- CW orders full season of 'Gossip Girl' (has anyone else been noticing Serena's loose ponytail hairstyle on teen girls everywhere?) (Hollywood Reporter)
- iPods @ school (The New York Times, reg. required, on how they are being used to teach languages. Plus Piper Jaffray says 3 percent of students own iPhones while Gizmodo wonders how that is possible)
- Josten's gets hip (teams up with Dereon, Baby Phat, Phat Farm and Banneker, Nike and Lacoste to offer a collection of "unique products")
- Muslim Barbie (she has the same measurements, just covered up!) (Reuters)
- More on teen hugging (this "trend" cracks me up. Maybe all of the time and emphasis on digital communication and friends is leading to a need for real physical contact. Ironically the "trend" is spreading via the internet...) (Detroit Free Press)
Update: Tonia emailed in response to the item on "teen hugging" to say: I was really surprised the first time that my son brought home high-school age friends-who-are-girls and they all hugged me when I introduced myself. (I would NEVER have hugged one of my friends' parents). I thought the hugging was particular to that specific group of girls (they're very nice and friendly in other ways, too) but maybe it's part of this bigger trend, which then might extend beyond them just hugging each other? I'm all for it -- I'll take all the hugs I can get!
Note to Ypulse NYC readers: You can still register for the Tween Mashup online today and tomorrow and save $100. Otherwise you can register (for $100 more) on site.
- Shiny happy activism (Mother Jones on sites where teens are talking about, if not doing "good." They must have written this before Think MTV launched their addition to this list)
- Hey! Nielsen (yes, Nielsen has launched its own pop culture social network where YOU can rate your favorite entertainment)
- Brooklyn to school teens in advertising (wow, it's Fame for teens who want to get into the ad/marketing biz. Make these kids your interns now! I think all schools should have some version of this curriculum for media and marketing literacy purposes) (The Brooklyn Eagle)
- Why are inner city teens obese? (Because there are no decent grocery stores in these neighborhoods...great stats on the real causes of the obesity epidemic) (USA Today)
- Stop the violence (congress holding a hearing into demeaning media images of women and African Americans) (L.A. Times, reg. required)
- CW premiering two shows... (on Yahoo! TV first including "Aliens in America." Did anyone else watch "Chuck" last night? I thought it was cute - geeks are the new studs.)
- Pretty Tough book (the tween/teen girl sports site dips its toe into the YA market)
- Big tween TV weekend (with the return of "High School Musical." Plus watch this scary preview of the kid version of "Survivior" aka "Kid Nation." And, "The Hills" have eyes -- or viewers. Lots of them. I'm sure the Lauren/Heidi feud is only helping) (L.A. Times, reg. required) (Reality Blurred) (Gawker)
- LG15 may be dead (but the series keeps on going and growing) (AdAge.com, reg. required)
- Bolt is dead (this makes me a little sad. I loved them back when they were Concrete Media and actually producing really high quality teen written content. They also sponsored the first NYC Ypulse mixer) (CNET)
P.S. Hell is for high school boys (some long weekend fun -- With "Superbad" opening this weekend, E! picks nine movies that best portray teen boy angst)
Bite me (ah, it's good to know teens still love vampires. How much bloody vampire poetry did I write in 10th grade? A lot. This is the new face of YA marketing - thanks Courtney!)
- Disney's own pop universe (Idolator rounds up the latest stories about the Disney "underground" tween hit machine that is Disney Music. We are working on confirming a case study + performance from them for the Tween Mashup)
- Go Gaia! (Props to Gaia Online for winning the Always On "overall winner" status) (press release)
- Yes, there are creeps online (4 percent of teens were asked to share naked pics online -- the good news is that only one teen in this survey actually did it) (Media Life Magazine)
- As a Dell user... (I am very excited about the new colored laptops. Whether young people will buy into the cool factor of this commercial, which feels like a Target ad with a Flaming Lips soundtrack is debatable) (via AdRants)
P.S. I will be adding any coverage I find of the Ypulse conference to the More Mashup Love post. I apologize to my RSS readers who will see it popping up repeatedly!
In the midst of iPhone hysteria, I am working on my next BusinessWeek Online Viewpoint column on why teens fell in love with Apple (iPod + great iPod marketing). Teens are now as rabid about the brand as hardcore Macheads. Anyone who has thoughts or opinions or interesting leads, email me and let me know. The piece will also include a section on what other brands can learn from what Apple has done well...
