Youth engage with slapstick humour

Bristol UK hosts Comedy Festival ( 17th-20th January 2008) which is a festival of silent films that champion the slapstick tradition. This festival was be attended widely and mostly attended by 18 to 24s who are ‘rediscovering’ this old silent footage including Charlie Chaplin’s GOLD RUSH, Laurel and Hardy classic LEAVE EM LAUGHING and Buster Keaton’s comedy shorts.

“I want to see him get hurt but I don’t..” says a university male 23 in a depth interview conducted by INSIDE STORY talking about the attraction of Jackass. Jackass has defined what many males under 23 continue to like in entertainment. On its website it warns: MTV's hit show Jackass features silly pranks, absurd antics and idiotic stunts performed by total jackasses. Leading the sick and twisted pack of sadomasochists was Johnny Knoxville.

Silent film slackstick has similar if more ‘gentle’ appeal and is emerging as something for

Generation Y to make their own.

Slapstick is defined (wikipedia) as a comedy that involves exaggerated physical violence. The slapstick tradition can be identified in Ren and Stimpy and may be considered to be part of the appeal of the SIMPSONs (in a toned down way). Silent film hasn’t had a significant profile for adult Baby Boomers and Gen Xers.

Three Stooger Mo’s ear pulling and eye poking behavior towards Curlie and other silent film pranks may seem inappropriate in today’s climate where stamping out school and workplaces bullies is a priority – yet bullies seem likely to continue to thrive today as ever.

At the Bristol festival T Shirts (see earlier T-shirt blog) are for sale and make a perfect way to continue to share in the fun – a fun that is more like being ‘naughty’ than really mean or ‘bad’.

T shirts have always had their own power - enabling its wearer to express themselves in a particular way.

Over recent years, t shirts have allowed people to portray their thoughts and beliefs (or lack of) without use of verbal communication. Allowing for some, an automatic connection with others - purely based on whether or not they like your t shirt.

A true icon of the eighties was the Frankie say relax t shirt and another t shirt which has stood the test of time is the Che Guevara t shirt – which is often seen at music festivals, your local shopping centre, or out in the newest bars and trendiest clubs in town.

Recently, the impact of t shirts with youth today has grown even more powerful.
Today, youths can quite easily create their own t shirts (professional looking or not) plus have access to a wider variety through the internet.


T shirts are either created by hand – literally by writing the desired slogan on the t shirt with paint or by popping down to your local Supre or Dotti – where you can always pick up a shirt with the latest slogan printed on it - such as free hugs (the result of a you tube video)

There are also designated websites on the internet such as www.luckythreadz.com and www.threadless.com.



Threadless enables their users to create their own design, get their t shirts printed and then made available to all those accessing the site – essentially making users clothes designers.

On Lucky Threadz, users can pick up t shirts which carry clever phrases or their favourite lines from movies – one which is currently available is Mandy Patinkin’s infamous line from the Princess Bride –

“Hello, my name is Inigo Montoya, you killed my father, prepare to die”.

Now some may consider this movie and line a classic – and the people who choose to wear this t shirt will automatically have an “in” joke and share the same appreciation with other lovers of the movie.

So whether the t shirt you wear says I’m a princess or More cowbell –

it says something about you.

MySpace - what it offers

“MySpace is like a tree –

you branch out and look at other spaces.
You don’t know how you got there… you just do.”

MySpace the latest trend in pop culture – a way to stay in the know and keep in touch with all things social. It is an evolution from the telephone, email as well as MSN. It is also considered by a few to be the Google of blog sites.

“EVERYONE” uses MySpace

but predominantly, it is younger people as well as musicians and their promoters.

By young people, it refers to teenagers, school students and university students. Although MySpace does have minimum age requirement of 14, some tweens do fudge the system and lie about their age to set up their own space.

For some, they believe the people who do use MySpace, have only done so to conform to the latest fad –

“like mobile phones, all kids have them.”

Musicians and promoters using the site do so to promote bands and recording artists. By doing this, musicians can try and make a name for themselves. It allows unknowns to have their music readily accessible – their music can be heard on a mass level. They can target their audience without the support of a record company.

On the other hand, established bands and artists can keep close relationships with their fans by keeping them up to date through their own space

The majority feel MySpace is all about TALKING TO PEOPLE – communication through the use of the comment feature.

