#my ongoing gender crisis is famous by now

[hotspurpercy]

thinking some thoughts about names,,,

#text #ie pen names and just general names #my ongoing gender crisis is famous by now #but guess what! it's still going! #and in general i just don't really identify with the name joan anymore #i'm still vibing with j names #also debating about changing my irl name #many thoughts. head full.

[madstars-festival]

HIRA MOHIBULLAH: “WITH ADVERTISING, I HELP THOSE WHO DON’T HAVE A VOICE”

Hira Mohibullah is an expert is telling stories that have a positive impact. We’re delighted to welcome her to our Final Jury this year representing BBDO Pakistan, where she is Executive Creative Director.

As the most awarded female creative in Pakistan, Hira Mohibullah believes that storytellers have a responsibility to tell the right kind of stories – especially in an industry as influential as advertising.

Her most notable campaigns include #BridalUniform, which raised awareness of the prevalence of underage brides; #BeatMe for UN Women, which challenged men to “beat” women (at something they excel at; and Chai Ka Nishaan (The Hot Tea Stain), a campaign that raised awareness on child burns caused through negligence around hot tea."

Since joining BBDO Pakistan four years ago, she has won more than 170 international awards for her work. A mother of two, Mohibullah is also an advocate for gender balance in the workplace and helped set up a day-care room at BBDO to encourage more working mothers to join the workforce. 

You live and work in Pakistan. Did you grow up there, too?

I’m a third culture kid, and so I don’t really know what place I call home. I grew up in the Middle East and moved to Pakistan when I was 14. I have very fond memories of my childhood and, quite contrary to popular belief, it was fun being a kid in Saudi Arabia! I had friends from all over the world, and from a very young age I was exposed to different cultures and languages, which I feel has shaped who I am today as a creative.  

What led you to a career in advertising: did you always dream of impacting positive social change through your work?

Growing up, I’ve hopped (all too rapidly) from one dream career to another. One thing that I’ve always known about myself is that I get bored with one thing real quick, and so the versatility that advertising brings to my life every single day is what makes it such a perfect match. Right after I completed my A Levels (after having taken every subject under the sun), I chanced upon the communication design course. There it was, my love for creative writing and design brought miraculously together. Advertising was the most obvious choice after that, and I’ve never looked back since.

In my twenties, while my friends were writing their personal statements for college applications full to the brim with life-changing struggles, I was wishing I had more of a story to tell. I grew up in a house with parents who did not believe in gender discrimination. They had two daughters and they gave us the best education to the best of their abilities. There was absolutely no pressure on us to fit a certain mould. With a great support system, I grew up living a sheltered life of privilege. But today, I realise that’s what my story is: with advertising I use my position of privilege to help those who don’t have a voice. It's all come full circle.

#BridalUniform was an incredibly powerful campaign, which won countless awards – including several at AD STARS. What challenges did you face in bringing it to life?

As with most pro-bono campaigns we do at BBDO, we had absolutely no money to spend on this one. So getting the word out to the entire nation, that it was not okay to marry off underage girls, seemed impossible. That challenge gave birth to a genius solution: we hijacked the biggest bridal fashion show of Pakistan, one that was already being covered by all major media channels in the country. We partnered Ali Xeeshan, Pakistan's foremost bridal wear designer and launched the Bridal Uniform: a merger between a little girl's school uniform and embellishments from a typical bridal outfit. Amidst the pomp and show, out walked the showstopper: a little girl wearing the #BridalUniform, symbolising the trade-off that happens when a child is deprived of her right to an education and instead is dressed as someone's wife. Without spending a dime, we were able to rack up one billion organic impressions.

Creativity can help to bring people together in times of crisis: are there any inspiring initiatives taking place in Pakistan right now? What is BBDO doing to keep its staff motivated during the coronavirus crisis?

