Assignment #5: "Memes" and Diffusion of Internet Trends

Avery Sebastian

Assignment 5: The Cinnamon Challenge

The Cinnamon Challenge started in 2001 and hit its peak of popularity in 2011. The challenge became an interesting phenomenon because it was a popular dare game that involves attempting to swallow a tablespoon of cinnamon without vomiting or inhaling the powder. The game became well known for its extreme difficulty as thousands of videos with people attempting the challenge have been uploaded onto YouTube.

            The meme was created by Michael Buffington and played by Erik Goodlad on the Buffington’s blog in 2001. The earliest YouTube video of the Cinnamon Challenge began in 2006, titled “Pipe Attempts the Cinnamon Challenge”. The challenge is: in one mouthful, consume a tablespoon of McCormick Brand Ground Cinnamon without spitting it out or vomitting.

            Search queries began to peak in October 2007 which corresponded with YouTube videos that accumulated the most views ever in 2011, with over 1 million. The phenomenon saw its largest resurgent in late 2011 when Anna Diaz recorded a video of herself attempting the challenge, which was uploaded via YouTube on December 14th, 2011. This video that she uploaded received over 3.9 million views in the first two months of existence. The video was also covered by numerous Internet culture blogs and imitated by other YouTubers in the following weeks. The Cinnamon Challenge became more popular as several news programs created the controversy saying that the game is the newest teen fad that parents should advise from their children.

           

            The establishment of this controversy led to the Cinnamon Challenge fame. Yahoo Answers began to create Discussion and Q&A threads regarding the subject, Wikipedia developed a article of “Cinnamon” that contains a subsection on the phenomenon. Several Facebook fan pages were established and CinnamonChallenge.com(5,500 likes) was created which led to the Urban Dictionary having a definition entry for the Cinnamon Challenge created on May 21st, 2008. Recently, there has been a couple of challenges emerge from the Cinnamon Challenge. Those challenges are: The Wasabi Challenge, The Habanero Pepper Challenge, Chili Powder Challenge, Sprite and Banana Challenge, and the Vinegar Challenge.

            YouTube features over 30,000 videos of teens and others embarking on the Cinnamon challenge, usually only to end up choking, coughing, gasping, and spitting out the cinnamon. Some popular videos are:

-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EdM_u5y5m5A Anna Diaz Cinnamon Challenge 10M views

-http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cyk7utV_D2I Glozell Cinnamon Challenge 34M views

-  http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aZcf5qelq54 Kim Kardashian Cinnamon Challenge 320K views

-   http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QhogNOW3pAM Slingshot Ride Challenge 23K views

Anna Gaia

Assignment 5: "Kim Jong-Un Looking at Things" 

The “Kim Jong-Un Looking at Things” meme originated from the “Kim Jong-Il Looking at Things” meme, which began on October 28^th 2010 with a blog on tumblr (http://kimjongillookingatthings.tumblr.com/) showing photographs of the North Korean leader looking at things during inspection processes. Around one month later, on December 2^nd 2010, it became popular after being mentioned more than once on Reddit. Soon after, the images appeared and/or were mentioned on other forums and the mainstream media, such as MSNBC and NPR. All photos were taken by the Korean Central News Agency, which publishes propaganda promoting the leader’s image and the state ideology. After Kim Jong-Il passed away in December 2011 a new blog featuring the leader’s son (and new leader), “Kim Jong-Un Looking at Things” was born (http://kimjongunlookingatthings.tumblr.com/).

Hence, the Kim Jong-Un meme was immediately popular because the process of gaining recognition had already occurred through the original meme.  “Kim Jong-Un looking at things” has been popular from December 2011 until now, and achieved its peak in popularity, as shown on Google Trends, with a maximum value of 100 in April 2013. At the moment, the meme’s popularity has diminished, showing a value of 6, as opposed to a value of 50 in the beginning (December 2011).  It is most popular in Germany, the United Kingdom, and the United States (in that order).

