They find new life on MySpaceTV

15 Sep 2007, New Paper

Thanks to online video, producers get to air entire 'Webisodes' online

ARTISTIC freedom.

That was something creative minds had difficulty getting on broadcast networks.

Now they think they can get that freedom but it is going to be online.

The show, called Quarterlife, will debut 11 Nov on MySpace.com and will also be paired with its own social networking site that will include story extras as well as career, romance and other information for the show's young audience.

Centred on a group of recent college graduates, the show started as a pilot for an ABC series called 1/4 Life.

It aired once in 2005 and was pulled because of creative differences between the network and creators Marshall Herskovitz and Edward Zwick.

With the explosion of online video and the migration to the Web of such well-known artistes as Will Ferrell, Harry Shearer and Bill Murray, Herskovitz and Zwick decided to resurrect the show and give it a cyber twist.

AP reported that the TV veterans were also attracted by the chance to have full creative control of the project and retain ownership, which could produce greater profit for them if the show becomes popular.

'It's a gamble,' Herskovitz said. 'We want to prove there is another way to independently create and distribute content.'

EPISODES GALORE

The show's 36 episodes will air exclusively on MySpace, which has more than 110 million users worldwide. Additional content, including character profiles, will also appear on MySpace, which is owned by News Corp.

Each episode will be about 8 minutes long with two episodes debuting each week. The producers and MySpace will share revenue from ads that will run in the video. Additional revenue will come from product placement deals, Herskovitz said.

The show will also have its own social networking site called quarterlife.com.

Sending viewers in a loop back and forth from episode to the site could help build an audience, Forrester Research analyst Josh Bernoff said.

'If you create a place where your fans can gather and talk, then you reinforce their coming back and make it possible for them to recruit other people,' Mr Bernoff said.

He said there is room for professionally-created content online. But the Internet is still decades away from commanding the audiences, and thus the profits, that TV can.

'Making the big time still means being on television,' Mr Bernoff said.

Mr Jeff Berman, the general manager of MySpaceTV, said in an interview with the Globe and Mail that the show was a 'landmark moment' for MySpace, and that it would be 'the highest-quality serialised content ever to appear on the Internet. We're talking about the same production values as 24 or Prison Break.'

Under the terms of the deal, the social-networking site has a 24-hour window during which the webisode will only be available on MySpace TV.

After that, it will appear on Quarterlife.com. Both sites will have interactive features, Mr Berman said, but on MySpace viewers will be able to interact with the cast through their MySpace pages.

MySpace users and bloggers on other sites will also be able to 'embed' the webisodes in their pages by pasting in a small chunk of code, as they can with video clips on other sites such as YouTube, Blip.tv and Daily Motion.

When asked whether the new show would have a mobile component involving cellphones, MrBerman said 'stay tuned.'

Post a video, get a cheque, says video-sharing site Revver

15 Sep 2007, New Paper

IF you posted a video on Revver, chances are you would have received some money from the video-sharing site for your efforts.

It may be sending a signal to more well-known video havens YouTube and MySpace.

Yesterday, Revver announced yester that it would have paid US$1million ($1.6m) to more than 25,000, reported USA Today.

'Post a video... get a cheque,' said Revver CEO Kevin Wells.

Revver can share the wealth because its clips include advertising, whether they are shown on Revver or elsewhere.

Revver gets its wealth because its clips include advertising, whether they are shown on Revver or elsewhere.

Producer Tim Street's instructional videos, French Maid TV, hosted by an actress in a French maid get-up, can be found on Apple's iTunes Store as a free podcast.

The podcast links to Revver, where they are downloaded - with ads.

However, YouTube still dominates online video sharing, with 66 million users in August; Rever had 2.2 million users, according to measurement service ComScore Media Metrix.

'Revver figured that paying producers for their work would help them get the best clips, but that hasn't happened,' says MrJames McQuivey, an analyst at Forrester Research.

'If you're... trying to make a splash with your video, you go to where the splash will be the loudest, and that's YouTube.'

REVVER'S BIGGEST PAYOUTS

# The biggest payment - US$50,000 for 15 clips - went to two guys from Maine who inserted a Mentos mint into a bottle of Diet Coke and watched it explode

# Utah-based Blendtec has received about US$15,000 for clips that highlight weird things emulsified into oblivion in the company's blenders - Apple iPhones, lighters and even a whole chicken.

# Blogger Justine Ezarik, who made a splash a few weeks ago with her tale of a 300-page iPhone bill, will see US$5,000 from Revver for posting the clip.

LUCIANO PAVAROTTI: Rock of Opera

11 Sep 2007, ST

By David Hajdu

ON SEPT 13, 1994, Luciano Pavarotti and Bryan Adams stood side by side before a symphony orchestra assembled on a vast outdoor stage in Modena, Italy, the opera singer's home town, and they performed a duet of O Sole Mio.



Pavarotti, beaming, sang the hoary old heart-stopper beautifully, almost as if he had not done it several jillion times before. Adams croaked and giggled and clutched the microphone in palpable terror.

The performance, which was televised internationally and later released on video, survives on YouTube. Watching it now, in the wake of Pavarotti's death from pancreatic cancer last week, one can only marvel at the incongruity of the scene and wonder what in the world was that rock star doing in the company of that guy Adams?

Luciano Pavarotti was, among many things - perhaps above all - a rock star, regardless of the fact that the music he sang happened to be opera or, on occasion, folk or popular music in the operatic mode. To recognise this is not to deny his profound gifts as an artist or to diminish his importance as the most beloved tenor of the post-war era.

He was blessed with a stunningly gorgeous voice, pure yet unmistakable, which he employed with ardour in the service of beauty and joy. He brought countless listeners, including this one, to rapture.

In addition, as waves of encomiums in recent days have reminded us, his enormous appeal gave Pavarotti an evangelical dimension. More than anyone since Enrico Caruso, we are repeatedly told, Pavarotti brought opera to the masses. This is true, but not the whole truth: More than anything, what Pavarotti did was bring mass culture - particularly the sensibility of the rock 'n' roll age - to the world of opera.

He came to see his work as a mission of outreach. In this, he was carrying on a tradition as old as opera itself. Performers, promoters and civic leaders have worked for centuries to connect opera with the populace.

In the American Old West, every frontier town worth its tumbleweed erected an opera house between the Wells Fargo station and the saloon. In the early 20th century, every vaudeville bill had a 'class' act - a soprano or a vocal duo who would sing excerpts from an aria or two between the magicians and the jugglers.

Pavarotti, following the lead of his hard-driving, open-eyed manager Herbert Breslin, veered away from full-scale operas in traditional halls and branched into the recital business, where his buoyant personality could flourish and his indifference to acting and his reluctance to learn new roles would not be significant liabilities.

