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kindafooey · 6 years

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A prostitution state, a.k.a. how to slam dunk a racist with a convoluted yet bafflingly astute metaphor

Finally remembered to post the sassy mini essay I mentioned last night! This little chain of ideas came to me when I had to listen to a racist bitch customer holler about refugees lounging around on government money. Obviously, I couldn’t lay this down on him in the position I was in, but he got politely Served(TM) pretty good either way. :D In any case, here’s how to outsass a racist if you’re feeling the crazy kind of bold enough!

Enter Flatland, a novel from 1815 that every member of this fandom has probably at least heard about - but the fandom connection is irrelevant this time around. As a former social philosophy student, I tend to read the novel as pre-Marxist class theory in the form of dystopian fiction. That being said, identifying the core of its social critique is pretty challenging, because the setting is unique and not necessarily adapted from any actual social reality: in Flatland, your social class is defined purely by your shape, i.e. your physical attributes.

While this makes the setting largely unusable for study of a societal class structure, it opens up a metaphor for one important aspect of a racist view of the world - the defining, visual nature of race. I’m purposefully using the outdated term ‘race’ instead of ‘ethnicity’, because, since humans don’t actually have different races (I hope everyone knows this at this point), the term can instead be used to refer to discrimination/ethnic profiling based on physical attributes. In other words, quite simply, a racist worldview defines the value of an individual purely based on their physical traits and appearance. Nothing else. Any intellectual, social or otherwise generally beneficial contribution they can make to society? Worthless, because a person is their race and nothing else.

So, I say we take this fun idea a little further! Let’s assume the world actually works like that. If our bodies define our societal value, it goes on to follow that we can only benefit society with the value we’re given at birth, because ain’t nobody gonna do any extra work if it amounts to nothing. Having read the title, you already know where I’m going with this, don’t you? Oh yes - prostitution. Sure, technically there are other types of bodily contribution, such as utilizing physical strength, but alas, that requires training. And training, as well as any other kind of education, is a waste of time and the precious, precious taxpayers’ money, because this worldview shuns every welfare expense that doesn’t directly benefit the economy. (Otherwise, they wouldn’t have any problem with unemployed refugees.) All you’re fundamentally, initially good for is prostitution. And this applies to every single member of the society, mind you.

Bottom line: racist, are you concerned about the state economy going down in shambles due to immigration and refugee policies? Be the change you wish to see. Become a prostitute.

OMG THIS IS SO MUCH MORE CONVOLUTED WRITTEN DOWN THAN IT WAS IN MY NOTES I’m so sorry it’s so complicated. Honestly, I had a jolly good time imagining myself telling that old angry racist scumbag why by his own logic he should become a prostitute, so I guess that was my main mojo here. But it does have a lot of truth in it, if you really read into it. :D Anyway, I guess this was from the dumbass end of my sassy TED talks. I promise the ones I haven’t posted yet will be at least slightly less dumb!

(Btw, this applies to sexism, agism, or any other kind of douchebaggery built upon the valuation of physical appearance as well! I wanted to keep it simple for readability’s sake.)

#ted talk #racism #class theory #essay #???#I don't know why I'm even maintagging this #I dunno man I'll be damned

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atrocitycl · 7 years

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Red Velvet - “Red Flavor” Review

(Music Video) / (Live Performance)

Red Velvet – Red Flavor

Reviewed on July 27, 2017

But, unfortunately, when it comes to focusing on “Red Flavor” in a more critical lens, I argue there are many problematic points in the song. While many fans might desire to praise the creative aspects of the song and even claim that such aspects are the song’s captivating points, I entirely disagree as I argue the composers’ creative attempts are ironically and unintentionally the song’s weak points.

Personal Message: I did plan to get this review out much sooner, and indeed it is not the request on Day6’s “I Smile.” That said, the requested review will be finished a few hours and will be posted accordingly so or held until a day depending on how I want to space out the month’s remaining reviews. Unfortunately, due to an unfortunate series of headaches a few days ago, this review and Day6’s “I Smile” are technically behind two days, but all should be fine regarding the blog’s schedule. Regarding why I am reviewing “Red Flavor” in the first place and not handling requested reviews first as I normally do and should do, as mentioned in a few prior posts, I have unintentionally analyzed “Red Flavor” and thus, it would be a waste to not review the song at this point. And of course, I am also motivated by a sense of guilt as after watching some shorter videos of Girls’ Generation’s Taeyeon and Red Velvet together, I realized I have not paid much attention to the Red Velvet ladies at all. Plus, with how amazing Wendy’s voice is and her singing abilities—and that she is an amazing person in general—I felt a need to indeed review “Red Flavor.” (Though, quite obviously, I am actually reviewing the song for musical reasons and that will always be the core reason for why a song is personally chosen to be reviewed.)

