This is a post in mourning

About two weeks ago, I wrote a long post about a beautiful and moving advertising campaign made by the French publicity agency TBWA / Map (Paris), to fight against "Pain Without Borders" ("Douleurs sans frontières"). But, because of a terrible use of an evil computer (damn it!), it was deleted... And I can tell you that instantly my pain did not have border !

However, I will do it again, and even better, because I find this advertising campaign really poignant and I want to talk about it to make people aware of this...

Since for now I don't have time, let me just show you the 3 posters that were made, and the striking video : youtube

Next coming soon, with a parallel with Alain Souchon, a French singer who got involved in this OGN with his song "la vie Théodore" ("Life Thedore"), in reference to the great ecologist and humanist... Théodore Monod (theodoremonod)...

> youtube

"Wearing fur is wearing Death"

This advertising campaign, that you can see in Paris and in most big French cities, is the new one that Brigitte bardot's foundation made to protect wild animals as well as pets. Her foundation, as associations are generally used to do about one month before Christmas, shows us a vicious campaign, almost violent, with shock images made to question people, even those who do not feel concerned by this topic.

When being fashion rhymes with death :

The aim of these ads is to make people aware of the fact that wearing fur is actually extremely cruel since, to make for example one fur coat, one need 10 seals. I let you imagine the carnage... This advertising campaign is based on the emphasis and... it works ! Don't you feel sorry for these animals killed for their fur ? What's more, it's not only cruel, the posters make the thing be sordid. According to me, this ad campaign is really striking ; you can't avoid it and walk on the street or the subway without noticing it. A huge photograph, purified, really beautiful, one animal which has just been killed, one armed person near the animal and 3 catchphrases, that is the way the poster works... Unfortunately, I can't find which publicity agency made this advertising campaign.

In addition, this advertising campaign is going to be declined on TV, on the radio, changed into postcards, and an advertising video film which lasts 12s will be made to be broadcast in 149 cinemas ! Still, for this occasion, a website was created : fondationbrigittebardot.

Christmas and Fashion :

If these ads rather show young adults wearing fur (plus an old hag...), it is not a chance. I think they are the first people to be reached by fashion but in time enough independant (contrary to adolescents) to think in a responsible way, so that they can stop buying fur clothes by themselves.

What's more, Christmas is coming soon. And Christmas makes arise christian instincts, such as empathy... Thus, we can see that people give more money to associations at this period of the year than during any other one !

In this way, at the same time, the SPA ("Société Protectrice des Animaux", ie Society For the Animal Protection) created an advertising campaign to push people to adopt an abandonned animal for Christmas. Not so stupid !...

At the moment, we can thus notice the proliferation od ads in favour of gifts to humanitarian associations... just have a look in the subway !

It remains to be decided if the economic crisis will not make people be less generous than the past years...

Sell your baby on Internet !...

This is the last lesson about how to make money on the Internet, and certainly the craziest one. Lesson Number 10 :

How a Belgian surrogate mother sold her baby to a Dutch couple :

Everything began in April 2004 when An Blomme, a young Flemish woman, makes a contact with Bart Philtjens and Geertrui Praet, a broody homosexual couple. She proposes to be a surrogate mother for them in exchange for €8 000. In June, after an artificial insemination of Bart's sperm, she is pregnant. Until the 7th month, everything is ok but suddenly, in December, the homosexual couple receives a letter saying that the surrogate mother has lost the child because of too much stress... Actually, An Blomme, who wanted to make more money, offered to sell her baby to the highest bidder ! It is another Dutch couple who "won", Wim and Nathalie Janssen, for €15 000.

When traffic of human bodies is allowed :

Later, the first couple learnt the lye and appealed to Justice who gave reason to... the highest bidder ! The Utrecht court thought that the little Donna (name given by the biological father and his partner...) needed her adoptive parents because she had only known them. Moreover, she was well-treated...

In France, to be a surrogate mother is forbidden by the law. In Belgium, it is allowed, but no law supervises this status. Nevertheless, this terrible story opened the debate...

Sell your old stuff on Internet

This is the Lesson Number 9 to make money on Internet :

Everybody has old knick-knacks at home that they have always wanted to get rid of...

Unfortunately, your wife / husband, disagrees ? Don't worry, the solution is on ebay.fr !

A pair of shoes you never wore because you hated them (but your mother / wife forced you to buy them at a time) ; an old blue bicycle (Motobécane-branded, of course...), which still works but that you don't use anymore because you got a new one for Christmas ; a pair of trousers you can't wear anymore since your childbirth (a Levi's one, too bad !...) ; rollerblades that your child don't use anymore since he got a skateboard ; a trumpet you hardly ever used since you have understood you would never be the new Chet baker... It is endless, as you can imagine !
On eBay, you can sell anything, and every object has got its buyer, somewhere... Remains for you to wait for him / her ! Fortunately, e-bay is made like the bidding. Once your object is on-line, there is a sell-by date so that you can be sure it will be sold, whatever happens.

What is crazy about e-bay is that you can really find incredible objects, like brand new things sold at very interesting prices, such as motos, clothes, vinyls, computers, books...

