Go to hell Lady Gaga!

by Karin Baumgartner (not a Lady Gaga’s fan)

The devil

Initially planed on Sunday the 3rd of June in Jakarta (Indonesia), Lady Gaga‘s concert is canceled! Why? Because she is a satanic singer of course! See what she looks like:

Her “vulgar” style doesn’t please everyone and can almost shock other culture. The mother monster started her world  tour “Born this way Ball” on the 27th of  june in Seoul. Almost there Lady Gaga’s show was judged to pornographic. Her performances in Filipinas, in Hong-Kong and in Japan already had some religious opponents but were still maintained. That’s not the case in the Indonesian capital Jakarta, were the demonstrations were more violent.

The Indonesians’ reaction

Indonesia is known as the most populous Muslim nation. Some Indonesians, which are religious hard-liners are against the singer’s erotic aspect. They judge her clothes too sexy and her attitude too provocative. According to them, she is not a good example for the young generation. Moreover she is an activist of gay rights and that’s against their beliefs.

Already in April, some of the Conservatives Muslim groups, including the Islamic Defenders Front (FPI) demonstrate to stop the US Pop singer from setting foot on Indonesian soil. The FPI had insured to be capable of gathering ” 30.000″ demonstrators to prevent Lady Gaga ” to spread its satanic faith “. They threatened to kill her in the stadium. How? They would buy tickets to join the concert and would provoke a real “chaos”. Taking into account this threat, the Indonesian police decided on the 15th of May to ban the concert. Though, that was not excluded that the concert happen in another city.

Police after refusing a permit for Lady Gaga to perform in Jakarta, were still considering an offer from her local promoters to tone down the pop superstar’s racy show. For example, to ban fans under 18 to enter was a possibility to have more control and make the concert an adult-show.

During these negociations, on May 25, Indonesian Islamic hardliners stage a protest against US Pop diva in front of the Security Ministry. Here is a video to show the hatred and violence of some of the Islamists, demonstrating on the street:

Lady Gaga’s social media talent

Because Lady Gaga has close to 25 millions of followers on Twitter (a record for this social network) she knows she is influent. On the 26th of May, just before taking the decision to cancel the concert,  the mother monster called for peace with this tweet:

During the weekend 26-27th of May, her manager tried to find an agreement with the Indonesian authorities to maintain the concert. At the conclusion of these two days of difficult negotiations, the organizers finally decided to cancel. It was too risky for the pop star and her fans. Local promoters Big Daddy Entertainment said on its website that 100% refunds would be given to ticket holders. 52’000 persons bought their ticket within two weeks, and the concert was sold-out. When they discover the gig was canceled a lot of fans were very disappointed. There is an example of their reactions:

Not only popular on Twitter but also on Facebook, Lady Gaga is definitely the Queen of social media. She knows how to communicate with her fans. A good example for it is the amount of commentars and “I Like” Lady Gaga’s facebook profile collected after the announce of the cancelation:

For this announce, traditionnal media were late. They picked up what was going on in social media and reacted only this Monday (28 May). Even the Lady Gaga’s official website is not updated , because the show of the 3rd of June in Jakarta is maintain. That means that every fresh news come up, first of all, on the Twitter account of the Pop star.

Lady Gaga’s answer

Yesterday evening (29 May) the diva was giving a concert  in Singapore. She said that she dedicated her concert “to special little monsters” : she was mentioning her Indonesians fans. Lady Gaga called the audience to shout “You were born this way Indonesia”. Here is the video (and you can judge by yourself if she is provocative or not!):

In Lady Gaga’s show, she always call for freedom: freedom of acts, of thinking, of sexual orientation. But for some people the pop star doesn’t respect other culture, other religion:

What do you think about this commentar?