Now before focusing directly on the review, I will take a few seconds to lightheartedly express slight frustrations—not at this song or Red Velvet or the review, to clarify. Rather, the issue of “lost-in-translation”—a phenomenon where meaning is lost during the translation of different languages—has never been as prevalent as in this song’s case. For this review’s translated lyrics, I admit it might not be the most accurate at all and that is because I personally have done a relatively large amount of editing. The current, popular translated version of the song’s lyrics are slightly too inaccurate from what I have noticed—and this should be quite concerning considering I am far from fluent in Korean and yet still notice such discrepancies. As such, the current lyrics are not perfect at all, but I believe it will make the most sense grammatically for readers of this review. Language and linguistics are definitely fascinating topics.

Venting aside, let us finally discuss “Red Flavor.” Personally, I do find myself enjoying the song regardless of how the review will go. In fact, I find that it might even be Red Velvet’s best song or at least tied with “Russian Roulette.” But, unfortunately, when it comes to focusing on “Red Flavor” in a more critical lens, I argue there are many problematic points in the song. While many fans might desire to praise the creative aspects of the song and even claim that such aspects are the song’s captivating points, I entirely disagree as I argue the composers’ creative attempts are, ironically and unintentionally, the song’s weak points.

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Song Score: 5/10 (5.00/10 raw score) - “Average”

- Vocals: 6/10

- Sections: 5/10 (4.75/10 raw score)

Introduction (Chorus), Verse, Pre-Chorus, Chorus, Post-Chorus, Verse, Pre-Chorus, Chorus, Rap, Bridge, Chorus, Conclusion

1. Introduction: 6/10

2. Verse: 5/10

3. Pre-Chorus: 5/10

4. Chorus: 5/10

5. Post-Chorus: 2/10

6. Rap: 4/10

7. Bridge: 6/10

8. Conclusion: 5/10

- Instrumental: 4/10

- Lyrics: 5/10

Red flavor I'm curious about it, honey The strawberry flavor that melts more as you bite Corner candy shop Look for it, baby The summer flavor is what I like the most

I want to fall asleep under the shade of a tree The hot summer air blows So easy to fall in love at the age of 19 We look good together, we’re cool

I like it, it was love at first sight I keep thinking about you I want to do it my way

Red flavor I'm curious about it, honey The strawberry flavor that melts more as you bite Corner candy shop Look for it, baby The summer flavor is what I like the most

(Red-red-red flavor, red-r-red-red flavor) (Red-red-red flavor, red-r-red-red flavor)

Open the seven colored, rainbow door Your world is electric, it’s cool Your love's color is redder than the sun I want it, I want to do it my way

Look at me, what are you thinking about? What can I do today? I’m dreaming however I want

Red flavor I'm curious about it, honey The strawberry flavor that melts more as you bite Corner candy shop Look for it, baby The summer flavor is what I like the most

Peach juice, sweet and sour mix, mood The cocktail I want to make you is, "Brew Red" Electricity in your ears, numbness in your nose Feeling better than you can imagine, up and bang, red Bet you wanna, bet you wanna dance like this Let’s shout out I like you, honestly Nervous? You’re sweating, so cute Falling for each other, we’re red-red, ah

You haven't figured it out because I haven’t told you My feelings are growing for you Like spilled ice cream I might just melt So tell me (Tell me) So tell me (Tell me) With your colors, paint me, thickly and strongly

Red flavor I'm curious about it, honey The strawberry flavor that melts more as you bite Corner candy shop Look for it, baby The summer flavor is what I like the most

In the summer, what I like the most is, you

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Analysis: Before getting further, with mentioning “creative points,” I now need to explain what I mean. After all, such a phrase is incredibly vague and if readers do not understand the context I am speaking from, then the core idea behind my argument would become worthless. Regarding “creative points,” I am specifically referring to how the instrumental functions in the song and the effects it brings. And while I will later explain why the creativity comes at many expenses of the song, we still have to acknowledge that there still are strengths and thus will explain the positive effects.

For the most prominent example, at the choruses the instrumental differs from many other instrumentals heard in pop songs. What occurs is that the instrumental merely provides beats and a bass line. In other words, for why this is peculiar, the instrumental is a relatively “empty” one and more so as choruses tend to be climactic points in a song and thus we would expect the instrumental to be far more active. However, this is not the case at all and in this sense we should appreciate a far more different approach the composers have taken for “Red Flavor” ‘s choruses. Furthermore, though, we also need to acknowledge that there are some positives that are gleaned from this decision: Red Velvet’s vocals become emphasized as the core sound during the choruses. This results from how, given the bland nature of the instrumental during the choruses, Red Velvet’s more energetic and hasty singing sharply contrasts the instrumental. As such, the instrumental not only gives “Red Flavor” a unique sound during this instance, but it also enhances the vocals that occur.

