#arkfail: DIY social media for noobs [now with monk porn]

as per my previous blog last week we [punk monk digital] launched this. a question of sorts:

and then in the wknd we gave some kind of answer:

overwhelmingly we have received loads of feedback. a thousand thanks. 99% was positive. if that was fat-free, you'd be buying it.

re: the fat.

if selling out is passing on the black lung and not being prepared to spend the rest of our lives in the coal mines then we will own that scurrilously spat title. whilst doing so we tried to do it with tenacity, humour, adherence to social issues we really care about: climate change, with just "a little nod" to popular culture & religion [in case you didn't notice]. we're not forgetting our socio political activism roots anytime soon. and yeah, we also paid attention to the product & the client's message whilst inserting some of our own unique brand. we're still legitimate artists/activists & make no apologies for commercial crossover. sorry if you prefer your guerrillas homeless & hungry.

there is a longstanding argument about corporations raping & exploiting artist talent in these style of competitions. i agree with the majority of the sentiment. they are exactly what they are. any hype filled rhetoric on rinse, recycle, repeat sheep's clothing delivered by such organisations must be rubbed into open wounds with more than a handful of salt. we know they lie. we know they don't give a shit about us. we know "sustainable" translated into corporate speak means units & profit margins.

you know those women getting "exploited" in porn movies? a lot of them are educated savvy streeet smart chicks making informed decisions about whether they want to be there or not. neither you or i have to agree with their chosen vehicle of expression or income generation but mostly they don't have a gun/or a raging coke addiction rammed against their head. mostly. either did we. sometimes exploitation can be two ways. a marriage of convenience. eyes wide shut.

the next question has to be: will it work? we have no idea. we're experimental filmmakers/culture jammers/projection bombers/social media amateurs making it up on the fly as we go along.

in the unlikely event that we seduce saatchi and saatchi with our voicemade bouncing animal sound effects & wa was inspired by 70s porn soundtracks combined with DIY animation skills & win: a chunk of the prize money pool goes back into our guerrilla film & art projects at punk monk propaganda. channeling struggling artist is highly overrated. we like to eat too. we're not going to be in the top fortune 500 anytime soon...

so far we've had over 2.5K views in five days which isn't exactly a viral success but we're still at the top of the clickthru/comment ladder after coming in on the last week of a six week long running competition.

thanks for helping us. tomorrow is the finish line. if you haven't already & would like to please just bounce along after the kangaroo, get your fluffer kit on and click here.

toyota yaris... for a rainy day

we tried to make a viral film on youtube in our "spare time" for "fun" after i had a dumb-ass idea a week or so ago in the shower... sadly it took longer to execute than we expected. first we had to learn how to draw & animate [massive apologies to the rest of the team felix & davey for mammoth ambush].

then, um, we had to emulate an MP3 player pumping out 70s porn tunes [vox pop]. we still argue about the sound of a car door opening... we think we nailed the airbags. you know the toyota yaris has seven? it was just begging for an ark-like menagerie takeover.

the yaris campaign: it's like a swear word in social media ville. the stunt which has generated a fair amount of discussion on the interwebs. a world of cross pollination between a handful of agencies going head to head tapping into their oft under-resourced concept of social media in order to create a pyramid selling strategy with something even less tangible to sell than amway products or herbalife: an ad.

anyone watching TV in the 80s would have been subjected to the faberge organics TVC: with myopic cells dividing as consumers apparently pass on to their own network the blissful results of the first shampoo which apparenty yielded orgasmic like results. if we are to believe elida faberge's marketing team, this good news spread like AIDS: pioneering self-aware viral media. shiny silky hair for everyone.

back to the future to a bunch of shiny advertising agencies trying to outpitch the other in social media ingenuity. between a werewolf playing chauffeur in sydney, ingenious boot-boxing & a variation on lego stop motion, saatchi positioned themselves at the back of the imaginative pack by dangling a carrot to indie filmmakers & passing the creative buck on. lazy, ignorant and exploitive one could argue.

