This past week I started a new project: Lost Backwards. The project is an attempt to explore story consumption in a new way. Basically what's going to happen is I will watch Lost from the last episode to the first in reverse order and blog about it as I go. Learn more and follow the project at http://lost.dieselation.com.

Growing up as a Yankee the south was a far away place where the pace of life was slower, the weather was hotter, the guns -- more liberal than people and a place where everyone praised Jesus (hallelujia). Quite frankly if it weren't for my grandfather (a card carrying member of the NRA), moderately conservative father and the non-judgmental values I was raised with I might have grown up to either dislike or be completely indifferent to the idea of the south. Instead for me...the south...the DEEP south has always had a certain mythology wrapped up in it's existence. I'm not sure why this is. It could have been reading books like Midnight in the Garden of Good and Evil by John Berendt, watching Gone with the Wind, the French classes where we learned about New Orleans, A Streetcar Named Desire, or any number of occasions I (with my limited geographical experience in America) was exposed to the plethora of stories about the American South.

As of today I still have not traveled farther south than Washington D.C. (a city I would not consider southern) in this country, and like all things which are unknown the south remains a mysterious place for me. I, of course, sometimes choose to feed my curiosity with television. I started watching True Blood when the pilot first aired, knowing it took place in Louisiana and when the pilot for FX's series Justified (a show about a US Marshall in Kentucky) aired I watched that too.

The first thing anyone sees when they watch a TV show is the opening title sequence, these sequences set the tone for the show -- it's an opportunity to set expectations in the minds of the audience. Having now watched opening sequences for both Justified and True Blood...I am lead to believe that the south either has a certain aesthetic. An aesthetic which storytellers and designers are possibly intent to maintain.

True Blood

CREATED BY: Digital Kitchen

Justified

CREATED BY: Elastic

The Similarities

The similarities between these two titles are both obvious and extreme...both are beautiful pieces employing rustic type, high contrast, colorful, mildly polaroid-esque photograpy coupled with some jerky cuts.

Justified stills on left, True Blood stills on the right:

Why True Blood Does it Better...

As far as aesthetic quality goes, for me both title sequences are beautiful. The typography is thoughtful, the imagery is well executed, and the editing/pacing of these pieces seems to work nicely with well chosen music. While I have a preference for the visuals used in the True Blood sequence as I think the attention to detail in that sequence is better -- from a purely technical standpoint for me they stand on fairly equal ground.

Where the True Blood sequence really leaps in front of the Justified sequence is on a thematic and story-telling level. While the Justified sequence alludes to the idea that the show will be about a cowboy in a small town who works to fight crime the story told and mood created does not even come close to approaching the depth of the True Blood sequence.

The True Blood sequence can essentially serve as an establishing shot for each episode. It establishes not only the setting of the show (a fictional town in Louisiana called Bon Temps¹ ) but also the themes and moods worked into each episode. Digital Kitchen did this by drawing on the issues and dichotomies upon which the show is built. Pulling from these dichotomies allows the sequence thematic contrast and tension (ex: life/death, carnality/piety, light/dark, day/night, intimate/public) which, served up with some gorgeous visuals, smart motion and well chosen music creates one seriously kick ass title sequence.

The Origin?

The True Blood sequence was created a full 2 years before the Justified sequence. This simple fact leads me to believe that Elastic was likely inspired by Digital Kitchen's work on True Blood. I'm not sure I would call the sequence a rip off as some have suggested. Good work always inspires derivatives, this is a simple fact of life in the advertising and design community. We can't all be original all the time and at the end of the day...original ideas and executions are rare. There's always some sort of origin or source of inspiration even if it's subliminal.²

Of course Digital Kitchen had to gain their inspiration from somewhere right? They did. In fact the first nine seconds of the sequence are seemingly based directly on a movie called Searching for a Wrong-Eyed Jesus. Digital Kitchen talks in their case study for the sequence about the effect the film had on their creative process.

We also give big thanks to the wonderful film Searching for a Wrong-Eyed Jesus. It gave us the courage to dig deeper into the swamps and back alleys where the real color can be found.³

Searching for a Wrong-Eyed Jesus stills on left, True Blood stills on the right:

Moral of the Story?

Great works inspire good work. The question is....do you want to be good (inspired by the derivative) or great (inspired by the origin)?