It is likely so popular because North Korea is discussed a considerable amount in the mainstream media given the country’s isolationist and dictatorial political situation and its human rights abuses. In particular the American media has voiced fears about North Korea possessing and utilizing nuclear weapons. It appears that this meme became famous because it mocks the absolute reverence expected of the North Koreans toward their leader by showing him doing something common to all classes of people, “looking at things.” The tumblr’s description/motto, “the dear respected leader likes to look at things, too”, clearly depicts this humorous mocking of the fact that the North Korean propaganda portrays the leader as a god.  The image below recognizes this mockery:

The majority of the material which appears when conducting a google search is pictures of Kim Jong-Un looking at random objects or people, such as this one from the original tumblr blog, which, like all other photos on the blog, has an accompanying caption at the bottom:

looking at packaged food

Aside from the original pictures, a new trend emerged of placing text on these originals, in particular in reference to Kim Jong-Un eating food, especially cake. They depict Kim Jong-Un as having an insatiable appetite. This may have more than one interpretation. For example, it may be a reference to the fact that in a country full of starving people the leader’s chubby appearance suggests he is living a life of excess. On the other hand, this could also be a more indirect allusion to the dictator’s hunger for power and control. The images below are examples of this trend:

ASSIGNMENT #5 - "MEMES" and DIFFUSION of INTERNET TRENDS

Written by: Sissel-Merete Pedersen

I have chosen the Internet meme “planking”. This is an Internet meme because it is a trend on social websites. The trend started in Australia. The planking meme was most popular in 2011-12, but it has roots from 2006 when a facebook group played a game posting pictures with people playing the “Lying down game”. The term “planking” was created by Paul Carran in 2008. (http://www.google.com/trends/explore?hl=enUS#q=%22planking%22).

This Internet meme is based upon that a person has to lay horizontally with his/her arms close to the body and straight feet, and then the person has to take a picture and post it in a social website. In the picture below my aunt is planking in a hiking trail in beautiful Northern Norway. Facebook is often used to this purpose. Some persons have done this in unsecure places like in heights, on a bridge with cars crossing over etc. The police have made announcements that people have to think about their own security when they are doing this. Actually a 20 year old man died in Australia, because he felled down when he tried to plank on a rail in the seventh floor of a building.

James Cardenas

The “Imma Let You Finish” Internet meme gained popularity immediately after Kanye West’s outburst at the 2009 MTV Music Awards on September 13, 2009.  Where he interrupted Taylor Swift’s acceptance speech for Best Female Video saying, “Yo Taylor, I’m really happy for you, Imma let you finish but Beyonce had one of the best videos of all time…one of the best videos of all time!”  The event immediately attracted controversy amongst other celebrities and millions of fans of Taylor Swift and music alike.  Immediately following the airing of the MTV Music Awards, people expressed their entertainment and/or anger of his actions all over the internet.  Viewers began posting photos with Kanye West’s words altered in order to spoof his “Imma let you finish” rant (also known as a snowclone).  Kanye’s rant remained popular for many days following the MTV Music Awards and sites like 4chan, Twitter, and Tumblr were crowded with images including his newly formed snowclone.  The event remained popular well into 2013 and apparently encouraged other celebrities to steal awards from their fellow celebrities on a couple separate occasions between Kanye’s outburst and 2011.  This particular internet meme is still well known today and many celebrities find humor in reenacting variations of Kanye's actions at the 2009 MTV Awards.

 Camilla M. Borgan: Assignment # 5 – “MEMES” and diffusion of Internet trends 

PLANKING:

Planking is an activity where you are lying on your stomach with the face down and the hands along the side of the body and you must remain straight. The planking person can lie down in different places, some places that might can be dangerous to do planking on, or just weird places to plank.

The planking was first recorded in 1994 as a stunt called “Dead Guy”. But it was never aired, not before July 12, 2011 that the “planker” – Tom Green, tweeted the video that he made in 1994. In 1997 two boys started to lay down in public places – and they called it “The lying down game”. Ten years later their friends created a Facebook page where people could post the photos of people who were lying down. The term “planking” was used on a Facebook page in 2008 when the “game” appeared in Australia, and with media’s help like Facebook pages where the plankers could post their photos, this meme became a global phenomenon.

The Google insight search shows that the planking trend got its Internet peak in July 2011 and especially in the US, Australia and Philippines. Later has several memes emerged from planking, such as “Batmanning”, “Owling”, “Teapotting” and “Horsemanning”.

