Be Careful, it's a Trap!

Fake News: Discuss the implications of corporately-funded news/propaganda; or speak to the importance of other forms of journalistic discourse (satirical fake news; citizen journalism; Indymedia)

Ever hear of the Colbert Report or the Daily Show? For those who haven't, these shows are seen as comedies to most, but they are also seen as fake news, or satirical broadcasts. Some of you might be asking "But they talk about real events and things that actually happen, how can they be fake?" Simply put, they use real facts and dress them up with their own opinions and biases to create the programs that you watch.

Real news programs do the opposite of what is shown in shows like The Colbert Report; they are supposed to present news in an informative manner that is unbiased and free of personal opinion. The way that some of the information the Daily Show is present seems quite believable at first, but after you think about it, you know it can't be true.

Take a look at this ad, it will help explain what I'm trying to say.

"That looked really, real, but you knew it couldn't be true."

Imagine that this commercial was meant to be informative, rather than to raise awareness. Not everyone would jump the conculsion that this is satirical, and that's where the real problem lies. It is us as people that make things complicated. In most instances of fake news, when the article is seen, almost immediately a series of events occur that lead to the information being passed around as quickly as possible to others. No one will question the content because it came from a reliable name. Every time the information gets passed to someone else, they throw in their own opinion on the matter and before you know it the information that was initially received has been transformed into something completely different.

Chuck Clausterman, author of Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs has a similar view point on what actually happens with the information that comes out of a newspaper. He finds that more times than not, the information in the papers aren't always truth. Few people actually see that the newspapers are either "fact plus fiction or truth minus fact".

"It's not that the truth is being ignored, it's just that the truth is inevitably combined with a bunch of crap that's supposed to make news stories credible or unbiased..." (Klosterman)

It's just unfortunate that because of how people interpret the information received from these sources that propaganda and scandals are created.

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Sources Cited

Klosterman, Chuck. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs. New York: Scribner, 2003. Print

Understanding What We See

(10) Culture Jamming: Select and analyze an example.

Before I begin talking about what Culture Jamming is I would like to take a brief moment and say that this concept sounds a lot more confusing that what it actually is. I cannot say how many times I paced back and forth in my room trying to figure it out. This particular blog post will discuss my findings.

Have you ever seen a sign or an advertisement on a billboard for a company? You know, the ones that usually have text followed by a picture of some sort. A lot of the time, those kinds of ads can usually be tweaked around in such a minimal way to change the message of ad entirely. Take a look at these ads I was able to find.

Another very cleverly done modification, more effort was put into this one though. If you've ever noticed those instructions for how to use a crosswalk (believe me, they exsist) then you too will find this pretty funny.

Again, similar to the last picture, this jammer just takes an exsisting image and describes exactly what he sees. Fortunately for us, his descripiton is quite comical and make it hard to look at this sign in any other way.

There's quite a lot to talk about within those examples. The easiest place to start would be with the similarities between the two. They are obviously both clever edits of their originals, and they both change the meaning drastically. But, try to look past the visual differences. What the jammer has done is expressed himself through his modifications. He's just having a little bit of innocent fun which is often apperciated with a laugh or a "Whoa, that's so cool" comment. Not all of the time are Culture Jammers defacing signs for the sake of giving society the middle finger.

“Perhaps we’ve been too conditioned by photography to perceive single images as single moments. After all, it does take an eye time to move across scene in real life” (McCloud).

Culture Jammers are different from other people in the way that they react to the images and advertisements that we see around us. Typically, we see an advertisement, give our own opinions on it, or say things like "You know, it would be cool if they did this to their ad..." and then move on. The Jammers will actually make those changes and you can bet on it, that their changes won't go unnoticed.

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Sources Cited

McCloud, Scott. Understanding Comics: The Invisible Art. 1st. New York, USA: HarperPerennial, 1994

EAT Collectives and the APE Projects

Activist Project: Find an activist project and speak to your own political engagement with a given cause.

Artists Project Earth is a non-profit organization who carry out many activist projects. Most of their projects are oriented towards raising awareness of environmental concerns, such as climate change in general. Being a little more specific, one of the projects that they were involved with was known as Earth Activist Training. EAT was a project that they created to get other people inspired and motivated to take the knowledge that they experienced through doing, back to their own communities so they could inspire their neighbourhood to get involved with climate change. That's part of their mission statement.