It’s overwhelming to see everybody fighting on the same front, for the same cause. It’s brought the industry together in a way nothing ever has. Every brand I work on is doing their part to help the nation cope with this unprecedented struggle. We’re all working from home currently (being amongst the first few to implement the policy) and besides a few teething issues in the start, we’re meeting all our timelines even when the work has doubled in amount. My team and I usually get the brainstorming out of the way earlier in the day and then go our separate ways to finish off the pending tasks. Keeping meticulous checklists of individual workflows has helped me stay afloat by giving me a good visibility on the tasks lined up for the entire week.

What does your typical day look like?

I have two kids who I bring to work with me (a 6 year-old and a 7 month old) and in pre-COVID times, I used to joke about “traveling” to work because I would lug around all their stuff in a mini carry-on... everyday! These days in lockdown, I start early, get my 6 year-old’s homework done and ship him off to another room for his online classes while I find myself a quiet corner to tackle my checklist for the day.  

Do you have a process – is there a way you work through a problem? How much of your creative process happens subconsciously?

I’ve hardly ever had an idea strike me in a dream or in the shower, unlike many other creatives I know. For me, cracking a brief requires a formal session (always with a notebook in hand) where I start from a pain-point, deep-dive into real-world insights, colloquially unlock the idea for relevance, and finally tell the story in the voice of the brand. Also, being bi-lingual helps me tackle the creative process from two different vernacular angles.

Who are your creative heroes and why?

Fernando Machado. He’s brave, unapologetically relentless, he has an eye for what will absolutely shake the world and he’s not afraid to do it!  

You recently spoke at TEDxLahore. What did you talk was about?

My joint talk at TEDx was about the importance of telling the right kind of stories. The stories we hear growing up shape us into the people we are today: they define our limits, our fears and our dreams. As advertisers, we call ourselves storytellers, and so imagine the kind of power we hold to change the lives of those around us. Moiz Khan and I talked about the stories we’ve told in our time at BBDO Pakistan, and how they have positively impacted our society.

As the most awarded female creative in Pakistan, do you have advice for others hoping to ‘make it’ in advertising?

No one makes it in advertising on their own! Find your tribe. Go out there and look for like-minded people and a place that matches your vision.

Are you working on anything interesting right now?

Pakistanis love their tea. They have tea for breakfast, tea in the afternoon and then in the evening. There’s tea with snacks and tea over gossip sessions. In a shocking revelation, we learnt that 80% of child burns happen due to hot tea spills. Now in a country where tea consumption is at an all-time high, there is considerable talk around removing tea stains from clothes but none around the perils of being negligent while preparing or drinking that tea. After a successful first leg of the campaign where we were able to bring down the number of accidents by 50%, we’re now working on Round 2 this year!  

You attended AD STARS in 2018. Do you have any favourite memories of Busan?

My fondest memory of Busan is going to The Library of Mystery Literature, a quaint little place which is a library, a cafe and a museum all rolled into one.  Due to an ongoing book-club, they were closed at the time I wanted to visit. I called up the owner, and with my receptionist translating everything for me, told her it was the only day I could come visit and she generously opened up the cafe especially for me. There I met the famous crime novelist Kim Seong-jong, read a crime novel with a cup of buckwheat tea offset against a book-reading in a foreign language… it was really something else.

Hira Mohibullah will judge the Brand Experience & Activation, Creative eCommerce, Direct, Media and PR categories at the AD STARS 2020 Awards. To enter, submit your work before 15th May via adstars.org.

#bbdo

[medproish]

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified before Congress today in a marathon five-hour session about the ongoing Cambridge Analytica data privacy scandal. In addition to discussing that situation, and how as many as 87 million users had their information misused by the data mining firm, the conversation also touched on Facebook’s role and responsibility in the world as a news source and a massively influential tool for democracy and communication.

While there were few bombshell revelations, Zuckerberg did answer a far-reaching and diverse set of questions ranging from whether Facebook is a monopoly to whether the company would ever consider an ad-free paid version. As part of his appearance on Capitol Hill today, Zuckerberg brought along a thick binder of notes to help him answer questions, stay on his talking points, and come up with quick and relatively innocuous responses to hot-button issues. Thankfully, because there were photojournalists in the room, we have access to a least two pages of those notes.