God bless the Indignant

By Violeta Ferrer

May 15th : Puerta del Sol, citoyenne door

Reminder: On May 15^th 2011, an “Indignant “Movement was born as a reaction to the European economic crisis. It’s a citizens’ movement, which aims to promote participatory democracy and a radical change of the neoliberal policies. The demonstrators are mainly young people, intellectuals and laymen who declare themselves independent of the control of political parties, unions, churches and   mass media. ”The Nonviolent Struggle in 50 points”: « La Lutte non-violente en 50 points »

A new tool of power: Their voice transcends borders. Social networks and  blogs are their faithful allies to disseminate their ideas, organize demonstrations, share opinions and increasingly recruit indignant all around the world. A new freedom of opinion has arisen. Facebook and Twitter they are more than social networks, they became a multimedia platform: Photos, articles, opinions, videos, reporting, events’ organization,etc. Tools necessary for a Multimedia movement.

From August 15 to 21: GOD BLESS THE “INDIGNANT”:

The Antipope group and the “Indignant” movement pushed by the enthusiasm, euphoria and success of the manifestations in Spain and all over the world decided to protest against a supreme untouchable mystical power: The Pope Benedict XVI.

Medias : Euronews, 17 August 2011

Twitter : The Indignant

Twitter: The WYD

Madrid hosted the Pope during the World Youth Day (WYD). The Government considered the day as an exceptional event and of public interest. On the contrary, protesters were arguing that the arrival of the Pope was a demonstration of supranational power/influence. Their unhappiness was fed by the enormous costs of the event, in a context of severe economic crisis. WYD is definitely too pompous, too expensive: For a week, between 50 and 60 million € were spent. A million of young religious people with different ideas than the “Indignant” attended the event. According to the citizen movement, the Pope’s visit should have been less luxurious and pompous:

Organizers defended themselves by proving that the budget has decreased by 20% in comparison to the budget of 2008 in Australia, and participants funded about 80%. Only the authorities and Catholic associations or private companies would finance the remaining 20%. In a time of deep crisis, the Pope’s arrival in Madrid was a major event broadcasted by media around the world.

The face to face/ confrontation:

It was lost by the “Indignant”, considered that they were only a few hundred protesters against more than 2,000 million pilgrims. Postures and religious ideas were confronted openly in the streets of the Spanish capital.  “Indignant” did not have any other choice than to give up and become “indignant” at home and on social networks as the city, previously held by them, was now the city of Jesus’ followers.

As expected the event caused several damages, some wounds and arrests. The police violence against demonstrators was highlighted on traditional media and social networks:

See you in Rio de Janeiro (Brazil) in 2013: The 2013 WYD is already mobilizing on Facebook and Twitter.

For years, religious groups have been using new technologies of communication and information to reach new generations.  The proof is on Facebook: 102’432 persons are already registered to the WYD page, at 423 days of the event.

If you are an atheist, in a minute you will be convinced to convert to the Catholic Church: watch this publicity!

WYD – Catholic youth answer to laic, atheist, against pope, protest at Madrid, Spain:

On the other hand, if you would like to understand why the capitalism is broken watch this video: “Story of stuff, Full Version; How Things Work, About Stuff”

In conclusion, by analyzing the events of August 2011 in Spain, we confirmed that the new generation, conservative or liberal, are using new technologies to claim their ideologies and postures. This is the true revolution of youth.

To be continued…

Do you agree with the “Indignant “or the Catholic youth? What is your opinion on Pope Benedict XVI?

Your opinion matters: Write it here !

Finally, Eurovision found its star

On the 26th may 2012, there was the 57th Eurovision contest. If you do not know about the Eurovision contest, the principle is simple : each European country has chosen a singer or a band to represent his nation with a song. The candidate has to face the others competitors and receives a mark from the Jury. This contest is also well known for its “ridiculous side”. Actually, we do not really know how the candidates are chosen but it seems that the particularity of the singers is : originality. For example, in 2006, the Finnish group, with its phenomenal costume, won the contest.

The edition of 2012 had also some groups quite funny. In this video, we can see a medley of top 15 ridiculous songs of the Eurovision contest 2012.

