The Image Age is Reemerging

A teenager in the UK has written a report that nicely encapsulates trends that are emerging from todays teenagers. This demographic is probably one of the most important today as prominent consumers, with high levels of disposable income. They do have very strong preferences though, and because they have been immersed in consumer culture from birth, they are incredibly sensitive to marketing strategies and advertising.
New methods of growing popularity are being demonstrated by this group, as they readily embrace 2.0 technology, especially social networking tools, such as Facebook. To me, 2.0 appears to signal a reemergence of pre-patriarchal society communication, where image is used prominently to convey information quickly to groups of people, rather than words, which limit communication to groups that have a certain level of education (which may also mean they are of a certain economic strata), and are part of a tribe that uses a particular language (like English, or Mandarin). In short, words are high-functioning elitism while image tends to be universally accepted.

Chocolate or...

I havent decided if this is creepy yet : Billboards that can tell what you crave
This goes in the same category as ads in my email inbox that use text keywords to tailor the ads. Also Facebook. Maybe its being an '80s baby but i quickly gained immunity to them, much the same way that I rarely notice commercials on television. I'm sure these are great for marketing products with specific audiences in mind, but where's the line between filling the market and edging into our private selves?

via Popgadget