Another example of the unique instrumental aiding the song is when we consider how consistent it remains throughout. For example, unlike songs that would have a dramatic change in their instrumental—typically such as when a song’s chorus has an extremely upbeat, pure electronic solo instrumental—“Red Flavor” instead remains stable throughout. This in of itself is not necessarily a strength, nor is having a sudden chorus instrumental change automatically bad, but in this case I argue it definitely helps the song by allowing the sections to freely connect to each other. At the introduction, for example, it is not its own individual section but rather is merely the chorus executed in a slightly calmer fashion. What allows this interesting structure to even take place in the first place—since, after all, a chorus as the introduction would seemingly be far too abrupt—is that the instrumental does not drastically change throughout the rest of the song and thus, the starting introduction is not seemingly extreme and out of place. In clearer terms, let us think of it in this way: we can notice that, at the end of the introduction, the instrumental’s bass line kicks in heavily. Superficially it is for a transition, but cleverly, I argue the composers went for something further: we also have to realize that the increased bass line always occurs throughout the song at certain sections’ ends. And so for why this matters, it goes back to my original point of the instrumental remaining consistent and predictable. Given that the introduction section uses this bass line increase at its end and that the instrumental does this at other points, it makes the introduction seem far more fitting and not a sheer outlier despite it technically being a chorus section—a section that would typically be far too exciting to begin a song with.

All that said, the instrumental still does bring many issues despite it bringing in the mentioned positive points for the song. In fact, we can return to those supposed strengths and see how, in my view, many weak aspects are brought as a result. If we peer back at the choruses and the instrumental, even if it highlights the ladies’ vocals at that moment, this is still quite problematic. Already, on the surface there is the issue that emphasizing the vocals at this moment is perhaps unnecessary and even detrimental: the delivered vocals are far from being exceptionally stunning. In fact, I argue the vocals at the choruses serve more as filler than actual sonic appeal. We can realize this by how the vocals at the chorus carry an echoing, unison sound—something that is oftentimes done in K-Pop songs to create a “filler” sound—and that the more tuneful, pleasing vocals are actually located outside the choruses, be it at the verses, pre-choruses, and definitely the bridge. As a result, then, I personally am conflicted on whether the instrumental highlighting the vocals was an appropriate choice: highlighting filler vocals is what should not be highlighted at all. And even in the case that the composers intended for the choruses to merely be taken as filler as a whole, this is still problematic as filler sections are seldom desired and are ultimately there to progress the song until actual appeal comes in—hence why I term them “fillers.”

Switching over to the instrumental being consistent and using similar patterns throughout the song—such as with the signature bass line increase towards the end of choruses and verses—this is perhaps the song’s deepest problem. Certainly it allows the song to pull off interesting approaches such as with using the chorus as the introduction, and of course creating organization in the song, but a consistent instrumental in “Red Flavor” also means it has to stay true to a questionable hook used in the song: the murmured line of “red flavor.” Quite clearly, this takes place most prominently at the post-chorus, but upon closer listening, we will also come to realize that this very line is indeed murmured even through the verses and choruses. Yes, it adds some layering to the song and this is quite important in the choruses as it feels quite empty and hollow as discussed earlier, but because the instrumental follows its rigid, consistent style, this means that the murmuring line will also have to tediously be heard throughout. What I argue is a very poor decision, however, is that the composers did not just leave this hook line as mere background and instead opted to include a post-chorus for the “instrumental” (as the murmured, edited “red flavor” line functions as such) to take its spotlight. Quite bluntly, the post-chorus not only leaves minimal aural appeal, but the fact that it brings this background sound to the forefront is what is most troubling and more so as, unfortunately, it makes sense for why the post-chorus does and almost has to exist. The reason: to stay true to the instrumental being consistent. With the murmured lines being repeated already throughout, it makes sense that a break in the song would indeed bring the murmured lines to front as it is the only main sound left remaining; there is simply nothing else in the instrumental especially since the instrumental becomes quite passive during the choruses, the section promptly before the post-chorus.

