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Adios to porn tweeter

Madison Avenue Tracker (adtracker) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 17:15:44 GMT

Why are copy writers interested in this research?

Madison Avenue Tracker (adtracker) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 06:31:33 GMT

Dan Hurley -�The Science of Sarcasm (Not That You Care)

There was nothing very interesting in Katherine P. Rankin�s study of sarcasm � at least, nothing worth your important time. All she did was use an M.R.I. to find the place in the brain where the ability to detect sarcasm resides. But then, you probably already knew it was in the right parahippocampal gyrus.

What you may not have realized is that perceiving sarcasm, the smirking put-down that buries its barb by stating the opposite, requires a nifty mental trick that lies at the heart of social relations: figuring out what others are thinking. Those who lose the ability, whether through a head injury or the frontotemporal dementias afflicting the patients in Dr. Rankin�s study, just do not get it when someone says during a hurricane, �Nice weather we�re having.�

�A lot of the social cognition we take for granted and learn through childhood, the ability to appreciate that someone else is being ironic or sarcastic or angry � the so-called theory of mind that allows us to get inside someone else�s head � is characteristically lost very early in the course of frontotemporal dementia,� said Dr. Bradley F. Boeve, a behavioral neurologist at the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minn.

�It�s very disturbing for family members, but neurologists haven�t had good tools for measuring it,� he went on. �That�s why I found this study by Kate Rankin and her group so fascinating.�

Dr. Rankin, a neuropsychologist and assistant professor in the Memory and Aging Center at the University of California, San Francisco, used an innovative test developed in 2002, the Awareness of Social Inference Test, or Tasit. It incorporates videotaped examples of exchanges in which a person�s words seem straightforward enough on paper, but are delivered in a sarcastic style so ridiculously obvious to the able-brained that they seem lifted from a sitcom.

�I was testing people�s ability to detect sarcasm based entirely on paralinguistic cues, the manner of expression,� Dr. Rankin said.

In one videotaped exchange, a man walks into the room of a colleague named Ruth to tell her that he cannot take a class of hers that he had previously promised to take. �Don�t be silly, you shouldn�t feel bad about it,� she replies, hitting the kind of high and low registers of a voice usually reserved for talking to toddlers. �I know you�re busy � it probably wasn�t fair to expect you to squeeze it in,� she says, her lips curled in derision.

Although people with mild Alzheimer�s disease perceived the sarcasm as well as anyone, it went over the heads of many of those with semantic dementia, a progressive brain disease in which people forget words and their meanings.

�You would think that because they lose language, they would pay close attention to the paralinguistic elements of the communication,� Dr. Rankin said.

To her surprise, though, the magnetic resonance scans revealed that the part of the brain lost among those who failed to perceive sarcasm was not in the left hemisphere of the brain, which specializes in language and social interactions, but in a part of the right hemisphere previously identified as important only to detecting contextual background changes in visual tests.

�The right parahippocampal gyrus must be involved in detecting more than just visual context � it perceives social context as well,� Dr. Rankin said.

The discovery fits with an increasingly nuanced view of the right hemisphere�s role, said Dr. Anjan Chatterjee, an associate professor in the Center for Cognitive Neuroscience at the University of Pennsylvania.

�The left hemisphere does language in the narrow sense, understanding of individual words and sentences,� Dr. Chatterjee said. �But it�s now thought that the appreciation of humor and language that is not literal, puns and jokes, requires the right hemisphere.�

Dr. Boeve, at the Mayo Clinic, said that beyond the curiosity factor of mapping the cognitive tasks of the brain�s ridges and furrows, the study offered hope that a test like Tasit could help in the diagnosis of frontotemporal dementia.

�These people normally do perfectly well on traditional neuropsychological tests early in the course of their disease,� he said. �The family will say the person has changed dramatically, but even neurologists will often just shrug them off as having a midlife crisis.�

Short of giving such a test, he said, the best way to diagnose such problems is by talking with family members about how the person has changed over time.

After a presentation of her findings at the American Academy of Neurology�s annual meeting in April, Dr. Rankin was asked whether even those with intact brains might have differences in brain areas that explain how well they pick up on sarcasm.

�We all have strengths and weaknesses in our cognitive abilities, including our ability to detect social cues,� she said. �There may be volume-based differences in certain regions that explain variations in all sorts of cognitive abilities.�

So is it possible that Jon Stewart, who wields sarcasm like a machete on �The Daily Show,� has an unusually large right parahippocampal gyrus?

�His is probably just normal,� Dr. Rankin said. �The right parahippocampal gyrus is involved in detecting sarcasm, not being sarcastic.�

But, she quickly added, �I bet Jon Stewart has a huge right frontal lobe; that�s where the sense of humor is detected on M.R.I.�

A spokesman for Mr. Stewart said he would have no comment � not that a big-shot television star like Jon Stewart would care about the size of his neuroanatomy.

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/03/health/research/03sarc.html

Budget allocation in this election turned out to be a one big widget chase. Wish I was geek.

Madison Avenue Tracker (adtracker) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 01:25:08 GMT

Buyers: 'Healthier' Upfront Market 20%-50% Complete

Madison Avenue Tracker (adtracker) — Wed, 04 Jun 2008 00:55:44 GMT

Brian Steinberg reports on Upfronts in Advertising Age ...

