non-singing so it sounds like singing and then making videos out of it is probably going to be basically impossible to make meaningfully accessible, I'd think? But that's okay, because it's also pretty stupid.
31.2: The hearing will envy the deaf.
The whole concept of autotuning non-singing so it sounds like singing and then making videos out of it is probably going to be basically impossible to make meaningfully accessible, I'd think?
Well, they could include some indication in the captions that this is what's going on.
I can't express how much I love the lyrics:
There's nothing that gives you a larger energy boost
Than when you have an idea
And you refine that idea in meeting with other people
33: a little musical note attacking and distorting the original captions, perhaps?
35: Yeah, something like that. Maybe some crazy fonts, too.
A bouncing ball indicating the syllable being sung.
In normal captions they put a musical note to indicate that it's song lyrics rather than dialogue.
I really, really hate when the captions include undifferentiated song lyrics for every background song. It is SO HARD to follow what is happening.
I also hate when they say "speaking Spanish" or whatever instead of captioning it in that language. What if I can read Spanish, you jerks? Captions are supposed to give me equal access!
Are captions in italics supposed to mean the speaker is off-screen? Also, given my musical ignorance, I really appreciate it when the captioner identifies a song playing in the background. I watch tv with the captions on fairly often, especially late at night when I want the volume to be lower.
16: It was too long and I don't have speakers. I'd have to go downstairs and get the earbuds.
Remember the previous iteration of these--I think it was the same guy--the God ones? When I lived near the edge of the American West there were a whole bunch on the way to the airport. One of them said "The Real Supreme Court Meets Up Here --God." My favorite was "Stop taking my name in vain or I'll make rush hour longer --God". That one really fed a good "Our God is a Little Bitch of a God" vibe.
Also, Henry and Aaron are great, but remember Appalachian State University is HOT HOT HOT.
I understand the sentiment. I'm a deliberate impediment to anybody who honks at me to speed up.
42: Appalachian State is in Boone, and Boone is awesome. I mean, not that I'd want to attend that U. But it wouldn't be horrible. They have a good Ed. School, I think.
The Ed school is good because nobody can pronounce all the letters to do "Edward."
I have some lovely mittens from Boone, is all I'm sayin'. And I played a couple rock shows there. And met a guy who needed a lawyer and thought I might be one. (I am not a lawyer.)
I have a cousin in Asheville, which I think is nearby. I've never been to either.
My favorite was "Stop taking my name in vain or I'll make rush hour longer --God"
That one was also on a billboard facing heavy morning rush-hour traffic heading towards downtown L.A.
Given the traffic here, I'd take Pascal's advice on this one, the cost is already too high.
Speaking of colleges, a sign alleging that experience is a recession-proof asset would be just the thing to put outside a college. If you wanted to have a job, you should have been born some time before 1988.
"Chill. (Hysteria feeds recessions.)" is close enough to FDR's "We have nothing to fear but fear itself" to get a pass. The one about Bill Gates starting in a recession just reminded me that Hitler really got momentum because of a depression.
49: After years of complaining about baby boomers, I'll have a rising generation primed to resent me. Sweet vindication! Prepare for thirty years of television scored to "Wave of Mutilation" and "Left My Wallet in El Segundo", disposable incomeless Generation Nexties!
I was just rereading Barbara Ehrenreich's "Cancerland" essay after the Komen thing, and I saw that she'd incorporated it into a new book called something like "Brightsided: How Positive Thinking Undermines America" (link if desiredwhen I'm not on my phone). Anyone read it?
Actually the Godwin approach in 50 is a pretty appealing response to the billboards. A successories-style Hitler photo captioned "Crisis = Danger + Opportunity" would make me laugh, but I am sick.
Asheville, which I think is nearby
About an hour to an hour and a half apart. Both towns are really beautiful.
Nearish.
Anyway, I'm now finding a picture of Eva Braun that I can caption with, "Thinking of dating an art school reject with unusual facial hair?"
52.last: Well, there was this ...
55- For some reason I had a lot of trouble parsing who the sponsor was. "Nort Hio Wate a party? Nor Thio Watea Party?" I think I kept expecting WATE to be part of the word water.
This one goes out to apostropher.
(If he hasn't already linked to it somewhere, that is.)
LIVE FREE OR DIE is a really creepy motto to place in that billboard, isn't it?
59: Yeah, I recalled the billboard from before, but not that. I think it was from around the time (summer of the Tea Party, 2009?--no turns out to be June 2010) when those vibes seemed to be everywhere.
When a comparison to Hitler's not the creepiest element on your political billboard, you've outdone yourself.
LIVE FREE OR DIE is a really creepy motto to place in that billboard, isn't it?
