Church and State – The role of religion in modern consumer culture
In ad and media circles, where “irreverent” is a common term of praise, it’s easy to forget a simple fact: Many Americans are decidedly reverent. Amid all that’s new in the Internet era, age-old religious belief still plays a significant role in people’s lives, often influencing their relationship with the consumer culture they inhabit. For marketers who pay minute attention to other aspects of people’s behavior, it would be a blunder, if not a sin, to overlook this large factor in American life.

Marketing And The Economy; Why America Needs Obama And Coca-Cola
The task for marketers therefore is to explore more efficient ways to connect and listen to their consumers in order to reduce costs, while still maintaining a presence in the marketplace and connection to their consumers. It’s possible that this economy will force marketers to innovate, and finally begin the shift of massive, high-waste, traditional media budgets into more engaging, measurable interactive marketing initiatives.

The Economist Sums up the Financial Crisis
If you feel at a loss for words to describe the now global financial cover, this spoof cover floating around the internet for September’s Economist says it all…

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Matt Harding decided to quit his job and travel the world where he began shooting videos of himself doing a little dance in front of monuments. He started a website called “Where the Hell is Matt” and became famous thanks to his videos. This is his 2008 video and is a compilation of 42 countries, and is surprisingly gorgeous and moving. It shows joy, harmony, and somehow exemplifies a true appreciation for the beauty and diversity of each culture. Additionally, it is dubbed by a song entitled “Praan” which was written just for this video, and I think is beautiful and absolutely perfect for this video. You can buy it at the Amazon mp3 store.

Where the Hell is Matt? (2008) from Matthew Harding on Vimeo.

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Created by Justin DIllon, the film is a cutting-edge model of “open source activism,” with the goal of ending slavery once and for all. Qui Diaz has an excellent analysis of the social media marketing taking place to promote the film and address the slavery crisis. Additionally, the film’s site explains:

There is a sea of change happening in human rights activism. The world’s issues cannot be solved alone by governments and non-profits, but require community-based participation. As a feature film, CALL+RESPONSE has the unique position of being not only a ground-breaking genre-bending film, but due to the fact that this project was funded completely through donations, it operates as a powerful movement with 100% of profits going to fund global field projects on the front lines of this issue.

There are 27 million people kept captive in slavery today. Go see Call + Response when it hits theaters and decide for yourself how you will address their cry for help.

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