Marketing

Spider-Man 3: Web Of Influence In Kid-Culture
There are plenty of spins on the Spider-Man 3 record-breaking $382 million worldwide “priciest movie ever made” buzz…so I’m going to take a deconstructionist view about summer box office biggies, and look at the impact of media hype-fests on kids.
Not pickin’ on Spidey, here; haven’t even seen the flick yet, I’m talking about a global web of pop culture influence that has a much more nuanced reach.
Movie launches are inevitably 360 degree marketing surround sound, that part is a given: Kids are cocooned like flies in a sticky web of consumerism, marketers target “sticky eyeballs” with online advergaming, official video games (SM3 got mixed reviews) and some fun “user-generated” contests that tap into teens’ digital creativity with retailers like Target’s “spin a webisode” or social media tools like PhotoBucket’s campaign allowing its 39 million users to create “Spider-Man-braded slide shows” with their photos. Then there’s the ubiquitous junk food branding, jammies, toys, sheets, and home goods so even wee ones aren’t “left out” of the Spidey spin. This article, Caught In A Web At Age 3 weaves an educational spin on Marvel comic books software offering an alternative to tots’ exposure to the movie itself.
Amy Jussel
Turn down the media volume!

I'm Lost

Darketos / Darks

A couple of 'Darketos' selling Dark Flowers

Leonardo Nierman

Juarez Ave. and two sculptures of painter & sculptor Leonardo Nierman. In the background the Latinoamericana Tower.

Widely regarded as one of Mexico's leading contemporary artists, Leonardo Nierman creates works that challenge and inspire, drawing upon themes from the beauty of nature to the mysteries of the cosmos and beyond.
Born in Mexico City in 1932 to immigrants from Eastern Europe, Leonardo Nierman's first artistic pursuits were focused on music, while academically he was drawn to the area of physical and mathematical sciences. As a young man, he realized that his dream of becoming a professional violinist was not to be. However, his musical studies provided him with a point upon which his artistic career would focus.
"Music and painting are very much alike – both have tonalities, rhythms, high-intensity areas and resting areas," he says. "It was not until after I left music that I started to feel color."
He went on to earn his bachelor's degree in physics and mathematics from the National University of Mexico in 1951, and for the next several years began to formulate his theories on light, color and form while honing his skills as a painter and sculptor.
Since then, his art has employed a rich mixture of natural and cosmic forces, allusions to modern science, and, of course, music.
His works – paintings, sculptures, textiles – are in major collections around the world, including the Vatican Gardens, the Albert Einstein Institute of New York, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C., Israel's Museum of Modern Art, the Museum of Modern Art in Mexico City, and Milwaukee's own Jewish Community Center.
In 2002, his sculpture entitled "Flame of the Millenium" was installed at the Ohio Interchange along Chicago's Kennedy Expressway as part of the Chicago Gateway Green highway beautification project. Reaching 25 feet in height, this shining monument to hope and human aspirations is constructed of 25 tons of polished stainless steel. It is also a fitting monument to Nierman himself - a masterful and idealistic artist and philosopher.
Latino Arts Inc.

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