Instant Karma (popular artists like Green Day cover John Lennon songs to help save Darfur)
- Zwinkys dig 50 Cent? (the rapper is selling brand virtual stuff in Zwinktopia. I'm pretty amazed at their numbers...) (Reuters)
- Spinebreakers (I LOVE this concept. "Penguin Books is to invest a five-figure sum in a book website for teenagers, to be run by a teen editorial board. The site, www.spinebreakers.co.uk, will be launched in September and is aimed at readers aged from 13 to 18.") (The Bookseller)
- Will SJP's Bitten take off with teens? (what do you think? I definitely think they watched or were aware of her in "Sex in the City," and her own story of rags to riches is compelling. Just curious to know what you all think)
- Hello Kitty laptop (it's so cute and pink and Hello Kitty-like - also only available in Japan right now) (USA Today)
- omg! mom joined facebook! (GREAT first person essay from a mom who joined Facebook. Ponders whether teens will ultimately leave if enough moms and dads sign up) (New York Times, reg. required)
P.S. Just in case you missed the press release I posted in yesterday's Essentials about Sprite's "Yard," you can read more on ClickZ. Also, check out my latest Totally Wired post on kids and gadgets.
- Spike Spykes (the pressure is on Busch to pull Spykes - the cutesy nail polish sized alcohol drinks) (USA Today)
- B4Class has viral marketing mix up (what is it with Boston and guerilla marketing stunts gone bad? And I blogged about B4Class the other day, but had no idea it was founded by an 18-year-old!)
- Buckle up! (this is pretty funny. A minister is on a crusade against the hip hop style of kids wearing uber baggy/saggy pants and is handing out belts!) (Washington Post, reg. required)
- That's advertainment! (more blurring of the lines between marketing and programming) (USA Today)
- Live Earth lineup (something for everyone or every taste it seems) (MSNBC)
Seventeen days in, and 2007 has seen four big innovations in how people can watch video : AppleTV, Xbox IPTV (launching at Holiday), Joost and NetFlix Watch Now. This is going to be an amazing year, I reckon. Amazing for viewers anyway, not sure yet about advertisers. And I’ll be paying close attention to which distribution style resonates most with youth.
An interesting story from yesterday is Joost (from the founders of Skype and Kazaa), although details are still slim. From Mediapost (reg. required):
"Combining the best of TV with the best of the internet, Joost gives you more control and freedom than ever before - control over what you watch, and freedom to watch it whenever you like. We're providing a platform for the best television content on the planet - a platform that will bring you the biggest and best shows from the TV studios, as well as the specialist programs created by professionals and enthusiasts. It's all overlaid with a raft of nifty features that help you find the shows you love, watch and chat with friends, and even create your own TV channels."
The question I have is: do youth really want to watch TV on their computer? Yes, they want to watch video, but full-on TV? YouTube works because it is short format, doesn’t dominate your screen, and can live on sites like MySpace and blogs. I can't sit still when on my laptop - I have to have a bunch of things going. I cannot have one thing dominate my screen. For that reason, when it comes to regular TV style programming, I feel the new distribution models that pull content from the Internet, and put it on actual TVs are going to be more successful with youth. I'd put my money on the success of AppleTV and Xbox, which are brands and platforms that are already part of their lives to boot.
iRock out! (yes, it's a chair designed for listening to your iPod - "Five models will sell for $99 to $599 in six 'hip'' colors for teens...") (Mercury News)
- Are teens over MySpace? (the percentage of teens using the service is down but still nothing to sneeze at...Plus the AP also has a story about how a lot of young people are beginning to unplug and log more face time vs. MySpace time.) (New York Times, reg. required)
- Cover models will be carded (mags will no longer run liquor ads in issues featuring underage cover models) (New York Times, reg. required)
- The college trip as rite of passage (The New York Times, reg. required, looks at the increase in college trips and the bonding that can happen along the way. When I visited Antioch with my mom, it definitely helped me to realize she was young, too once as it prompted her to reminisce about her college days. Remember Meadow and Tony's college trip from "The Sopranos"?)
- Bully for you (Wired's Clive Thompson reviews the controversial video game)
- Toyota's got spirit! ("Toyota will sponsor 45-second vignettes to be broadcast during the NBC Sunday Night Halftime Show that examine the passion for high school football in the U.S. ") (BrandWeek)
- Chubby Butter on your phone (AOL Red signs deal for worldwide mobile distribution of the web cartoon for teens) (press release)
- Tweens love meat (or at least the "gross-out gags involving meat, snot and various bodily functions" on Nick's "Mr. Meaty" plus the rest of the Younger Viewers ratings wrap-up from Media Life Magazine)
- Teen lens (yMinds - a very cool teen photography site)
CosmoGIRL! Goes 'There' (the first teen mag to dip a toe into virtual worlds chooses There as its partner. Plus The BBC launches a beta version of its virtual world for kids) (press release) (via Izzy Neis) 