"We believe that people are most successful in achieving change when they have support for their decisions. This comes best when people work together - connecting with others, doing similar things and sharing experience." (Artists Project Earth)

I never really cared much for activists and whatever it is that they do. I always looked at them as people who try to cram their views down the throats of as many people that they can. I've even heard that if they can convert 100 people to see they light they way they do, they get a special prize. Because of that, I would never even picture myself being an activist at all because I don't want to be like them.

However, in this case, they are just raising awareness in a way that is friendly. Their approach is to just inform people in a way that doesn't make them seem like a cult. If all activist were like this, I would consider standing up for something that I truly believe in. But of course, you don't have to go overboard and start up something as big as these guys.

Even by giving into the business that call asking for generous donations is enough to say that you are involved. When my mom bed ridden with Leukemia, I found myself giving in small change to all sorts of cancer research and fundraisers. Sure, at the time, I didn't really know the difference, I heard the word cancer, and thought that maybe this is a disease that if you give away enough of your money, it will go away. Realistically, it will go away, just not for a very long time.

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Sources Cited

"About APE." APE. Web. 23 Nov 2009. .

In or Out; not in Between

Net Neutrality : The Internet is quickly becoming a battleground between public and private interests. What are the most important features of this conflict?

Net Neutrality is exactly what it sounds like. It’s a term that identifies that users are allowed to send and receive information equally, allowing them to control the content that they view on the Internet and control over their use of the internet.

So we need to take a brief look at how we connect to the internet. We need to have a modem of some kind and an ISP or Internet Service Provider, such as Bell or Rogers. After we have all of that setup, connecting to the internet is just a couple of clicks away. Alright, now you’re free to read what you want and download anything you please, the Internet sounds like a beautiful place right about now. A couple of weeks later, you get a letter that basically reads,

“You’re using up more bandwidth than you were allotted, we are going to bill you extra.

:)

Sincerely,

Money Grubbing Dictators”

What happened to freedom of what I have access to on the Internet and my choices over what I download? Suddenly, the rules change and after they’ve roped you in with these great ideas, they trap you in their web and the only way out is death! Not literally, but it’s HUGE contrast of ideas, why are they able to get away with putting filters and caps on the bandwidth that we use up? Today, that kind of restriction is unrealistic; simply outrageous! That would be like someone creating a company that charges people for the amount of oxygen that they use, giving them a limited amount before you start being billed extra for every unit of oxygen you use past your allotted amount. These ISPs can allocate different connection speeds for different uses. Those who only check their email and read text documents on the internet will typically have faster connection speeds than the file sharing gurus that are constantly uploading and downloading files over the Internet. Those people will find themselves paying more for something that should be free; and businesses haven’t even been brought into the picture yet.

When you really get down to it, a network of data that can be accessed by anyone, anywhere, for free, is a lot to ask for; and I’m sure it’s not a coincidence that an organization realized that a lot is being given away, and that there is profit to be made out of it.

I already have to deal with the rules of what is appropriate to say under ‘Freedom of Speech’. Being told that my photos are wrong when art forms are used to express yourself… these kinds of contradictions are what really annoy me because there isn’t much I can do about it. The same is true for ISPs and Net Neutrality. I am really sitting on the fence with this concept, parts of me want that freedom of what I can do on the Internet, but at the same time, without some order and law, there isn’t really any balance. Just like the aformentioned scenarios, without the rules or guidelines, everything become one giant mess. Information that was not meant for public eyes falls into the wrong hands, and before you know it, enemy countries discover weakness in other countries. Soon to follow, World War IV, V, VI and VII.

If maintaining net neutrality means a further collapse of content available to the masses, at the cost of witholding a sense of order and law, then I would much rather surf the internet a little bit slower, and download my music a little bit slower.

Corporate Takeover, Round 1

Media Hegemonies/Mapping who owns what : Identify a Major Media Company and research what it owns. Discuss the implications of cross media ownership.

Time Warner.

Time Warner.

Okay, maybe just one more time to get it out of my system.

Time Warner.

Time Warner is a massive corporation, it’s the fourth largest entertainment and media conglomerates out there. They started out similar to most companies, small and insignificant and just grew through the ranks to rise up to be where the are now. Fourth largest media and entertainment syndicate… I wonder how much they own? I mean, a company that holds that title, sure must have a lot of money, and what better way to spend that money that to buy out smaller companies, right? I mean, now you have the ability to spread your word through other languages. (not literally, but through different mediums)

“AOL, New Line Cinema, Time Inc., HBO, Turner Broadcasting System, The CW Television Network, TheWB.com, Warner Bros. Entertainment, Kids’ WB, The CW4Kids, Cartoon Network, Boomerang, Hanna-Barbera, Ruby-Spears Productions, Adult Swim, CNN, DC Comics, and Warner Bros. Games.”

