The Science of Communicating & Marketing Your Business

First off, are the photos "suggestive"? Of course they are. All pictures are suggestive. That's their purpose. A picture of a bird in flight is suggestive of, oh, I don't know. Freedom? Movement? A picture of a mountain is suggestive of...majesty? Strength?

So the question becomes "What are the photos suggestive of?"

Ah, that's a totally different question. You may have heard about this interesting technology NextStage has? It can determine how different segments of society will respond to things like images, text, videos, etc.?

Is anybody besides me not surprised that what is suggestive of one thing to one audience is suggestive of something totally different to another audience? There are audiences that will see the Miley Cyrus photos as simple innocence. Other cultures and societies find innocence highly erotic.

Extremes are wonderful things, aren't they? Especially when you appreciate that polar opposite reactions usually stem from the same places in the psyche.

But what I really want to suggest is that you forget about Miley Cyrus and the photos. I'd like Disney to forget about their cash cow possibly refusing to milk due to dry udders in consumer consciousness.

My real thinking is that Miley give half her weekly income to homeless shelters, health clinics and food depositories in each city she appears in in any given week. Or that Disney do the same. Or that parents not drive, fly or otherwise transport their children to her concerts. Not in protest over some photos, just to conserve gas.

Ms. Cyrus may already make substantial donations, I don't know. Somebody tell me if she does. Heck, if she gave a third of her weekly income to fight hunger, keep clinics open, provide shelters and the like I wouldn't care if she posed nude with sheep on the White House lawn, I'd put pointers to her in every blog post I write.

Please contact NextStage for information regarding presentations and trainings on this and other topics.

Upcoming Trainings:

• This is Your Brain on the Internet at Emetrics SF on 8 May 2008
• Know How Someone Is Thinking in 10 Seconds or Less Half-day training at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC, 13 June 08

• San Francisco Emetrics Marketing Optimzation Summit, 4-7 May 08
• International Communication Association's Communicating for Social Impact, the 58th Annual Conference of the International Communication Association at Le Centre Sheraton Hotel, Montreal, Quebec, Canada, May 22-26, 2008
• SUNY Marketing Professionals Conference at the Fashion Institute of Technology in NYC, 11-13 June 08

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