But this year something was different. The winner is a Sweden singer who made a strong impact to the jury with her song « Euphoria ». Loreen, 28 years old, won with 372 points, more than 100 points on the Russian folk band Buranovskiye Babushki which finished second. Serbia’s Zeljko Joksimovic came third. Loreen started to came famous in Sweden 8 years ago with the TV show « Idol » even if she didn’t win the competition. But this time, in front of 100’000 viewers, she did a fantastic show, thanks to her beautiful voice. Loreen advocates a return to nature. Her music is soft and her dancing is light and quiet. In Stockholm, the result was celebrated by hundreds of people dancing in the street.

Reactions and controversies about the contest
People were also very active on social networks about this contest. People encouraged their respective countries, making predictions on the winner but also criticizing certain candidates. The famous french presenter Mustapha El Atrassi also criticized the French candidate Anggun who made a bad performance. She finished ranked 22nd out of 26 candidates.

Anggun also commented herself her opinion about the contest the following day :

France has often disillusionment with Eurovision. In 2008, there was also a little controversy with the candidate Sébastien Tellier. He was selected by the channel France3 to represent the country at the Eurovision contest. The controversy was about the song they chose – called ‘divine’ from the album ‘Sexuality’ – which was written in English. At this time, UMP deputy François-Michel Gonnot was shocked that a French candidate could sing in English. ”A lot of people don’t understand that France renounces to defend its language in front of hundreds of millions of viewers worldwide”, he commented. The french singer responded in an ironic way about the controversy : “It’s not because i’m singing in English that the price of the ‘baguette’ will decrease.”

Nevertheless, multicultural won this year. Loreen is a perfect example; she was born in Stockholm from Moroccan parents. “When i’m in Marocco, i feel incredibly Swedish, but when i’m in Sweden i know that i have a different character, i don’t know always the rules of society. But for me this isn’t negative, because i don’t like borders. I don’t like discrimination and group that compares to another”, she said.

And what about Switzerland?
The Swiss group, Sinplus, originating in the canton of Ticino, composed of the two brothers Iban and Gabriel Broggini could not sing on Saturday because they were not qualified for the finals. The band lost against Azerbaijan in semi-final.

The last time that Switzerland won the Eurovision contest was in 1998 with  Nella Martinetti and her song « Ne partez pas sans moi ».

Inside the Champions League Final

On May 19th was held the final of the Champions League, one of the most famous competition in sports. Bayern Munich hosted Chelsea for an incredible scenario game. To the end of the night, nothing stay but the penalties. After dominating the entire game, Munich eventually lost in front of its audience. To witness this event you have several options. The easier was to be in front of your TV. But if you are stuck at a family meal, at your desk or anything else, you can follow the game through comments on Twitter or on a sport website.

A little bit later you will be able to watch all goals and highlights on video thanks to Youtube or to a similar website.

But that’s just if you’re away from the screen. Now there is more! Thanks to Twitter and Facebook, you can follow a game from inside without moving from your sofa. For example, you can see the coach (Roberto Di Matteo) of Chelsea arriving to the Allianz Arena in Munich.

Then you can dive in Chelsea’s changing room right before the final.

You can feel the ambiance inside it with the dedicated place of team capitain, Frank Lampard.

Or with the humor of David Luiz and Ramires.

You can also witness the heating of the players of Bayern Munich

Pressure will rise when you will see Chelsea’s players leaving the changing room for the field.

Then you will be able to witness the players’ entrance as if you were close to the field.

During the game you will get photos of specific time. The celebration of Muller’s goal for Bayern München.

The little break before the horrible penalties trial.

Then you can see players celebrating their victory. On the field.

In the changing room

With the Trophy.

Or with football’s legend Ruud Gullit.

Now that the celebration is over, you are waiting for the next game to get more. But with social medias, it never stops. You can keep following your favorite players or teams all year long.

Fabien Feissli

Goodbye Robin Gibb

The Voice of the Bee Gees has passed away May 20, in London. Following this announcement, reactions were multiple and quick. Between tributes… and bad jokes.

“The family of Robin Gibb, of the Bee Gees, announce with great sadness that Robin passed away today following his long battle with cancer and intestinal surgery. The family have asked that their privacy is respected at this very difficult time.” The British singer and songwriter succumbed at the age of 62 in London.