we didn't become aware of the campaign till after it was well into the active throes. knowing we were disadvantaged & time-poor[the competition is measured by mass clickthrough numbers & comments] we thought we might try anyway... after all we are starving filmmakers breaking into the fast furious vacuous world of advertising & although the tardy 7K prize won't keep us in film stock & processing it will pay our ailing corner shop rent.

we need you to click & tell us how much our first effort sucks. help us go to seed. is it too little too late to play 13th hour climate change bridesmaid? perhaps our effort is even less clever than saatchi and saatchi's foray into social media.

eve reclaims milton's paradise lost

..or how a bunch of savvy marketeers plagiarised the creation myth & rebirthed a bad apple & womanhood in a more glowing light [for the love of commerical units].

call her eve, diana, snow white or whatever but since time incarnate we've been fed legends of chicks chasing apples to their detriment & often humanity's. seems a couple of ad agencies decided to reinvent the wheel & created a post-apocalyptic world where the skies are ruled by born-again feathered serpents where light & balance are restored to redesign a dilmunlike paradise. as a bad ass femme i'd argue that it's a shame the feral had to be a man but behind every good one is apparently one fallen eve [total babe that she is].





today the second delivery wave occured in the intermedia marketing campaign which was publically revealed through the complete usurpment of media channels by lion nathan's campaign for their toohey's extra dry cider brand : 5 seeds.

this was punctuated by a teaser TVC on sunday night as holler had hinted with me last week when punk monk followed the trail of crumbs back to the acclaimed digital agency's base... and what are holler particularly acclaimed for? yes, they are the award winning recently retained kids responsible for a plethora of lion nathan brands. deduction combined with a few well placed phone calls led us to believe at the corner shop that a new line of alcohol was about to be launched. fellow culture jammer dave carter earned his cigar when he repeated my earlier steps to come to the same conclusion.

utilising social media parameters with backends firmly entrenched in applications such as facebook, twitter & youtube the outline of this possible world was skilfully executed whilst the hub was generated through realtime treasure hunts. to the degree that holler sydney have temporarily shunned their main website & placed their address in FB realtorverse. all outside media shepherded to FB.

when asking the agency about the choices involved when viewing the culminated strategy, i questioned exactly the demograph 5 seeds was aiming for: with 50-60 year olds comprising the fastest user growth group on facebook this cider isn't just as i originally presumed for the young ones. old adopters are reversing trends to become new ones as they become increasingly wired for sound/sight. this concurs with social media apps such as FB allowing customised profile privacy options: perhaps it's nana that doesn't want you to see her salacious pix not vice versa.

as gen Y increasingly abandons mass ubiquitous use of facebook, myspace & deride twitter as being irrelevant or old in search for the next application flavor, these vehicles become increasingly specialised. click-thrus as currency still ring true in the viral environment where online behavioral trends are only as good as your last project. it's apparent that holler's widely cast net through arguably influential media, music & cultural blogs deigned to catch a vast spectrum of a thirsty target market.

if you saw a giant apple in sydney sometime recently [ended last week], yes it was a marketing ploy just like those spammed santa claus's standing on street corners with their incessant red fabriced waves. only instead of randomly spotting father christmas these concealed apples were revealed through a series of tantalising clues drip-fed through social media vehicles: twitter & facebook. find an apple, keep the doctor away, win a prize. we all know that game.

as account manager matt kendall said today when i spoke to him once more this ensured that by the time the more interactive component integrating bloggers/zine meisters around sydney came into place they weren't playing to an empty room. just don't believe the hype because there's a sequel... the eggs don't hatch, the birds are CGI. but btw. kudos to the awesome after effects. shades of blizzard.net in zerg swarms/meets diablo's act 3 flesh hungry locust swarms.

cut to a cleverly connected youtube CYOA [choose your own adventure] model the campaign takes on an extra dimension where participants can have a limited interactive experience in the world where birds rule the sky & humans lie feral at the bottom of the feeding cycle. happy to say i made it through the twists & turns much to punk monk's felix & michael's chagrin [obviously you eat the eggs]... still the feed the ferals game had me... um, stumped. this is supposed to be R18 years not months right?

