Aside from the Oscars and Super Bowl, Sunday night doesn’t usually imply appointment viewing. Last night was an exception. I found myself flipping back and forth all night between the American Music Awards on CTV/ABC, Canada’s Smartest Person on CBC and Kourtney & Khloe Take the Hamptons on E! I’m one episode behind on The Good Wife, but I’ll fix that soon with Rogers on Demand.
Kourtney & Khloe Take the Hamptons
I wonder how many other dads leave hundreds of dollars worth of gifts for their kids and partners on their way to rehab. In the last episode, Scott went to rehab for five days, Kourtney’s therapist flew to New York for a surprise counselling session and Khloe celebrated her 30th birthday.
It looked like Khloe had a fun birthday bash and an even better surprise party, where French Montana gave her a Jeep. It’s a shame that Khloe’s anxiety about her age and relationship with Lamar interfered with her having a good time with friends.
Overall, it was a juicy drama-filled episode that was satisfying, yet somewhat difficult to watch given the sensitive subject matter about Scott’s behaviour and Kourtney’s health.
There’s a delightful quality to everything Oreo posts on social media. From the Super Bowl blackout to Father’s Day, Oreo creates content that seamlessly weaves in current events without ever seeming obnoxious or sales-y.
The photo they uploaded minutes after the Royal Baby’s sex was announced once again shows that Oreo’s a band who truly gets how to engage through social media marketing. Oreo is all about having milk and cookies. Therefore, placing milk, which is central to their creative, in a baby bottle in honour of the royal family isn’t a stretch. Instead, it’s cute and adds to the loveable quality of the brand and product that makes Oreo cookies a classic snack and childhood favourite.
Prior to the Queen of Pop’s Super Bowl halftime show, I noticed she received lots of criticism, yet couldn’t fathom why. I’ve been a Madonna fan for as long as I can remember. Some of my early childhood memories include watching documentaries about how her career escalated before I was born and lip syncing singing along to her duet song, “Me Against the Music” with Britney Spears over the phone with a close friend. A few years ago, I even painted a ceramic plate with an iPod in the center and the tagline, “Get into the Groove.”
At 53, not only does she hold records for her chart-topping tracks, but she also looks incredible and shows no signs of slowing down. After dazzling us at the Air Canada Centre on her Sticky and Sweet Tour, where I regrettably didn’t buy an “Express Yourself” concert tee, it was difficult to see the superstar in a negative light.
Since “Give Me All Your Luvin’”, the first single from her 12th album, MDNA, debuted, reasons to dislike Madonna started becoming more apparent, but I find it hard to turn my back on one of my favourite performers.
Today Madonna made news because Malawi’s government officials are fed up with her donations that they feel are motivated too much by corporate interests in her global brand image than concern for children. When I first read the Toronto Star’s article, I mistook “state of the art girls school” and thought she’d arranged to build an arts school for girls because that sure would be thoughtful of her!
To be “fed up” with Madonna for wanting to improve Malawi’s education system is like being fed up with Angelina Jolie’s mass adoption spree or even Oprah’s generosity overseas for that matter. All of the above women have significant personal brands to protect, but along with their high status careers comes gigantic salaries and I hardly think we should criticize Madonna’s generosity to this extent. I hardly recall criticism from urban planners when Madge opened her first fitness centers in North America, so why so much outrage when she tries to do good in the world?
The blatantly excessive product placement in the “Give Me All Your Luvin’” music video was far from impressive, but it’s sure a catchy tune. That said, I confidently predict that it will not rank high on media professors’ list of video clips to show in future celebrity classes, the way that “Material Girl” was shown and then discussed at length last Friday at Western. They might as well just show separate commercials for Smirnoff, Adidas and whatever other brands were featured because aside from the ladies resembling Gwen Stefani’s Harajuku Girls, the brands were the standout visuals in the video, and I certainly don’t mean that in a good way.
Madonna’s professional contributions to music, not to mention my iTunes library, combined with her ongoing philanthropic projects make her an icon to watch. I’m curious about what critics will say once MDNA’s full length tracks are released, but until then, let’s remember the positive memories Madonna offers fans and focus on that.
I know there was already lots of hype about this commercial right after it aired during the Super Bowl, but it’s still an incredible new technology. I remember reading about some new gadgets that car manufacturers will be adding to the dashboard within the next few years (after I clicked a few links while researching the consequences of texting and driving), but it’s much more powerful when you see what’s already available. This Chevrolet video makes me wonder about what features I’ll have at my fingertips when I buy my first car.
The bachelor’s excitement about a machine reading aloud his friends’ Facebook status updates also demonstrates how much Facebook continues becoming a, dare I say, ‘fundamental’ part of our lives. Surely this will make people who have disabled their accounts second guess this choice and make those who have not yet created an account feel even more out of the loop.
Compared to how thankful I am for having a smartphone and Internet access to occupy me while in waiting rooms, I don’t think it’d be as enjoyable to have a robotic sounding voice tell me what people have tweeted.
You can already listen to whatever artist, song, or radio station you want in the car. Is it really necessary to mute the radio commercials long enough to learn that your friend just landed in Miami while you’re driving around running errands?
