 | Ypulse Daily Update 06.25.09
Directory and more at Ypulse.com | |  | Quick Links Ypulse Essentials:The Music Tee, Webstars, Create A Skate Posted by meredith  The Music Tee (much more than a band shirt. The tee not only features original album art, but a URL code-embedded hangtag that allows the wearer to download the album. And Abercrombie & Fitch introduces a multi-sensory store experience. Plus a Canadian study on teen fashion finds trends leaning away from the overly "sexy" look) (trendcentral) (Marketing Vox) (The Vancouver Sun)
- @15 teams up with Taylor Swift's tour (Best Buy's teen-led social change platform, on which Anastasia sits on the advisory board, was named as the tour's official charitable partners. And video of Nick Jonas' visit to the senate) (Trading Markets) (Politico)
- Texting while driving (can be even more dangerous than driving under the influence. Yikes. Thanks Eric!)
- How green are teens? (our friends at Generate continue to examine the gap between teens' eco-reputation and their eco-action uncovered in their recent survey) (MediaPost, reg. required)
- The reality of 'The Real World' (tonight marks the debut of "Real World: Cancun," which skeptics predict will feature the cast being "drunk and fighting 95 percent of the time." Also, some bars in D.C., the show's next location, have already banned castmates) (Reality Blurred)
- 'Webstars: The Kids Behind The Hits' (Nick News with Linda Ellerbee spotlights kids who have reached internet fame through viral videos, web shows and characters) (Cynopsis Kids)
- High school valedictorian banned from graduation speech (as punishment for participating in a student sit-in to protest increased class sizes and the elimination of college prep classes. WTF?) (Los Angeles Times)
- Create A Skate (a very cool non-profit program that teaches kids about math, science and art through skateboard design)
- You're so 'Vain' (you probably think this magazine is about you. And if you're an 18 to 34 year old woman, you'd be right)
- 'Twilight' lip gloss (a specially designed "lip venom" that sorta resembles a vial of blood. Cool? Also, an interesting look at the rise of pinkness in the tweenage market in Malaysia) (EW) (Racialiscious)
P.S. Just a reminder: Ypulse is taking tomorrow and next Friday off for summer hours.
Posted in: Ypulse Essentials 10 Things To Hate About The Idea Of A '10 Things I Hate About You' Remake Posted by meredith  When I first heard that ABC Family was reviving "10 Things I Hate About You" as a TV series, I admit my inner teen cringed. As a film I cherished with my friends back in the day (buying the soundtrack, quoting at length, re-watching again and again) it just felt like someone was trespassing on my nostalgic territory. Could a new cast and writer (Carter Covington from ABC Family's "Greek") really channel that same edgy energy that made the original movie connect so well? And could a perfectly well structured story arc -- based on Shakespeare's "Taming of the Shrew" -- really hold up when stretched into a whole sit-com season of episodes? I didn't feel particularly inclined to hang around and find out.
To see how other fans my age and younger were responding, I checked out the comments on the show's Facebook page. Not surprisingly, many echoed my defensive stance. While there were a few who were curious, most were not impressed and almost seemed rooting for the show to fail. Many of them also expressed a grievance that I didn't share, but found interesting -- that the show was capitalizing on the death of Heath Ledger (who plays the bad boy "Patrick" in the film). Here are some of the posts:
"How embarrassing. I'm a HUGE Heath Ledger fan (I like to say his biggest), and this is just an insult. This movie is definitely one of my favorites of his, and turning it into a show is just bad news. I hope the ratings go lower than dirt and they take it off, that's just horrible. Hopefully they'll read these reviews. It's a wonderful movie, and they're ruining it."
"I totally agree this degrades the original movie that in no way needed this kind of nonsense brought to it. The movie was awesome and I don't see how this contributes. It doesn't uplift the movie trademark, but in fact is in my opinion a way to make money off of a great actor's death for their own benefit."
