MTV Mobile & Nina Ricci "La Rue", Two Creative Launches Using GIFs

In the last few years, the animated image format GIF (Graphics Interchange Format in nerd terms) has found its way into mainstream publications like Buzzfeed, The Atlantic and V Magazine and more recently in launch campaigns for MTV Mobile and Nina Ricci's "La Rue" bag. These GIF campaigns raise the artistic potential of the basic animated image with more stylized photography and interactivity. There's no sign of the GIF trend slowing down, especially with mobile apps like Cinemagram--the instagram for GIFs--that makes it easy for anyone to snap a photo and turn it into a GIF to share on their social networks. 

MTV Mobile's "Gif Me More Party" Interactive Music Video 

To launch its mobile platform and app MTV Mobile, MTV created an interactive music video for Sacramento musical group Death Grip and their track "I've seen footage". Shot in the pixelated GIF style, the video has a choose-your-own-adventure aspect where you can relive an epic party through the perspective of each partygoer. The shaky video makes me a bit motion-sick, the navigation or switching of characters is a bit clunky and I'm not sure the GIF-theme is strong enough to warrant the name 'Gif Me More Party'; however, it's apparent the Paris creative agency Buzzman, which created the campaign, understood who their target audience was as the experience is fun, fresh and very "MTV". Experience the party here. 

Nina Ricci "La Rue" handbag launch with GIF Art Campaign by Jo Ratcliffe
My favorite campaigns are often the most simple, and designer Nina Ricci's GIF Art Campaign for her new handbag "La Rue" falls into this simply brilliant category. English artist Jo Ratcliffe created a set of animated GIFs showing off the chic "La Rue" purse in vibrant, whimsical GIFs that pumps youth into the Parisan brand but maintains high-fashion sophistication through styling. The best part about the website is you can retrieve the code to embed the GIFs or instantly share them on to your social networks. See all the GIFs here.

I Won't Be Watching Season 5 of Jersey Shore

Tonight was the premiere of MTV's Jersey Shore Season 5, as Snooki and crew head back to Seaside Heights to party at Karma and sell statement tees at the boardwalk, and I didn't care to watch it.

No, I am not a Jersey Shore hater and don't judge anyone who watches it. As matter of fact, I was pretty obsessed with seasons 1-3 (watched 4, not so obsessed) and even wrote a blog post defending and commending the Jersey Shore crew a year and a half ago. But since the Italy season, I started losing interest. Maybe it was because Sammie and Ronnie finally got along or there weren't enough grenades in Florence, but the show started to get repetitive and old. Team Meatballs' drunken antics were extreme but expected, you know, the Lady Gaga effect--when you consistently try to be over the top it gets tiring to watch at some point.

This combined with the fact that I recently turned a quarter century and am making changes in my life to grow up--the last thing I need is to watch a bunch of late 20 year-olds trying so hard not to. I have no doubt Season 5 will be entertaining, Deana will flash her "kuka" and Pauly D will coin some genius phrase ("Yeah Buddy!") but this is my sincerest farewell to my dearest Jersey Shore cast, it's been nice knowing ya. Stay classy Jersey Shore.

Woot Woot--Live Bloggin' the VMAs

9:01pm - Eminem is giving me the Emperor vibe from Star Wars.  He looks a bit nervous, possibly pulling a Britney "Gimme More"?

9:04pm - I'm loving Rihanna's raggedy Ann red hair

9:06pm - Lindsay's cameo... jokes about drinking wonderful, but Chelsea Handler's entrance was definitely a better start than Russell Brand's.  YAY for the 1st female VMA host in six years.

9:12pm - "BIG BLACK ELEPHANT" = Kanye... however Taylor Swift is seemingly absent from the awards or else they would have zoomed the camera on her

9:16pm - Love the Alexander McQueen ensemble Gaga is wearing, especially those crazy heels

9:24pm - AHHHHHH my 7th grade crush Johnny Knoxville looks so hot in a suit

9:28pm - BIEBER FEVERRRRRRRR (before we get into that Kim's hair reminded me that I need to get a hair cut soon), glad Justin decided to have someone around his age on stage.  LITTLE KIDS ARE SO CUTE.

9:46pm - This Nicki Minaj girl needs to stop... can't take her seriously after her awful performance in the preshow.  I wonder if Eminem really had to leave or if he just didn't want to sit next to Gaga (where his assigned seat was).

9:55pm - There's always that one performance that saves the VMAs, and Florence and the Machine was it.  Thank you England.

10:07pm - Gaga outfit #2 < McQueen

10:08pm - TAYLOR SWIFT IS HERE, now when is Kanye going to jump on stage?

10:14pm - Deadmau5 is the second redeeming factor of this VMAs

I JUST REALIZED I AM MISSING MAD MEN FOR THIS...

Lady Gaga's meat dress just stole the show... who needs Kanye.

11:10pm - Kanye, "Let's have a toast for the Douche Bags."  I take it back, Kanye always finds a way be the scene-stealing douche bag he is.

The Hills are Dead with the Sound of Fist Pumping

I will bet you a Jameson shot that tonight's premiere of Jersey Shore Season 2 had more viewers than the series finale of The Hills. Make that three shots. The Hills is officially dead, now that the Situation, Snooki and the crew is back taking over our televisions.

We love the Jersey Shore because in reality 20-somethings will act stupid, ridiculous, cheat, knock someone out, pull hair, get naked in hot tubs and miss their mommies. The JS cast is true to who they are (GTL), passionate (about partying) and when it comes down to it they are real friends that care about each other (not scripted--I'm talking about you Stacie the bartender).  Tonight's episode showed Sammi's struggle with loving her ex, JWoww and Snooki's sisterly love as they trek down to Miami, Ronnie's very single side and Angelina's attempt to fit in.