I recently went with a couple of friends to the Skin Fruit exhibition at the New Museum. I walked in with no expectations, just excited to see something new. The exhibit, which was a selection of art from Dakis Joanno's collection curated by Jeff Koons, reminded me why seeing is not enough, sometimes we all need to look closer. For me the act of viewing this exhibit was a practice in re-evaluation.

For some reason while viewing this exhibit the experience of looking seemed much more intense. Not all of the art was beautiful, some of it was outright grotesque. It all had a certain undeniably human, mortal, fleeting quality to it. The sort of quality that gets under your skin...and perhaps that is the point.

The exhibit title "Skin Fruit" is interesting. On the outside there is the skin, possibly tough, possibly rough protecting the sweet fruit inside. And with the pieces in the exhibit, you are skinning the fruit with your eyes. Each additional second spent looking reveals more  to you, until you finally reach something sweeter...a conclusion, realization or fresh perspective you didn't have before.

My favorite piece in the exhibit was All by Maurizio Cattelan. The work was sectioned off in it's own room; the room itself and the room before it had the lights lowered slightly -- compared to the stark white and bright rooms of the rest of the museum this really shifted the atmosphere. From a distance you see nine body bags lying in a row in the next room. At first you're apprehensive: death, decay, the reminder of your own mortality float to the top of your mind. At this point my friends were ready to turn around having seen enough to be satisfied. If it weren't for my natural inclination to question EVERYTHING I likely would have too, instead I moved closer.

Maurizio Cattelan, All, 2007. White Carrara marble, 9 parts each: 11 7/8 x 39 3/8 x 78 3/4 in. Overall: 11 7/8 x 78 3/4 x 339 1/2 in.

I see some very slight gray markings on the bags, at first I think it's dust -- these are white body bags on a floor after all. I bend closer: it's marble. All at once I get it. This is not just about death, it's about what death brings or more importantly what you do in life. The form:body bags a reminder of our body's mortality. The material: marble a reminder of our life's actions and the potential immortality of our legacy. More importantly it seems to make one question what a country's actions will allow the legacy of those who die for it to be. In that moment, a work which was possibly grotesque, definitely morbid becomes something so beautiful to me. Not only because the craftsmanship is absolutely stunning but because of the gorgeous layered idea behind it. For me the work went from banal to profound in less than a second.

Our lives are so hurried. It's so easy to be content with assumptions and first impressions. I feel like it's easy for us to let ourselves off the hook for not understanding or knowing something when all we really need to do is embrace our inner curiosity. We don't give ourselves enough time to allow ourselves the luxury of being surprised. This exhibit reminded me of that. Despite the extremely adult nature of the show, I felt like a child wandering through the unexplored -- constantly curious, constantly questioning. At the end I walked away feeling refreshed and totally inspired. The simple act of looking closer allowed me the privilege of knowing more. It was wonderful and I loved it.

I should also say that I really loved the curation of the exhibit, Jeff Koons really did a great job. If you haven't seen the Skin Fruit exhibit it will be up until June 6, 2010 - take the time to go check it out.

Periods are a fact of life for women, and as a woman I have come to embrace mine. Like the seasons it tells me where I'm at, a benchmark letting me know everything is working the way it should for a healthy 24-year-old woman. I hate the fact that I need to keep my period to myself, I don't want to scream it to the rooftops but I wish it was less taboo. I hate feeling like need to sneak to the bathroom with my purse when I need to change my tampon or open my Midol bottle in my purse to disguise what I'm taking; it's bullshit and borderline oppressive (which is why I do a pretty half-assed job sneaking to the bathroom or opening the Midol bottle).

Anyway you frame it, women are always made to feel as though they must suppress the more human parts of themselves (we don't fart, we don't burp, we cover imperfections with make-up, holster our breasts lifting them to societies standards and we certainly don't bleed). Don't get me wrong, I LOVE being a woman but sometimes this box of lady-like-ness is exhausting. Kotex and the folks over at JWT must have felt the same way, because the new campaign for U by Kotex taps into this sentiment.