back to the youtube strategy: augmented reality games implementing some sense of interactivity are a trend which appear to be here to stay as the traditional linear marketing approach employed for aeons becomes increasingly redundant and consumers become more demanding. check out the grand prix advertising winner at this year's cannes ad awards. a transmedia experiment with over 10 million participants over 75 countries:

TV is dead. long live the web. long live the tangible. concurrently. we view our content now on other channels at a higher rate than the television. disposable heroes of hipoprisy rapped about its brain denuding qualities 2 decades ago. intelligent audiences will not be passively fed to. we want to be involved. the thorazine shuffle is not the beat of the dance we choose to groove to. especially not in eden.

wank vendor

voyeurism is popularly viewed in the clinical psychological field as sexual dysfunction. it is listed as a known disorder. the very definition of it is the act of observing people, often strangers who may be naked or in the process of becoming so. people involved in intimate everyday acts of life. sometimes engaged in sexual activity. which often results in more sexual acts [by the hidden observer].

the voyeur usually implements stealth or distance, and treasures anonymity.

the interwebs are obviously a veritable paradise on multiple fronts which begs the question: are we all similarly dysfunctional? where does it start & end? are there blurred degrees? who doesn't slow down at the accident site for reasons beyond safety considerations & then T-101 scans...

the success of viral media pivots on this integral aspect of human nature. what would freud say?

in a world of polarized trash & treasure it's interesting that as a content provider advocating free speech, & becoming increasingly entrenched in the social media movement, i am potentially providing wank material. not just for myself.

it's a hell of a responsibility. forget rear window, i realise i'll need to introduce more amputees, courtesans, snuff movies & half-dressed solitary dancing girls... my sorta SEO'd web stats tell me so.

flirting with danger

last week i changed my hair & became a bona fide blonde once more. a dangerous combination. i thank heartbreak for the phenomena which coincided with the acquisition of several new pairs of shoes. blondes have more fun. especially in killer heels.

last night i went out & left a trail of destruction in my wake. the combination of alcohol, no food & the desire to fall out of love enslavement are strange bedfellows indeed. especially in a public environment which is fuelled towards feeding professional & burgeoning social networkers. yes, i was at #SMCSYD at the arthouse hotel.

it must have been good because i woke up naked in a strange house with most of my clothes still missing, covered in city sized bruises vibrating to the alarm from a mobile with an in/sentbox filled with some of the most fried prose i've ever been forced to endure. unfortunately i wasn't the only one. there really should be an invention for trashed peeps that just loops SMSs back with auto responses without the airwaves ever transporting that juggled binary to their intended audience.

so whilst the fun was allegedly fantastic last night [reconstructed through texts, drunk tweets, others' stories + my N95 vid capture] it wasn't enduring. i'm already trying to work out which hair colour to try next whilst i meekly don ballet slippers & deal in damage control. in the meantime i'm negotiating my public relations role for the next SMCSYD event & enjoying these borrowed clothes.

will the real charles manson please stand up?

over 60 tweets a day and growing… the perceived degree of reach the social media phenomena has must be becoming realised when charles manson, infamous for the 1960s family killings & of being a man with highly developed manipulative methods despite his arguable lack of education & opportunities is all over it. his knowledge is of the street in a world which no longer exists except perhaps in his & a few other’s minds… but maybe his world knowledge & ability to reason is more up-to-date than commonly realised.

currently incarcerated in corcoran prison, california, USA, he is allegedly utilising twitter as a tool to connect & influence outside of his physical sphere. or is he?