Breslin pushed him into the mould of rock stardom, and he fit nicely. Pavarotti was the first opera star to be booked in Madison Square Garden in New York City, and he became an arena attraction, the aria Elvis. He played Vegas; he did The Tonight Show, the American late-night talk show; he was the musical guest on Saturday Night Live; he starred in a Hollywood movie, Yes, Giorgio.

Although the singer and manager parted ways acrimoniously, Pavarotti stayed for the rest of his career in the mould set by Breslin. He expanded his audience through his arena tours with Placido Domingo and Jose Carreras, and through a series of concerts with rock and pop singers, including James Brown, Elton John, Celine Dion, Meat Loaf and the Spice Girls, not to mention Bryan Adams.

What was it about Pavarotti that made him so popular among people who otherwise showed no special affection for opera? He had a peasant quality that made up for his performing an art usually associated with a cultured elite. He had a robust earthiness that signified authenticity. Pavarotti, who never mastered reading music, was a largely intuitive musician, and that seemed to come across to his advantage.

He was, if not larger than life, larger in size than most humans. Indeed, he was practically the embodiment of an opera-hater's parody conception of a male opera singer - so huge he could hardly support his own weight, robustly Italian, blustering, flamboyant and oddly child-like.

With his heavy beard and long, wavy hair, his enormous eyebrows permanently cocked in seeming puzzlement, and his habitually broken English, Pavarotti seemed almost like a character from a Warner Brothers cartoon come to life, ready to sing a chorus of Kill The Wabbit! All these, I suspect, may well have helped him endear himself to a public inured to pop stars who look and act very much like cartoons and self-parodies.

Never much disposed to the acting side of opera, Pavarotti learnt in time to play Pavarotti, regardless of the character he was supposed to be. He drew from his own personality, like a popular singer, and his sensibility was exuberant, boyish, inclined to emotional extremes, and not very reflective.

The kind of opera he gave us was, on the whole, a music of voluptuous emotion, little darkness and not much thought. There was melodrama but little drama; there were outcries of pain, but scarcely any doubt, no melancholia.

The opera of Pavarotti was always thrilling and rarely challenging. It was something less than opera in the fullness of its dramatic potential. Still, it had a beauty that was practically unnatural in its perfection. It always made me happy, and it was grand, like the man who made it.

The writer, author of Lush Life and Positively Fourth Street, is the music critic for The New Republic magazine.

Malaysian rapper threatened with punishment on 'terrorist' video

2 Sep 2007, ST

By Reme Ahmad

FOUR masked men have appeared in a YouTube video clip warning a Malaysian rapper who had been accused of insulting Islam and the Malays that he would 'receive punishment' if he were to return home.

The clip echoes the video threats made by Middle Eastern terrorists.

Speaking in Malay, one of the men read from a statement: 'We would like to give a warning to Namewee that if you were to return to Tanah Melayu you will receive punishment for insulting Islam.' Namewee is the nickname used by the 24-year-old Wee Meng Chee, an undergraduate based in Taiwan.

Tanah Melayu literally means Malay Land.

The 18-second video ended with the four men chanting 'God is Great'.



Last month, Mr Wee parodied the national athem in a rap video that was also posted on YouTube. The clip infuriated many and is now the subject of a government probe into possible sedition.

Amid the uproar, Mr Wee posted a second clip in which he rapped about the discrimination against the Chinese, corrupt cops and indolent civil servants, most of whom are Malay. He also poked fun at Muslim morning prayers broadcast from mosques, saying they acted as his alarm clock.

The video again triggered a flood of abusive responses from Malays, and also expressions of support from ethnic Chinese in Malaysia.

The masked-men video clip became widely known after Malaysia's top blogger and an opposition politician, Mr Jeff Ooi, posted a link to it, asking: 'That's how Malaysians use YouTube?'

The four men who appeared in the clip, which has been watched about 7,000 times, wore black ski masks with only their eyes visible. They stood in front of a brick wall.

They wore black T-shirts, with two of them also wearing what looked like military fatigues.

One of them carried what looked like a sheathed dagger.

The comments posted under the video were not supportive of the scare tactics.

'This is really stupid...do not shame the Malays further,' said one posting which called the four men 'terrorist wannabees'.

Another added: 'I believe that the majority of the Malays in Malaysia are moderate and tolerant Muslims who will not agree to such stupid act as shown by the 'terrorists' in the video.'

Carrey pleads for Suu Kyi

30 Aug 2007, ST

ACTOR-COMEDIAN Jim Carrey has made a straight-to-YouTube video. And it is not funny at all.

The 45-year-old Carrey - in a rare serious mode - appears in a new announcement on behalf of the Human Rights Action Centre and the US Campaign for Burma. The goal: To free Nobel laureate Aung San Suu Kyi, who has been confined by Myanmar's ruling military junta for 11 of the last 17 years.



'Even though she's compared to a modern-day Gandhi or Nelson Mandela, most people in America still don't know about Aung San,' Carrey says in the filmed message, posted on Tuesday on YouTube.

'And let's face it: the name's a little difficult to remember.

'Here's how I did it: Aung San sounds a lot like 'unsung', as in unsung hero. Aung San Suu Kyi is truly an unsung hero.'

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Miss Teen USA hopeful's answer on Americans' bad grasp of geography becomes joke on Net

30 Aug 2007, New Paper

BY her own admission, Miss Lauren Caitlin Upton (left) joined beauty pageants to improve her personal communication skills.

But if her performance at last Friday's Miss Teen USA competition is anything to go by, she's going to need a lot more practice.

During the question and answer segment, Miss Upton, who represented South Carolina, tripped up spectacularly when she offered a meandering, ungrammatical and incoherent answer that turned her into a national joke.

PUT ON THE SPOT

The 18-year-old was put on the spot by pageant judge Aimee Teergarden, who asked her: 'Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can't locate the United States on a world map. Why do you think this is?'

Miss Upton replied: 'I personally believe that US Americans are unable to do so because, uh, some people out there in our nation don't have maps.



'And, uh, I believe that our education like such as in South Africa and, uh, the Iraq everywhere like, such as and I believe that they should, our education over here in the US should help the US, er, should help South Africa and should help the Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future for our children.'

Still, Miss Upton ended coming in fourth in the competition, which was won by Miss Teen Colorado Hilary Carol Cruz.

And although the pageant has ended, her ordeal continues.

The video of her humiliating moment has since been posted on video-sharing site YouTube, and has attracted more than three million viewers.

The video also drew scathing comments from viewers, such as 'sharp as a beachball, this one', and 'she'll probably make millions as America's stupidest blonde'.

Pageant host Mario Lopez later told People Magazine that he wanted to help Miss Upton, but had strict instructions not to talk to the contestants while they were answering.

'You don't know what the question is until you get up there. And I believe that she misunderstood it.'

To be sure, the Lexington High School graduate is no dummy.

She was an honours student who graduated with a 3.5 grade-point average, and was also a varsity athlete and student leader.