I think the reason why planking has become so popular, are that it is a very easy thing to do, you don’t need any equipment to do the act – the only thing you need is a camera, someone to take the picture and a funny place to do the planking at. The more dangerous or funny place the picture is taken, the more views or likes on social medias you will get.

Calvin Lu

“MissingNo”

MissingNo is a meme that originates from the Pokemon game series. In Pokemon Red and Blue versions, there is a glitch that results in meeting this weird looking pokemon. (See: http://i.imgur.com/YYh0xwZ.jpg ) Despite Nintendo's warning against encountering it, in 1999, players were discussing and sharing the secrets to meeting MissingNo. Despite originating in 1999, we can see from google trends ( http://i.imgur.com/OAyyV0a.png ) that searches for MissingNo have been increasing as of late. This could be due to the releases of the newer pokemon games, which have caused a surge of interest in pokemon, especially in America. There is a search for MissingNo in every new game that appears.

I think this meme was popularized because of the work involved to find MissingNo. Discovery of MissingNo almost acts as a “rite of passage” for die-hard pokemon fans. Especially finding the original MissingNo, acts sort of like “proof” of your status as a pokemon fan. MissingNo appears on clothing, drawings, and other merchandise. Buying / wearing / using this merchandise presents yourself as a pokemon fan.

Roselind Westbye: 

Assignment #5 - “Memes” and diffusion of Internet trends

I have chosen to look at the meme called: “Casually pepper spray everything cop”

This meme features a police officer by the name of John Pike, spraying pepper spray on the declaration of independence in front of the founding fathers. 

The meme originated from a YouTube video featuring the police officer spraying a group of occupy protesters at the university of California Davis in November 2011. The group of protesters was gathered on campus to protest as part of the occupied movement when they refused the police request to leave. The police officer took action by casually walking up and down the line of protesters spraying them with pepper spray. The comedy of the situation is that the police officer walks relaxed, just like he’s taking his dog for a walk, but at the same time soaking the unmoving students in the face with pepper spray.

The meme was first posted on the Tumbler blog called “It makes no sense” on November 20^th 2011. That same day the meme received over 2 400 comments. Two days later nearly all-major US News Media sights picked up the meme. During the month of November the officer in question received more than 10 000 text messages and 17 000 e-mails with people commenting his actions.

I think this meme became so popular because it’s a humoristic way to look at police violence.  The officer is spraying pepper spray on the most important document confirming our freedom, and the meme creator is trying to show how the police officer disregards of our basic freedom.

This picture shows an alternative meme that expired out from the original meme with the comment: “Don’t mind me, just watering my hippies.

This is also an alternative meme that expired out of the original meme. This one features the police officer pepper spraying the president Thomas Jefferson, one of the greatest symbols of freedom, right in the face.

Assignment #4: Video Competition

Assignment #3: Social Media Marketing Analysis

Assignment #3: Social media marketing analysis of M&M’s Facebook page by 

Camilla Monsen Borgan

I think the page is an interesting page because they offer discounts (if you click “like”, you get 15 % discounts), and they have a humorous graphic with cool pictures and videos. The videos shows new technological improvements or videos from stores openings that shows a lot of people trying the new machine who generate personal M&MS or people who are storming into the shop when it opens their doors at the very first time.

The page is interactive in the way there is a customer service portal. M&Ms let their fans participate on the page when they raise questions under pictures and let the fans write on the wall. There are just a few negative comments about the product on their Facebook page and these bad experiences about the product has M&M replied, so it is dialogue at this social environment. There are a lot of people who write “useless” comments on the page, which might is a little disrupting but these comments are not replied by M&M.

The page has lot of pictures, which show how delicious the chocolate are. The pictures have sometimes a text that asks questions to the fans about “Which color of the chocolate do you like best?” or “Which store do you prefer?”. That makes people with different views able to have conversations under the pictures.