AP photographer Andrew Harnik snapped perhaps the best photos of Zuckerberg’s notes, and you can see them clearly here:

It’s a very telling pair of documents, giving us a glimpse inside how both Zuckerberg and the sophisticated executive and crisis PR team orbiting him are thinking about the biggest issues facing Facebook today. Some interesting standouts here:

Underlined at the top under the “Cambridge Analytica” section is a point about how no credit card or social security numbers were compromised

In a section titled “Accountability,” Zuckerberg’s notes include a reiteration that he is to blame as the leader of Facebook and that no one has been fired over the scandal

In the same section, Zuckerberg has talking points that help him skirt any questions over whether he will or should resign (he’s not planning to)

In a section outlining points about Facebook’s business model, Zuckerberg has written down before him a point about the social network needing to be free to be accessible to everyone, and that advertising is the only way to offer that service to the largest number of people

Zuckerberg has a section on defending Facebook by reiterating the good it does for the world

There’s an entire section of the notes dedicated to Apple and its CEO Tim Cook, after a public dispute Zuckerberg and he had over privacy last week, that includes a famous quote from Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos and comments about Apple’s past privacy issues with third-party apps

There’s a small section on Silicon Valley diversity that advises Zuckerberg to own up to how abysmal both the company’s and the industry’s diversity stats are

The final section on the second page includes a few bullet points related to the EU’s General Data Protection Regulation law, which goes into effect in May and will have a significant effect on how internet businesses operate in Europe

The GDPR section in big bold letters advises Zuckerberg to avoid saying Facebook already complies with the law, which it does not, and yet the bullet points do not include any confirmation on whether Facebook will expand GDPR protections to users worldwide, something the chief executive has been unclear about in the past week

For those who would like to read the notes in full, here’s the full transcript:

Cambridge Analytica

– Breach of trust; sorry we let it happen; took steps in 2014 to stop it happening again.

– Quiz app designed by Cambridge University researcher named Aleksandr Kogan.

– People who used app gave Kogan FB information like public profile, page likes, friend list + birthday; same for friends’ whose settings allowed sharing; NO credit card/SSN info.

– Kogan sold to CA in violation of our terms; when we found out, told them to delete data.

– Confirmed they had — now seems untrue. Should have done more to audit + tell people.

– Didn’t think enough about abuse; rethinking every part of our relationship with people.

Compensation

– Important issue but no credit card information or SSN shared.

– People gave Kogan access to Facebook information like their public profile, page likes, friend list, birthday; same for friends’ whose settings allowed sharing.

– 2014 changes mean it couldn’t happen now; restricted apps’ access to data even further.

Reverse lookup (scraping)

– Found out about abuse two weeks ago, shut it down.

– Useful to find someone by phone number/email; if people have the same name.

– Malicious actors linked public info (name, profile photo, gender, user ID) to phone numbers they already had; shut it down. Need to do more to prevent abuse.

Accountability

– Fire people for CA?: It’s about how we designed the platform. That was my responsibility. Not going to throw people under the bus.

– Do you ever fire anyone?: Yes; hold people accountable all the time; not going to go into specifics.

– Resign?: Founded Facebook. My decisions. I made mistakes. Big challenge, but we’ve solved problems before, going to solve this one. Already taking action.

– No accountability for MZ?: Accountable to you, to employees, to people who use FB.

Data safety:

– I use FB every day, so does my family, invest a lot in security.

– Made mistakes, working hard to fix them.

– Giving people more controls, just yesterday stated showing people their app controls.

Business model (ads)

– Want FB to be a service that everyone can use, has to be free, can only do that with ads.

– Key for me is mission — helping people connect. Business model supports that mission.

– Let’s be clear: Facebook doesn’t sell data. You own your information. We give you controls.

– People know […] need ads; tell us if they have to see ads, want them to be relevant.

[…]/wellbeing

– Facebook […] not time spent; time spent fell 5% Q4; pivot to MSI.