And that’s only to name a few?! Damn, some of those are huge names like Warner Brothers, CNN and DC Comics. Aside from Warner Bros., I had no idea that they were all owned by Time Warner. If they had been owned by Time Warner all this time, they must have done a pretty awesome job hiding that fact. Now that I know all of this, I can’t help but wonder what these companies were like before they were scooped up. I mean, there had to have been a clash with views. For one large living breathing thing to latch onto a smaller one and absorb it completely, things must have changed. Time Warner influenced their ideals onto the companies that they bought, ultimately changing them. Suddenly, things start to change and Time Warner begins to operate their business within these smaller ones.

Personally, I think that one should really know when enough is enough. If all of the smaller companies are completely overtaken by the bigger name ones, things are going to become very difficult for new and upcoming companies to create a business. It’s just like phone providers in Canada. There are two titans, Bell and Rogers, who both own other subdivisions. There are other providers in the country, but they are finding it difficult to get their name out there because Rogers and Bell have made such an impact. They have bought out any sort of minor competition compared to their organization. It’s gotten to the point where Bell and Rogers are basically the ONLY providers in Canada. Chances are the provider you are with is a subdivision of either company.

Back to the main point, cross media ownership is a little different than the Bell and Rogers scenario. It’s more like they own different subdivisions of media, rather than just the same medium. Time Warner owns broadcasting channels, news companies, magazines, online services; the list goes on and on. While those mediums have their own goals, because Time Warner owns a large mass of them, they can feel free to advertise what they want to through those mediums. A lot of people always have that fear of becoming apart of some big coorperation because there’s no telling what will happen to their goals; personally, I feel the same way. I dream to be a successful photographer of some kind, but I want to have my own name put out there, not an employee to a syndicate, owned by Time Warner.

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Sources Cited

"Who Owns What | Columbia Journalism Review." Who Owns What. Web. 14 Nov 2009. .

Buy Nothing Day, Earth Hour, Moments of Silence... It's all the same gimick

Buy Nothing Day : On November 25th people around the world will work to create awareness about over-consumption.

Buy Nothing Day sounds about as straightforward as it can get. You don’t buy anything to create a sense of awareness about over-consumption of products. By getting through one day of not buying anything you might even realize that you were buying things that you didn’t actually need. You might even save a couple of bucks here and there with your future purchases. But, you might also realize that an idea of buying nothing for an entire day is impossible when you consider where your money is going on a day to day basis. Unless you live in a very isolated environment, there are some services that you are bound to pay for. Utilities such as the phone, electricity and heating are being used everyday in the household. Although you are billed on a per monthly schedule, you are still buying the services.

Let’s look at this from another angle.

If you have a bank account, or credit cards that can accumulate interest, then the bank/creditor is doing business with you, thus something is being purchased. Buy Nothing Day is nothing more than a day to raise awareness about people who over spend. At the same time, by not buying anything, people begin to value the things that they have already or give them new value.

We’ve absorbed the consumerism thoughts and ideals so fast that we live off of it. Take a minute to just think about the last transaction that you made that involved money, and when your next one will be. Most might able to answer the former question, but not the latter. It’s too far ahead to make an guess for it! We don’t really know what we’re swimming around in until it’s been taken away from us, or we’ve escaped the prison entirely. Now that I think about it more, Marshal McLuhan had something to say about this matter. When a new concept is introduced to our lives, we can either choose to accept it or turn it away. If we accept it, eventually, we begin to use the new things in our lives so much, that they have been transformed to adapt to the new concepts, so much that now we can no longer imagine what life would be like without it, until it’s stripped away from us.

Unfortunately though, the dream of having the entire world buy nothing is impossible. Buying things is part of who we are as a society, we make purchases as often as we breathe air. If you can tell other people to stop breathing for an entire day, then maybe this holiday’s practicality can come to fruition. For now, the concept of having everyone participate is about as efficient as Earth Hour. While it’d be great if the whole world could turn flick off the power and participate in the event, most are not able to for their own reasons.

I love Big Brother

Theory/Praxis: Discuss a theory or concept (eg., ideology, hegemony, media literacy) and apply it to your own everyday media practices.