With the threat of a recession looming and broadcast networks experiencing massive erosion of ratings, buyers were expected to keep a tight hand on the purse strings. The pressure to keep spending down still exists. What seems to be happening is that advertisers are focusing their spending on better-performing outlets, rather than sprinkling dollars far and wide.

New SAP ads - Way better than blue themed Nigel Parry work?

Madison Avenue Tracker (adtracker) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 22:07:46 GMT

Nigel Parry work -

Website Snapshot

SAP Ads Portfolio of Nigel Parry

SAP Ads Portfolio of Nigel Parry Color Portraits 1 Color Portraits 2 B/W Portraits Entertainment Indie Spirit Awards Sports Sharp BMW Ads Tiscali Ads SAP Ads Nigel Parry SAP Ogilvy & Mather NY Biograp...

Creativity E-mail: Top 5, Hello, hello & Co!

Madison Avenue Tracker (adtracker) — Tue, 03 Jun 2008 03:56:27 GMT

More industry buzz.

Creativity

		June 02, 2008		Get this e-mail free >>


		Honda: Jump Honda's aeriel acrobats do their thing.


		Samsung: Spice Don't Rock A pictorial crowd represents the good, the bad and the ugly of music on your phone.


		Twix: Get the Girl Here's how to both succeed and fail at courtship.


	Creativity's Top 5: June 2 This week's episode of Creativity's Top 5 sees Internet heroes getting their just due, cult film fans hitting a musical, hockey awarding its grandest statue, parents and babies learning online and the undivided love of football boosting the under-embraced. » Read more


	Say Hello! HKM and Rockfight merge to form a new production company. 25-year-old production company HKM and partner company Rockfight have merged to launch a new venture, hello & Co. » Read more


	People news from Saatchi & Saatchi, Hill Holiday and more Saatchi & Saatchi, Los Angeles named former Team One executive director Paul Mareski as its new president effective immediately. ... Ex Tribal DDB, Dallas art director Eric Chao (pictured) joined Boston-based Interpublic agency Hill Holiday as associate creative director. ... » Read more

01	Coca-Cola: The Unhuggables Agency: Santo
02	Orange: Rewind City Agency: Publicis Conseil
03	Volvo: Subliminal Agency: Forsman Bodenfors
04	123Fleurs.com: Better Idea Agency: Callegari Berville Grey, Paris
05	Marie Curie Actions: Chemical Party Agency: Media Consulta, Berlin

06	Weezer: Pork and Beans
07	NHL: Raise Agency: Young & Rubicam, New York
08	Canon: Journey Agency: Grey, New York
09	Black Swan: Equation Corks - Wine
10	Conservation International: Wax Agency: BBDO, New York


		01 VB: VB Symphony 02 Axe: Paranoid Eye 03 Canon: Journey 04 eBay: Fox Hunt 05 Coca-Cola: The Unhuggables

		01 Alcohol-tinged Metallurgy: The Creativity Awards Gala 02 Rate the Ad: Marie Curie Actions: Chemical Party 03 Samsung's Castaways: A Penguin, Maiden and Raft 04 Adidas teams up with Hellboy 05 Where Everyone Knows Your Name

Top Creative Jobs this week

01 Copywriter US, Digitas

02 Interactive Creative Director, BarkleyREI

03 Senior Writer - Creative Services, QVC, Inc.

04 Creative Copywriter,TitleMax

05 Creative Director, Avenue A | Razorfish

Check It Out

NYTimes ad shows sexy girls in my area.

Madison Avenue Tracker (adtracker) — Mon, 02 Jun 2008 06:00:31 GMT

They are paying my employer. I don't mind any of this.

Poll: Do we react faster to negative ads?

Madison Avenue Tracker (adtracker) — Fri, 30 May 2008 04:04:21 GMT

PETA video of kittens making out. Prudes drop their wallets

Madison Avenue Tracker (adtracker) — Fri, 30 May 2008 03:41:47 GMT

TV producers go back to sex to generate viewer rating

Madison Avenue Tracker (adtracker) — Fri, 30 May 2008 03:38:16 GMT

Website Snapshot

Ad Age Video Player

Madison Avenue Tracker's MessageStream

Adios to porn tweeter

Why are copy writers interested in this research?

Budget allocation in this election turned out to be a one big widget chase. Wish I was geek.

Buyers: 'Healthier' Upfront Market 20%-50% Complete

New SAP ads - Way better than blue themed Nigel Parry work?

Creativity E-mail: Top 5, Hello, hello & Co!

Honda: Jump

Samsung: Spice Don't Rock

Twix: Get the Girl

Creativity's Top 5: June 2

Say Hello! HKM and Rockfight merge to form a new production company.

People news from Saatchi & Saatchi, Hill Holiday and more

Coca-Cola: The Unhuggables

Orange: Rewind City

Volvo: Subliminal

123Fleurs.com: Better Idea

Marie Curie Actions: Chemical Party

Weezer: Pork and Beans

NHL: Raise

Canon: Journey

Black Swan: Equation Corks - Wine

Conservation International: Wax

Net10: Microwave

Impulse: Between a Rock and a Hard Place

Home Office: Lecture

ESPN: Euro Cup 2008

National Grid: Floe