Night has fallen. The radio is on. We are finishing off my last ever issue as Orbital Editor. And I have yet to write the ‘Editor’s Letter’. This should be a time of overbearing emotion! Sadness that my term in office has ended and yet happy that I might be able to regain some of the many hours of sleep lost, without regret, on this dear publication.
My head is literally bursting with things that I want to say to the students of Royal Holloway as I bid you all a fond farewell! But do any of them warrant time spent writing them? Probably not. “Write something controversial, something that you are passionate about!” one commentator said. What kind of a tall order is that?
The pressure is ridiculous! My pride and ego obviously need to be satiated and yet at the same time I do not want to go out without saying something incredibly profound about some social issue or other. And the worst thing about all of this? As the print deadline edges ever closer I am struck with the worst thing imaginable: writer’s block.
“Snap out of it”, I tell myself “you can spew out enough crap when you want to normally, do the same now!” But that just makes it worse! What causes writer’s block? Can it be cured? Does alcohol help? All these things are running through my mind as I write this. Furiously hoping that I succeed in meeting my own word limit in doing so. I could rant on forever about the positive aspects of abortion; the negative qualities of feminism; the destructive nature of modern schooling or the merits of euthanasia – but none of these stock arguments somehow seem appropriate for my final Editor’s Letter.
So I am stuck in limbo. Cheesy music playing in the background. With absolutely nothing productive to say. What cruel god gives someone the power to communicate to a large audience and then takes away aforementioned gift when they need it the most?
And on that philosophical note, enjoy my final issue as Editor of The Orbital! The next one will not be out until after the Easter break when Mr Jack Ratcliffe will be taking over with the aide of Ms. Beth Rowley. Oh the things we have planned for you! Keep your eyes peeled, keep writing in, and always remember that this is your student magazine and it cannot hope to exist without your involvement.
And Thank you.
Mario Creatura
Editor, The Orbital. 2007-2008
Thursday, 13 March 2008
Wednesday, 5 March 2008
Red Ken does it Again...
Government adverts always seem to miss something don’t they? It is all well and good attempting to display a series of images with the intention of emitting an emotional response or to provoke a discussion or debate about some public issue of morality. But are they effective?
Whilst sitting in our local cinema, happily chatting away, the most recent advert from good ole Ken Livingstone and the department for London transport dissolved onto the screen. You may have seen it – the screen split into four, and a series of overlapping events that take place on a commuter-filled bus. It focuses on barraging the audience with 4 distinct messages: ‘I won’t play my music out loud’, ‘I won’t drop litter’, ‘I will offer my seat’ & ‘I won’t talk loudly on my mobile’. However it is done with a distinct lack of realism, and therein lies the problem. When the top deck is packed with a group of aggressive black youths (complete with hoodies, David), all sandwiched around one little, trembling old white lady one has to ask if there are any stereotypes at play here. When one overly assertive chavtastic teenager attempts to pacify not only the loud and love sick businessman but also sternly reprimands the littering take-away consumer, I can’t help but wonder whether the people who made this advert have ever been on public transport?
Now, you may say that I am a cynic, that I demand too much from a 180 second advert from the guys that are supposedly running our city. “They can only do so much good!” I hear you cry! Bollocks. Why cram that many messages into one advert? With the average televisual attention span proven to last no more than 45 seconds, who do the government think that they are attempting to wrestle our attention from us for that length of time with an advert as monotonous as this?
But it is the same with all government led advertising campaigns – the one with the little girl that gets hit by a car; or the drunken superhero that falls off the scaffolding. These are all so shocking when we first see them, but after the thousandth trip to the movies or the millionth channel flick, we get bored. The desensitisation of the masses to meaningful and important public messages is the one thing that kills government led morality.
Go ahead and make these messages. But 3 minutes long? Running for nearly 6 months? If you want a message to stick in the consciousness then keep it short and keep it sweet. That will get people talking. And that will restore faith in government.
Check out the vid using this link: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/corporate/projectsandschemes/communityandeducation/asb/default.aspx
Whilst sitting in our local cinema, happily chatting away, the most recent advert from good ole Ken Livingstone and the department for London transport dissolved onto the screen. You may have seen it – the screen split into four, and a series of overlapping events that take place on a commuter-filled bus. It focuses on barraging the audience with 4 distinct messages: ‘I won’t play my music out loud’, ‘I won’t drop litter’, ‘I will offer my seat’ & ‘I won’t talk loudly on my mobile’. However it is done with a distinct lack of realism, and therein lies the problem. When the top deck is packed with a group of aggressive black youths (complete with hoodies, David), all sandwiched around one little, trembling old white lady one has to ask if there are any stereotypes at play here. When one overly assertive chavtastic teenager attempts to pacify not only the loud and love sick businessman but also sternly reprimands the littering take-away consumer, I can’t help but wonder whether the people who made this advert have ever been on public transport?
Now, you may say that I am a cynic, that I demand too much from a 180 second advert from the guys that are supposedly running our city. “They can only do so much good!” I hear you cry! Bollocks. Why cram that many messages into one advert? With the average televisual attention span proven to last no more than 45 seconds, who do the government think that they are attempting to wrestle our attention from us for that length of time with an advert as monotonous as this?
But it is the same with all government led advertising campaigns – the one with the little girl that gets hit by a car; or the drunken superhero that falls off the scaffolding. These are all so shocking when we first see them, but after the thousandth trip to the movies or the millionth channel flick, we get bored. The desensitisation of the masses to meaningful and important public messages is the one thing that kills government led morality.
Go ahead and make these messages. But 3 minutes long? Running for nearly 6 months? If you want a message to stick in the consciousness then keep it short and keep it sweet. That will get people talking. And that will restore faith in government.
Check out the vid using this link: http://www.tfl.gov.uk/tfl/corporate/projectsandschemes/communityandeducation/asb/default.aspx
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