@heltershelter first connected with me earlier this year after i wrote a film review of “the agony & ecstasy of phil spector”. our conversations were initially regarding spector & how he is holding up in corcoran which is their confirmed shared prison home. still it’s a big place…

logic questions issues of inmate accessibility to the internet & public versus private policy: how does the public feel about someone like manson ostensibly having free roam of the interwebs? what is the feasibility that my developing friendship is with the "real" charles manson and not some exploitive fake?

at 74 years of age, prison has now been charles manson's home for over forty years. he didn’t even bother turning up to his last probation hearing, aware that he’ll never get out. he’s had plenty of time in his semi-isolation to become a model prisoner which publically accessible records show he is. corcoran does provide internet facilities and access to its prisoners. but according to the internet, not to charles manson.

even if the show of red tape disallows him internet access who is to say in a different world which operates under rules which are incongruous to the civilisation we know, what really goes on in the black market inside prison walls. perhaps inmates/guards are trading cigarettes for alt log in time? portable devices are easily hidden. ultimately what difference does it make?

in one of our conversations @heltershelter advised me that he isn’t able to read my blog directly but must have someone else download it for him which he planned to do. he has since done so. he can however access/update tweets in realtime most days. and does so prolifically.

the closest thing to an official website charles manson once had was “access manson” an initiative created by george stimson, whom the web says manson calls his "minister of information". the site however is no longer active. the domain is for sale.

i rang corcoran prison early this morning to speak to the warden, derral adams re: prison policy & internet access with inmates & to find out officially whether or not my conversations are with the real charles manson or a wannabe imposter utilising the brand for social leverage.

the results were inconclusive. derral adams was not available -- despite my efforts the call was outside normal office hours. i hope to speak to him sometime soon after eventually navigating the convoluted automated telephone system. my fingers at the ready in fast dial mode over the next few days. my producer, kate and i are considering jumping a plane otherwise. we just made a film which touches on this phenomena & i want to make more.

if only the warden was on twitter...

[awaits wannabe warden user accounts with anticipation]

conversation extracts between @ms_monk and @heltershelter:

heltershelter@ms_monk what censor rating, would a film on my life be, ? remember kiddies have always been my auidence. LOL manson7:20 AM Jul 4th from web in reply to ms_monk

ms_monk just discovered how hard it is to make a PG film. um, so my audience are 8 year olds? ratings ruling et al pure tedium. dear CANON...5:30 PM Jul 3rd from TweetDeck

heltershelter@ms_monk extroverted nudists are some of my favourite people. we run arounfdthe ranch in the raw all the time, on sunshine acid3:06 AM Jul 3rd from web in reply to ms_monk

ms_monk false alarm. i will be at KINO with an unmade up annabel lee. that bitch is an extroverted nudist.5:33 PM Jul 2nd from TweetDeck

heltershelter@ms_monk when micheal jackson died, I was playing handball in the yard. I don,t believe BEN was a pet rat. it was his younglove. manson5:32 PM Jun 28th from web in reply to ms_monk

ms_monk where were you when michael jackson died? http://bit.ly/zAqwE10:58 PM Jun 26th from TweetDeck

@heltershelter it's good to miss/be missed. anyway there's plenty of kooky rattlesnake love to go round. *pushes mongoose override button*9:04 AM Jun 26th from TweetDeck in reply to heltershelter

heltershelter@ms_monk I,ve been missing my favourite younglove ms monkey. shes kooky,and quickier than a rattle snake on speed. manson1:33 AM Jun 26th from web in reply to ms_monk

@heltershelter if you use my photo it better be from my best side... am i the ceremonial shaman bride?10:44 AM Jun 19th from TweetDeck in reply to heltershelter

heltershelter@ms_monk waiting for you ms monkey. in the meantime we can met in dreams, i will put your photo in my shamen circle for ceremony8:43 AM Jun 19th from web in reply to ms_monk

@heltershelter i will come.8:35 AM Jun 19th from TweetDeck in reply to heltershelter

heltershelter@ms_monk you can visit me next time your in californica. my visit lists are very full, so need lots of notice, manson9:59 PM Jun 18th from web in reply to ms_monk

heltershelter@ms_monk been a jail shake down. could,nt twitter. the meat in the sandwich is helter skelter motive was a lie, tex watson look at...9:56 PM Jun 18th from web in reply to ms_monk