Users are able to:

• Make new friends and keep in contact with old friends
  
• Inform people about important events such as parties, holidays and festivals. “It’s just convenient to write something about yourself and all your friends are updated.”


• Reach anyone in the world
  
• See what others are up to


• Cement friendships – by taking it to another level. Through MySpace users can show and see different sides of personalities




• Approach friendships in an easier manner – a pre bonding session which makes meeting each other the next time round that little bit easier
  
• Organise outings or events

A slight entertainment element too is involved:

• Keeping up to date with new music and gigs
  


• Looking at other people’s spaces and seeing what they are up to. Public spaces are very open, allowing anyone to have a look

“the fact that they don’t know I’m looking at their site makes it even better!”

Though it is overkill for some? Yes it is a site that enables users to express themselves, but how they do it can be an issue for some.

For those, MySpace is:

“used by young, egotistical, narcissistic, self indulgent people who have way too much time on their hands and an inflated level of self importance.”

Perhaps it is because “you can choose the best photos, what you write, who you write to – and then you can select the people you want to see it by making it private.”

A lot feel that MySpace is about the user making themselves a star. “Users can become celebrities in their own minds…they are part of something much bigger than themselves. Anyone, anywhere in the world can discover what Joe Bloggs had for lunch last Tuesday…if it’s in his blog…”

It is also perceived by a few that for some, MySpace is a medium to make users feel popular – by having a large number of friends (contacts) on their space

MySpace is considered by a few to have taken off quite quickly – resulting in a pop activity. Some lead adopters have now moved on to other blog sites – which aren’t so “teeny” yet still enables the networking aspect, such as Facebook. The teeny aspect for some means MySpace is becoming a bit lame.

MySpace is the latest fad – so “if you want to be socially accepted, you get a MySpace.”

Kylie somatics

Kylie is back and in November prior to her concert to our Australia’s competitive magazine culture featured the pop princess. Both Marie Claire and Vogue featured Kylie front page but there were two Kylies.

For the keen observer many things show our pop princess has undergone a change and this is reflected in the different faces of Kylie in both Vogue and Marie Claire covers. Marie Claire shows the Bubbling Brook© Kylie using INSIDE STORY’s Marketing Somatic Identity framework (Water People©). As a Bubbling Brook© she is bright, literally sparkling on the cover and shining in pink.

Kylie looks decidedly out of sorts on the cover of Vogue in her black lace dress and her black eye makeup – looking quite out of sorts and much more like a Still Waters© goth than a princess. For those who have experienced deep feelings of loss, near loss or grief it is hard to resist the dark side.

Her latest album Body Language video also reflects a shift. This time a more towards the Flowing Stream© identity is emerging. The colour and glamour is still there but no dancing queen now. She lies on the towel languidly, seductively going through the moves fluidly to the music among a mass of bodies and no longer up there as the single bright star.

We all wish you the best Kylie as you work through your inner transformations.

Rebellion not happening

Youth used to be rebellious - now rebellion is a minor facet of Youth in Australia, Singapore, Malaysia and the UK. One of the major trends in Youth over the last 15 or so years is the decline in the desire to rebel..serious rebel.

In our recent research at INSIDE STORY with youth the desire to rebel just isn't there.

There is a more confident and comfortable feel to Youth than there used to be.

In China there are however, signs of real rebellion with post punk and post grunge bands delivering exciting sounds. In Japan too there is a different sort of desire for change that creates an exciting vibrant Youth sub-culture.

Our work with somatic metaphors and somatic identity shows that there is a segment of the Youth market - the Still Waters who do have the some potential for this true rebellious spirit. This would appear to be a cross cultural phenomenon. Once activated, Still Waters can be the agents of change and the trend makers.

The sharmans and the great artistics of society emerge from the Still Waters type. These are the people that have the potential to drive society forward if they can trigger out of the down cycles they are locked into and commence their journey upwards. See more about somatic metaphors and somatic identity at www.somaticmetaphors.blogspot.com.

They have the necessary inner pain (aggression and anger) to produce the excitement and passion necessary for much artistic expression.

Cool to be Emo

In Sydney and Singapore it’s becoming more cool to be depressed.

Depression is sweeping teens and now is aspirational – for some at least. Middle class well off kids find imperfections in their lives and make a melodrama out of each episode of rejection. All this is played out to Emo music too.