Overall, while “Red Flavor” is a unique song in terms of its composition and that the very creative design to the song does bring it some benefits, it seems that the song is left with more problems from its different, creative form. Now this is not to shut down attempts of a creative song or to encourage all pop songs to stay true to the traditional format of the genre, but in “Red Flavor” ‘s case, it unfortunately just does not manage to perfectly get through with its more creative approach. Nevertheless, “Red Flavor” is still a decent song and is far from anything appalling; after all, it still scores at an average. Additionally, with impressive points such as the bridge and how “Red Flavor” manages to capture Red Velvet’s signature song style, this song is not to be automatically dismissed. There is more to be desired, but in the end, the song should be appreciated for its uniqueness and of course that the ladies of Red Velvet deserve to be supported along with the composers, producers, and other individuals involved in the song’s process. And even if I am somewhat harsh in this review, as said, I personally find this song to be quite enjoyable even if critically it remains lacking.

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I will be promptly working on the requested review of Day6’s “I Smile” right after this review is posted. I highly doubt it will be finished on the same day, but it might be. Regardless, it should be finished by tomorrow and similarly, the other two remaining requested reviews should be finished back-to-back. While July is still quite lacking in content, August will very likely contain constant posts as I will very much be preparing for university again. Until then, look forward to three requested reviews, and as always, “In the summer, what I like the most is, you.”

#Red Velvet #Red Flavor #Wendy #Irene #Seulgi #Joy #Yeri #Kpop Reviews #Song Reviews #Music Reviews #SM Entertainment #Music Video #Live Performance

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douglassmiith · 4 years

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How to create new Google Shopping insight reports in Data Studio

As digital marketers, we are always looking for the next time saving idea to provide a competitive edge. Due to Covid-19, we are making this one public in the hope it can help your business or clients.

Special thanks to Duane Brown for his input during research, Angelo Caldeira for all things code related, and Richard Kliskey for keeping the PPC lens in focus throughout.

The big idea

The popularity of all retail products bought online through Google Shopping changes weekly. Retailers have to measure this demand and manage their inventory, advertising efforts and commercial KPIs.

Comparing product insights across the online retail industry with your own data is not a cheap or easy thing to do.

DTC brands are in danger of being oblivious to wider category trends. Multi-brand retailers who want insights beyond their own data have to pay for expensive enterprise solutions.

Google Trends for Google Shopping is not yet a thing in 2020. We set out to bootstrap a solution any company can build and use in their own industry.

For smaller brands who typically manage product analysis solely within Shopify, new insights require new habits.

Here are the key PPC benefits of creating product insights using Data Studio.

Save Time: Automate the manual creation of product insights.

Save Money: Identify underperforming products faster and adjust your advertising.

Make Better Decisions: Include industry popularity of products when assessing stock and advertising decisions.

A message to non-technical PPC professionals

Even Batman needed Lucius Fox to help build cool tech. Once you partner up, the only limitation is your imagination and deciding which APIs to plug in. If you want better PPC insights within Data Studio, you need to build a custom database.

For non-technical PPC marketers, the time you invest now in finding a developer to collaborate with, will pay off massively and it is definitely worthwhile.

Technical requirements

To build a custom database for PPC you and/or your developer will need the following:

Programming skills in Python

Basic knowledge of SQL

Access to Google Analytics and Google Ads API

Ability to set up a Google Service Account

Understanding of Google BigQuery as a custom database

Ability to set up code to run in the cloud (e.g. AWS)

Data Studio dashboard knowledge

Here’s the good news! We are sharing for free, hours of coding already done for you. The links to the resources are in the next sections.

If you’re not comfortable following the technical instructions, we highly recommend partnering with a developer to help action the various scripts and custom database setup.

PPC considerations

First, choose your industry’s best-seller niche. Decide which industry data you need from Merchant Center. In this example we featured sneakers. You can set this up for many other niches such as electronics or a pet store.

Second, add your own data sources. Combine retail industry popularity rank alongside advertising and commercial KPIs / Google Shopping and Google Analytics KPIs.

Third, define what an insight is for you. Decide which data is the most important to use when automation can provide actionable insights. Examples: up/down trending products, whether you stock a highly popular product, commercial KPIs from Google Shopping alongside retail industry popularity rank.

Again, we want to repeat the fact this solution can be tailored to any product types where bestseller data from Merchant Center is available.

Our Insights Example, ‘Sneaker Store USA’

Free code and technical guidance is available within the github link.

We created an example data model to be accurate to the sneaker industry without the data actually belonging to anyone. The aim here is to use your own data in your own market. Combine best seller industry data with your advertising data to create your own insight trends.

For this particular example, let’s call the client SNEAKER STORE USA.

How to create new Google Shopping Insights reporting

The order of technical actions is as follows:

Set up your Google service account.