Ahh, good ol' 1984 by George Orwell. I remember having to read this book in my Grade 11 English class how much I hated it. Nothing in the book made much sense because of how abstract all of the ideas were to me at the time. I dreaded reading this book and just prayed that someone on the internet would have a synopsis for it so I could put band-aids on all of the cuts and scratches that this book made on my brain. When I look back at it now, it makes more sense to me, the whole ideology of Big Brother. Before I get to far in with my recollection of the ideas in the book, let me outline the basic story of the book.

1984 was about a man named Winston who was living in a world that is led by a society referred to as Big Brother which sensors everything including people's thoughts and actions. Fed up with this lifestyle, Winston takes action to join a secret rebel group who's intentions are to overthrow the government. He meets up with a woman name Julia and has a secret love affair with her, which in this book is a crime. He also comes in contact with a man named O'Brien who works with Big Brother and had set out a very elaborate trap to 'fix' them. Winston and Julia are both sent off to the Ministry of Love where they are separated from each other and Winston is tortured until denounces everything he believes in, including his love for Julia.

“WAR IS PEACE, FREEDOM IS SLAVERY, IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH”("George Orwell")

This message was burned in my head for quite sometime while reading 1984. This message was the ideology that was set up by Big Brother for everyone to abide by. If you think about it, your mind will open up and accept the meaning of this quote. If you don't want to think about it, let me explain.

"WAR IS PEACE" To have peace, you must always be at war. When countries go to war, alliances that are formed between countries create peace between them.

"FREEDOM IS SLAVERY" To be free is to submit to a larger group. When you think about all of the things that are possible to achieve, you start to consider all of the things that you need to do to achieve it. Building a large building is impossible without architects, construction workers, urban planners, etc. These people all have their own ideas and personal freedoms. To be free to build this building, you have to become a slave to everyone else's ideas.

"IGNORANCE IS STRENGTH" To be ignorant to your surroundings, you have given power to higher orders to justify the things around you. If believe that the sky is actually green, high figures can now justify why it's green by saying anything. By fully accepting your higher orders dogma you allow those higher orders to efficiently  protect and serve you.

After revisiting this book, I realize that this book was kind of twisted. This society had been brainwashing people to think they way that they did so there was no conflict in their actions among people. Any sort of free thought or thought that was different then that of Big Brother was punishable and deemed unacceptable. When you really think about it, that kind of a society still exists today but on a much smaller scale. Look at any painting or photography for example. You are almost certain to have a guess as to what the underlaying meaning is behind this piece of art. The artist has the right answer to the question and when he explains it, he changes the way that people think about the piece of art work.

Even I find that I do the same thing with my photos that I take. I was talking to a friend of mine that always tried to find the deep poetic meaning behind all of my photographs. He was always afraid of misinterpreting the picture and would find himself saying sorry too often. I had to open his mind to viewing photos, not every picture has a deep meaning behind it. Sometimes, photographers take a picture because they like what they see. As a photographer, I have to be the Shepherd to the lost sheep. I have to guide their minds to the right place so they can truly understand the work I've created.

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Sources Cited

"George Orwell - 1984 - Part 1 Chapter 8." George Orwell - Complete works, Biography, Quotes, Essays. 2003. Web. 11 Oct 2009. (http://www.george-orwell.org/1984/7.html).

The masses and I

Mass Media : How do you understand the term Mass Media? Use examples and draw from the key debates to articulate your own position.

This morning I turned on the TV and as I was flipping through the channels, I saw so many different programs that simply had no interest to me. Whatever happened to watching Bugs Bunny and Tweety while eating your favourite morning cereal? As quickly as I turned it on, I turned it back off, wondering why is there so much crap on Sunday mornings? Everything that is broadcast on TV was designed to reach people with information. It's no different than the radio, the internet or print media. By using these methods, information (whether good or 'crap') can reach the masses. There's always going to be information that may not be relevant to me, but because of how natural it is to take in the media from these sources, I don't really see the need to complain about it.

Personally, I look at a TV as a boat. Everything that is on the boat is the information that is to be sent and recieved by others. It travels to and from place to place to deliever information and pick up new information. I look at mass media as all the different vehicles that do the same thing. Whether it be by radio, newspaper or the internet, information is constantly traveling, even if I am not aware of it. It's all around me, and I may complain about it, but I take for granted just how much we use it.

