Social Media Articles

I’ve thought long and hard about how to write a post about the #ashamed hashtag you’ve seen a lot of in the last week or two. In the event that you haven’t seen the discussion surrounding ashamed, let me bring you up to speed.

Earlier this year a Children’s Hospital in Georgia started a campaign revolving around childhood obesity. I’ve posted some of their videos here and here. In addition to incredibly powerful videos there are billboards that accompany them. The billboards and videos feature real life overweight children talking about the real life issues that obesity causes. The issues are social (loneliness) and physical (heart disease, diabetes and more). The videos (watch them) are presented with neither judgment nor over dramatization. The fact that these children are in physical and emotional pain is dramatic enough, nothing more is needed.

There is a campaign to have the Children’s Hospital take down these billboards, the belief is that these billboards bring shame to children who are fat. Many top bloggers are bothered by these ads. Leading the charge is Leah Segedie.

Leah Segedie, who is the brains behind Mamavation, finds these ads to be riddled with shame. Leah is undoubtedly an authority in the weight loss arena as she battled depression along with her weight and has had a wonderful lifestyle change. She lost a hundred pounds and found her voice. Leah would be the FIRST person I would talk to if I needed a lifestyle overhaul. Leah is also an incredibly compassionate and passionate woman, she is bright and articulate, she is educated and she is charismatic. You get the picture? Leah is a woman I respect, enjoy and look up to. As a rule I do not call her judgment into question.

The women behind the #ashamed movement have it wrong. I don’t believe for a single solitary second that an ad campaign will make these children feel ashamed for being overweight. I believe with all my heart that the fat that’s covering these children’s bodies might make them ashamed. It should be noted that the fat covering their bodies also makes them ill and it’s much easier to die of diabetes or heart disease than of shame. Further, these ads are empowering. In the state of Georgia 40% of the children are overweight. Georgia is at the heart of the obesity epidemic and it’s imperative that they become forerunners in the fight against obesity.

By talking about fat, rather than whispering, some of the stigma has to leave. It’s not like no one can see. I’ve gained 15 pounds in the last two years, everyone can see it. If I only talk about it while whispering in private it’s not like people won’t notice. One of the many goals of this campaign is to have parents actually acknowledge that their children are overweight. It’s not baby fat, it’s just fat.

Having too much fat on your body is a medical issue. Yes, it can become a social one, and yes, it can be emotionally crippling. Not talking about the fact that children are overweight won’t stop them from hurting. Not discussing the fact that adults are robbing children of their health when they don’t provide proper nutrition and exercise won’t make anyone thinner or healthier.

When I was a teen everyone was worried about self esteem. There was this ridiculous notion that every child should feel good about themselves. Ted Bundy had incredibly high self esteem. What was missing was giving children the opportunity to feel good about themselves by presenting them with tools to reach the goals they wanted to achieve. The whole give a man fish or teach him to fish thing. If you don’t want children to feel ashamed let’s give them a reason to feel proud, give them a goal they can reach like walking a mile or riding their bike to school for a week. Teach kids to put together a healthy lunch or how to stop eating before you’re full and then to wait twenty minutes before eating again. If you want children to feel good give them some tools, forget advocating against healthcare workers who are trying to save lives.

Some feelings will be hurt. I assure you those feelings were hurt long ago, and if it takes an ad campaign in a region where children are gifted disease by their diets then so be it. I say let’s have hurt feelings, because the folks who are going to look at these commercials and feel like they’ve been sucker punched are going to be the parents. The kids already knew how they felt, it’s not a mystery to them.

I support Strong4Life and I’m sad that we’ve reached this place. I hope that Georgia can be the canary in the coal mine for all of us and that we can all love our children enough to make changes that will keep everyone living happier, fuller lives. Every part of me believes the women behind #ashamed have their hearts in the right place. I think they just missed the point.

In the end of January I was invited to Chicago along with 40 other bloggers to attend the Kenmore Blogger Summit. Since I am a fan of all things Kenmore I decided to brave Chicago’s winter and have 24 hours in the city.

It’s not easy to get to Chicago in the middle of a snowstorm. The flight was delayed and leaving the airport was more complicated than it would have been in Los Angeles or Bali. I think maybe next year’s summit should take place in Bali.

The good news is that I got there in time to hear a presentation about Google Plus. I kept waiting to hear about features I didn’t know about and I found myself oddly delighted that I did, in fact, know what there is to know about Google+. I’m not sure why that gave me so much pleasure, but it did.

That night I had drinks with friends and pretty much passed out cold by midnight, which was only 10pm my time.

The next morning everyone was whisked off from the hotel to Kenmore Studio. Everyone but me. I was late, but to be fair I was like five minutes late… if that. So I hopped into a taxi a met them there.