When it comes to involve the fans more than just let them write on the wall or under pictures, has M&M created a game where fans can type in how many minutes they are using on Facebook, and convert this time into volunteering. M&M recommend the fans to spend this time in real life to do volunteering work and let the users know that M&M are a money giver to this action. With this game shows M&M their support to a voluntary organizations, and this is building up a positive view about M&M as a company. They ask their fans to post picture from their volunteer job into M&Ms own gallery, to involve them in the project and advertise them both as a nice company who support poor people and makes delicious chocolate.

Calvin Lu

https://www.facebook.com/skullgirls

This is the facebook page for the video game Skullgirls. While there are no premiums on the page given away for free, they are linking merchandise for you to buy. They have a consistent flow of merchandise through their “T-Shirt Tuesday” events, where they reveal a new T-Shirt design being sold every Tuesday. This generates content-flow, which causes people to come back to the facebook page every week to check what the new shirt is. Another source of new content is their “Fan-art Friday” event, where they feature art drawn by the fans every Friday. Not only is this content-flow, but both “T-Shirt Tuesday” and “Fan-Art Friday” are forms of user-generated content. The T-Shirts designs, as well as the featured art, are mostly all made by the games' fans.

The last weekly event that the makers of Skullgirls host is the weekly stream. Every week the developers head to a local restaurant/cafe and invite people to join them to play Skullgirls. For those fans who don't live in Los Angeles, the event is streamed online for all to watch. This calls for participation from the fans around the area, who are invited to come to the event. For all the other fans, they are invited to participate by tuning in to the stream. These fans not only participate by watching, but the stream service also allows them to chat with each other and the developers at the event in real-time. In a way, this is also a form of a customer service “portal,” where the fans can speak directly with the developers. Even on the facebook page, Skullgirls replies to comments made on their posts, creating dialogue between the game and the fans.

James Cardenas

By viewing the Back to the Roots commercial website it is clear that the company is doing an excellent job in marketing their product through social media. Immediately at first glance of the webpage users will notice the Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Pinterest icons.  This feature alone will make it easier for customers to share their involvement with the product over various social media platforms, which will consequently increase awareness of the product.  Back to the Roots allows site visitors to sign up for their newsletter and “Join their Community” which provides an opportunity for users to learn more about the product. The main design of the website puts customers in the spotlight and displays photos of customers who have shared their interest of the product through their Facebook pages and Instagram accounts.

            Back to the Roots also utilizes premiums in their marketing strategies.  They did this by announcing that they would donate free products to a school of their customers’ choice if they posted pictures on Facebook of them with Back to the Roots products.  The company also provides fundraising offers for those who are interested; where fundraisers can make profit from selling the Back to the Roots products. Finally, Back to the Roots also allow customers to tour their urban farm and see where the company produces its product increasing customer participation.  Back to the Roots is successful in using premiums and user-generate content along with other strategies to effectively market their product.

ASSIGNMENT #3: SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING ANALYSIS

Sissel-Merete Pedersen

In this text I will do an analysis of Moods of Norway’s social media Facebook page:https://www.facebook.com/moodsofnorway?fref=ts. Moods of Norway is an international lifestyle design concept that combines a Norwegian heritage with international trends. They established in 2003. The company is known for using Norwegian heritage in all their products. They are using bright colors in their products and details in the pictures, and that reflects in their Facebook pages.

The first you see when you go to their Facebook page is their brand that is a tractor. All the pictures they have published are taken in Stryn, a small town in Norway. The pictures are colorful and entertaining so they give a good impression. It is only the administrators who can publish the pictures, but users can comment on them. They have links to their main webpage and Instagram. Users can also comment on events, advertisings and competitions. For participation it is not so much the users can do on the Facebook page. It is a campaign users can join to get 20 % discount on an online order. If the users do that they will receive updates and news on emails. The users can communicate with other users by commenting on pictures or events, but not directly with each other through portals. Users can ask for help or tips where to find products. The content flow on their Facebook page is ok. The administrators are publishing new collections and events almost two times a week. They are inviting users to participate by being members using emails to get updates on news and events. I think the administrations could make this page more entertaining since they have good pictures and stories they can use to make the Facebook page better. They had one competition for four month ago, so they could be better to offer competitions and free stuffs. They are good at creating events and invite people to come to their grand opening at shops with famous people, but this could be even more highlighted. I think the Facebook page could have been more effective by invented more things to do on their Facebook page and more user related activities.