As for her meltdown, she said: 'I seriously think I only heard about one or two words of the actual question.'

But she redeemed herself on the show when Today interviewer Matt Lauer offered her another go.



'My friends and I, we know exactly where the United States is on our map. I don't know anyone else who doesn't. And if the statistics are correct, I believe there should be more emphasis on geography.'

Rapper riles Malays again with new song

19 Aug 2007, ST

MUAR - PROVOCATIVE Malaysian rapper Wee Meng Chee has riled his countrymen again with a new song which hits out at Malays for being lazy and backward, the Harian Metro newspaper reported yesterday.

Titled Kawanku/My Friends, its lyrics are a blend of Mandarin, Malay and English, with the Malay portion of the rap translated as: 'Talk some more lah/Chinese go back to China/If all go back ah/This would not be Malaysia/I fear where you will find work/But it's usual lah Malays also don't like to work/All go into the jungle/Live like Sakai.'

'Sakai' is what Malaysians call primitive people.



The rap ends with: 'But this is my true feeling/It's already been 50 years/Sleeping every day/Look forward lah/2020.' 2020 is an apparent reference to Malaysia's vision of becoming a developed nation by 2020.

The four-minute rap and Mr Wee's earlier parody of Malaysia's national anthem are on a possibly pirated CD titled Pasar Malam Chart Hits which costs RM7 (S$3). Checks by local media on Friday showed at least one shopping complex here was selling it.

The Taiwan-based Wee, 24, had apologised last week for hurting Malaysians' feelings with his 5-1/2-minute rap parody Negarakuku, which has been airing on YouTube since last month and pokes fun at corrupt cops and lazy civil servants, among others.

Amid angry letters in the forum pages of Malay papers on his raps, yesterday's New Straits Times quoted Foreign Minister Syed Hamid Albar as saying that Mr Wee will not be stripped of his citizenship because to do so would be 'to act emotionally, not rationally'.

Rap video of Malaysian anthem causes outcry

09 Aug 2007, ST

Malaysian student who posts YouTube clip in Taiwan faces sedition probe

KUALA LUMPUR - A CHINESE Malaysian student is under investigation for alleged sedition for posting a racially provocative rap video of the national anthem on YouTube that has enraged many ethnic Malays, officials said yesterday.

'His action is unacceptable. By distorting the national anthem and using (vulgar) words, he has shown disrespect for the country,' said Deputy Internal Security Minister Fu Ah Kiow.

He called the video an abuse of Internet freedom.

The Mandarin rap video was posted last month by the 24-year-old man who goes by the moniker 'Namewee'.



It triggered a flood of abusive responses from Malays, and expressions of support from ethnic Chinese in Malaysia.

The divergent responses expose the divisions in the multiethnic country, where minority Chinese and Indians have long resented the job and education privileges enjoyed by the majority Muslim Malays under an affirmative action programme.

Another security official, Datuk Johari Baharum, was quoted as saying by the New Straits Times that the police would study the six-minute clip to see if Namewee - who is studying in Taiwan - violated the Sedition Act, which carries a maximum prison term of three years.

Namewee blended the national anthem Negaraku with a rap song that bemoaned discrimination faced by the Chinese in Malaysia.

He poked fun at Muslim morning prayers broadcast from mosques, corrupt policemen and laid-back civil servants, who are mostly Malays.

Some of the lyrics implied that the Malays are arrogant and Chinese are hardworking.

Such direct lampooning of a race in public is rare in Malaysia, where the three main ethnic groups have lived peacefully together since racial riots on May 13, 1969 left at least 200 people dead.

'Don't repeat 13th May!' said one of the 600 responses posted on YouTube.

'Disgraceful to Malaysian Chinese...this guy is so lucky to be born as Malaysian,' said another response.

Namewee's face can be clearly seen and he sings with the Malaysian flag as a backdrop in the video, which has been viewed more than 500,000 times.

Deputy Youth and Sports Minister Liow Tiong Lai said the lyrics were not particularly offensive, but Namewee had insulted the national anthem.

'He is actually trying to reflect on what he feels about the situation in the country. As a young person, he has his ideals, but he should protect the country's honour,' the deputy minister said.

ASSOCIATED PRESS

Pop star Sun Ho catches flak for 'slutty' music video.

05 Aug 2007, New Paper

The pastor's wife asks: Will I be slammed again?
HOMECOMING is usually a sweet, blissful affair for most.

By Chang May Choon

HOMECOMING is usually a sweet, blissful affair for most.

Not for Sun Ho.

The Singaporean singer said she gets anxiety attacks before flying home from the US, where she is based.

'I'm very scared my mother will tell me all the (bad) updates,' she told The New Paper on Sunday with a laugh.

It's 'sad' that Sun should be 'scared to come back and see unfriendly faces and read reports that are not flattering,' said her friend and creative director Mark Kwan.

But her worries are not unfounded.

In the five years since her controversial crossover from church counsellor to pop star, Sun, 36, has weathered bad press and flak from vicious Netizens.

Remember the red dress with the plunging neckline that she wore to a Hollywood event in 2003 and the 'Is-she-a-pastor-or-not' saga?

The latest fodder for gossip is the music video for Sun's latest English single China Wine. In it, she dances up a storm as a geisha clad in micro hotpants.



While some are wowed by its 'sleek Hollywood style' and 'groovy' dance moves, others called it a 'disgrace' and blasted Sun for being 'slutty for a pastor's wife'.

STRUGGLE

Herein lies the pop star's problem breaking into the US market.

She may be American hip-hop maestro Wyclef Jean's new muse, but her detractors here never fail to remind her that she is married to City Harvest Church founder Kong Hee and should behave appropriately.

Sun, who returned on 26Jul, said she is constantly aware of the 'OB (out-of-bouds) markers that others put upon me based on their perceptions of who I am or what they think I should be'.

She knows that she is 'subject to a different measuring stick' but, when challenged to break out of the 'tiny confines of the box that I'm placed within', she believes in 'delivering the best that I can do'.

Over tea at CK Tang's Island Cafe on Thursday, she confided: 'This would be my most apparent struggle. I won't say I worry, but I think a lot.

'I want to be an artist who can challenge myself artistically and gain new experiences in order to grow creatively. But a lot of times I'd think, when I come back, am I going to be crucified again?'

The China Wine video has attracted more than 20,000 views on YouTube.

Netizens were divided between calling it 'hot' and 'slutty'.

One posting questioned the use of the 'Buddhist handclasp' and the derogatory connotation to geisha.

Civil servant Ryan Chong, 30, said: 'She can't be Jolin Tsai. Her age is showing and what's more, she's married with a kid.

'She started out with a wholesome image so why is she going wild now?'

But, are detractors going too far in trying to bring the pop star down?

Why attack her so when her music video is, by any measure, typical of most pop music videos these days, some ask.

