From a New York Times slideshow, “Global Response to Swine Flu,” this “thermographic device at the arrival gate at Narita International Airport” monitors arriving passengers’ body temperatures.
However, I have to go through a separate entrance because I’d always register…HOT. HYHOOO.
A Popeyes in Rochester, New York ran out of chicken and local channel 13 WHAM is there to cover the consumer outrage. Their coverage also had the unintended consequences of creating an internal newsroom debate within WHAM about whether the manner in which this story was covered perpetuated a racial stereotype. I’d argue that it does, which is why I was hesitant to post it here. That said, I couldn’t ignore the outrageousness of the story. A POPEYES RAN OUT OF CHICKEN.
The story in of itself is funny to me because one, I love me some Popeyes (and this is not a joke as Tony or Jessica can attest to) and I’d be genuinely mad if a Popeyes I went to ran out of chicken.
Two, supply and demand is funny, especially when there isn’t any supply and there’s a ton of demand so long as a life or death item isn’t involved, because Katrina wasn’t funny. At all.
All this said, I’m glad that this newsroom is at least having this discussion. I hope it’s remembered and a lesson is learned. As WHAM anchor Norma Holland wrote:
The story was what it was: customers, who happened to be Black, expressing anger about a heavily advertised special that ran out. Our job as journalists is not to “whitewash (sorry, no pun intended)” the news. We aren’t here to manufacture, make up, or tamper with what exists so we ran the story. In hindsight, I’m glad we did. Race aside, it is a perfect consumer story…and consumers have a right to be angry.
However, the report sparked a discussion in our newsroom about the way we portray people of color. I have to admit, we tend to overlook the importance of being inclusive in some of our reporting. Gay, Lesbian, Hispanic, Senior, and Physically Disabled people have opinions on any number of topics, yet we tend to only interview them in relation to stories that affect their specific groups. What’s the sense in that?
There is no sense in that.
The moral of this story here is two-fold: One, DON’T EVER RUN OUT OF CHICKEN. EVER. EVER. EVER. Why? Because it’s not just that black people like fried chicken, it’s that EVERYONE likes fried chicken. If you haven’t been looped in, let me drop some knowledge on you: Koreans LOVE FRIED CHICKEN. Fried chicken is the closest thing to universal love we have. In my head, I always like to add a “n” between the “e” and “d” in “fried” because fried = friend. Fried chicken is your friend.
What about vegetarians and vegans? They love chickens too. Just not cooked, but that’s simply two sides of the same coin and that coin is the fact that we all love chicken!
Posted in Food
Creative commercials (each illustrated by different artists) for Scrabble from Ogilvy & Mather Paris. The “Sumo” one below is my favorite. View more here.
Some further explanation behind the seemingly disassociative commercials:
The principle of the campaign: Different words accidentally encounter during a Scrabble game, giving by chance birth to a world as unexpected as enchanting. Picture a board of Scrabble at the end of a game: words that have nothing to do with each other are crossing and overlapping, to the point that they sometimes tell a crazy story ! Our creative idea is to turn this fabulous potential into images.
Posted in Advertising, Design
Sunday night’s Red Sox victory against the Yankees, a three game sweep by Boston, included a successful steal home by Red Sox Jacoby Ellsbury in the fifth inning against lefty Andy Pettitte. You don’t see that play too often. Exciting stuff.
Longer version of the play. Man, the crowd understandably went nuts!
Twitter Magnets: Create a poem using online fridge magnets and then dedicate that poem to your Twitter crush while listening to the easy new-age background music. Release your inner poet (in 140 characters or less!).
[Via]
Posted in Twitter
 | mpbulletin on GOP Mexican standoff |
 | Matthew Rodriguez on I Heart Tofu |
 | cliffordallen on I Heart Tofu |
 | Jeff on The Wall |
 | jesse on Nike x Cookie Monster |