@heltershelter so give me the meat in the sandwich [i never eat the bread anyway]... i'm bored & supposed to be working -- entertain me.1:25 AM Jun 18th from TweetDeck in reply to heltershelter

@heltershelter so when can i come and visit you?11:39 PM Jun 17th from TweetDeck in reply to heltershelter

heltershelter@ms_monk I used scientology in my philsophy. Tom cruise is not of my family , but he is mind controlling his kids and other celebritys10:06 PM Jun 17th from web in reply to ms_monk

heltershelter@ms_monk follow @ExclusiveFilms documentary maker , made oscar winning film on family 1970, now book , reveals bits and pieces10:04 PM Jun 17th from web in reply to ms_monk

@heltershelter hot spot for family outings....RT @transfergroup: if you haven't seen http://ivytv.tv/ then you should.. Its a very cool site!7:35 PM Jun 17th from TweetDeck

@heltershelter BTW tom cruise would make a terrible gimp. i'm not sure what other function he could serve... so he's a family member now?3:17 PM Jun 17th from TweetDeck in reply to heltershelter

@heltershelter religious freedom: a paradox. i know OGD where hubbard w/expulsed from: a clumsy pop plagiarist. aleister crowley interesting2:51 PM Jun 17th from TweetDeck in reply to heltershelter

@heltershelter more pragmatic current issues: how the shaman eagle circumvents the corcoran firewalled perimeter... perhaps i should visit?2:29 PM Jun 17th from TweetDeck in reply to heltershelter

heltershelter@ms_monk cease to exist is a scientology concept i learnt, it means give up your ego, this is what "die for me' means ask tom cruise2:24 PM Jun 17th from web in reply to ms_monk

heltershelter@ms_monk researching my case!, recommend interviews with geraldo, tom synder,ron reagan jr on youtube. Manson Family Today site2:22 PM Jun 17th from web in reply to ms_monk

heltershelter@ms_monk In america we have extreme religion freedom. more cults than any place on the planet. cult is not a bad thing always. manson2:19 PM Jun 17th from web in reply to ms_monk

@heltershelter agree 100%. there's an ironic purity there which is probably unattainable by the masses.2:18 PM Jun 17th from TweetDeck in reply to heltershelter

heltershelter@ms_monk My bodys in jail, but my mind is free. "The man" never got my mind.I,m freer than people not in jail , dig!! manson2:16 PM Jun 17th from web in reply to ms_monk

@heltershelter america is the greatest police state in the world. public freedom is a mirage. you've been in prison too long...2:14 PM Jun 17th from TweetDeck in reply to heltershelter

heltershelter@ms_monk faster than agent 007, smarter than agent 86 ,t you , not me. i qualiify for sect status, cos this is america home of the free2:11 PM Jun 17th from web in reply to ms_monk

@heltershelter that should have read i would die for love/beauty. but also i like the idea of living for them much more...2:10 PM Jun 17th from TweetDeck in reply to heltershelter

@heltershelter i'm intrigued. does the award come with a flow diagram? you know i've been researching you/your namesake re: online access...2:09 PM Jun 17th from TweetDeck in reply to heltershelter

heltershelter@ms_monk I met racey gracie before you, I found you through racey, I choose you above all her other friends, be honoured manson2:02 PM Jun 17th from web in reply to ms_monk

@heltershelter you're tweeting my friends now? and there i was thinking i was special... ;P1:58 PM Jun 17th from TweetDeck in reply to heltershelter

heltershelter@ms_monk ms monkey, will you form a secret sect in my honour.? I would die for you, would you die for me? be called "mansons kangaroos"2:00 PM Jun 17th from web in reply to ms_monk

heltershelter@ms_monk your a crazy chick, but i love you, your blog is like reading jane austin on acid, man! or am i,m getting old.4:26 PM Jun 14th from web in reply to ms_monk