Undergraduate Wayne Choong, 24, said: 'It's similar to all the music videos I watch on MTV. What's so special about it (to warrant) criticism? It's much more reserved compared to Pussycat Dolls or Christina Aguilera.'

Entrepreneur Cheryl Lim, 36, added: 'When Singaporeans see all these people dressed sexily, we don't bat an eyelid.

'But the moment it's Sun, people start to criticise. That's having double standards.'

The 'double standard' is something that Sun is painfully aware of.

That's why she's eager to distance herself from her church connections.

Initially labelled a 'music pastor', she has since clarified that she was only a counsellor in church and not a preacher.

Her husband, honorary pastor Kong, knows all too well.

'Cut her some slack, lah!' he said.

He declined to comment on the China Wine video 'so that no one will say people pay attention to her only because she married a pastor'.

But, he added: 'Sun has her own career. Her producers are positioning her for the Western pop market.'

Whatever the case, Sun is forging ahead, working with Haitian-born Jean to inject an Asian-meets-Caribbean flavour into her English tunes.

Her debut English album is slated for release in the second half of next year. Before that, she will do a duet with Jean on his own album and also tour with him.

She said: 'I want to remain relevant to the typical US music listener, while rocking the boat somewhat by adding my culture to make it a brand new sound.'

Sun said she is lucky to have a supportive management team.

While her Mandarin ballads bring out the 'attentive counsellor' in her, the geisha in China Wine brings out her 'fun self'.

MORAL LINE

But she insisted she still draws a line.

'I've had super revealing dresses pushed upon me and I've had to push them right back at the stylist,' she said.

'But that's the style and culture of Hollywood. There's nothing too sexy or taboo about cleavage... I'm the 'weird' one there when I have to explain to them my reservations and restrictions.

'Like I said, I have my thoughts and worries about Singapore,' she said, sounding almost resigned.

On coping with her detractors, Sun, who has been appointed the official Beijing Olympics music ambassador, said she has learnt to focus on the positive instead of dwelling on the negative.

But she still dreams of winning over her worst critics one day.

'I really hope that through time, they'd come to know the real Sun and accept me and appreciate me as an artiste - without any bias.'

Want to be P. Diddy's slave? Get online

04 Aug 2007, ST

If you don't mind the music mogul screaming at you all day, audition for the post with a three-minute clip

MUSIC mogul Sean Combs is looking for an assistant, but don't send a resume.

The star is accepting only video applications uploaded onto YouTube.

Combs, also known as P. Diddy, videotaped a help-wanted ad on the popular video website hoping to find a replacement for his former assistant, who did everything from holding his umbrella in the rain to playing chaperone to his hip-hop group Da Band.

While he declined to comment on why he chose YouTube instead of a recruitment site like Monster.com, he offered some explanation in the video.



'It's a new age, new time, new era,' he said in his first posting, a 1 1/2-minute clip of him yelling behind his desk.

'Forget coming into the office and having a meeting with me and being all nervous.'

Hopefuls must audition by posting a video less than three minutes long, explaining why they deserve the job.

Initially, Combs opened it to anybody with a camera or a little creativity, but in a second posting, he narrowed the applicant pool to college graduates.

His two short video clips did not provide a job description or list of qualifications. But if his previous actions are any indication of what the new assistant can expect, the job could be very demanding.

He once made members of Da Band walk from Manhattan to Brooklyn to fetch him a slice of cheesecake. And his last assistant, whom he named Fonzworth Bentley, became famous as the umbrella-toting manservant often seen fluffing Combs' bow ties on the red carpet.

Bentley, whose parents named him Derek Watkins, has turned his job as the star's assistant into endorsement deals, a record contract - and a line of umbrellas.

'What better job than that to have me scream at you, go crazy, keep you up at late hours, have you sleep-deprived?' Combs asked.

More than 600 people have submitted videos.

Mr John A. Challenger, chief of the recruitment firm Challenger, Gray & Christmas, said the star's online search is more than a ploy to get attention. More applicants are adding video clips to their applications.

'It helps put a face to all the faceless resumes,' he said.

Viewers will pick the finalists on YouTube, but Combs will pick the winner.

'It's an interesting way to engage his fan base and it's a creative way to do it,' Mr Challenger said. 'It's like American Idol, and you can choose only one.'

Diddy Assistant Update

Who's that Obama girl?

15 Jul 2007, ST

A sexy, sassy tribute to Barack Obama has garnered more than 2.2m hits

By Michelle Tay

A FORMERLY unknown model named Amber Lee Ettinger could hardly be more famous now - thanks to her alias as 'Obama Girl', the most popular online fan of United States senator and American presidential candidate Barack Obama.

The curvaceous, 25-year-old brunette appears - in various stages of undress - in an amusing, risque music video on video-sharing website YouTube, breathlessly singing her love and staunch support for the lanky senator from Illinois.

It spoofs several references from popular music and culture, including the song You Don't Know My Name by Alicia Keys and TV series Baywatch.

The video, titled I Got A Crush On Obama, is so popular that it has been viewed 2.2 million times since it was posted on June 13.

The R&B ditty is also available on Apple's online music store iTunes for US$0.99 (S$1.50) and a second video, titled Obama Girl Vs Giuliani Girl, will be released on YouTube tomorrow.

Ms Ettinger and the video's creators - Ms Leah Kauffman, 21, an undergraduate at Temple University in Philadelphia; advertising executive Ben Relles, 32; and music producer Rick Friedrich - are the latest contributors to the changing political landscape of the American presidential election of 2008, where candidates and their voters alike have been posting videos on YouTube to garner support and discredit their opponents.

Mr Philip de Vellis, 33, a former strategist with Blue State Digital, made a video that has garnered 3.5 million views since it was first posted in March.

It portrays US senator and presidential candidate Hillary Clinton as 'Big Brother' in a spoof of a TV commercial, titled 1984, that launched the Apple Macintosh personal computer in the US in January that year. The original spot featured IBM as the Big Brother in its Orwellian world.

Mr de Vellis' ad, titled Vote Different, seeks to show how little like an actual conversation Mrs Clinton's one-way mode of address is.

Mrs Clinton has posted various videos on her website, www.hillaryclinton.com, detailing the issues that may form her election platform. In one, she ironically declares: 'This is the first of many talks I hope to be having with you just about every week. If we're going to keep the conversation going, you need to know what I'm thinking.'

In effect, Vote Different is a 'negative advertisement' endorsing Mr Obama, arguably one of Mrs Clinton's strongest rivals in the Democratic race for presidency.

Speaking about the candidates' and voters' use of technology in the coming elections, Mr Mike Gehrke, director of research for the Democratic National Committee, told The New York Times last month: 'It's one of the biggest innovations we've seen in politics.

'(Before,) it would cost a lot of money for a campaign to put together a good TV ad, then you had to buy time, put it on the air and later on websites. Now it goes the other way too, and you have people talking to each other and to the campaigns.'