– […]ssesm[..] to communicate with kids; MK gives parents control.

– […] like N[…] have commercial ads. We have no plans to do so.

Defend Facebook

– [If attacked: Respectfully, I reject that. Not who we are.]

– Billions people globally use FB every day to connect to the people that matter.

– Families reconnected, people met and gotten married, movements organized, tens of millions of SMBs now have better tools to grow and create jobs.

– More work to do, but can’t lose sight of all the ways people are using FB for good.

Tim Cook on biz model

– Bezos: “Companies that work hard to charge you more and companies that work hard to charge you less.”

– At FB, we try hard to charge you less. In fact, we’re free.

– [On data, we’re similar. When you install an app on your iPhone, you give it access to some information, just like when you login with FB.

– Lots of stories about apps misusing Apple data, never seen Apple notify people.

– Important you hold everyone to the same standard.]

Disturbing content

– It’s very disturbing; and sadly we do see bad things on Facebook.

– Should have no place on our service; community standards prohibit hate, bullying, terror.

– Working to be more proactive; AI, hiring more people e.g. terror, e.g. suicide.

– Will never be perfect; but making huge investments.

Election integrity (Russia)

– Too slow, making progress. France, Germany, Alabama.

– Midterms are important, but not just in the US — Brazil, Mexico, Hungary.

– Just announced committee of academics to commission independent research on social media on democracy.

Diversity

– Silicon valley has a problem, and Facebook is part of the problem.

– Personally care about making progress; long way to go [3% African American, 5% Hispanics].

Competition

– Consumer choice: consumers have lots of choice over how they spend their time

– Small part of ad market: advertisers have choices too — $650 billion market, we have 6%.

– Break up FB?: US tech companies key asset for America, break up strengthens Chinese companies.

GDPR (Don’t say we already do what GDPR requires)

– People deserve good privacy tools and controls wherever they live.

– We build everything to be transparent and give people control. GDPR does a few things:

– Provides control over data use — what we’ve done for a few years.

– Requires consent — done a little bit, now doing more in Europe and around the world.

– Get special consent for sensitive things e.g. facial recognition.

– Support privacy legislation that is practical, puts people in control and allows for innovation.

Let’s block ads! (Why?)

Source link

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#IFTTT #WordPress

[phobio2000]