"Narcissus narcosis, a syndrome whereby man remains as unaware of the psychic and social effects of his new technology as a fish of the water it swims in." ( The Playboy Inteview - Marshal McLuhan )

If the mass media could somehow be stripped from the lives of everyone, then people would realize just how important it is. People would realize how much we really need it. We wouldn't have TV's to find about all the latest headlines happening around the world. We wouldn't have the internet to talk to our friends on social networking communities. Everything that would be considered news to us, we would have to experience first hand spread by word of mouth, just like before print media was invented. You might appreciate that silence from the media because of all the depressing things that you hear on the news, but when a disease strikes closer to home and you have no idea about it, you could fall victim to it and not even know about it.

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Sources Cited

The Playboy Interview : Marshall McLuhan. Web. 4 Oct 2009.(http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~gisle/links/mcluhan/pb.html).

Green Black and Blue paint the colours of the sky

Sound familiar? If it doesn't, familiarize yourself by watching this short clip.

After watching the video, you should be more familiar with the popular arcade game Dance Dance Revolution. The objective of the game is very simple, step on the arrows displayed on the screen as they reach the top of the screen that correspond with the beat of the music. Last year, I was an avid arcade goer and I would often find myself playing this particular game, if not alternate versions of it. Since the first day I started to play, I noticed the different skill levels of players that would play as they kind of formed their own cliques within a small community. (By which I refer to the arcade community)

You had the pro clique. These were the people that would play the hardest songs and wouldn't really enjoy playing with complete strangers because of the contrasting song choices. These kinds of players would always play for self-improvement in regards to the game.

Then there was the 'poser' clique. When the pros weren't around, they would take the reigns and call themselves the pros and take on their characteristics, again, only when the real pros aren't around.

Finally, there was me, and the few friends that I met while jumping from arcade to arcade. We were the newbies. We'd typically take a longer time to pick a song and wouldn't care who we played with, we just wanted to play a fun game and enjoy the music we liked.

Credit to Jonathan David Santos for hosting the 'Summer Speedy Streams' Dance Dance Revolution tournament at Playdium

These subcultures aren't just visible in my particular involvement. The entire gaming community houses these same subcultures and depending on the game, the media will look the cliques and games in a negative manner. They will generally say that games are not much more than a source of entertainment. To the professional gamers, they don't see it as just a game. They enter tournaments, compete against other players and prove to others just how good they are. To them, the game isn't any different than competitive sport. In the media's eyes, a video game cannot usually bring more than entertainment to it's consumers.

"Playing games online with thousands of other users may appear to be a social activity. But for the introverted child or teen, any form of excessive video game playing can further isolate them from friends and peers." ("Media Awareness Network")

When people play games, some feel that they are in the game. There is an underlaying background noise that leads people to who they want to be. When someone plays a game featuring a hero in a cape and tights, they feel that they are really that hero, doing good for the virtual world and thwarting the plans of villains everywhere. When someone plays a hockey game, they feel like they are Alexander Ovechkin, scoring the last goal in overtime. 

It's unfortunate that the media has shaped video games and video game culture in such a way that turns others off from video games. They see some of the professional gamers and classify them as those that are social outcasts where the game has become their life. I have yet to see the media talk about those who see games as something more than entertainment and don't suffer from social introversion.

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Sources Cited

"The Concerns About Video Games - Excessive Playing." Media Awareness Network. Web. 12 Oct 2009. (http://www.media-awareness.ca/english/parents/video_games/concerns/excess_play_videogames.cfm).

Academic Blogging?

This is the first that I've heard of it. I don't really consider blogging to be something that could be assessed, graded and evaluated for an academic purpose. I heard it and immediately thought that this makes little sense, relating it to something just as outrageous. Imagine having a conversation with someone only to find out later that they were grading you on your expression of free thought. Giving myself time to think about it, I came to realize that it's not a grade on the content but more about the relevance of your post. By contributing to a larger sphere, you're able to see where your role falls into place. Though you may seem small  and insignificant, you are still voicing your opinions and views on a topic. Those larger spheres weren't created by a magician pulling it out of his hat, they started in the same place that everyone else did, as a seemingly small and insignificant individual. 

Have you ever been afraid to try something because it looks complicated to set up and maintain? Creating a website or maintaining a blog might seem very difficult to some, but like most things today, instructions are written in such a way that even the very young can do it. Take a look at those PC commercials. They have four year olds sending emails and seven year olds stitching together pictures to make panoramic ones. Well, to them I say... 