In the trio, Robin Gibb had often, especially in the 1960s, the role of lead singer. His caressing voice and his tone rather in the treble contributed to the global success of “New York Mining Disaster 1941″, “Holiday, Massachusetts”, “I Started a Joke”, and many more musical hits. On social media, fans and celebrities quickly reacted to the announce of his death. People from all around the world presented their condolences to the family and shared their memories of the Bee Gee.

Pictures of the Bee Gee were posted, as well as videos in honor of the star.

The disparition of Robin Gibb has affected lots of people and not only the anonymous ones. Artists, journalists and athletes have also deplored this loss, as seen in the tweets of Bryan Adams, Justin Timberlake, Miley Cyrus, Nelly Furtado, Bruno Mars or Lance Amstrong.

Of course some Internet users could not avoid to make the link between Robin Gibb and the famous Bee Gees song ”Stayin’ Alive” released in 1978…

…that leads to comments and bad jokes.

And caricatures.

After the recent deaths of Whitney Houston, Donna Summer, and now Robin Gibb, the world of music mourns its dead.

Flora Berset

Are bloggers journalists?

Neuchâtel, a more and more populated city

Every year, December doesn’t only rhyme with Christmas, but also with demography. It’s in fact at the end of this month that the FSO will reveal the 2011 Swiss demography evolution. I’m writing about it because since 2003 the commune of Neuchâtel is witnessing a population renewal. Even if we talk here of a 4%- growth in less than ten years, this percentage represent no less than 1500 inhabitants for our own commune. Diverse sectors will have to adapt to this continual growth.

The public transport: a game ahead

For the Neuchâtel public transport (TN), the city bus network is most affected by this population’s augmentation. “We noticed a large and progressive increase of passengers”, explain Mrs Jeanne Huessli, in charge of the communication department of this society. “By summer 2012, ten news buses will be put into circulation on the biggest lines to absorb the users’ increasing flux.” Cost of this operation: almost 15 million CHF including the bus driver’s wage. “That might seem a lot, but this investment should be profitable until 2017.”

Needless to say, this society didn’t wait the 2011 FSO report to take the bull by the horns and react consequently. Which proves nothing is impossible. So the Bienne – Lausanne train passengers might hope the SBB will take example on the Neuchâtel public transport and put an end to passengers’ suffering during rush hours.

 

After reading this article I wrote, you’re probably asking yourself what is the link with our initial question: “are bloggers journalists?” In reality, everything! In order to address the question, I needed initially to act as a blogger. So I wrote an article on a theme any ordinary blogger would be interested in.

But the problem is…my article is false. Mrs Huessli doesn’t exist and- I invented all of what she said. This is the key challenge of a blog post. One is never sure what is true and what is wrong. Of course with my article it was enough to search the name Jeanne Huessli on Google to discover the hoax. But what if I used the real name of the communication department person? It would have been more difficult to find the truth without a phone call to the TN.

What I wanted to prove is that nothing prevents someone from posting a lie. We always need to keep that in mind. Of course what I wrote is under no circumstances journalism.

But what is journalism? Answering this question will allow us to determine if yes or no bloggers are part of it. A journalist produces information. Verified and tallied information which will be transmitted to the lector. To be a journalist isn’t “write to write”, but “write to inform”, to explain, to comment or analyse. A journalist must follow a ethical charter, sign his article with his real name and work under the supervision of his editor. Of course these rules might be breached of and sometimes journalists might bend the rules and values of their job, but in absolute terms, journalism can’t be defined with such cases.

On the other hand, what’s a blogger? Blogs – contrary to a newsroom – are open to everybody. Bloggers often publish under a pseudonym – there’s no way to find the real source – and no ethical rules or moderator frames what is published. It doesn’t mean it’s impossible for a blogger to publish something relevant or completely journalistic. But there’s no way to control.

A lot of journalists and experts have blogs and publish relevant information about what they see with a freer style like for example Jean-Dominique Merchet, David Medioni or the Online Journalism Blog. The blog can be an extension of a newspaper like the New York Times blog Lens on which press photography are published. We have also blog for “citizen journalist” like the Bondy Blog inspired by OhmyNews – a Korean website where “every citizen is a reporter”. But the blog is also a place where somebody is able to express himself, his opinion, and his moods without any other desire than write about his feelings.