London's The Observer suggested that YouTube has become the 'ultimate form of democracy' where, in a subversive move, voters have their say and politicians listen.

On July 23, Google-owned YouTube is set to seal its position as the hot new political advertising medium as it co-sponsors with CNN a debate among the eight Democratic presidential candidates in Charleston, South Carolina.

All the candidates will make a 30-second video that will play at some time during the debate.

Questions from the public will also be recorded and submitted via videos submitted by ordinary people through YouTube.

Mr Chuck DeFeo, who ran the Bush-Cheney online campaign in 2004 and has been involved in online politics for the past 12 years, says: 'Now with the rise of the Internet there is the ability to have a true dialogue with the voter.'

----------------------------------

The best... and the worst

LIFESTYLE'S guide to the best and worst US political campaign videos on YouTube.


# BEST


I GOT A CRUSH...ON OBAMA



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wKsoXHYICqU

By Ben Relles, starring Amber Lee Ettinger and Leah Kauffman, co-produced by Rick Friedrich, Larry Strong and Kevin Arbouet

Number of views so far: 2,241,731

Video features a curvaceous brunette romping through New York City to a R&B ditty, breathlessly singing her love and staunch support for Illinois senator Barack Obama.

Watch out for spoofs of celebrities, pop songs and popular TV series. Lyrics include 'You're into border security/Let's break the border between you and me', 'I cannot wait, 'til 2008/Baby you're the best candidate/Of the new oval office' and 'You can Barack me tonight'.

Verdict: Laugh-out-loud funny. Can't wait for the second instalment.



VOTE DIFFERENT



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6h3G-lMZxjo

By Obama supporter Philip de Vellis

Number of views so far: 3,524,896

This is the first 'viral' video ad of the 2008 presidential campaign, spreading through the Internet community like wildfire.

It mashes up Hillary Clinton's face and voice with Ridley Scott's famous '1984' ad for Apple computers. Clinton is seen as Big Brother, lecturing from a screen to the downtrodden masses. The screen is eventually smashed and everyone liberated when a lone runner hurls a mallet at it. The ad ends with the caption 'barackobama.com', though his campaign had no involvement in the making of the video.

Verdict: Cleverly subversive and well-executed.



MCCAIN SINGS STREISAND



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RTuwBw9q3Sw

By YouTube user and McCain supporter Briguy17

Number of views so far: 72,468

Who knew Republican Senator John McCain could be funny?

In an admirable attempt to woo young voters across the United States, he appeared on American comedy show Saturday Night Live in June last year singing - butchering actually - popular songs by Barbra Streisand.

A McCain fan who thought McCain deserved extra publicity for his effort posted the video online.

The video was an instant hit, eliciting comments like 'I never voted Republican in my life, but I might vote for McCain'.

Verdict: McCain is highly entertaining if not plain admirable for his ability to laugh at himself.



# WORST



BILL AND HILLARY SOPRANO



http://www.hillaryclinton.com/video/36.aspx

Number of views so far: At least 900,000 have viewed copies on YouTube

In an official video to launch Hillary's campaign song (You And I by Celine Dion), the Clintons spoof the final scene of popular TV series The Sopranos and its controversial cliffhanger.

Hillary plays mobster Tony Soprano while Bill, who plays her 'wife', appears disappointed to get carrots instead of the scripted onion rings. Both have the acting chops of wooden puppets.

There is a mention of the Clintons' daughter Chelsea, who gets jibed for failing to parallel park. But nobody gets whacked in the end.

Verdict: Even Keanu Reeves can act better than this duo.



RUDY GIULIANI IN DRAG WITH DONALD TRUMP



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4IrE6FMpai8

By YouTube user itsgiulianitime

Number of views so far: 354,893

Former mayor of New York Rudy Giuliani appears in drag in this video, which was originally filmed for a 'roast' - where peers or the press poke fun at a celebrity or politician to honour him - in 2000.

But it is now being used by his detractors, notably as publicity for Kevin Keating's documentary Giuliani Time, which The New York Times called 'nothing less than a full frontal assault on the civic deification of Rudolph W. Giuliani that occurred in the days after Sept 11, 2001, when much of the news coverage shined a spotlight on his steady hand'.

In it, the current Republican frontrunner has his 'breasts' nuzzled by property mogul Donald Trump, who is helping him choose a nice perfume.

'Ooh, you naughty boy!' a blonde-wigged Guiliani screams in falsetto tones as he mock-slaps 'The Donald'.

Verdict: In no other motion picture film have two hair pieces been more terrifying than this.



HILLARY CLINTON SINGS NATIONAL ANTHEM



http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bfZ_gXCHaMw

By YouTube user breitbart

Number of views so far: 1,344,638

The incredibly off-key singing of Senator Hillary Clinton, wife of former US president Bill Clinton, gets picked up by microphones at an event in Iowa in January this year. Her butchering of the US national anthem garnered comments like 'Tone deaf, but a great first woman president' and 'Tone deaf, even more reason to hate her'.

Verdict: Love her or hate her, you will blush on behalf of Clinton.

JJ Lin's MTV causes uproar

13 Jul 2007, ST

The Singapore singer's new music video features disturbing scenes and has been banned by three Taiwan TV stations

By Aviel Tan

SINGAPORE singer JJ Lin has overturned his shy, boyish image once and for all with his latest music video in which he plays a lust-filled, piano-playing madman who kills a pretty girl, mutilates her body and cuts off her head.

The gory 21-minute-long video for The Killa, a single from Lin's new album West Side, was immediately banned by three TV stations in Taiwan, where the Mandarin pop idol is based. They deemed it unsuitable for broadcast. The album has sold 15,000 copies in Singapore.

A five-minute censored version of the video has gone to the Media Development Authority (MDA) to get censorship clearance for broadcast release.

The original uncensored version will not be shown here. It shows scenes of the victim's topless body and Lin - whose full name is Lin Jun Jie - gouging out her heart.

Various versions of the grisly video have already popped up on popular website YouTube.

Lin, 26, used to be known as the boy-next-door who composed romantic ballads until last year, when he shocked fans by going for a macho, sexy look, even baring his torso in a book.

His latest move looks set to make that striptease seem mild in comparison.

The video, which cost $250,000 to make, tells the story of how a man (Lin) develops a deadly obsession with an exchange student (played by a Paraguayan-Taiwanese star known only as Liz).

Lin's bespectacled character drugs the girl, kills her and makes her 'his' by slowly mutilating her body. He then cuts off her head and creates a grisly mural on his wall with her severed body parts.

On Taiwan authorities banning the video, Lin told Life! in a statement released by his record label Ocean Butterflies: 'The process of filming this was a great experience for me. I'm not surprised to know that it (the full-length music video) got banned from broadcasting, but I think it's a fantastic video and it would definitely be a pity if the audience can't get to watch it.'