Anna Gaia

The following paragraphs are an analysis of the effectiveness of social media marketing used by Build-a-Bear Workshop, a company which rather than simply selling already made stuffed animals, markets the experience of making your own custom “furry friend”, accessorizing it, and naming it (Your stuffed animal even receives a birth certificate.). Their Facebook page has much content which contributes to the effectiveness of their marketing.

Firstly, they often give premiums on a variety of different occasions: practically every holiday you could imagine, arrival of new merchandise, etc. For example, to celebrate International Internet Day Build-a-Bear gave its customers access to order their “entire holiday lineup” online a week before it became available in stores. In another instance, to advertise Halloween merchandise, they announced customers would get a free bag if they went to one of their stores between October 25^th and 31^st. For Boss’s Day customers were given access to a free E-card to send to their bosses. This also demonstrates that their marketing is not only targeted to children, but adults as well.  On a different occasion, they announced a random 40% discount on “Tabby Kitty.”

Build-a-Bear’s Facebook page is also highly participatory, as it includes events, games, and surveys for users. They often create donation events, as in the case of their post about “DonorsChoose.org”, a non-profit organization involved in education. They also frequently ask for customers’ opinions. For example, on the company’s birthday, customers were asked for suggestions as to what Build-a-Bear should wish for. On another occasion, they posted a survey to gather information on their customers’ preferences, such as favorite movies, TV shows, and other products. Another post included an invitation to play their new online game, “Bear Valley.”

Given that the page is highly participatory, there are many opportunities for user generated content. Build-a-Bear often asks users to submit photos of themselves posing with their “furry friend” or human friend.  The Facebook page is full of pictures of customers in Build-a-Bear stores. For Halloween they asked users to post pictures of themselves in their costumes and tag them as #halloweenbear. Another example is “Sweetest Day”, in which they posted, “Tell us who your sweeties are,” and customers responded with pictures of their loved ones (in many cases parents posting pictures of their little children).

The company provides a good customer service “portal”, by allowing open dialogue with customers. Not only do they utilize surveys, but they oftentimes post a question and allow customers to freely answer in the comments section. A great portion of their posts are dedicated to creating dialogue with customers, and users may respond via written word or image. They even find ways to make a simple task like posting a picture of their new merchandise interactive. For example, on more than one occasion they posted an image of the new stuffed animal models and announced, “Tag a friend you wanna make one with!” All customer commentaries are positive, which indicates that they feel satisfied with Build-a-Bear’s services.

Lastly, and importantly, the Build-a-Bear Workshop page exhibits good content flow. They update their materials regularly in order to produce an engaging environment for customers. In fact, they post new materials nearly every day.

All in all, their marketing strategies are highly effective and fit well with their friendly image and motto, “Where best friends are made.”  This Build-a-Bear ethic is clearly represented in their online presence. 

Roselind Westbye 

I have chosen to take a look at Nike´s Facebook-page. Nike is a company that truly understands the value of having an active social media profile. Over the last three years they have shifted around 40% of their traditional advertising efforts over to the new media platforms. Nike has even integrated social media in their new line of products, called Nike +.

The front page of Nike´s Facebook-page contains traditional news feed. The news feed is updated about 3-5 times a week. Nike lets other Facebook-users comment on stories in the newsfeed. A lot of the posts are so called inspirational advertising. This picture is an example.

 

Nike also has a cool running tutorial on their Facebook-page. You can choose four different running distances to train for, including a marathon, and the page will tell you how to best prepare for that run. The Nike Facebook page also has a traditional support forum, were users can ask questions about their products.

Nike uses their Facebook-page advertise the charity events, like the San Francisco Women's Marathon. This way they can reach a wider audience, and create awareness of their cause and mission.

The Nike Corporation spends about 800 million USD on non-traditional marketing every year. This helps them to take social media interaction to a whole new level. Measured by followers on Facebook, Nike are only beaten by Coca Cola, Disney and Red-bull. I feel that Nike is fairly successful in their social media work that includes their Facebook-page, which I found to be both impressive and helpful.