Finally “Are bloggers journalists?” is a wrong question. Because bloggers are bloggers and journalists are journalists. Like the chameleon changed his colour according to his environment, the blogger can, just for the time of a post, be a journalist, a humourist, a politician, a cook or anything else. They are no rules and no generalizations to be made. For the same reason we can’t pretend that strangers are criminals, we can’t affirm that bloggers are journalists.

Les oiseaux et la photo

La photo animalière n’est jamais facile!. Sachez que dans la plupart des cas, sauf si vous photographiez votre chien bien aimé ou un ronronnant petit matou, ou peut-être encore votre cheval, la plupart des animaux sauvages ne veulent pas être photographiées, les oiseaux encore moins!. Pour rendre la tache encore plus
difficile pour vous le photographe impatient et avide d’images à couper le souffle, la plupart des oiseaux ont des ailes, et savent très bien s’en servir, surtout à l’approche d’un personnage louche à proximité, brandissant vers eux quelque chose ressemblant à un bazooka, mais qui est en réalité un téléobjectif photo, pour les mitrailler, mais sans balles bien sûr !. Uniquement pour figer leur image sur leur pellicule kodachrome, kodak gold, Fuji, Agfa ou encore leur cartes SD ou CF.

Téléobjectif en effet, car avec un 50mm (équivalent à la vue humaine) vous aurez beaucoup de mal dans la plupart des cas a photographier de prés autre chose que des moineaux domestiques ou des pigeons en ville, en allant au travail (Ou en les nourrissant pour qu’ils s’approchent encore plus près de votre objectif……) Ah oui, vous vous croyez rusées la hein? le nourrissage, voilà le plan parfait!. Mais il existe encore d’autres plans plus élaborées
pour faire en sorte que les oiseaux que vous souhaitiez photographier s’approchent de vous. Si vous n’avez pas uniquement une cervelle de moineau, mais aussi quelques neurones bien ingénieuses et avides de trouvailles, faites les
croire (pendant un court instant), que vous êtes un des leurs (mais ne commencez pas à manger des verres de terre et  des mouches pour autant). Non non, restons sobres s’il vous plait !. il y a un moyen beaucoup plus simple. Tel un Thierry Le Luron ou un Yves Lecoq imitez les !. Soit en enregistrant l’oiseau que vous souhaitez approcher, pour ensuite faire écouter a un male rival le chant de son pire ennemi (il s’approchera du son 9 fois sur 10) ou encore en
communiquant avec eux par d’autres méthodes.

Regardez plutôt la tactique de Sir David Attenborough, voulant faire apparaitre quelques pics rares en Patagonie. Ça marche !
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hq1DsB3ssqE&oref=http%3A%2F%2Fwww.youtube.com%2Fresults%3Fsearch_query%3Dthe%2Blife%2Bof%2Bbirds%26oq%3Dthe%2Blife%2Bof%2Bbirds%26aq%3Df%26aqi%3D%26aql%3D%26gs_sm%3De%26gs_upl%3D0l0l1l27l0l0l0l0l0l0l0l0ll0l0&has_verified=1

Regardez à partir de 20 : 30

Mais avoir des tactiques n’est pas tout bien sûr. Il faut aussi s’armer de patience, de patience, et encore de patience. En effet, certains photographes et ornithologues passent des jours, parfois des
semaines dans une petite hutte froide, infestée de mouches, à attendre l’oiseau qu’ils essayent de photographier. Après
plusieurs centaines de photos, il se peut que seulement 1 soit bonne !. S’armer de patience est donc une bonne vertu,
mais il faut aussi s’armer de téléobjectifs. Pour réussir à photographier les oiseaux un peu plus farouches, un 300 mm
est nécessaire au minimum, tandis qu’un 50-500mm est l’idéal. Vous pouvez ensuite y ajouter des doubleurs (2 x et aussi
3 x), ce qui peut transformer votre 50-500 en un 100-1000mm, ou un 150-1500mm !. la, plus rien ne vous arrête (sauf peut-être votre compte en banque !…), car sachez-le, si vous avez tout d’un coup des visions de grandeur et souhaitez acquérir le top du top, le téléobjectif le plus puissant au monde pour la photo animalière qui pèse 16 kg..(eh oui, un peu de musculation ne fais de mal a personne!..) Le 1000mm sigma f 3.5, ..(que vous pourriez ensuite transformer en 3000 mm avec votre doubleur 3x bien sûr), il vous faudra quand même débourser la modique somme de $ 26 ooo + les 9 euros de frais de port bien sûr… Mais ne dis-t-on pas que « quand on aime on ne compte pas » ?……………..