Strange Thoughts

Once I saw on TV, this old guy goes around the neighborhood taking down things people put on walls and power poles and stuff, e.g., lost dog, garage sale, etc. He even made special tools to reach higher up. He said these are like wrong and ugly or whatever, I forgot, but all I saw was an old guy fighting the sentiment of being not viable and useful; perhaps doing this makes him feel that there's still a sense of purpose for his life. I also saw something similar on Jay Leno's show once. This once famous comedian got his old shows on DVD and goes around to sell it. He said that instead of doing nothing at home why not put up a fight or something like that. But like, I think the sentiment here is identical to that other old guy I mentioned. I've heard other stories like that over the years, like how this guy gets old and just didn't want to retire, feeling that without this job that he's had for decades he's entirely useless and irrelevant. There's also this movie "Land Ho" addressing this subject, filmed in Iceland. It's slow, not for everybody, but I thought it was beautiful. As far as motivation goes, I think it comes in the form of either you're hungry for something and/or something is eating you. I think there are two major moments in a man's life, when he hits mid-life crisis, wondering what he has actually accomplished after all these years, and the other when he get old and is no longer important to anyone, losing relevance to others and a sense of purpose for self. I've had my midlife crisis when I graduated from high school. I am weird like that. While others were excited about graduating, reminiscing the good times while looking forward to college or what else life has in store, I just thought I've accomplished nothing up to now, time totally wasted, just wobbling around and let the days go by, going with the flow. It was pretty horrifying and I dare not take any day for granted ever since. I do not know if that's what people feel when they reached forty or fifty, but I can tell you that I am not afraid of it because I don't think I was too far off back then. Perhaps I'll get myself a convertible then, always wanted one. Come on, living in Southern California you don't want one? I'm surprised that so many people don't think about wanting one when it's one of the coolest things to have when you live here, but anyways. . . Lol :D. I've been living in pain for as long as I could remember. It feels like I've always been in a sinking ship, trying to scoop water out so I won't sink and die. It kept me going. I was rejected by my parents probably even before I was born, wrong gender, wrong gifting, and perhaps deemed as unnecessary and contemplated for abortion. My mom just flat out hated me, which probably has to do with her mom rejecting her for her gender, and that hatred trickled down to me. And then my parents divorced when I was about seven, suddenly living with my dad, and then my mom, and then come here with my dad. But the worst thing my parents did is probably with dad trying to program me. There's this story from a novel I love. This family is a descendent of a kingdom that perished long ago, but the ambition to restore the kingdom lives on, passing from generation to generation. The amount of brainwashing is staggering, needless to say, but this dad came up with something super clever and sinister, he faked his own death when his son was really young and made restoring the kingdom his dying wish or something like that, and that mission became something that's anchored into his soul, something he must do no matter what. Chinese can be very scary. . . Well, one day I was at my half brother's house, and he was obsessed with the idea of returning to his dad's hometown in China. His wife said that his dad (my dad) programmed that idea into him. It was pretty scary, because he left to come to the US decades ago, yet somehow the notion stuck around, totally anchored into his soul. I don't know what my dad did and how he did it, but he must have been a really scary guy. I wouldn’t know because he was already like sixty when I was born, and during the times we lived together in the US he never said much, just read newspaper and watch ball games, but relatives all said he's very smart, I wouldn't know. I used to complain a lot that he never spent the time teaching me anything, just read newspaper, sort of just ignored me, other than giving me tidbits here and there from time to time. But in retrospect now, I am glad he didn't teach me anything. I don't want to know who he was, what he did, and how he did it. Given the little clues he left behind I can only guess that he was a scary man. Well, the curse he put on me was the same as that guy in the novel. He spent a lot of time and effort trying to get us to the US, and he wanted his children to be very successful and show the people in the big Chen family that he left a great legacy (the divorce and the lost of his fortune was a huge embarrassment to him and he wanted redemption). He abruptly died of stroke. One afternoon he had a stroke. The ambulance took him to the hospital, he was stable but had followup strokes and never made it. It was sad, but looking back years later, I wonder, what if he didn't die abruptly? What if on his death bed he completes his curse by making his dying wish me becoming super successful or something? What would that have done to me? I mean, in subsequent years after he died I was cursed, the cursed did effect me very well. My brother knows it but never directly tells me. He tells a friend who subtly mentioned that character in the novel, suggesting that I am like him, which I replied "It's a tremendous amount of stress and pressure", implying that, I know but I can't help it. Chinese parents also like to control their children. When I look at my fellow Chinese immigrants whose parents hold measly jobs and live simple lives, I just thought that's such a blessing, ignorance is bliss, that they don't have to go through what I went through. For me, though, after my dad died, I was like a dog on a leash suddenly without a holder. And, there's someone at church who took advantage of my vulnerability of losing a