Brand Noise

Krumping Gets a Bigger Audience

Deep in the ghettos of Los Angeles, renowned photographer David LaChapelle discovered a new dance trend called “krumping.” While shooting the video for Christina Aguilera’s song “Dirrty,” LaChapelle was invited to witness a Fight Club-style krump dance-off in Compton. Troupes of inner-city teenagers flocked to dance rival tribes into submission with a flurry of frenetic, martial-arts-like movements, tribal athleticism and pantomime. He fell in love. “It’s a completely new way of moving your body,” LaChapelle reports excitedly. “You can’t believe what you’re watching. It’s insane. You’ve never seen bodies move that fast. These kids are creating an art form from nothing. It’s inspiring.”

LaChapelle was so blown away, he decided to film a documentary about the scene, calling it Krumped. The 24-minute short, which debuted at the Sundance Festival this past year, is in line with the photographer’s taste, and the dance style is now the rage among the under-18 crowd in L.A. neighborhoods like South Central, Watts, and Compton. “No one knew what I was doing. I never set out to do a documentary, but it was something that had to be documented. The subject found me.”

The Full Length, Feature Documentary is in post production set to be in theaters Spring 2005.

Related reading
Krump 101

Repackaged "Smarties" Set Off Determined Detractors

I am an American who grew up in London.  When I was nine, attending  school, one of my first "special" school duties was running the school's Tuck Shop.  It was the seventies...sugar was a food group. The experience made me an expert on everything sweet.  It was like being the school bartender.  Pretty cool. 

Probably the most well known and most coveted of these sweets was Smarties.  Not just for the cool colored chocolate (unlike the American cousin M&M, Smarties would easily melt in your hands) but for that cool tube.  The cool tube with all the different colored plastic pop tops that kept the candy inside.  It felt good popping that top.  A simple pleasure that I can still remember thirty years later. All the cool stuff we used those pop tops for. Now a cardboard flip-top replaces the pop top. Ugh!

So why the hell did Nestle decide to tinker with this package? Smarties have been sold in a cylinder-shaped packet since the sweets were first launched by Rowntree's of York in 1937. Since then empty tubes have been used by creative children to make everything from space rockets to castles, while the removable plastic lids were collected for the letters of the alphabet that were imprinted underneath.

Here is an article from the BBC with a roll of pissed off Brits to share there own stories.  Here is a few of the best comments:

The best thing about the old Smartie tube was that when you were finished with the sweets you could "karate-chop" it to fire the lid across the room at some speed. This usually resulted in me being told that it was "all fun and games until somebody loses an eye". Ah, those happy days before the dreaded Health and Safety spoiled everybody's fun!
Michael, Cheltenham, UK

Why the need to change!!! If the design has lasted so long already why would a new design change the fact that kids want Smarties. I can fondly remember collecting the lids and making telescopes from the tubes. Another change for change sake.
Andrew Clarke, UK

I've rarely been more angry about anything in my life.
Daniel, England

Thoughts From This Week's Toy Fair

It’s Toy Fair Week. Nothing could be cooler than scoping out new trends in toys.  The industry is maturing by leaps and bounds. Why? Technology and Licensing. The fusion of these elements will drive the future of toys.

However, there is currently a conflict here. Can the toy companies resolve to be innovators first and packagers of licensing deals second? These licensing deals garner sweet industry awards but not necessarily the hearts of their intended.

Hey, I'm not one against seeing TV/movie characters in the wide array of toys - but I do have some frustration on how the first run of most licensing deal toys pretty much suck.

I have a three-year-old daughter who went crazy for Dora the Explorer from when she was six months old. However, the first Dora toys were little more than gimmicks to push the ubiquity of the character. A hard plastic doll that parroted a couple of lines from the show. My daughter picked it up and after a short while pushed her to the bottom of her toy basket.

The next round of Dora toys was slightly more interactive, yet not evolving. By now, she’s defined Dora according to the Dora toys she owns--as a baby thing.

So where’s the adventure and camaraderie that intrigued Sabine along the way? It’s not in the toys. Dora’s talking house? Dora’s never home. She’s out bouncing around with Boots and her cousin Diego.

Shouldn't toy brands be experts in what kids of all ages want to play with?  Experts in the nuance of touch, sound interaction etc.?  I was intrigued by the new use of RFID toys at the show.  But will we have to put up with awkward of this technology just to push wobbly  licensing?  The sausage approach to product design.

Maybe there should be more resources put to fusing the world of toys/play and entertainment.  Similar to the investment going into fusing brands with TV/Film content.  Toys are brand campaigns.  Both sides of the fence need to realize this going forward.  Stop the wasted bad creative.  Toys are channel experience - they deserve better.

Those who think that this line of discussion is a waste of time may think "hey, relax...they are only toys".  But these toys hold the key to potential life long brand relationships.  Each manifestation of the brand is important in the long run.  At what point does the piles of plastic get separated into junk vs. memories. Think of how Mazda tapped into the power of Transformers to promote the RX-8. 

At the core of why people love iPod is the basic fact that people love music.  At the core of a timeless toy brand is the fact that we all love to play.  Let's not mess things up by not taking this seriously enough.