Pour Plus de Photos d’oiseaux :

http://pontus.smugmug.com/Nature/Wildlife-portfolio-1999-2009/9816000_xdkjZd#674248808_HMna4

 

« Sexe entre amis » : Justin Timberlake joue au chat et à la souris avec Mila Kunis

Après « Sex Friends » et « Love, et autres drogues », une nouvelle comédie romantique américaine surfant sur le thème très tendance des sex friends a débarqué sur les grands écrans suisse en septembre dernier.

Dans « Sexe entre amis », réalisé par Will Gluck, Jamie (Mila Kunis) est chasseuse de tête à New-York et cherche à recruter Dylan (Justin Timberlake), directeur artistique à Los Angeles. Ils se découvrent vite un point commun : ils sont blasés et ne croient plus à l’amour. L’idéal ne serait-il pas d’avoir des relations purement sexuelles et sans engagement ? Jamie et Dylan décident alors de coucher ensemble comme deux amis jouent au tennis, sans se méfier de la tournure que pourrait prendre leur relation.

Selon le site allocine.fr, le film a reçu de la presse la note moyenne de 2.5 sur 5 et des spectateurs celle de 3.5. Bien que le scénario soit quelque peu caricatural et sans surprise, surtout après la sortie en 2011 de deux films aux thématiques similaires, « Sexe entre amis » offre un moment de légèreté et de détente, surtout grâce à l’efficacité du duo Timberlake-Kunis, qui a d’ailleurs fait des étincelles lors des MTV Awards 2011.

« Sexe entre amis » marque la présence de plus en plus accrue de la thématique des sex friends dans les médias. Un sujet qui fait débat et soulève de nombreuses questions sur le sexe sans sentiment (voir article « Un ami dans mon lit »). Et vous, que pensez-vous des sex friends ?

YouTube Sensation

How great is the Internet? You can become famous without having to leave your room… Today, thanks to social networks and the Internet, any anonymous person with talent (or not) can become famous by posting amateur videos on YouTube. Let’s look at this phenomenon.  Anonymous teenagers in the need of recognition, dreaming of celebrity put online a video of what they do best. A way to become famous democratized by the Internet. Not only is the talent of the person important, but today most importantly is how people react to it and speak about it on social networks.

Justin Bieber is the most known example of this phenomenon. The American singer, who is today a worldwide star, started his professional career on YouTube. His mum posted a video of him on a local contest that was seen in a few days by millions of Internet users. Later he posted other videos of him singing R&B song, which is how his future agent Scooter Bruner discovered him.  He later sold his first album “My World” at more than 4 millions exemplary. Keenan Cahill who makes freaky lip-sync playbacks of pop hits, started his career on YouTube just as Justin Bieber. He is the new YouTube sensation, here is his story.

Keenan Cahill is a 16 years old American boy from Chicago, who suffers from the Maroteaux-Lamy syndrome preventing him from fully growing since the age of 8.

The boy lip-synchs current music hits and posts all that on his YouTube channel under the pseudo BeenerKeeKee19952.

 

Since October 2009, he became famous with a reprise of the Katy Perry “Teenage Dream” song made in summer 2010.

 

 

The video has been watched almost 5 million times between the 28 of August and the 14 of September. The performance was even noticed by the artist herself who thanked him on Twitter, which made him known for the 3 millions followers Katy Perry currently has.

