Facebook Live Gone Wrong

Steve Stephens, or the Facebook Shooter, has been a hot topic of discussion- but for horrible reasons. Steve, 37, is accused of killing a pensioner on Sunday afternoon and posting the gruesome video on Facebook. In the video, the suspect bragged of killing multiple other victims, however police have not linked him to any other crimes.

It is perceived that a break up and coupled with heavy losses in gambling is what sparked Stephens' rage. Stephens had no criminal record and was heavily involved with working with youth throughout his life. There was a three day manhunt after the crime was committed that spanned across the country.

Facebook released a statement, saying that they never intend for Facebook Live to be used for inappropriate purposes, and that they tried to respond to the incident as soon as they were made aware of it. They released an exact time line of when reports starting coming in and when the videos were finally removed, but stated that they could always do better.

Facebook Live has seen some controversy lately, as there has been multiple high profile cases that were originally broadcasted live. In January, three men were arrested in Sweden on suspicion of raping a woman and broadcasting it on Facebook. Terrorists, political protesters, and other criminals seeking attention have long carried out public crimes to further their agenda. Facebook live has provided another medium to do so.

After the 3 day man hunt, police were able to locate Stephens location. After a short pursuit, Stephens committed suicide. Some of my peers have seen the video and warned me not to look at it. Even though Facebook has removed the video, it still circulates online.

United Airlines PR Nightmare

This photo, as well as countless other ones and videos, have been taking the internet by a storm. United Airlines forcibly removed a passenger from a flight from Chicago to Louisville after he refused to get off when he was randomly selected to disembark. He was dragged down the aisle by his arms with the rest of his body dragging on the ground.

United Airlines supposedly had to fly 4 crew members to Louisville after their original flight was canceled. They wanted to ensure that these crew members were to get to their destination so that another flight would not have to be canceled. While waiting in line to board the plane, passengers were offered $400 to voluntarily take the next flight. However, with the next flight being the following day, no one volunteered. Once passengers were seated, they then offered $800 and a free night in a hotel. This tempted 2 passengers to leave, however another pair of passengers were randomly selected by a computer.

These unlucky flyers were asked to gather their things and disembark the plane. However, one man refused, claiming to be a doctor who needed to get home to see patients. The airline called for security backup, who forcibly dragged him out of his seat and off the plane- distressing not only the man but of all those on the plane. There were reports of the man being knocked unconscious and bloodied by the amount of force used.

United Airlines later released this statement about the incident (after the video of said incident had millions of views):

Flight 3411 from Chicago to Louisville was overbooked. After our team looked for volunteers, one customer refused to leave the aircraft voluntarily and law enforcement was asked to come to the gate. We apologize for the overbook situation. Further details on the removed customer should be directed to authorities.

People were outraged by United Airlines statement, only apologizing for the overbooking and not for the mishandling of the passenger.  While the true accounts of the day have changed from different sources, it is true that the man refused to get off the plane and that he was dragged out. CNN stated that the United Airlines stock lost $600 million in todays stock market exchange.

Social media is what ultimately took United Airlines down. When 2 passengers took videos and posted it online, it immediately went viral, drawing copious amounts of unwanted attention to the airline.

Cue Tears for this Commercial

A girl. A guy. And a stick of gum. See their love story unwrap.

But I can't help falling in love with this commercial. Extra Chewing Gum showed off one of the year's sweetest love stories- in the form of a commercial. Wrigley's Extra Gum released this follow up to the popular "Origami" ad. The story follows Sarah and Juan through their epic romance of high school, college life, adulthood, distance, and fights.

The wrappers are cleverly included in the the storyline (not as seamlessly as the Origami ad, but still bravo). Each time Sarah gives Juan a stick a gum (or vice versa), Juan draws on the wrapper. It all comes together at the end when there is a gallery of the wrappers leading to his proposal. CUE TEARS. This video has 20,605,271 views on Youtube. 20 MILLION. You go glen coco. The tag line is #GiveExtragetextra.

Not to mention the song. The song debuted at number 48 on Billboard's Digital Song chart and that was even before the commercial aired on television. Twitter blew up with tweets stating that they were watching the commercial on repeat, or laughing about how they are crying over a gum commercial. One user said "I just bought 50,000 packets; this s*** better work." I cried over a gum commercial too, it has just really stuck to me. BuzzFeed further pushed the marketing with the article titled "This Gum Commercial Is Making Everyone Weep". Yes, yes it is BuzzFeed.

