advertising
April 5, 2017

What my advertising background can tell you about that Pepsi Ad

Once upon a time I worked for an ad agency. We weren’t a huge agency, but I had coworkers who had worked for bigger agencies and I learned a lot about how things work. So when Pepsi’s protest ad with Kendall Jenner popped up on the internet, I saw a lot of questions. Like, how did this get past a focus group? And the truth is – if there was a focus group, it was probably just aimed at younger adults and they asked how they felt about Kendall Jenner. They probably didn’t show ads, but likely asked questions about…

personal
April 3, 2017

On the NHL skipping the Olympics.

Today, the NHL released a press statement that they wouldn’t be stopping their season to allow players to participate in the Olympics (the first time they’ve come to this decision since 1998, when NHL players first began participating). This column went up on NHL.com explaining some of the logic behind it. And I’m going to tell you, the real reason is simple – the NHL (in this case, the owners) can’t make money off sending its players. They’d been trying to bargain with the IOC (who is notorious for making sure that nobody can make money off the Olympics except…

comics entertainment Geek personal
March 31, 2017

Dear Marvel, Diversity isn’t the Problem

Today, there was an interview where David Gabriel said that Marvel’s diverse titles had failed and they had feedback from shops that wasn’t what fans wanted. Which is… weird, to say the least. Because it isn’t anything like what I’ve heard from fans from all spectrum. Fans haven’t been happy with Marvel’s books – but it certainly wasn’t the introduction of characters like Ms Marvel, Riri Williams, or Jane Foster as Thor. What fans were weary of was their favorite characters being pushed aside or misused – see Nick Spencer’s ongoing ‘let’s make beloved characters Hydra’ storyline. Or characters being…

personal
March 15, 2017

Longing for the Sea.

Sometimes I dream of the sea. I can taste the sea air, feel the water on my body and the water fill me with comfort as I dive below. I’m never human in these dreams, but a creature of salt and spray. They’re wonderful dreams. I actually wake up rested, which is unusual. My mantra these days is that I’m tired of being tired. I’ve long been obsessed with the sea. As a young child, I thought it was because I was a child of the desert – and something I just was obsessed with when I moved to California.…

personal
March 8, 2017

Congrats Riverdale, Now Do Your Homework

So Riverdale was renewed for a second season. And as I’ve been having some lovely weekly twitter chats with fellow viewers, where we’ve been discussing the shortcomings of this current season. So I thought that maybe I could offer a few suggestions for what you should be thinking about for season 2? 1. Make Jughead Jones aroace. The fact that you didn’t from the very start was more than just disappointing, it was a huge misstep. I know, it’s an AU, but somehow Veronica is still rich, Betty an overchiever, and Archie still plays football and is interested in music.…

entertainment Geek personal television
February 17, 2017

Riverdale: the Grundy problem

I’ve been watching Riverdale for the last four episodes. I’ve started and stopped so many posts about this show it isn’t funny. About the apparent erasure of Jughead’s identity of being asexual and aromantic (as the comics have spelled out) – as Cole Sprouse spilled in an interview before the show started airing. About how Kevin Keller’s written as though we’re still in the days of Will & Grace. All snark, sex, and stereotypes – but no real substance. About the continued queerbaiting with Betty & Veronica in promos, the awkward references that are sometimes out of date by the…

personal
February 10, 2017

It’s 2017, and I’m falling apart.

The irony is, it isn’t even the political stuff. My name is Whitney Drake, and I’m probably in the worst shape I’ve been in the last 4 years. I apologize to anyone who liked hearing about my progress, because there’s a reason I haven’t written about living with Crohns – 2016 was a year of frustration and that’s hard to write about. But I’m getting ahead of myself. If you’re new to my blog, I have Crohns disease. It’s an IBD, an inflammatory bowel disease – which are a family of diseases where your body attacks part of your digestive…

personal Pirate politics
January 26, 2017

To the Young Women of the US, why we march.

I’m going to do something shocking. And repost something I wrote on another social network. I actually posted this on Tumblr and on FB before I put it here. It was prompted by seeing several young women (all 23 and under) sharing right wing memes insulting women who took part in the Womens March(es). It breaks my heart to see young women, working 40+ hour work weeks who claim they have the exact same rights as men. Who tear down women who found a way to march (often at economic hardship), just to seem superior. I don’t care if you…

personal
January 22, 2017

Support women. In the US and Worldwide

There’s a copy/paste going around Facebook, sharing a woman’s feelings about why she didn’t march in the Women’s Marches yesterday. Essentially it boiled down to “why would I whine about what I have here, when women around the world have so many fewer rights.” Here’s why it bothers me. It’s an all too common reply when people want to make social change, to bring up conditions in the rest of the world. The fact is, that we don’t live elsewhere. We live here. And I do not mean to undermine the conditions that exist in other countries (in fact, I…

personal
January 8, 2017

REVIEW: Hidden Figures (no spoilers)

Yesterday, I went to see Hidden Figures with one of my best friends. We had lunch, talked about writing (dear God, did I ramble and dominate the conversation – what the hell) and then we saw the movie. This review contains no spoilers beyond what you might have seen in commercials. Hidden Figures is a movie based on the book of the same name about the true story of three African-American women who worked at NASA in the early 60s, at the height of the space race. This was before the advent of computers, so they had teams of women…