The Perez Hilton website made by Perez Hilton a very influential American gossip blogger heard about the tweets and published the following news:

 

 

From this point on, the popularity of the kid did not stop growing.  Since then all his videos are hits and thanks to that many stars started to appear in his clips. He made for instance, a video with Nick Cannon, LMFAO, Jeremih, Lil Jon, or even David Guetta in his studio. All of these videos have been seen by millions of people. A video with 50 Cent that was made for the Chelsea Lately show on E! Entertainment, is as of today one of his most famous video with more than 31 million views:

He has a Facebook account that is partially closed for non-friends, but you can see that he has currently 4546 friends. It is actually possible to find 28 “Keenan Cahill” facebook personal pages, only one really belonging to him, other persons pretend to be him and have set up fake facebook pages. There also a large amount of Facebook pages concerning the singer, the biggest one has 141 200 “like”. It Contains comments about him from people all over the world.

 

There is also a large amount of Facebook groups but none of them exceeds 1000 members.

Keenan is also on Twitter, he updates himself his profile almost every day and has currently 103’978 followers.

For the past 30 days, 2236 tweets where made including the name “Kennan Cahill” most tweets come from fans all over the world that discovered a new video he made and share it with their followers.

Keenan Cahill started to film his videos with his webcam in his room. His videos could have been lost in all the clips YouTube contains, but destiny decided otherwise. His way to move, his mimics, and unique physic made him famous. On November 2010 his channel became the 72^nd most popular account in the category musician – World on YouTube. As an all his videos have been seen 70 millions time on his official channel only, without counting the copies of his videos circulating elsewhere on YouTube. Beginning to become famous he received a camera and started to make better quality videos, but on the other hand his videos started to be less spontaneous and more commercial. For example he appeared in an Ad for a product Jennifer Aniston is representing. Between the first videos in 2009 and the latest one posted with LMFAO in May 2011, the aesthetical evolution is quite striking. From the bedroom to the studio, a webcam effect, dark light, fixed central plan to a professional camera and more professional technic, better light, change of environment and several plans within one video. Now surrounded by two agents, Kennan Cahill has become a professional whose job is to make lip-synch playbacks. After winning the spotlight battle, he is promoting his “brand” himself everywhere by promoting local TV stations or other unknown singers looking for fame.

It makes no doubt that the fact famous people started to appear and comment his videos helped him greatly in expanding his brand. because it made people more interested in knowing who he is.

A buzz never happens over night and it takes time to reach a large population. As we can see with this graphic, showing the web search of “Keenan Cahill” over the last months. It started slowly at the end of September 2010 when Katy Perry tweeted about him and the playback of her song. The biggest pick can be observed at the end of last year because it reached a large amount of the population and everyone wanted to know who was this new  phenomenon people where all talking about. Since then the buzz has slowed down a little but it comes up again each time he is inviting a star to feature in his video. In this case there is no doubt that the fact famous people joined him in his videos helped him get so popular. and it will certainly continue like that for a while if he manages to get enough coverage but also renew himself taking advantage of the buzz he is actually getting.

Franky Slow Down, Guardian Angel

Franky Slow Down, An Angel On The Road

If you were driving around Switzerland, and suddenly saw a beardy, long haired guy, dressed like an angel, hitchhiking on the side on the highway, what will you do ? Probably laugh, and wondering who is this strange man. But, when you come back home, you saw the same man on Facebook. You saw that he has thousand and thousand of friends and/or fans. If you knew who he was, would you have stopped ? Would do you have listen what he has to say ?

The purpose of the article is to understand how social networks can contribute to create a public figure, his discourse about a cause, and finally a common background. By the way, who is this guy all in white, with wings ? His name is Franky Slow Down, he is an angel on the road. On the 8th of May, Franky took a three days trip around Switzerland. This is his story, only based on social medias.

Franky is a really relaxed guy. He is dressed all in white, beardy and long hair, with a gentle smile. And with his wings on his back, he stood on highways, hitchhiking, traveling only with the help of his thumbs and his kindness. But is he really an angel ? What (the hell) is he doing here ?

Public can follow all his adventures on Facebook. On the 8th of May, he announced that he will make a tour in Switzerland.