"I agree that it will probably be a terrible show, HOWEVER. Don't assume this just because it's a series being based off of a movie! Look at Buffy. That started off as an AMAZING movie, and was turned into an even more amazing tv show."
I included the last comment, because, well, she has a point. There is precedent for a movie to be turned into a show and take off on its own. And maybe the show will find its groove with a new generation of tweens and teens who are discovering perky Bianca and rebellious Kat Stratford for the first time. But my sense is "Buffy" was a very specific exception to the rule (Joss Whedon fans, back me up here?), and while the forces behind "Greek" seem like a talented bunch, I'm not sure that this imitation will really win over the skeptics out there...or even inspire them to give it a fair chance. Ypulse readers?Posted in: Ypulse Essentials | Movies | TV Is Nielsen 'Myth Busting' Or Just Bolstering Traditional Media? Posted by anastasia Tech Crunch posted Nielsen's new report on How Teens Use Media, which is structured in sort of a myths vs. reality format similar to what Fuse's Bill Carter presented (.pdf) at the Ypulse Youth Marketing Mashup. I'm not a researcher and don't know how Nielsen actually measures engagement, but I'm just not convinced that some of their myth busting is a reflection of what's really happening vs. wishful thinking on the behalf of the traditional media ecosystem of which Nielsen is an integral part.
For example, the reality that teens (who are in school all day and often in activities after school) spend less time online than adults, many of whom are connected to the internet at work, isn't really surprising at all. I found the part about who media multitasks more to be a bit weak as well. On the flipside, I found Nielsen's numbers on how many teens now have mobile internet access (as of fall of '09) were shockingly higher than I thought they would be -- 37 percent of all teen (13-17) mobile subscribers! I thought I would pull out a two of the more surprising "myths" Nielsen allegedly debunks with their research/realities and offer some Ypulse-y "possibilities."
Myth: Teens are abandoning TV for new media Nielsen says "not so," TV viewing is up 6 percent (3 hours and 20 minutes a day) vs. 52 minutes spent on a PC, they don't use DVRs and and don't watch as much online video as their older peers.
Possibility: TV might be on but are they really watching? Don Tapscott had a great image in his Mashup presentation featuring his son and his friends "watching" TV - they were all doing other things while the TV was on. It's possible teens could be doing their homework (with actual books) in front of the TV or be doing stuff on their phones. No it's not "10 screens at a time" but it may not be focused TV watching either. If you ask teens about TV, which I have on multiple teen panels that I've moderated over the past few years, many teens and young adults have said they don't watch much TV anymore. When prodded with specific show titles, like "Family Guy," they admit they do watch some. But when asked whether they still watch MTV, well, sorry MTV, they're just not that into you as a network, though when pushed, they will admit to watching a specific MTV show. And if you ask them if they had to give up their TV or the internet, the internet always triumphs over TV as the essential technology. I would also speculate that as teens get older and more mobile and less homebound (i.e. have a driver's license), the time goes down as well. So yes, they are still "watching," but the reality is that the era of traditional television broadcasting as the dominant form of media with little competition has begun to decline.
Myth: Teens wouldn't know a newspaper if the paperboy hit them in the face. Nielsen is claiming that more than 1 in 4 teens say they read a daily newspaper and over a third read the Sunday paper.
Possibility: Um....the teens they asked thought they meant Yahoo! News? Wanted to sound "smart"? Have ended up on newspaper sites via Google? Have a newspaper as an option on their PDA start page? Glance at a newspaper over breakfast? Sorry - this one just sounds too high.
The section of the report that addressed terrestrial radio just seemed like positive spin -- 16 percent of U.S. teens still listen! That doesn't feel like a good number for radio, especially since it's also no longer THE source for where teens discover music.
Definitely read the whole report and let us know what you think! Posted in: Ypulse Essentials | Movies | TV | Newspapers | Radio | TV
Don't miss your Ypulse Daily Update! Add dailyupdate@ypulse.com to your address book to help ensure delivery and keep the newsletter out of your spam folders! | | |
0 comments:
Post a Comment