Wrigley's Extra Gum has once again managed to turn a gum wrapper into a sentimental souvenir. Before we know it, we will be valuing all of our trash.

Location Location Location

I am currently on the hunt for an apartment for my move into the real world in the beginning of May. While searching for apartments, I realize 1 thing: I am really poor. I currently live in a 5 bedroom house that is almost brand new and pretty large and I am paying $450 in rent in Athens. I am moving to Atlanta, cutting my space in half, and AT LEAST doubling my rent. Not fun.

Apartment.com is an amazing source for my hunt, however looking at a map of how much more poor you are going to get is tiring me out. So I turned to Instagram. Instagram pages for apartment complexes are very helpful and gives me a more realistic view of the apartments (rather than the professional pictures that are provided). They also feature events that take place at the apartments which is very helpful.

Social media can be very useful for property managers of apartment complexes. On Twitter, property managers can share information about events, reply to client questions, RT apartment related articles and follow interior design pages. Facebook is all about engaging followers by liking comments and responding to issues presented. It is easy to invite followers on Facebook. Instagram allows to take original photos and engage other people's photos and follow local businesses. More apartment complex managers need to be utilizing their social media to create a presence. They should also lower their prices so I can afford to put food in the brand new stainless steel refrigerator.

Victoria's Secret's Potential Downfall

We are all still reeling from the loss of the Victoria's Secret bathing suit line. If you are anything like me, you are frantically looking for bikinis that don't cost a kidney and aren't going to fall apart the second they hit the water. We may end up missing all of Victoria's Secret products in the future if they continue to ignore the shift in the lingerie and modeling industry. 

Victoria's Secret is well known to have the hottest models (do more guys watch the VS fashion show than girls? probably). Entering the store, you see pictures of these models plastered all over the walls doing some scary back arch in sexay lingerie. My first thought- that girl needs a hamburger. My second thought- I probably should stop eating hamburgers (and french fries). Tall, stick thin models have always been the face of Victoria's Secret. However, recent industries have been turning to more realistic looking models to promote self acceptance and natural beauty, and consumers are loving it. 

DISCLAIMER: I am in no way body shaming the VS models. If they can look like that and they feel good well then hell yeah girlfriend you do you. The problem is that there are very few people who look like that- or even have the potential to look like that. We can't make looking like this the standard for looking sexy. 

Adore Me, a lingerie company that has set its eyes on shutting down Victoria's Secret, has hired Aerie's popular spokesmodel Iskra Lawrence (pictured above) who is curvier than the typical model. Lawrence and Tweed-Simmons were two of Adore Me's best-selling models on the company website in July 2016. Guess what- both plus sized models- SLAY GIRLS SLAY.

American Eagle's lingerie line, Aerie, pioneered this movement with the honest #AerieREAL. About 3 years ago, Aerie vowed to make a change and no longer retouch their images or exclusively seek out supermodels. "We want every girl to feel good about who they are and what they look like, inside and out". YASSSSSS AERIE YASSS. In the most recent quarter, Aerie's sales soared 32%. Sales have constantly risen since the start of this campaign. A simple glance at Aerie's Instagram page shows that they are holding true to their statement, with curvy girls, skinny girls, short girls, you name it.

For spring 2017, runways are planning on showcasing the most diverse group of models in history. Race, plus-sized, aged, and transgender models hit the runway more than ever this year. Why? This is what the industry is demanding. Victoria's Secret has made no indication that they are moving towards the movement.

In 2014, VS came under scrutiny for it's "Perfect Body" campaign. While the intention was to promote the Body by Victoria Secret line, it sparked outrage on Twitter with the birth of #iamperfect. Not a good look VS. It doesn't help that VS doesn't sell a plus size line and only goes up to a certain size in stores. Make moves VS. 

Wendy's Getting Saucy

As many of you may have heard, Wendy's Twitter account has earned a lot of attention through some unconventional tweets. While this story has picked up a lot of traction here and there, here is a rundown of exactly what went down.

On January 2nd, 2017, an articulate user named Thuggy D lashed out to a tweet that Wendy's had put out about their "fresh, never frozen beef" (a popular slogan of Wendy's).