Male and females are derided by many but still persist in their misery. Recognise them by their dark clothes, right sweat shirts, scarfs in summer.

Not just sensitive new age guys but a subculture that thrive on the mantra

‘no one understands’.

Emos fit perfectly into INSIDE STORY’s ‘Still Waters’ segment a segment not as much targeted by marketers but showing increasing interest more recently. We are now seeing a lot of fashion spreads in magazines like Frankie and Russh..see the May Russh fashion spread – ‘back in the USSR…go underground this summer’. Rip Curl experimented with the depressed and even played very subtly with the death wish for a while in their shop window in Sydney - though this seems to have disappeared.

The dark mood is reflected in a lot of the top designer ads for Prada and others who use the greyed out tones for their fashion shoots only highlighting the product in colour. Seemingly a smart way to maximise product impact but also a subtext which is a bulls eye to the emerging emo target. Poses are almost always reclining – metaphorically symbolic of DOWN, PASSIVE, BACK. Many of the top designers featured reclining models in their depressed states in windows in Orchard Road in April.

Youth - Day in the life

Marketers already know about the importance of online for Youth but please also take note of lifestyle focus around cinema going and coffee shops – getting your product and ‘postcards’and collateral into places like The Coffee Bean in Singapore or in any Mamak Restaurant in Malaysia is a sure shot way of reaching this audience.

In Australia individually owned coffee places are also meeting places for Youth especially females where it's a great place to spend hours together though perhaps not as big as in Asia.

It’s surprising how 20 to 24s are so similar in Singapore, Malaysia and in Australia in all sorts of ways. Here are the sorts of things we are finding about what Singaporean 20 – 24s females and males do from day to day:

 Typical to be online every night – at least one hour
 MSN Messenger chats with friends
 Also cooperate on work and research projects with others
 Minority of females play games on-line, some interest in role play games – online games very strong with males (Warcraft, DOTA)
 TV still playing a role – soaps/dramas, Singapore idol
 Action movies, Sci Fi, Scary movies, Fantasy (eg Lord of Rings)
 Still lots of single sex activity - meet girlfriends at The Coffee Bean for hours chatting/gossiping
 Niche segments into Anime – not that well liked. Stronger among males. Manga not really on radar
 Likely to still be students, lots of study – love sleep, more sleep
 Outdoors life key to Singaporean lifestyle – active: swimming, gym, wakeboarding
 Beach and sun tanning popular
 Not generally yet too concerned about weight
 Shopping for most females - on line too, now starting to buy and sell
 Mango highest profile, Zara – (younger age groups – surf brands)
 Clubbing though not for everyone
 Liquor and increasingly wine, champagne still special
 Smoking common
 Want to enjoy life and have fun while they can - before life's responsibilities kick in
 Mostly widely acceptable music - - R&B
 Music downloads huge
 Magazines –Cleo mainly, My World, Hello, Star
 Typically wear very casual clothes during day – don’t want to be overdressed.. T shirt + jeans – thongs
 T shirt with messages (slightly provocative) cool
 Graphic Tees still happening

As far as fads go....

 Vintage/retro is huge - Haji Lane in Singapore is full of retro shops - little owner operated places that have imported retro gear and that now sell to the public. Previously importing just for self and friends - these are now viable businesses at least for a while. Youth is moving away from designer labels though not abandoning them - they will where D&G bag, a LV belt and mix up with other retro stuff to create a different more individual look
 Highlights in the hair in Malaysia - probably a trend from Japan
 Gym and exercise
 Pink T-Shirts for males
 Wine consumption increasing
 Travel overseas increasing
 Blogs happening but still at fringes – like the sensational/infamous blog of Xia Xue and the anti Xia Xue blogs, podcasting and podcaste listening not really happening yet
 Body piercing (still strong), tattoos

Fads are quickly adopted ‘must have’ experiences or goods that have currency for those who adopt them. Usually has a limited lifespan a part of the appeal is its currency.

Some can be revived.

A trend is a long term change in sentiment or behaviour that has enduring impact over over several generations.

And now to leave you with a few words from Eminem.....

I'm a trend, I set one every time I'm in/ I go out and just come back full circle again/
You a fad that means you something that we already had/
But once you're gone you don't come back/
Too bad, you're off the map now radar can't even find you.

Eminem