Write for an on-line magazine

This is the Lesson Number 8 :
This is another way to make money on the Internet. If you are keen on a particular topic, such as jazz, literature, philosophy or any other like a scientific one, you may find on-line magazines or reviews who would be ready to pay you to write an article from time to time. You are afraid not to make enough money ? Then, you can also create your own e-newspaper if you are already a journalist but displeased of your lot, either you may be underpaid, or too much controled, censored in your writings...


"Rue 89" :
In that case, I will take the example of some journalists of the French newspaper « Libération » who prefered to leave and create their own blog (or e-newspaper, if you prefer) in order to avoid any manipulation from the advertisers who more and more controle the newspapers content... It is called rue89 and was created on the 6th of May 2007. Symbolic day since it was the day of the second ballot of the French presidential elections which opposed Nicolas Sarkozy to Segolène Royal. It is an information website on which you can read debates about the news and participate to them. They created this blog because they were weary of coming out with clichés and wanted to be independant in order to have their own editorial line, without any pressure from the advertisers. In addition, this impulse was made at the beginning of the web 2.0 : the notion of participation was overwhelming and everybody was talking about it, especially in media. More and more citizens showed their will to express their opinion on any subject, and more and more collaborative platforms emerged, little by little. This motion was even more true in politics. The citizens did not want to be left out anymore.
In this way, the originality of this website lies in the way it deals with information. It is a kind of "3 voices information" : there are contributions of journalists, experts and Internet surfers.
According to Médiamétrie-NetRatrings, in September 2008 Rue 89 is placed 10th compared with the other French general information websites, if we look at the frequenting.

Create your own on-line store !

This is the lesson Number 7 :
What if you created a fashion shop on the Internet ? There are many advantages to sell clothes on the Internet. Indeed, no need to move around to your shop if it is « virtual » ! Stay at home and manage it very simply. But how, will you ask me ?

You can find a good website to host you for example (you can be part of a big website which sells other brands) and then try to find advertisers to earn money in a different way from just selling your fashion clothes. It is good to be able to rely on several sources of revenue.
However, let me tell you that generally it is easier to « open » a clothes shop on the Internet if your brand is already known thanks to a « real » store. I'll take the example of a big shop like the « Galeries Lafayette », which is a very famous French one.

The "Galeries Lafayette" opened its shopping center on Internet in April 2008 :
Recently, they decided to create their own website to sell their products on the Internet. And it works...

This is their 61st shop dedicated to clothes and accessories. It is another way to earn more money and the clients who buy on the Internet have reductions and other advantages (for example they can buy some clothes early). What's more, having such a website allows the « Galeries Lafayette » to reach other segments of potential buyers like young people who like surfing the Net or on the contrary old people who can't move around anymore ; we can also think of workers who don't have time to do shopping or, who knows, even misanthropists who prefer the calmness of their home to the agitation and the crowd of big stores...At the moment, 3 000 products are available on the website, deliverable in 48h everywhere in Europe and in 3h in Paris.
About 55 brands federated around this project, amongst them Diesel, Zadig & Voltaire, Maje, Sandro, DKNY, Antik Batik, Swarovski, Mac Laren, Hugo Boss, Paul Smith, Ralph Lauren...

American and British stores already well set up on the web :
French shops begin to understand the importance of e-commerce, including in the luxury sector. galerieslafayette.com's ambition is to earn €3,5M before the end of the year, and more than €100M by 2015. The e-store would thus become the second store of the group, after the Boulevard Haussmann's one.

Internet and my older myself

Internet is so present in everydaylife that we even don't wonder how we would do without it. Currently, I'm used to use Internet as a tool to (e-)communicate, mainly to send e-mails, to write this blog, of course, and to do researchs, for school or to go out with my friends. Indeed, it's sometimes more comfortable and quicker to look for things in the Internet rather than in books. Even if in one hand I can't help thinking it is a pity, on the other hand I would say that it is the in-thing, I guess...

Internet VS books :

(Trinity College old library, Dublin, Ireland)

Anyway, it is well-known that the Internet will never take the place of books. There is a time for everything, certainly, but different times can also « live together ». What I mean is that at the beginning of television, people wondered about its function, and thought it was redundant with cinema. But with time, people realized that both had different roles and gave different roles too to the audience ; indeed, television implies much more participation for the audience than cinema does. And, with time, television made progress and the diversity of its programmes definitely proved that it was pretty different from cinema.

The on-line library is not born yet :
What I mean by this digression is that books have a different role from the Internet. We don't use them in the same way as we use Internet and even if Internet is trying to be the place where all the knowledges are gathered, according to me we can't really say that yet. For the moment, it is quite rare to find whole books on the Internet ; you just find extracts and explanations about them...

Internet and my older myself :
Later, when I am an adult (well, according to the law, I AM a grown-up, but I don't really feel so since I'm still going to university...), I mean when I have a job, a real job, ie my first job, I think I will keep using Internet in the same way. But since I don't know what I want to do yet, I can't maintain it categorically either.
I may work at a distance, alone in my house, and be more dependant to the Internet than any other person, because I will have to send my work by e-mail, but I don't know. It's hard to say it right know, but I give you an appointment with me in about 2 years if you want !...