Make sure you have read-only access in Google ads and Analytics API.

Set up a BigQuery project.

Ensure access to your product feed used in Google Shopping.

Set up a Python virtual environment.

Get everything authenticated in your environment.

Download our code with the technical guide [download link].

Follow all the instructions for the software using the README file contained with the free code.

Set up the code to run in the cloud and schedule when to run.

Now you can adjust it to your business.

PPC problems solved

From our PPC team, we asked Richard Kliskey to expand on the challenges and solutions on offer through this reporting insights project.

Richard writes, “SMEs managing Google Shopping need to connect merchandising insights with advertising decisions. The challenge for smaller advertisers is how best to make use of Google’s retail industry data and create actionable insights. The popularity data is there in the Merchant Center but most likely SMEs don’t use it.”

“A company’s growing product catalogue creates an insight automation challenge. SMEs need to identify commercial KPI trends in time to maximise the market opportunity – all while minimizing wasted spend on products with declining demand and/or profitability.”

“One of the key challenges in working with a growing product inventory is accessing actionable insights quickly. E-commerce professionals need to compare client data with industry category data, and then compare that with Google Ads’ multi-touchpoint performance with actual sales performance.”

PPC professionals can use a custom database within Data Studio to achieve actionable improvements.

Identify opportunities to increase market share

Identify opportunities with high potential

Industry specific example, Sneakers.

Identify opportunities to increase market share: Start with the industry best seller report.

Compare your data with Google Shopping’s industry-wide popularity rank. Identify opportunities to increase market share. The objective is to find products in your inventory that have low click volume but are popular selling products according to Google.

Identify opportunities with high potential: By using a custom database and Data Studio reporting, you can identify products with high potential.

This means products with high profitability but lower click volumes. Being able to use Google Ad data, Analytics data, stock availability, and retail popularity rank all in one place can accelerate PPC decision making.

Identifying products by high click volume and low profitability is a simple task to do using the reports function in Google Ads, however, SMEs may struggle to compare this to actual sales data. Many only look at Shopify reporting. This report combines Google Ads and Analytics data together, saving a lot of time in having to jump between browser tabs.

Industry specific example, Sneakers: In the sneaker market, one of the big issues is when popular shoe sizes go out of stock, this usually leads to decreasing profitability in that product.

This Data Studio slide is to help you identify trends in products that have 50% or more decrease in ROAS over a 4 week period. The product itself may appear to have good ROAS overall but the third and fourth week could be very low and need some close attention for optimisation.

Other slide ideas we have shared in the dashboard include a way to produce a graph on sales volume by percentage discount. This provides you, the PPC marketer, with an overview of performance to assess and improve profitability in low margin products.

The potential is here to create many more actionable insights based on your own data. This is just the starting point.

Final technical advice

As the developer behind this custom reporting setup, Angelo Caldeira has these feedback points for any developer who is asked to build this custom database and reporting setup.

Angelo writes, “You will need to help non-technical marketers understand the majority of the work is in creating the custom database. Data visualisation is the last part but it’s the only part people will see.”

“It’s important to understand what the PPC individual or team will be gaining from the dashboard, otherwise you may lose focus on what you are trying to achieve.”

“Scan through the code and make sure that the data feed has all the required fields such as gtin, product id, product group ids.”

“If you don’t have access to Google Analytics 360, our code takes this into account because non-360 data is often sampled. If you do have access to 360, then you need to adjust the code slightly. Instructions will be in the README and comments when you download the code.”

To recap, if you advertise in Google Shopping, this custom database and reporting setup can help you see what the best sellers are in your industry alongside your own numbers.

Opportunities for growth and greater profitability become much clearer as a result.

Opinions expressed in this article are those of the guest author and not necessarily Search Engine Land. Staff authors are listed here.

About The Author

Andrew McGarry is the owner of The McGarry Agency, a UK-based digital marketing agency consultancy specializing in lifestyle and global fashion brands. His career started in 2003 in marketing agency for franchising, then software sales, and since 2011 has been exclusively focused on fashion, footwear and cosmetics. In the UK, US and across European markets, brands helped over the years include Allsaints, Ted Baker, REISS, Hunter Boots, UGG, Oriflame, GANT and Sneakersnstuff. Andrew takes the time to understand your brand, knows how to drives sales, and unlike some firms, his team will tell you the truth. If you can handle it!

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Via http://www.scpie.org/how-to-create-new-google-shopping-insight-reports-in-data-studio/

source https://scpie.weebly.com/blog/how-to-create-new-google-shopping-insight-reports-in-data-studio

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laurelkrugerr · 4 years