JJ Lin Jun Jie-The Killa Movie-A


JJ Lin Jun Jie-The Killa Movie-B

When Life! asked whether the singer had concerns over negative influences on his fans, Ms Daphne Ng, the home-grown label's artiste management assistant, reckoned that youths nowadays are more well-informed and information savvy.

'It's up to them to decide whether what is depicted in the video is acceptable,' she said.

She went on to say that contrary to popular belief, local fans had actually taken to the singer's portrayal of his darker side.

'They understand that he wants to shed his boy-next-door image and continue to re-invent himself as an entertainer,' she added.

Indeed, one fan Life! spoke to, Ms Tay Jie Fang, 18, a communications student at Temasek Polytechnic who has followed the artiste since his entry on the music scene, said that the five-minute video that she saw was a breath of fresh air.

'I like the darker and tense concept and I think it breaks away from his previous music videos, which were kind of upbeat,' she said.

'I like his performance in the video and how he conveys the conflicting emotions when he decides to kill the girl he loves.'

However, Ms Sophia Tan, 19, a first-year university student, gave the video the thumbs-down.

She said: 'JJ is not being true to who he really is. 'He is just using the video to get more attention for his new album.'

Then again, Ms Cai Ming Shi, 22, a quality assurance executive with a local food company, who has been a fan of Lin's for four years, sighed: 'Whatever he does, as long as he enjoys it and is sincere about giving his fans the best in music, then I think it's enough for the rest of us.'

Nasty Aunties: It's not psychological problem

24 June 2007, New Paper

COULD someone with 'auntie' behaviour be suffering from a psychological problem?

Psychiatrist Lionel Lim dismissed the notion.

For him, the tag is more a stereotype than anything else.

'I don't think there's any psychological basis to label someone as 'auntie',' he said.

'Uncivic behaviour cuts across the board.'

Men and women exhibit such behaviour.

Psychologist Daniel Koh said he does not know of any clinical study or evidence that showed that women are likelier to exhibit anti-social behaviour.

As to menopause possibly causing middle-aged women to act irrationally, he said: 'When someone is at this stage, she tends to experience mood swings or disturbance, anxiety, depression, irritability or fatigue.

'With such symptoms, and combined with work, family (and) relationship responsibilities or commitment, these may cause a woman to behave differently.

'However, it is not all menopausal women who behave like this.'

Judging from clips on YouTube, there seem to be far fewer 'uncles' engaging in such anti-social behaviour (discounting violence). Why is this so?

'Generally men tend to be more tolerant when they get older, while women may stay angrier than ever, falling out with people, irritated by others and feeling frustrated,' MrKoh said.

As for dealing with 'unreasonable' aunties, he advised that one would be better served not arguing.

Even trying to rationalise with them may be pointless as they may not be able to accept it. It may even give them a chance to attack you, he said.

What about recording their behaviour and putting it out for public shaming?

'No, any form of public shaming is not only unhelpful, but it may cause the person to react more badly,' he said.

Nasty Aunties

24 June 2007, New Paper

FIRST THERE WERE BUS UNCLES. NOW...Nasty Aunties

WHAT THE PICTURES SHOW
1. A woman getting aggressive in a carpark
2. Another woman digging her nose on the MRT.
3. A third woman shelling prawns on a Tibs bus

By Ho Lian Yi

THERE are appropriate places to shell prawns.

A bus isn't one ofthem.

But that didn't stop one middle-aged woman from peeling her plastic bag full of crustaceans on a Tibsbus.

A passenger sitting behind who saw what she did was so incensed by her anti-social behaviour that he took out his phone and filmed the entire act.

He then posted the clip online with the intention of shaming the woman.

The passenger, who signed himself off as nicholastansg,, said that at that time, the prawns stank and 'polluted the whole air-conditioned bus'.

When contacted via e-mail, he told The New Paper On Sunday: 'After I finished filming it, I confronted her and asked her why she did that.'



He claimed that from the woman's initial reaction, she seemed 'prepared to show her unreasonableness' until she realised that the person confronting her was a man who didn't 'have a friendly-looking face'.

Mr Tan believed that but for his intervention, the woman would have left the prawn shells on the floor.

After he told her off, she grudgingly picked up the shells, he said.

The woman is not the only 'aunty' in Singapore who has been caught committing anti-social acts that were eventually posted online.

A quick search on YouTube for 'Singapore auntie' comes up with several clips that reinforced the negative image of these elderly or middle-aged women or housewives.

'Kiasu', 'loud' and 'unreasonable' were some of the words that were associated with the stereotype of 'uncouth' women aged 50 and up.

The most infamous is probably the 'Singapore Lift Auntie', who was caught on film as she started chasing and yelling at a man and his daughter, as they cowered in a lift.



Other videos on YouTube included women taking far more plastic bags than they needed, and a woman who, with two others who appeared to be her sister and elderly mother, argued with someone over a carpark lot.






There was even one of a woman combing her wet hair at a corridor of a HDB block and leaving her used wet towel on the parapet every day.



This was posted and described by a person called gongxi88, who said he was her neighbour.

He said he initially wanted to take a picture of the slippers, umbrella and laundry rack that he claimed were blocking the pathway when he caught her in action.

WEIRD BEHAVIOUR

He wrote in an e-mail: 'When she saw me recording her weird behaviour, she purposely moved toward my unit and started her nonsense in front of my video cam.

'She mentioned that she is pretty, so shoot, lah! She even scolded (me with some) bad words.'

He now keeps his door closed to avoid seeing her 'nonsense', but she still does it, he claimed.

Perhaps the most difficult clip to watch is one titled 'Hardcore nose digging auntie on MRT'.



It shows a bespectacled woman , taking up two seats on the train - itself an inconsiderate act - clearing the gunk in her nose energetically.

The uploader's description summed it up: 'Yucks.'

Upon viewing the clip, one woman, 25-year-old copywriter Lena Wong, said: 'I don't know how anyone can tahan (Malay for stand it) filming that for one minute.'

For Miss Wong, stereotypes persist because people prove them right.

Bank officer Melvin Poh, 30, believes it has to do with upbringing and habits.

'That was how they have been doing things all along, so they're used to it,' he said.

However, communications services associate Lye Peixian, 25, felt that the stereotypes have arisen because of how people are portrayed.

In local shows, 'aunties' are always loud and rude, she said.

'A sophisticated middle-aged woman is never seen as an 'auntie' in those shows.'

It is an exaggerated portrayal, she said, adding: 'People of that age do show a bit of those traits, but it's not a high percentage.'

Blogger Lam Chun See, 55, of goodmorningyesterday.blogspot.com, cited Jack Neo's cross-dressing character, Liang Ximei, as an example of the 'auntie' stereotype.

Mr Lam's first reaction on seeing the videos was to wonder: 'Could it be they were staged?'

He feels the pigeonholing is unfair as young people do anti-social things, too.

