Old Spice Man Makes Shirtless Brothers Cool

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Another Old Spice Man?  

On Wednesday, August 25th, The San Francisco Chapter of The American Marketing Association announced they were going to hold a meeting called "The Old Spice Phenomenon: A Panel Discussion On The Advertising Genius Behind The Old Spice Re-branding," On Wednesday, August 25th at 6 PM, at BARS+TONE, 1550 Bryant St, 11th Floor, San Francisco.

Thinking the panel might fail to discuss the cultural significance of having an African American man wearing next-to-nothing be a corporate brand symbol, and figuring that because I'm in Georgia and will not return in time for the SF AMA event, this blogger created the video above, and wrote another blog post, thanking Old Spice Man for his historic first.

Remember, there have been black men who have pushed products, but not shirtless and certainly not to so many rave reviews.

Old Spice Man, along with President Obama, make shirtless brothers cool.

And as women of all colors dig Old Spice Man, we can say racial barriers have come down to a dramatically low level in America.

Read my full blog post on this, and tell me what you think...about the milestone, I mean.

Old Spice Man, Thanks For Making Shirtless Brothers Cool

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At first, this blogger ignored the whole Old Spice Man deal until a headline article in Ad Age. Still I ignored it.

Then, the San Francisco Chapter of The American Marketing Association announced they were going to hold an entire meeting called "The Old Spice Phenomenon: A Panel Discussion On The Advertising Genius Behind The Old Spice Re-branding," On Wednesday, August 25th at 6 PM, at BARS+TONE, 1550 Bryant St, 11th Floor, San Francisco.

Another Old Spice Man? 

Then it occurred to me the SF AMA panel - and in a New Media world panels are stupid - might just hold an entire conversation without mentioning the historic racial significance of "The Old Spice Phenomenon." So, to keep them on their toes, and make people think, I created the video you see above.

The marketers will focus on the metrics, like the 29 million video views Old Spice Man has gained, or the 80,000 Twitter followers the Old Spice Brand has, or the 106 percent increase in Old Spice sales, but what they miss is the fact that for the first time, America went wild for a brand pushed by a smooth-talking black guy wearing next to nothing.

Nothing against Terry Crews, who stars in The Expendables, but the success of Isaiah Mustafa is a triumph for the African American man who doesn't fit the kind of black male stereotype Crews' version of Old Spice man presented and can be summed up in one word: menacing.

The Real Old Spice Man

Instead, Isaiah Mustafa's Old Spice Man is more like a lot of black men in American society (save for the kinda-sorta, maybe fake British-style accent, which he could have done without), well-spoken and apparently intelligent.

Women Dig Old Spice Man

The viral video performance and product movements associated with Old Spice Man are due to women. As Mary Jo Rapini wrote in Health News Digest, many of the women she talks to have a "thing" for the Old Spice Man. Mary Jo Rapini's white; she never mentions The Old Spice Man is black.

 So, from this we can see how dramatically far American Society has come, and that's something to both talk about and celebrate.

Chevron Ecuador Challenge: Steven Donziger Joe Berlinger, Show All Crude Movie Outtakes!

Steven Donziger and Joe Berlinger 

Recently, a judge ordered Crude film director Joe Berlinger to turn over outtakes from his film about alleged pollution by Texaco (now owned by Chevron) in the Amazon of Ecuador.

Chevron reportedly reviewed the outtakes and found a series of conversations by the attorney behind the lawsuit, Steven Donziger, admitting that the case is "nothing more than smoke and mirrors and bulls__t" as well as other statements that ruin the credibility of the case against the American oil company.

But not so fast, says Berlinger and Donziger.

They wildly claim the outtakes submitted to the 2nd Circuit Court in New York City by Chevron, which is seeking more outtakes from the movie Crude are taken "out of context" and distorting their words.

Berlinger wrote in an e-mail statement to Fortune magazine "The footage citations are being taken out of context and not being presented to the court in its entirety, creating numerous false impressions, precisely what we feared when we were first issued the original subpoena,"

Now, my friends Amazon Watch and Steven Donziger publicist Karen Hinton (who would make a great dinner partner) are pissed that I wrote that the Crude outtakes destroy their case.

I stand by my previous blog on this. I believe that the evidence produced from the movie Crude not only wipes out their case, but probably makes them liable in both the U.S. and Ecuador of fraudulent and misleading legal actions against Chevron.

And, what legal issues could Amazon Watch, Rainforest Action Network, and everyone else face if all their rants against Chevron are knowingly false? Right?

Here's my challenge: Prove me, Zennie Abraham, wrong.

Produce all the footage from the movie so that the public can make up their own mind whether the case against Chevron is a sham created by Donziger and Amazon Watch or whether Chevron is taking their words out of context.

And when I write all the footage, I mean all of the outtakes from the movie Crude.

What do Berlinger, Donziger, Hinton, Amazon Watch, Luis Yanza, Pablo Fajardo and their team have to fear? Apparently a great deal because they are continue to prevent the footage from being seen - and letting all of us make up our minds whether they're telling the truth or not.