family member and she took over the leash, as well, under the pretence of providing Christian discipleship. She has no husband nor children, and probably had some bad experiences in the area prior and decided to serve God full time or something, who knows, and she is probably interested in having someone around when she grows old, a typical Chinese mentality. So the brainwashing continues and the control tactics, it's like ingesting poison a little bit at a time so that you don't notice it while it slowly accumulates in your body. I felt a lot of tension, anxiety, and stress, like all the time, while all along I thought she's the nicest person on earth! Many years later I had the only vision I've ever had in my life. I was half asleep, I felt the Lord visiting me, which is not uncommon. In prior times it'd mostly be the Lord making me revisit past painful experiences so he could heal me. That was what I was expecting, but then it's different. I felt a gray fuzzy ball inside my chest. I asked the Lord what is that? He wanted me to gaze, and then it unravels itself, and then event after event after event replayed itself, of things she said and did, but seen from a different perspective, and the Lord kept saying, "See, she's trying to control you here and there and there too." I was in disbelief for like three months before I finally got a grip, and ever since I've been struggling trying to detox myself of all that poison, which has been an ongoing effort for the last five years. Gradually, especially lately, I am feeling that my soul feels less bloated, body not as tense and stiff, not feeling as anxious and stress. All the curses and poison and things are slowly subsiding. I marvel at how far she actually went . Did she care for anyone besides herself her whole life? What about my schooling, career, relationship, and etc. When she exerts this much control, injects this much poison, and weakens my soul this much, how will I survive in the job market, where people try to take advantage of people all the time? How will I survive, having this many vulnerabilities?! How long could I have lived, having this much weight and anxiety and frustration inside me? Well, as long as I outlive her that's all she cares about, I guess! I'm still detoxing and decursing, but for the most part, it's gone now (I think, hopefully). So going back to what I wrote about motivation, yeah, something has definitely been eating me and I feel like I've been fighting for my life all this time. But something feels different today. Suddenly I felt like I've accomplished everything I wanted to accomplish. For the most part: Curses are gone Controls are gone Poison/toxin are gone Dad's bondage, gone (how does a dead man live on inside me as an undying skeleton for all these years I will never know. What did he do to me? How?) Mom's doing well. I've done all I could. If I make more money I'll send her some. After I get a job I could call her more often, but really, I've done all I could. Brother's doing well. Still visit from time to time, check out the cute nephews and see if I can offer some perspectives, that's it. It's all I can do, given the dynamics of the relationship. My very existence makes him insecure, and when he's insecure he beats me up, and I don't want to get beat up. Stupid old church is gone (from my heart). Best of luck to them. As I walked down the mountain, suddenly I felt like my boat isn't sinking anymore. There's no dire need to scoop water out of the boat. For the first time in my life, I can just live and be and feel all right. I mean, the neighbors' harassment persists, bad HOA, bad landlord upstairs, but through prayer I'm slowly and surely overcoming it. Still jobless, still no stable career, but I am learning to see with eyes of faith, and I think that's slowly getting under control, as well. One of my biggest goals in life is to make sure love gets perfected in everything I am and I do. While love is infinite and I'll never be perfect, I feel like I've achieved that, too. The only way forward now is to love enemies more, which I can more or less comfortably do, sort of, praying for enemies and stuff, at least, while not being a moron and let them destroy me. Suddenly I felt like there's nothing more for me to do in life. When the Lord provide job, I'll work. If he opens door I'll make more money, if he doesn't I'll make less. If I make more money I'll move out of here, but it's in God's hand. He's the good shepherd responsible for leading and I'm responsible for following. Do I want anything in life? Do I care for anything? No, not really. I'm just a blip in this world. I don't think anybody loves me. There's not one person I personally know that I can point at and say "Hey, this person really loves me." I've endured so much bad stuff in life. I've seen humanity's ugly say, not sure if it's the worst, but definitely terribly ugly, even from devout Christians with good reputations, whose heart turned out to be just as selfish as the worst people I've met; I'm disheartened, I've no desire to live anymore. Before I've always wanted to live a long life so I can keep on fighting and overcoming and do good things. But now, I feel like I'm just a blip, an unnecessity. If I die, nobody would care, nobody will miss me. I tried my very best to love everyone, but I think all the love I ever got returned is just a little tiny response based on the tons of love I invested, just a small ripple, a mere small reaction. I tried. And today's like, I was thinking, "Hmm, I'm 39, if I die at 70, that's another 30 years, geez, that's too long, can I go today? I have no regrets, remorse, nor will I miss anything, I'm cool. There's really nothing left for me to do besides just keep on living, which is boring and meaningless. I don't think I'm viable nor needed in this world." This has nothing to do with wanting to live or not wanting to live. I'm feeling normal and stable. I just feel that, after all the pain's gone and all the internal issues are taken care of, what am I left with? Just some unwanted person that should have been aborted to begin with, nothing more. But life goes on. It's a gift from God and a blessing. It is what it is :D.