Boy that week went by fast – it’s already Friday again! Here are this week’s odds and ends:
- Believe it or not, yet another suicide-themed ad had to be yanked from TV. Washington Mutual’s commercial showed a group of WaMu’s competitors poised atop a building ready to jump because they can’t compete with the free checking. The American Foundation for Suicide Prevention has been busy lately. Apparently CareerBuilder has another ad with this theme that finished running for the quarter, but it plans to bring the ad back in September. Perhaps they should think about laying that ad to rest and going in a different direction in the Fall.
- NBC will be showing a TV reality series version of the old flour baby (or egg or sugar baby) teen pregnancy prevention exercise. Baby Borrowers will follow teen couples as they live together for the first time and have to care for a real infant, then a toddler, a pre-teen, a young teenager and even a senior citizen. Richard McKerrow, the executive producer, said:
“We really want the young people in the series and indeed everyone who watches to appreciate that parenting is one of the hardest and most important tasks you’ll ever undertake. We also want people to think carefully about when they want to have children and with whom they want to have children.”
A great idea. Now who’s going to volunteer to let the show borrow their kids?
- LA’s Homeless Blog is a great example of how an organization can get its issue out there with a blog that ties together news, commentary and calls to action. The blogger,Joel John Roberts, is the CEO of PATH Partners and People Assisting The Homeless.
- All in all, it’s just another brick in the… toilet? I can get behind this video that features a Pink Floyd remix to promote ways of conserving energy and water. The video does not, however, feature any giant worms, marching hammers or answer the question of why you can’t have any pudding if you don’t eat your meat. (via Believing Impossible Things)
- Apparently, there’s only so much self-restraint we can expect from a person. Gretchen Rubin of the Happiness Project shared information on a study that showed that when people performed a task requiring self-restraint, they were less likely to practice self-control on the next activity. Does that mean we need to help people prioritize what to exercise self-control over, or that we reduce our expectations for what is realistic in various contexts?
- Dr. Steve Beller, on his Trusted.MD blog, has been running a series about how people develop their health-related beliefs, from a psychological point of view. The relationship between beliefs, emotions and behaviors is a strong one, and we need to address both beliefs and emotions to be able to bring about changes in behavior. Information is often not enough to motivate someone to change; we have to find the emotional connection that forms the trigger. Education is necessary but not sufficient in this process.
- Sorry, Twitter users, but I am afraid that this latest fad is just another sign of the decline of our collective attention span. I know a lot of bloggers are going gaga over it, but by constantly updating the answer to the question “What are you doing right now?” I just don’t see how you can actually get anything done, let alone enjoy it. I never even bought a videocamera to record the kids because I believe Heisenberg’s principle applies to life as well as particles; the act of observing something can change its direction. I would rather enjoy the moment than have to worry about documenting it. Maybe I’m just weird.
Speaking of not documenting things in favor of enjoying life, I’m going to have to beg your patience for the next couple of weeks, as my blogging will likely be sparse. My wonderful sister is coming to visit from Israel and then I will be in DC for Social Marketing University. Though the way time flies lately, my absence will be over in a flash.
Photo Credit: cackhanded
Nedra helps nonprofits and public agencies create positive change on health and social issues through social marketing and transmedia storytelling strategies at Weinreich Communications since founding the company in 1995. She helps organizations make a difference for the populations they serve by strategically designing programs that draw on state-of-the-art behavior change techniques, digital media approaches and the power of stories. 
Thanks for the round up. I especially like your ideas about Twitter and the reduction of one’s attention span. I agree. I’ve got enough on my mind with my own innocuous thoughts.