It's time for Berlinger, Donziger, and Amazon Watch to put up or shut up.

And for Karen Hinton to buy dinner.

(And a side note: I want it known I support the right of filmmakers to protect their film and videos from unnecessary inspection, but only in the case of real politically important, difference-making work, not in the instance of a trial lawyer in the middle of a lawsuit, trying to make billions under the color of helping the poor of a third world country, when he's clearly partnered with its government.  Crude was made during the Chevron Ecuador legal battle, so it looks like what is it: propaganda. My challenge will reveal that...if they take it.)

Piranha 3D Gets A Sequel

Piranha 3D was a movie i enjoyed immensely this past weekend, it really was a genuine throwback to the eighties with some of the goriest sequences that I've ever witnessed on film. Well today comes news that Dimension Films has given the greenlight to move ahead with a sequel. Producer Mark Canton and Dimension is very pleased with the word of mouth that the film has received from audiences and critics, and with the movie costing hardly anything to make a sequel seems like a no brainer.

The film has also garnered a lot of attention via a Funny or Die video with stars of the movie asking The Acedemy to nominate the film for Best Picture at the Oscars. Check out the video and check out Piranha in theaters now.

Piranha 3D: For Your Consideration from Piranha 3D

Donald Trump on the Mosque, say what? By Suzannah B. Troy

The New York Post has a big photo that perhaps has been air brushed just a little of Donald Trump chiming in on the Mosque at Ground Zero saying it is wrong.

I wrote this comment and posted on The New York Post website.

Suzannah B. Troy

08/23/2010 6:28 PM

Donald Trump is describing how every community feels about his buildings and at Spring and Varrick a construction worker died. No one wanted that hideous building and Christine Quinn would not even show up to the city council task force meeting on DOB where I did show up and speak about way too many construction deaths. It is believed she did not show up because she did not want to face a massive turn out protesting the Trump build at Spring and Varrick. I am for religious freedom but I do think the mosque build at the WTC is not appropriate and instead of building bridges and healing they are creating far more pain and why would they do that. Also they need to be open about where they intend to get money to build their Mosque.

Here is my previous post on this blog site on The Mosque....

TMZ exclusive on Tiger Woods divorce by Suzannah B. Troy

Harvey Levin says there was a chill in the air at the legal preceding between Tiger Woods and Elin Nordegren where they both showed up but did not say a word to each other.  The rest was standard including both being assigned parenting classes!

Tune in to night for more dish from TMZ.   Here is my post on the divorce from early today.

I suggested Tiger Woods consider breaking out officially into the porn industry in my earlier post and on that note TMZ has more on the possible sex tape deal with Heidi Montag and Vivid and it is really interesting....  It involves Heidi and her soon to be ex- Spencer Pratt who wants to make this sex tape deal happen staying at the same hotel....hmmm.   Is it a possible sex tape conspiracy?  Spencer Pratt is not a millionaire and apparently he and perhaps Heidi have decided to take the express track via Vivid.  Watch the Steve Hirsch interview by Harvey Levin.  Sounds like Steve could be talking to Tiger as well.... Check it out....

Remember the Tiger Woods porno spoof tapes.....   Does it seem some days  like all roads leads read to the porn world....? Certainly plenty of Tiger Woods mistresses hailed from there.

Bigoted Erick Erickson Killing CNN's Show Ratings

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CNN's ratings, especially for Rick Sanchez' Rick's List, are already low. So why have Consevative Blogger Erick Erickson, who Firedoglake calls a "Bigot," on a show that's already performing poorly? 

Does this mean that CNN harbors bigots? Logic would indicate that CNN would want to avoid having on a personality so awful people turn the channel, right?

According to TV By The Numbers, Rich Sanchez, who this space views as a good guy, is having a massive ratings problem.

CNN's lost viewers in the Rick's List time slot, where The Situation Room was before it. The viewership has dropped 50 percent in volume in the 25-54 demographic in just one year, from 276,000 viewers to 134,000 viewers for July 2009 vs. July 2010.

With that, why would CNN add the ultimate ratings killer, Erick Erickson? Erickson's mere presence helped foster the ratings failure of CNN's John King USA Show. Many blogs, both liberal and middle of the road, and even The Daily Show, have blasted CNN for having Erickson on. CNN must think such criticism translates into ratings; the logical mind would see that's not the case.

Using CNN as a platform, Erick Erickson has done everything from pretend racial slurs against Democratic Congresspeople never happened, to recently defending Franklin Graham for saying that President Obama was born Muslim.

CNN, which smartly dispatched its under-appreciated CNN iReport Team to Comic Con 2010 to draw a growing group of mainstream Americans who care more about diversity and entertainment, turns around and for some strange and stupid reason feels it has to be a home for angry conservative white guys who cost them ratings: Glenn Beck, Lou Dobbs, and now but in a lesser role, Erick Erickson.

If it's interested in helping to advance the business of parent company Time Warner, CNN needs to give Erick Erickson the boot and emphasize the CNN iReport initiative ASAP.