Two, absolutely unrelated, new media surprises today.
First, an Old Spice ad with a twist:
Then, an e-book, written by someone who was The Ubyssey’s editor when I was much younger and defying the odds (and all my peer’s) expectations of success in journalism. ?Lesley Kreuger’s e-book (it is effectively a 35 page non-fiction short story) about the late Canadian baseball player Harry Fisher — whose claim to fame is his once-only major league “win” as a pitcher. ?I won’t spoil the story’s conclusion (and, no you cannot find it on Wikipedia, so you really will have to pay the $2.99 plus tax to learn it, at least until someone else spills the beans.) But the story addresses questions about what success really means, and, indirectly, the big-picture stuff about the “meaning of life” (but it is a good story regardless of that pontificating.)
Now, the Old Spice ad and Krueger’s baseball tale have little in common but the way they are shared. ?Chase told me about the ad — but most people will find it through linked searches and social media. Krueger’s book may be promoted through print media (like the Toronto Star) but I discovered it on my Facebook feed.
In these situations, both the video and the book have old-media viability — Krueger’s story would probably have sold well for a mainstream magazine (and she may well have plans to do that) and the production qualities for the Old Spice video require conventional budgets and resources for advertising production.