'Different people behave differently. When I go into a lift with all the young girls talking so loudly, I find that very rude. Maybe it's not as bad as digging your nose, but it's not very courteous behaviour,' he said.

What do the women in their 50s think?

Mrs Liu Chye Lian, 50, a bus attendant and a mother of two, said the stereotype is outdated as more older women are concerned about their image.

'Aunties are more high-class now,' she said.

However, she admitted she is acquiring 'auntie' traits as she gets older.

'When I buy things, I bargain very hard sometimes. I guess that's 'auntie'. I'm not scared to bargain!'

Madam Tracy Wang, 44, homemaker and mum to threechildren, was unhappy that people would put such videos online.

She said: 'If I were that person, I would prefer you approach me. (Doing that) doesn't give people a chance to defend their actions.'

SELFISHNESS

She doesn't think 'auntie' behaviour has anything to do with educational levels, but more about selfishness.

'I call these people IMM - I, Myself, Me,' she said.

But she wouldn't want to be called an auntie herself.

'I think it's associated with being low-class, that's why nobody likes to be called auntie,' she said.

Bus Rage Violence 2

O3 Jun 2007, New Paper

YOU can call him the Singapore bus uncle.

Like his infamous Hong Kong counterpart, his antics, filmed by a commuter, have been making its rounds on the Internet in the last few months.



The notorious 'bus uncle' tag came about last year after a middle-aged Hong Kong man was filmed scolding a fellow passenger who had tapped him on the shoulder because he had been talking too loudly on his handphone.

In this case, the Singapore bus uncle got into a heated argument with the bus captain after he allegedly did not pay the fare.

The man, shouting vulgarities, threw a punch but hit the wall panel just behind the driver.

During his tirade at the driver, which went on for more than a minute, he even threatened to kill the bus captain.





The man said loudly to the driver: 'You not happy with... or what? Why you do this to us?

'So far when I was young until now, nobody ask me to scan twice, you know. If I don't scan, I put coins, you think what? I don't have coins ah?'

As the man worked himself up, the driver could also be heard in the background using vulgarities, which provoked the passenger further.

The man then shouted at the driver: 'You call police, you call police, you bloody ******. I will kill you, you know.

'He only shout you know, but I will kill you, you want or not? You want a funeral today? You want or not?

'You call the police, you call,' he challenged the driver, as he swung a punch at the wall panel next to the driver.

SECOND ABUSIVE COMMUTER

The unruly passenger was then pulled away by someone believed to be his brother-in-law, but not before the latter too, added to the fray and boasted to the driver,

'I already go prison, I already go prison,' he said.

Meanwhile, this uncle continued: '******, you think what?'

The man's lasts words before he stepped off the bus: 'I tell you, I not satisfied, I will kill you.'

Strangely though, another video clip which was titled 'Part 2' showed the brother-in-law on board the bus.

This time, he hurled abuse at the driver from the back of the bus, as he paced a few steps up and down the aisle.



He could be heard shouting in a mixture of Hokkien vulgarities and Malay: 'You want to see ****** or what? Not scared lah, police you bring, anytime... I never run.'

The bus driver could also be heard in the background retaliating with vulgar words, and threatening to call the police.

Bus Rage Violence

O3 Jun 2007, New Paper

By Tan Mae Lynn

Bus-stop bust-up He leaps back on bus, then...

# ROW ERUPTS OVER PUSHING.
2 men argue on bus. Younger man alights but verbal spat continues through opened door

# ENRAGED, YOUNGER MAN JUMPS ON BUS.
He pushes older man to ground and kicks him relentlessly. Other commuters try to stop attack

# ATTACKER QUICKLY GETS OFF BUS.
Victim scrambles onto his feet, gives chase and both men exchange vulgarities.

---------------------------

JUST like road bullies, there are bus bullies too.

SBS Transit, Singapore's largest bus operator, has noticed an increase in violent incidents on its buses. And they appear to be sparked off by seemingly innocuous events.

In a recent incident captured on video, a quarrel between a youngster and a middle-aged man turned nasty on a crowded bus.

Before anyone could intervene, the young guy attacked the latter, even stomping on him at one point.

The man fell on his back as he tried to fend off the blows. The youngster continued to kick him repeatedly.

The assailant then turned around and bolted. The man picked himself up and followed his attacker out of the bus, but soon gave up the chase.

The two men taunted each other with vulgarities from a distance.

The presence of scores of passengers on the SBS Transit bus did not deter the assailant. The video was taken by a commuter who posted it on the Internet.

According to the witness, the incident happened on a No 23 bus, outside Sim Lim Square, around 2.30pm on 10 Feb.



He claimed there had been some pushing and shoving inside the bus before it stopped.

Last month, The New Paper on Sunday reported that a 17-year-old Hwa Chong Institution student punched a bus captain in the face.

The driver had found the teen's girlfriend using an invalid card and prevented him from leaving the bus.

37 REPORTED CASES SO FAR

In the first five months of this year, SBS Transit received 37 reports of quarrels, fights or assaults on its buses. Of these, 15 involved passengers assaulting bus captains.

Earlier this year, the company managed to track down a bully who tried to sneak on board without paying, then punched the bus captain when he was confronted. The bus captain suffered a bloody nose.

Although the culprit fled, the entire incident was caught on camera, SBS Transit spokesman Tammy Tan said.

She said: 'The aggressor's face was caught on the CCTV and recently, he was spotted on board by another bus captain and the police were alerted. They then detained the man.'

Ms Tan added that the company started tracking such cases at the start of this year as it had noticed that violence on buses was occurring more frequently.

SBS Transit is aware of the case captured on video. However, no passenger had lodged a complaint.

In another recent case, a ticketing officer at the airport, who wished to be known only as Mr Vel, 34, said he saw a student punch a bus driver over a concession card which was apparently no longer valid.

Mr Vel said: 'When the student started arguing with the driver, some passengers did go forward and ask them to stop arguing. But when the boy punched the driver, everybody got scared. Some people started to get off and take another bus. I also got off the bus.'

Those who take buses regularly say fights are rare. But it's not unusual to see heated arguments on buses.

Madam E T Teo, 32, said: 'I've never seen a physical fight on a bus before, but I've seen quite a few arguments.

'Usually, it's between the bus driver and passengers, students mostly... because they either try to cheat on the fare or they are suspected of using someone else's concession card.'

Madam Teo added that while some passengers just pay up or alight immediately, others continue to argue with the driver. She said: 'When the driver asks to check their card, they stand there arguing with the driver in an aggressive manner.'

And another video shows such an incident. But passengers are not the ones who always start the arguments.

Mr Gary Juay, 31, said: 'I've seen drivers stop the bus to check on (passengers') tickets, and he doesn't ask nicely.' That, he felt, can provoke the passenger.

Also, most people avoid getting into heated arguments because 'they don't want to look bad in public'.