It's the state motto of New Hampshire, so it's fairly well known and not quite as creepy as it would be if it were just something they'd made up. Still a bit out of place in Iowa, which does however appear to have a thematically appropriate motto in "Our liberties we prize and our rights we will maintain." That might have been too mild-mannered for the sort of people who put up Hitler-themed billboards, though.
sure, but you would sort of think hitler-themed billboards themselves were insufficiently mild-mannered for iowans. I points the fingerbone of scorn at YOU iowa! (bob, here's the part where you complain about me judging real americans. which is completely fair, because how many americans have to legal their way around the rules to buy island property in indonesia, and then have subsequent annoying tax problems. and then they have the gall to bitch about those problems when in a just world their bones would be being ground into dust used to stabilize concrete in a renovated favela? 736 of us, that's how many. I know, because we started a support group that meets in seminyak. it was going to be at ku de ta at first but be decided it's too played out to even deal, so it's just the corner store for now while we pick a better club. OMFG though, these guys are such total assholes.)
Oh yeah, live free or die is perfectly fine motto. But it only works if, like, you assume that the person speaking is the one that's going to live free or die. Otherwise, it's a creepy threat. (At least to me.)
Is perfectly fine motto? Honestly, leaving out is problem for me.
many russian people also feel live free or die is perfectly fine motto.
however, making fun of people just because their native language lacks articles is racism. how would we feel if a finnish person were laughing at us because our native tongue's lack of the ellative caused an ambiguity which could be exploited to humorous effect? we would feel confused the sting of the lash.
63: teo, my free-associative qualities have been noted before. it is just barely possible that vicious amounts of synthetic heroin (which we call "go-juice" in my family due to our degraded southern ancestry) increase this tendency. probably not, though.
68: I was referring more to your disparaging comments about Iowa, although I now see that I misspelled Bloom's first name.
RTFA more closely I see bob did not accuse me of not being an american, but rather suggested that both the toddler pageant shows and my "comforting and utterly unfounded contempt" were equally american. so, I went off the rails a little there.
well, you didn't misspell it as leopold, so I think the facts are still on your side. I'm just totally spacing out.
Maybe if you go to this college, and make it out alive, you'll be fine.
My only ever paid acting gig was in an industrial video for the American Institute of Design, a for-profit school in Philly. It was called "Bill and Ted's Educational Adventure." I was Bill. (The blond, you'll recall. I wore a hat; they untucked a lock of my hair and sprayed it yellow.) Ted and I had to confront Phil and Ed, two dudes who were psyched to get out of high school and never study again. "Dudes. If you don't go to college, your futures will be bogus." Then we took them in our phone booth to visit the future in which they didn't go to college, and they were janitors with bald caps, and the one in which they did, and they played tennis and made fun of janitors.
I got $150/day for a three-day shoot. I was a senior in high school. It was pretty cool.
Shortly before doing the gig, I'd been in a car accident -- I fell asleep driving my father's Oldsmobile and a guardrail sacrificed itself to keep me out of the Delaware River. The day after I got the check for the gig, I got the bill from the State of Pennsylvania for the guardrail. It cost $454.
Why doesn't anyone shoot holes in these adverts? If you do it to road signs...
Keir, it's not supposed to be a threat, but an exhortation. It's the imperative form of Patrick Henry's "Give me liberty or give me death."
a new book called something like "Brightsided: How Positive Thinking Undermines America" (link if desiredwhen I'm not on my phone). Anyone read it?
I read it. None of the rest of the book quite reaches the awesome heights of the cancer essay, but it's still a satisfying read. The chapter where she attempts to trace the positive thinking crap back to 19th century America is especially interesting. I'm not sure the lines are quite that direct, but I do appreciate the focus on the freakazoid religious movements that are so typically American.
73: The guard rail had a family. You left six little mile markers with no support.
78
... the positive thinking crap ...
As I recall studies have shown positive thinkers do better in life. Which is not I suppose quite the same thing as saying that one can expect to do better by becoming a positive thinker.
My guess is that positive thinking, like any other type of thinking that results in a slight disconnect from reality, improves things for the positive thinker but lowers overall happiness because of the problems they cause for everybody else.
79: I think you're supposed to provide positive reinforcement followed by exhortation, not just the exhortation. "That was great, but could you try a bit harder" or something.
80: Plus 5 rat orgasms for me, minus 10 rat orgasms for society.
As I recall studies have shown positive thinkers do better in life
Retrocausality, how are ya.
The city hasn't fixed the guardrail I clobbered a few years ago, and I drive past it often. Maybe the head engineer approves of the way I bent it. I should probably send him or her a bill for services rendered.
They're probably waiting for you to move before they fix it, the way my parents waited until the dog died before getting new carpet.
Not that you were dragging your ass across the guardrail, I'm sure.