The Myth

Most ads for menstruation products are actually pretty effective. They show an active, happy woman in a white outfit, they allude that she has her period and uses pastel colored products covered in flowers during her period selling us(women) an idea¹ . We buy the idea that we too could be that happy and unafraid of wearing white during our periods. Because we buy the idea we buy the product. Unfortunately by the time our period is over with we realize that idea we bought, is nothing close to our reality -- no amount of feminine hygiene products can make us stop bleeding 4 days out of every month.

Our Reality

We can't change the fact that we get our periods, but we can change our attitudes towards it. With a target audience of 18 to 21-year-old women² the U by Kotex campaign slogan "break the cycle" is not only a great pun, it speaks to a much larger issues in our culture including womens' lack of education about menstruation, society's fear of menstruation, and apprehension to talk about womens' issues as a whole. While the print and broadcast ads focus on luring young women in with witty, sarcastic and satirical commentary about menstruation products, the aim of the website is to educate these women about their periods.

Breaking the Cycle

What U by Kotex does really well is establish a distinct difference between myth and reality. Both the Reality Check and the So Obnoxious broadcast ads (seen above) paint all other menstruation product ads as dispensers of unrealistic ideas about what menstruation is (or rather what it could be if you used their product). Enter U by Kotex. Kotex acknowledges the myth we all bought into then invites us to rethink our relationship with our feminine hygiene products.

Next Kotex takes charge re-educating us with their U by Kotex website takes charge. This is a website built on facts. The homepage carousel cycles through facts about periods such as:

• "79% of girls don't see what dancing in white dresses has to do with periods."
• ..."83% of girls are uncomfortable talking to their parents about periods"
• ..."85% of girls are afraid to be seen with a tampon"

Upon digging deeper on the site you'll find a page full of statistics titled "It's time to Break the Cycle" about women and their feelings/thoughts towards vaginal health and menstruation. Fueled by a survey of 1,607 North American women between the ages of 14 and 35³, these stats do two things.

Firstly, they inform. Based on these statistics I personally think our culture has a long way to go before we're at an acceptable place when it comes to understanding the vaginal health of women. I believe most women who read these stats would not be surprised at the results the survey yielded, instead I think they would be more surprised that anyone bothered to bring up the matter of vaginal health or menstruation at all.

Most women claim to be knowledgeable about vaginal health issues,
but more than 1/3 cannot dispel some basic myths.

Secondly reading statistics such as the one above levels the playing field, we can all stop pretending we have our vaginal health under control and admit the more we talk the more we'll learn.

One insight to rule them all

Anyone could have created an advertising campaign based on assumptions, in fact that is what feminine product advertisers have been doing for years. Assuming all women feel disgusted by their periods (or themselves while on their periods) and therefore wrapping products in pastel colors and flowers selling women the idea of of beauty and being carefree while enduring a monthly reminder of their womanhood.

In actuality, this assumption isn't entirely incorrect. According to Kotex's study approximately 47-67% of women say they feel dirty when they have their periods⁴. This statistic would be a great insight if it wasn't absolutely devastating that a majority of women feel dirty once a month because of something completely natural. Rather than moving forward with an insight is hinged to women feeling poorly about themselves Kotex's survey digs deeper and really gets to the heart of what is going on when it comes to vaginal health, menstruation and advertising.

Women are frustrated, but not with their periods – seven out of ten (70%) women agree
that it’s about time society changes how it talks about vaginal health issues. Women are
insulted by blue liquid advertisements and snarky jokes, and they are tired of skirting
around honest discussions regarding a natural, normal, and healthy process.⁵

Great advertising campaigns are built on insights surrounding a target demographic like the one above. Kotex did their research and delivered a campaign that answers the desires of their demographic to stop pussy-footing around vaginal health issues and get real.

Why I LOVE this campaign

When it comes down to brass tacks this campaign does the same thing all other feminine hygiene products ads do, it sells an idea. Where this campaign differs is in the type of idea that it sells. This campaign has nothing to do with feeling better while you have your period it's about feeling better about your period and your self while you have your period. It's about ending our censorship⁶ of women's health issues to obtain a greater good and the ideas put forth in this campaign move towards affecting a larger social and cultural change. In a way the idea this campaign sells is that women shouldn't need to feel embarrassed by the very things that make them women...their vaginas! I love this campaign for the same reason I love Eve Ensler: both acknowledge that having a vagina does not make you less, nor should it strip you of power, your entitlements or respect -- instead it simply makes you woman and that's a beautiful thing.