Franky's Status Update

As soon as the tour started,on the 9th of May, he posted a lot of updates, photos, and videos to his profile. At 2 :55 p.m., the road angel posted a video of his first impressions in Lausanne, where the tour started. Then, he is off to Neuchâtel. He found the lake beautiful and went to Bienne, where he made another video. « Bienne is a nice place to take it easy ! »

His videos are telling his adventures. Always casual, he looks like an angel backpacker. He told in his Berne video, that he had a dream, swimming in swiss chocolate where he was drowning. And suddenly, a piece of cheese appeared to him and he climb on it, rescued. « Swiss cheese saved my life, man ! » Franky was craving for cheese and found some near the Bundesrat. Next step, Interlaken. When hitchhiking, a white car stops. The driver recognizes him. Before going in, Franky checked the back of the car, and there it is, already sticked on the car, his logo, « Slow and easy ».

Franky On Tour

Everywhere he goes, he seems outgoing, positive, enjoying the beautiful swiss landscape. To every person he encountered, he said something like « Are you guys slow down, take it easy ? » He continued to Olten, Lucerne, Aarau, Brügglifeld, Zürich, till he arrived to Schauffausen on the 11th of May. Funny thing, he did not use the Facebook location tool. Yes, because you supposed it too, Franky Slow Down is not a real angel, even a real person.

Still, on his Facebook page, Franky Slow Down has ten albums and more than a hundred pictures. In those, the viewer can follow him in his tour of Switzerland. The angel shows him always smiling, interacting with people, or choosing a postcard and hitchhiking on the highway to Olten. He shows himself as an outgoing man, participating in events, like his Facebook friends can see in the album « Loveride 2011 », for example. He also shows his fans, like an hockey team wearing t-shirt with Franky Slow Down logo.

Franky also has a Twitter account, but only 11 people are following him. All links are pointing to his Facebook page. But still, there are tweets mentioning him, most of them are mentioning the angel location. Though, interesting tweets showed up. Like this tweet of the user Hoferlink, linking to a Flickr album and a picture of Franky without his wings. And for good reasons, Franky is played by an actor who won an award for best crossmedia campain.

Franky Slow Down Facebook Profile

On Facebook, Franky has a « real » profile page. This shows that his creator wants Franky Slow Down persona to be considered as a real person. Because, if your goal is to be « famous » on Facebook, it’s easier to create a fan page that an infinite number of people could like. A profile on Facebbok is limited to 5’000 friends. As you can see, Franky Slow Down has reached this limit. But, his profile is linked to the « Slow Down, Take It Easy » fan page, Franky’s slogan. More than 240’000 people like this page, and it’s providing news of Franky everyday. The news content and displayed on the fan page, is pretty much the same. But logically, there are a lot more interaction, likes and comments around every post.

But where does Franky come from? The answer is in another video, near an highway, an angel, alone, dirty, on edge, he called his boss and said: “God, I can’t take it anymore!” He is afraid because people of Switzerland are driving really fast, and are often killing themselves on the roads.

At the end of the video, appears a website address: slow-n-easy.ch. The website is sponsorised by ASA – ASV, the swiss insurances, the BPA and the “Fonds de sécurité routière”. Franky is in reality part of a plan to sensibly people about the security on the roads.

If you only followed him on Facebook, Franky appears to be more important than the organization behind him.  He is kind of a local celebrity. More than embodying a prevention message, Franky is shown as someone really lovable. Caring for swiss people, he also share the same interests. He dreams about chocolate and cheese, looks at the watches in the shop windows in Interlaken, he likes to play soccer, sings in a band, hold a swiss flag near Zurich’s lake. All this background, even if not real, makes him an interesting figure and a very well constructed one. Without him, the message of the “Slow Down” campaign would has been clear and understood. But Franky Slow Down has a relational impact, much stronger than any commercial. He is someone everybody recognize and embody a common background, therefore conversations, he is now a part of people’s lives. They can directly talk to him, to his persona. He is close to them, thanks to real time updates, and, of course, social networks.

Franky Slow Down Going To Neuchâtel