While at the Kenmore studio we oohed and ahhed spontaneously as chefs gave us tricks and tips to while using Kenmore products. The blender is quick and makes a kicky smoothie. Everyone loves a green drink and wants to add kale. I am not everyone but still I love a smoothie. We played with the toasters (I own one incidentally and it’s amazing). If you don’t own a convection toaster oven your life is not complete.

I roast baby and fingerling potatoes in my convection toaster oven. I add nothing to the potatoes and toss them in my toaster oven for 15 minutes. If they’re big I might go up to about 20 or 25 minutes. That toaster oven has singlehandedly added potatoes to our menu.

They brought in a personal trainer to talk about how you can turn vacuuming into exercise. It was funny and Tanis definitely stole the show… I recently bought myself the Intuition vacuum and I swear by it. It’s amazing to have a canister vac if you’re on stairs and there’s a little red and green light that indicates when floors are clean or dirty. It’s just fun, and cleaning house isn’t typically what I’d describe as fun.

The stand mixer is really nice and it features a light that shines down onto your mixing bowl. Kenmore added some features to it’s washer and dryer… which I’m sure are great, but at the end of the day these washers just clean the clothes and clean them well.

What was amazing and had everyone gasping for breath was the new refrigerator. I can’t do it justice, so if you’re looking for a new refrigerator or if you just want to see what you won’t be getting because you don’t need a new refrigerator here’s a quick video.

We also had a slow cooker challenge which my group did NOT win… and I tasted our stew and it was kind of gross… Of course I had to think of my friend Mike who is hysterically funny and swears that mothers who love their children don’t use slow cookers. I’m not sure I can agree with him… a slow cooker sure would be nice for making chili or soup if I lived somewhere cold.

The folks at Kenmore are smart about their product line. They’ve packed in technology, features and sleek design and they’re smart about social media too. Follow them on twitter at @KenmoreConnect and interact on Facebook too, the facebook page in particular shares a lot of fun stuff.

On February 7th I’ll be hosting a twitter chat to introduce y’all to LuxeYard.

LuxeYard is a flash shopping site that features stunning home furnishings at up to 70% off. Previously I wrote about LuxeYard and gave you some insight as to how they’re able to source the furnishings.

One of my favorites this week is the Ginger Red Lamp.

Save the date because on February 7 at 10 am PST (11 MT, 12 CT, 1pm ET) we will we chatting with the folks from LuxeYard about ways to make your home a sanctuary without breaking the bank. Christine Kirk will also be joining us, she brings an incredible eye for design and a fondness for everything luxe.

Participate. In addition to giving you great advice the folks at LuxeYard will also be giving two lucky participants LuxeBux. LuxeBux are credits that can be spent on anything in the LuxeYard Store. In order to be eligible to win one of the two LuxeBux prizes you must have a LuxeYard account. All it takes is an email address and a password. Set up your account now.

To win a $50 gift card to the Coffee Bean and Tea Leaf follow this link.

Be sure to follow the panelists and RSVP here with Mr Linky so that everyone can follow you back. Please leave your name and for the link make it your twitter ID. Mine would be http://twiter.com/JessicaGottlieb.  The hashtag for the event is #LuxeHome.

Panelists to follow: @LuxeYard @LuxuryPRGal @Momfluential @childmode @JessicaGottlieb

I met Braden Richter for lunch in Hollywood last week. The first thing I noticed was the laptop. In addition to being one of those radtastic titanium PCs that weigh next to nothing and can be tossed safely from an airplane, his screensaver was a picture of his son playing football that could have been a poster for Friday Night Lights.

Braden is a Los Angeles based furniture entrepreneur. As he detailed his career path for me I was slackjawed. He humbly talks about going from UCLA to making “some stuff” for someone he knew… which of course became Shabby Chic. Braden quickly left school and started a furniture manufacturing company to support Shabby Chic (literally… I think he made the stuff under under the slip covers). From there they expanded, and then they expanded again, producing furniture for every major retailer I’d pinned, googled or ogled.

Braden’s obvious talents are threefold. He knows everyone. He produces quality. He can forecast business trends.

Flash sales are awesome. I love them so much that I have a portal that brings all the flash sales to your inbox. What’s been missing has been a curated flash sale.

Enter LuxeYard. The sales are “flash” but they aren’t flash in the pan. The home furnishings are exquisite and almost without exception they are from the US. Basically you are buying from the manufacturer and skipping the retail markup.

LuxeYard is changing the landscape of flash sales in one incredible way, concierge. Let’s say I’m walking through the mall and I see the side table I must have but it’s the wrong size/price/color/finish, I snap a picture of it with my phone and upload it to the site and explain what it is about it that I need. LuxeYard’s concierge then goes about the business of sourcing that item from their vast network of furniture manufacturers and offering it to you at a wholesale price. Now, if you share that with your friends the price can go down.

