For this week’s Picture Perfect Tuesday I wanted to share this pic I took at the George Street Diner in Toronto.
I love everything about this place! The retro feel, the food, the coffee, the servers and the overall vibe. This is my morning happy place! Each time I visit my friend in TO, I insist we go here at least once. If I lived in TO, you’d find me here every morning…
Most people have never heard of the term Pareidolia, let alone know what it means, but nearly everyone has experienced it. Have you ever looked at the clouds and saw the shapes of different animals? That’s what Pareidolia is – the “imagined perception of a pattern or meaning where it does not actually exist”, according to the World English Dictionary. Basically it’s seeing animals in the clouds or Jesus in your toast.
When we look at Rorschach ink blots and see something other than a blob of ink – that’s Pareidolia too. Tell me, what you see? (She asks in her best Dr. Freud impression…)
Pareidolia is a type of Apophenia, (so many big words today!), which is a more generalized term for seeing patterns in random data (source: Urban Dictionary). Numerology is a great example of this!
Where am I going with this? Here’s where…
As I’m sure you’d agree, creative individuals are more likely to see patterns in random things than the average joe. Well, accordingly to the article Characteristics of Highly Creative People, creative people make more use of their “mental raw material and practice less intellectual regulation”. Essentially what that means is creative people spend more time thinking about things from every angle/view possible and then they come up with more angles, seeing more than what the average person would. While doing this, the dorsolateral prefrontal region of their brain – responsible for things like censorship – becomes way less active, allowing them to express more options and outcomes.
For today’s Picture Perfect Tuesday I am sharing view along the Ottawa River that we overlook while speeding past in our vehicles. Nature Scene Seen:
“how do you feel about using # (pound) for groups. As in #barcamp [msg]?”
When Chris Messina, a social technology expert, sent that tweet in 2007, everything changed.
Thanks to Messina, we now use Hashtags to make our posts searchable. They are “categorically arranged so that others can easily search for the topic and participate in the conversation”. (hashtag.org) And this past Tuesday, the Hashtag #BellLetsTalk campaign for mental health awareness raise $5,472,585! The campaign resulted in 109,451,718 text messages, mobile and long distance calls, tweets and Facebook shares.
While useful, like when it raises $5,472,585, sometimes Hashtags can be distracting, especially when the are peppered throughout the body of a text. Have you ever wondered how your posts translate into everyday conversation? What if we spoke in Hashtags in daily conversation? Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake show you how absurd that would actually be in the video below. It’s been out for a while, but still worth sharing:
I captured this image of a shipping port with my iPhone while in the car (as a passenger) crossing a bridge near 1000 Islands on a snowy dreary morning. The softness of the image captured the feel of the day and I love the retro look that was the result. The grain is a result of the built-in digital zoom and I boosted the contrast with the PS Express App.
Do you have a PR crisis plan in place? If the shit was to hit the fan today, would you be able to spring into immediate action? Would your VPs know what to do?
Having a PR crisis plan is like having insurance. You need it, but hope you never have to use it. So before something goes wrong it’s important for key people in the organization to know what their individual roles will be.
Today I wanted to share with you some quick tips for surviving a PR crisis.
For this week’s Picture Perfect Tuesday I give you “City Totems”. Hydro towers and lines – they are everywhere we look. For some reason these two towers, situated side-by-side, reminded me of Aztec totems. Do you see this too?
Today is apparently the most depressing day of 2014. Blue Monday. The day millions of people around the world head back into the office after taking time off over the holidays. Add that it’s also a Monday, and here in Ottawa residents woke up to a city layers in ice… it’s enough to make a girl cry in her Starbucks while listening to New Order’s Blue Monday. (Which I recommend listening to while reading this..)
According to a study done by UK beverage company UpBeat that analyzed over two million tweets in past three years measuring for sentiment and happiness, this is in part because most of us feel low because of lack of sleep, the struggle to keep up with our New Year’s resolutions and it’s the first full week back at work. Did you know that guilty tweets about broken resolutions are apparently five times higher today?! (In case you are wondering, I’m still going strong with my Drink More Water resolution. #Hydrated) Oh and then there’s the credit card statements that arrive like a b*tch-slap.
However, according to this study, not only is today the day when people break their new year’s resolutions, but those who are unhappy with their love lives look for a new partner and those unhappy at work consider a change. Call it the ‘new year, fresh start’ mentality…
However, researchers reported that the happiest days of the year are Christmas Eve and Day, (been there, did that, got the present to prove it); followed by New Year’s Day (yes, ’cause it’s a holiday!); Valentine’s Day (questionable… just ask anyone who is single;) and the ‘first sunny weekend of the year’ (agreed, can’t come soon enough). So according to this study we only have to wait another 39 days for our next shot of happiness with overpriced roses and cheap chocolates.
Now I AM depressed. Depressed but hydrated.
Over the years I’ve seen some good and bad PR stunts. For example in 2011, South Australia’s Advantage SA sent 55 gold fish to media executives as part of a tour with the message: “Be a big fish in a small pond and come and test the water.” Cool idea right? Well, despite providing enough food for each fish for six months most fish were dead on arrival. Ouch.
Anyone else remember the fake fan site (www.alliwantforxmasisapsp.com) that Sony created in 2006 to create buzz for the PlayStation PSP? It didn’t end well…. Gamers found out and hammered Sony on legitimate message boards.
Well there are also some PR stunts that are done well. Very well. Iwanted to share this one from WestJet as it’s a great idea that was successfully delivered and shared. It focuses on giving back to their customers, and yes, while it’s a PR piece, it really did happen… Plus it made me teary-eyed and filled with joy…
Growing up we always got a new pair of jammies for Christmas. It was the one gift my sister and I were allowed to open on Christmas eve – and we’d immediately put them on. Not sure if the tradition was born because my mother wanted us to look good in photos as we opened up our gifts, but having matching Christmas pajamas added a feeling of festivity. We’ve had matching night gowns, flannels and footies over the years, but none ever matched the hilarity of Ralphie’s Pink Bunny PJs from the movie A Christmas Story:
Fun Pajama Fact: The word “pyjama” traces its etymological origin to the Persian word “payjama,” meaning “leg garment.”
I’ve often wondered if other families had this tradition and was pleasantly surprised that many do! As an adult, I sometimes still get a set of flannel jam-jams from my mom, but all-in-all that family tradition faded away after we left the nest some 20 years ago… However, I think that there is a surge in old holiday traditions (see my post on the rise of the Ugly Christmas Sweater); and a quick Google search will bring you a plethora places to buy matching Christmas jammies.
I’ll leave you with this fun holiday message (and great PR stunt!) from the Holderness family that’s been making headlines and making Christmas jammies cool again….
The Publicist Diaries 