I'm an academic blogger and I'm nineteen and half. 

:|

We are connected...

" Narcissus narcosis, a syndrome whereby man remains as unaware of the psychic and social effects of his new technology as a fish of the water it swims in. As a result, precisely at the point where a new media-induced environment becomes all pervasive and transmogrifies our sensory balance, it also becomes invisible. -- ( The Playboy Inteview - Marshal McLuhan ) "

I was walking down the street, jamming to my music when this song came on. I immediately started to think about my cellphone once the lyrics popped in. "I am all you need...", "Where are you?", "We are connected..." It really made me realize how important the cellphone is to most, it's their artificial heart. They can hold it in their hand, not to mention send emails and surf the web. It makes so much sense! Everyone that grew up in the age of the mobile phone suffer from Narcissus narcosis! We aren't aware of how important the cellphone is to our lives until we have it ripped away from us.

The point of a cellphone was to be a mobile means of communicating with others via voice to voice conversation, and here I am, surfing the web, texting my friends half way around the world, reading news articles. Why does it need to do so much?! Businessmen rely on being able to communicate with people wherever they are. Not being able to reply to messages the moment they get them could cost them thousands of dollars, this includes replying to messages when their attention is needed else where, like on the road when driving.

" Yet the vast majority of the business segment proper won't give up their BlackBerrys -- which have pretty much become a lifeline to their jobs -- anytime soon. " (itBusiness)

High school students aren't much different either. They can't live without being able to text freely, check out a hip new place to eat for lunch online, or reply to Granddad in Hamilton. Most people will have a mobile phone because for it's intended purpose. When friends want to meet up with each other downtown, they can fire off text messages or make minute long phone calls to find out where everyone is or where everyone should go. Not many people would use their phone on the go to accomplish the same thing that a home phone is used for today. Home phones are used now for lengthy conversations that can last hours. Being in the comfort of your own home really focuses your attention on the person you are talking with more than having the same conversation outside on your mobile phone. The background noise can be extremely distracting which will lead to a lot of 'Sorry, can you repeat that? I didn't hear you." Using a mobile phone for quick communication is like second nature, we use it without thinking about it like breathing and blinking.

Thanks to the cellphone, a particular privacy issue has now been covered up. Before cellphones, when you wanted to get a hold of your friends to find out what you were doing that night, you would have to call their home phone. If your friend didn't answer, it would be likely that someone else would pick up the phone, whether it be their parents, siblings or relatives. By hearing their voice, you can peer into their family life and get a limited sense of what is happening in their home. That idea is enhanced a bit more by the background noises that you could also hear because home phones weren't usually wireless, isolating yourself from background noises may not always been available to people because of the cord.

The mobile phone has done a lot to the way we communicate with other people. From creating a sense of privacy, to creating a language that allows for quick on-the-go communication with others. It's a lifeline to many and although it's easy for some to say that they can live without their phone for a day or two, they may quickly find that they need it a lot more than they think.

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References

itBusiness. Web. 4 Oct 2009.(http://www.itbusiness.ca/it/client/en/home/News.asp?id=48857) .

The Playboy Interview : Marshall McLuhan. Web. 4 Oct 2009.(http://heim.ifi.uio.no/~gisle/links/mcluhan/pb.html).

v ER

Do you remember this ad? For a long time, I thought it was the strangest ad I'd ever seen. I mean look at it!

I'm sure you recognize the colour, the simplicity and the font type and would say "Well that's an ad for Bell's services". If I had known that though, this ad would be a very ineffective one. I can guarantee that I wasn't the only person in Toronto walking around noticing these ads and wonder for the life of them "WHAT IN BLUE BLAZES DOES THIS MEAN?!".  When you think about it, the ad is so simple, it's so empty and if anything, it doesn't look like it's promoting anything. In fact, this ad doesn't promote in a very direct sense. It promotes feelings within those who see it. Anticipation, curiosity, confusion...

If you noticed this ad and asked yourself "What does this ad mean?" or "I don't get it, is this even promoting anything?" then the ad was quite successful. The point of the ad was to build up hype about Bell's new look. Since all of the other wireless providers had recently undergone a cosmetic change, it was about time that Bell jumped on the boat on course to success and money. Little did they know that their ad campaign for their new look won them the award for the most, and I mean the MOST confusing ad seen in a while.

Congratulations Bell!

Does this mean that I can get my cellphone reconnected?