Haters can say that the JS cast don't deserve the fame and money they have received since doing the show, but the fact is they put EVERYTHING out there--balls-out, this is me, I will dance by myself if I want to, lift my shirt if I want to, punch a guy if I want to--this is pretty bold and raw stuff.  A part of JS's success is that America is tired of watching manicured, fame-hungry pseudo-celebrities with no personalities fill our screens (and get paid to do so).  Jersey Shore is messy, filthy and filled with more life (and less botox) than the entire existence of The Hills.

I am excited for this season in Miami and for Snooks to be Snooks!!

YESSSSS...Bebe tube dresses, Ed Hardy shirts, bling, hair gel & lots of black eyeliner

High School Drama, Plastic Surgery and Bad Acting, possibly the worst combination ever

Photo by MTV.com

Kelly Cutrone Does It Again

If sound bites had a mother it would be Kelly Cutrone.  After last week's 'average people' comment, Kelly leaves us with this:

"Do you know where nice people end up?

On Welfare."

Kelly Cutrone, The New & Cooler Oprah

The ONLY smart thing said tonight during MTV's back-to-back premiere of The Hills and The City was fashion publicist Kelly Cutrone's response to Whitney Port's doubts about showing at Fashion Week: "Average people love to be average because nobody bothers them.  Do you want to be average?"

Of course not.  No one wants to be average Kelly!

Cutrone started with a small role as the brutally honest boss on The Hills, and now has her own show on Bravo called Kell On Earth and a book called If You Have to Cry, Go Outside.  It may seem like she is milking her 15 minutes of fame, but I have to disagree--Kelly Cutrone is the best thing that has happened  to MTV and reality television.  She's reaching a whole other demographic that Tyra, Oprah or Ellen can't.  It's the demographic of young women (and maybe gay men) who aspire for fame and success, who want to attend the hottest clubs and wear black patent stilettos to work.

She is like a Master Jedi, always so wise and very right.  I want to see more of Kelly on The City and in the media (she's smarter than that and will probably refrain from doing more), but maybe Kelly can save our generation of fake-boob, botoxed-out, gossip-obsesessed young women.  And if not, I don't blame her for not wanting to.

Nikon has it Right On with Ashton & MTV

Nikon was the camera brand my photography teacher recommended when buying a SLR camera. This was six years ago when digital point and shoots were showing up in purses, digital SLRs were introduced and Kodak was struggling to be relevant in a world that stopped using film.

I can't even remember the last time I smiled for a camera that used film. Camera brands Canon, Fujifilm, Kodak, SONY and Nikon jumped into digital developing cameras that are slimmer, longer zoom, higher pixels, larger LCD screen, special effects... now TOUCHSCREEN!

Nikon got it right to have Ashton Kutcher, the most lovable (and pretty to look at) spokesperson on TV today, to demonstrate how to use Nikon's new Coolpix cameras. Ashton's appeal reaches young girls in their teens (the big bro fantasy), ladies like me (possible bf material) or older women on the prowl (who envy Demi). Ashton's Coolpix microsite has a feature where you can upload photos onto "Ashton's" camera. I tried it out and had to choose a category that described my photo. I chose "Kegger".

Click below to watch Ashton freak out about my photoYesterday, Nikon powered a cool photo booth at the MTV Movie Awards called Fashion 360.You can view red carpet fashions in 360, as your favorite celeb stands within a ring of Nikon digital cameras. It's very 'sports replay' like. Nice Coolpix ad placement on the MTV site Nikon, well played.

I wish it was 2000

There was something so free about the turn of century into the new millenium.  The year 2000 was much more than four numbers put together.  It was a weird transition of writing our dates with "00"s (MM/DD/00), people thought some bug called Y2K would kill all our computers but most of all... it was my most memorable year in popular culture.

I was 14, and I distinctly remember Britney's VMA "Opps I did it again" performance in her sparkly gold thong.  I remember Eminem spitting out hits left and right, like "Stan" and "My name is".  I remember when I actually followed an entire season of The Real World because the roommates actually hooked up.  MTV was KING then, and I loved all of it.

For the past five years, I've been saying that MTV has lost it.  Lost its edge, lost its coolness and lost its loyalty from people like me that loved MTV as a teen.  In the early 2000s, the VMAs were a HUGE deal, I remember looking forward to all the kick-ass performances and being excited to talk about them at school (Fred Durst and Christina Aguilera, NSYNC and Michael Jackson, Britney and a Snake)... but recently, the VMAs have been luke warm--just excessive, overly expensive stage sets and lip-synching radio hits.

BUT WAIT, before I continue to bash MTV (and its awful shows like Parental Control and Room Raiders)... lately, I've been seeing familiar signs of MTV's return to the top:

• Britney's comeback and Circus Tour
• Eminem's new music video "We made you"
• Rob Dyrdek's taking over of Johnny Knoxville's legacy with Fantasy Factory
• AND, the crack that is The Hills and The City

During my 10-hour binge on The Hills marathon last night (I was in London last fall so missed most of the season.  Who would want to miss seeing Heidi wasted!), I couldn't help but feel MTV marketing was back on track.  It made me feel all tingly inside when I was sucked into the same Hills teasers played during every commercial break.  

Finally, MTV has got me wanting MORE!

**Check out the MTV.com caption for the clip from last night's Hills episode.