LuxeYard members have the ability to push product prices down for
featured Group Buy items. Members leverage social media and social networks
to encourage others to purchase a product, which in turn drives the price down.
For example, members may purchase an item for $100; share the information on
Facebook encouraging others to buy the same product; and two days later find out
that customer demand, which they helped drive, dropped the price to $50. Everyone
who purchased the Group Buy Item will pay the final lowest price.

This week there’s a group buy for a 16 bottle wine cooler by Kalorik. It’s already below $200. I’m anxious to see how low these things can go.

There’s also a room planner which will allow you to enter images and dimensions of your room… this would have saved me about 80 bazillion returns over the years.

LuxeYard also features trendsetters. This week Nicky Hilton will share some of her favorites. Past trendsetters include Jonathan Shokrian, Amanada Rosbrook, Forbes Riley, Faye Resnick, Bobby Berk, and Daniella Clarke. If you check out the LuxeLife it’s like Pinterest went Luxe.

I’m excited about LuxeLife. I look at Braden Richter and I see a man who has a deep understanding of the furniture business and an uncanny ability to to predict it’s trends. Social shopping has always existed. I’ve shopped with friends since my adolescence, now all these years later Group Buys offer us the chance to shop with our friends and be rewarded for it. I have a feeling that I’ll be sharing group buys here. Maybe y’all can help me make this home office into a space I can enjoy a little.

Lindsay has a fabulous post about Colourlovers and why she is boycotting them. To be perfectly fair I’ve only heard of Colourlovers in passing so if I joined a boycott that would be like me boycotting a prostate exam.

Earlier today the Creative director at Colourlovers tweeted the following:

The issue isn’t that some random guy tried to punish women who might already be close to jumping off a cliff. The issue is that this incredibly provocative post came from the creative director of a rather large website.

The whole story is over at Linday’s blog and it’s a good read.

The takeaway here is multilayered. Colourlovers has had Mr. Moynihan remove their @COLOURlovers from his twitter bio (which might have been a good preemptive move) but will it be too late?

I understand that Shaun Moynihan feels strongly about Jesus and the afterlife. What he might not understand is that many of us feel very strongly about this life. Not everyone is Xtian… in fact a shocking number of us still “need saving” and the Rabbis always put the mother before the fetus. All of this is absolutely besides the point but I did want to mention to the folks at ColourLovers that some folks are tired of evangelists.

Tell me what ColourLovers has to do with my uterus? Explain to me, someone make it clear to me why work and pregnancy are intertwined. Part of me feels badly for Shaun Moynihan because maybe he didn’t understand that his twitter stream is public, but most of me feels badly for the women who loved using ColourLovers and now feel like it’s a place that hates women.

I love that @bubs responded like this.

But I want to know from you. Is this too little too late? Will other brands pay attention to this when they create guidelines for social media usage? Is the design community going to let this pass?

My stepbrother texted me last night to let me know that he’d sent Alexander a text saying “keep it clean”. I was out buying the perfect silk blouse so I couldn’t exactly be bothered with parenting at the time.

When I got home I asked Alexander for his cell phone. He looked sheepish handing it to me and we went through the text messages together. Most of the text messages were fine, funny even. There were links to chicken butt pictures.

And then there was a note to his cousin saying, “This is you”. Along with this picture.

There was also a WTF. Potty mouth… I wonder where my child would pick that up?

I sat down with my boy to talk to him about media use. I reminded him that Daddy and I would always be checking his texts, computer and emails. I told him that anything you write is public and you should want it so that even your mom could read it. Blah blah blah it was the same talk I’ve been giving Jane for years. Even I was bored listening to me.

I asked Alexander if he knew what WTF meant. He nodded his head and looked embarrassed. I told him that I knew it was funny and that it was a word I’d like him to not use but that I know everyone slips up. I also told him to NEVER write it so that people wouldn’t think he was a bad kid.

Take my advice, son, I won’t be needing it.

Then I asked him about the picture. Why would you send that to your cousin?

“Because it’s an ugly guy.” He said.

Is there anything else about it that’s bad? I asked him this in a thousand different ways. Finally I pointed to the chin. Is there anything about his chin that is bad?

“It’s long.” He said, and looked genuinely curious.

I didn’t punish him. I’m out of the business of punishment, being embarrassed with your mom is lesson enough.

Later in the evening I showed Mr G the image. “He sent this to his cousin.” I said. Mr G shrugged nonchalantly.

Apparently I’m the only one in the house able to identify a scrotum.