And commuters should be aware that CCTV cameras are fitted in 420 of SBS Transit's 2,700 buses.

Said its spokesman: 'All our buses are equipped with an automatic vehicle despatch system where the bus captain can communicate with the operations control centre, and seek assistance when required.

'In an emergency situation, bus captains can also activate a priority button allowing the operations control centre to listen in on what is happening on board.

'Mobile traffic inspectors or patrol cars will be activated to the scene, if necessary, to assist bus captains.'

And in some situations, like when the driver is assaulted, the police are also alerted at the same time.

Miss Japan crowned Miss Universe as controversies reign

30 May 2007, ST

By E-von Yeung, ST Multimedia Reporter

MEXICO CITY - AS MISS Japan walked away with the fabled Miss Universe crown, trouble stayed to afflict the famous pageant.

Controversy did not go away after having reared its ugly head during the contest in the form of protests, a banned dress, and the withdrawal of one beauty queen.

To top this, the crown fell off - an ominous last straw, perhaps - the newly-minted Miss Universe 2007, Riyo Mori.

The US$250,000 (S$380,000) diamond-and-pearl crown slipped off Mori, the 56th winner of the title, when last year's winner Zuleyka Rivera of Puerto Rico helped put it on.

But 20-year-old Mori composed herself enough to keep the crown on to become Japan's first Miss Universe in nearly 50 years, bringing much joy to her country as pride and pleasure flashed across television screens nationwide on Tuesday.

Pomp, pageantry, and shame
Such pride and pleasure was not always the case, for the other contestants.

During the evening gown parade, Miss USA, Rachel Smith, slipped on the runway and landed on her bottom, although the slip didn't stop her earning fifth place.



She was accompanied by a handful of booing Mexicans in the run-up to the finals because of what they saw as US unfriendliness toward illegal immigrants.



Miss Sweden, Isabel Lestapier Winqvist, unexpectedly pulled out of the event because of complaints in her country that it degrades women. Sweden has won the Miss Universe crown three times in the past.

In another hitch, Miss Mexico was made to change her outfit for the regional dress contest after her original dress, decorated with brutal images of rebels in a 1920s religious uprising being hanged or shot, drew accusations of poor taste.

Still, Japan's Mori came away with the crown intact, to fulfil a lifelong dream. By winning, she surpassed the ambition of her grandmother, who told her as a child she wanted her to be Miss Japan one day.

A lifelong ballet dancer from a village near Mount Fuji, Mori wore a striking black gown with coloured lapels for the final.

'My mind went blank,' she said of the winning moment.

USA's Smith came in fifth place, while second place went to Natalia Guimaraes, 22, from Brazil.

The second runner-up was Ly Jonaitis, 21, from Venezuela.

Ningning Zhang from China, 20, won the Miss Congeniality award, while Anna Theresa Licaros, 22, from the Philippines, was chosen Miss Photogenic.

Dreadlocks
The annual Miss Universe pageant - which tries to present itself as something more meaningful than a swimwear parade - was first held in Long Beach, California, in 1952.

The event was taken over in 1996 by US real estate mogul Donald Trump.

This year, it attracted protesters wearing white dresses splashed with fake blood and sashes proclaiming 'Miss Juarez', 'Miss Atenco' and 'Miss Michoacan' in reference to places in Mexico made infamous by killings or sexual abuse of women.

In another quirk for 2007, the long, twisted dreadlocks of Miss Jamaica, the contest's first ever Rastafarian participant, and the close-shaved head of Miss Tanzania stood out from the lacquered manes of the other contestants.

This was the fourth time the pageant was held in Mexico, which in 1991 won the crown with beauty queen Lupita Jones.

Mori - the second Japanese woman to win the Miss Universe title - will spend her year-long reign traveling the world to speak out on humanitarian issues like poverty and disease.

Anything, Whatever

"Anything" and "Whatever" are supposed to be unique beverages. It comes in 2 names and 6 random flavours.

"Anything" is carbonated and comes in Cola, Cola with lemon, Apple, Fizz up, Cloudy lemon and Root beer flavors. "Whatever" is non-carbonated, more tea flavoured and comes in Lemon tea, Peach tea, Jasmin green tea, White grape tea, Apple tea and Chysanthemum tea flavours.



Johnson Tan, MD of marketing company, Out of the Box (OOTB) introduced a surprise-packaging concept such that every beverage has a generic design, ensuring that consumers are unaware of the flavour of the purchased beverage until they drink it.

"The concept was developed through the experience a group of friends and I kept having whenever we were at the coffee shop or at home," Johnson Tan said. "People kept telling us they just wanted ‘anything' or ‘whatever' whenever we asked them what they wanted to drink."

One of their marketing campaign involve plastering some 450 posters of pudding cleavages at bus-tops framed by empty cans, with suggestive lines like, " I can easily be satisfied by Anything,: or "Promise me Anything and I 'll marry you."



However, just 3 days after the bus stop displays went up, 90 % of the posters were defaced, damaged or missing. People oped up the mock cans, dented the and some old folks who collected empty cans for money, "harvested" the displayed cans.

The empty cans, which in its original form were sealed shut, posed a serious dengue threat to the public after numerous cans were vandalised to the point where it could collect and store stagnant water.

In a statement, OOTB said "to our greatest regret, we realised that the empty cans at almost 450 bus stops had been tampered with, some even torn down with the flaps opened. This has caused much concern by some members of the public who felt that the opened cans posed possible dengue hazards".

"In the interest of the public, the management of OOTB has made an immediate decision today, working closely with Clear Channel to dismantle the canned drinks display at all bus stops".

The mass removal of displays, which took three days to erect, was described by MD for OOTB, Johnson Tan as a "pity" and said "even though we will incur additional cost, we feel that as this is a public concern, we will do anything and whatever to address it immediately". The losses totalled $50,000.

Tan also felt that despite the shortened run of the displays, "we have achieved our objectives of creating mass awareness and attention".

-------------------------------

Personally i think this beverage campaign is seriously flawed. Unique? Maybe. Refreshing? I dun think so.

Anything? Whatever? I want to know what drink or food that i am going to put into my mouth. With a name like "Anything" and "Whatever", it is like telling the consumer that it's ok to NOT have an opinion on what you are putting into your mouth. People do have their individual taste. Frankly, I myself dun like cola or lemony drinks and i know many people dun like tea flavored drinks.

Other than a few weak miserable puns, the beverage absolutely has no strong selling point. No pulp, no vitamins/minerals, no special taste/flavor, no calcium etc. Just random flavor.

At some point, consumers are going to ask themselves,"What am i buying?". Frankly, only a kid would pay $1.20 for the amusement for a randomly flavored drink.

Below are the TV advertisments for "Anything" and "Whatever". Some people seemed to find them funny, but i dun.



Whatever TV commercial.



Anything TV commercial.