Wendy's had a pretty typical response. This is where Thuggy- D made the tragic mistake of setting himself up for a roasting. 

Yikes. Wendy's had tried to reason with the confrontational Thuggy-D. But they had about had it.



DOUBLE YIKES. Do you need a frosty for that burn? The roasting continues, look if you dare.



And that was the last time anyone had heard from Thuggy-D. This exchange caused a Twitter uproar. People started tweeting at Wendy's, provoking the fast-food chain. Wendy's never disappointed.




(I loled at that one) According to the Twitter following tool TwitterCounter, Wendy's picked up around 350,000 new followers since the ordeal.














Even Anderson Cooper wanted to get in on the action and reenacted the scene. All was fun and games until January 4th when Wendy's tweeted a controversial tweet featuring Pepe the Frog. The meme is considered by the Anti-Defamation League to be a hate symbol (although that was not the purpose of the cartoonist who drew the creepy frog. Unsure of what his intentions were... TBD) The tweet was soon deleted by the account, but naturally it's all over the internet.

The Daily Dot reached out to Amy Brown, the mastermind behind the Twitter roast (please be my best friend). Brown had said that she had no intention of going viral and that conversations like this actually happen all the time. Everyone inside the company is thrilled. Brown even stated that Thuggy-D is far from the first person to ask how the beef stays cold if it's not frozen (oh boy...).

I personally do not have a Twitter, but I would make one just to follow Wendy's sassy twitter account. The roast tweets were even the subject of an episode from Fine Brothers Entertainment on Youtube which snagged 3.5 million views in less than a week.

Mad props Wendy's. Mad props.

P.S. Thuggy-D was actually heard from again. While he may have forgotten what a fridge was, he gets an A+ in sportmanship.

"OMG How Is Trump President" Shock Syndrome (OMGHITPSS)

I am not interested in discussing politics because everyone has their own view and that is that. I am also not going to state my own political opinion. Between the multiple high quality candidates for presidency (Clinton, Trump, and Harambe), many become confused as to how a TV celebrity became the leader of our nation. There is a simple answer to this outcry of panic: social media.

Trump did not win presidency solely because of social media presence, but it was a defining factor in the election. Why did a notable amount of people get out of bed on election morning, drive to their polling location, and wait in line to vote in order to vote for a dead gorilla. Social media. Or because they thought that a dead gorilla could run the country better than the other two candidates, but probably because of Harambe's strong social media presence.

Here are some notable numbers via Forbes in the Trump Vs. Clinton in the social media realm:

• Trump has over 10.7 million followers and has sent out over 32,000 tweets (25% more followers than Hillary and more than four times her number of tweets)
• Google trends analysis shows that online interest on candidate Trump was three times higher than Clinton.
• Clinton has received 5.4 million total page likes. Trump has received 10.2 million likes

It is clear that Trump holds a much stronger social media presence than Clinton. While traditionalists will be looking for where Clinton went wrong in missing tours or advertisements or debate answers, they might overlook social media. 

Commercial Aired in 2011 Still Gets Me

For starters, if you haven't seen the 2011 commercial for BBC One (you probably haven't), you have to watch it right this very second. Put some headphones in and prepare your feels because this one makes me feel tingly all over the place.

If the video did not give you at least a chill, please exit my blog page and consult a doctor immediately. I came across this commercial while scrolling through my Facebook feed in 2013. The main reason I scroll through my FB feed is to find cute videos of animals (doesn't everyone) so this seemed right up my alley. Out of the 4.3 million views, I have probably attributed at least a million between watching it over and over again and then forcing my friends to watch it.

The simplicity of David Attenborough's voice aligned with the subtle noises of nature could calm a hungry, sleep deprived baby. To be perfectly honest, I watch it to calm myself when I am hungry and sleep deprived. I think that this was phenomenal marketing for BBC who took advantage of social media to spread their campaign.

I was diagnosed with a panic disorder in 2012 and I utilize this video to calm me down pretty frequently. I actually started watching Planet Earth when I start to feel panicked because this video does such a great job of calming me down and realize that the world is so big. So after seeing this ad over 3 years ago, I watch and share this video very regularly. BBC achieved their marketing tactics with me.