About a year ago Callie Cline was given the title of "Voice of Women". That's good, I just asked then as I as now - "What women?!" I know it isn't me, and most likely not any woman I know. And what does this voice say? Well its just not in my job description to sling quotes about. I will say that I've been less than impressed with the voice of women and that's probably because that voice didn't say a single thing that my voice would have said.
The ideal of women and cars is not new. As a matter of fact car mags have been slapping nearly nude women alongside pinstriped hot rods for years. Hell my first boyfriend and his friends used to buy Lowrider magazine just because the chicks wore more skimpy bathing suits. I know the mechanics behind it. Pun intended, by the way.
OMG did you Farce?
If you get a SL gig with a RL company - kudos. You've reached status quo - but when you get advertising diarrhea it really makes my ass burn after a while. Not to mention the fact that I'm running out of toilet paper so I've had to smear my shit here. There is a rather bold line in the world of grease monkeys and mechanics between a car enthusiast and a mere fan. I won't go pasting in dictionary definitions as I'm sure most know the difference. Car enthusiasts are the ones that really love cars - or a specific car. John Travolta is a car enthusiast (as well as planes), the writers for Car and Driver are enthusiasts, and mechanics as a whole are most usually enthusiasts as well. Callie, I'm afraid - is a mere fan.
The Thin Red Pinstripe
She states in her blog that the Solstic is a great car in RL and in SL. Her reason why its a better car IRL? Simply because its really fast. It goes to prove that you don't have to be knowledgeable about a product in order to be its spokesperson. It goes back to that whole 'ideal' I've been against since I was probably 11 "Stand there, look pretty, don't say much, and smile a lot." Its actually laughable. The Motorati thing started over a year ago - yet she was surprised that they chose her? Seems like advanced marketing for outsourcing if you ask me. She was definitely thinking ahead which is great! I'd love to have that kind of insight - but don't try to pass it off as coincidence.
Recognisable Faces
After conferring with fellow Mean Girls JellyBean and Rosie we came to the conclusion that the Maxim thing was because of Callie's recognizable face. That's very true. Her face is recognisable (then again I've been seeing it here and there for going on 3 years) but isn't it also true to say that any face you see repeatedly over a long period of time becomes recognisable? YadNi has a recognisable face - so why couldn't he throw on a female av and do such a thing? Maybe he could!
Objects may appear closer than they are
I personally just feel that the whole caLLie coNUNdrum has already been played out. Everyone's all freaking out that she's getting 'attacked' but how is stating an opinion an attack? Its anonymous comments - not a boot to the face. And seriously it isn't as if a few negative opinions really make or break a business deal unless those with the neg views are consultants.
We should all let her ride her train to fame for as long as her ticket is good for. And in SL (as I've already said) days are only hours long - and stuff like this lasts just as long. I would like to suggest though that if you're going to get someone to speak for your product who has any sort of influence at all: just be sure they know about it. I can safely say that if Mountain Dew came to SL and offered me to do something for them - I'd decline and send them to JellyBean. She's a friggin' authority on Dew. As a general rule, know your limits and there's nothing wrong with taking a back seat and merely knowing that by passing things up for the RIGHT reasons that you're doing something good as a whole.
Clutch Grinding
I've just been smelling burning clutch over the fact that once again things have come to who you know and not what you know. As a gear headed grease monkey I've just failed to see the appeal of having someone who makes clothes be any sort of figure head for a car. She sat on a few cars and make a few racing suits, I get it. But couldn't someone who used to or still .. oh I don't know .. build cars, race cars or know how to use a cherry picker actually get the kind of gig they deserve? I realize its a lot to ask of any company - doing all that hard research and all - but come on! I really just can't take Pontiac seriously (and I went through a lot of trouble to drop a 455 into a two bolt main 76 Camaro) after all this. All I can really say is "Meh".
*wipes her hands and wrench on a dirty rag and shoves it in her back pocket* Looks like your diesel engine needs new spark plugs.
20 comments:
The person that made the Maxim top 100 was "SL Girl." That's me, you guys and any other well put together SL female av. The whole point of the top 100 inclusion was a nod to all the the virtual babes out there. It would have been really cool to have been the av selected to embody this, but, *shurg*, they selected someone very well known and also very pretty.
It must be exciting to work with a RL company and make RL money to do things like that in SL. It also knocks me flat on my ass that said person is surprised that someone might make a negative post about it. Welcome to the real world! I'm not pro or con Callie -- though I've found the whole strange capitalization thing annoying for about the past 15 years or so that I have been on line!
Oh, by the way. If someone from the Pepsi world does contact you but it's about Diet Pepsi and not Dew, pass that one on to ME! I am the Diet Pepsi Goddess and don't you forget it!
Aww gee whiz leave Callie alone. So she's enjoying some success -- what of it. You don't have to read the advertising and if you don't like it then just pass it by. Honestly all this stuff just looks like jealousy. And the poor girl is being attacked and all she wanted to do was be successful. Is that such a bad thing to want?
I'm guessing the whole point of the post was missed. I was mostly talking about the ties with Pontiac and how I feel that as a spokesperson - a model and fashionista is not the person to do it. Vivianne if any of this came across as jealousy then please accept my apology because as I stated .. I am not jealous. I was merely making valid points to support my view of there being a better spokesperson for the whole Pontiac deal.
I'm always glad to see people in SL hook up with RL companies (I've done it a time or two myself believe it or not - and I will give details when asked as I'm not much on braggadocio) and she's more than welcome to enjoy her success.
By nature Callie is a model. By Trade she's a designer. She's not a mechanic and doesn't claim to be (to my knowledge) but if you're going to advertise/promote/be a spokesman for a company (a very very large company) you should know about the products you are representing and I feel she does not. Does Callie know clothes? Yes, she does. Does she know modeling? Well that's apparent. Does that make her a good SL Figure head for Pontiac? No. And that was my point.
You know Orchid it's all going back to companies coming into an new platform (SL) and doing things the old way. It's why so many of them aren't getting the results they wanted.
And by the way, I need a brake job on my VW. Got any openings?
I have to agree with Beth, it was SL girl that made the Maxim 100, Callie is merely a composite of parts made by others that happened to be in the right place at the right time. Okay the shape is all hers (unless she bought it natch) but the skin that as we all know, makes a face, was made by someone else.
I'm also in full agreement with Orchid that pontiac would do much better, in these more enlightened times to get a girl who knows her shit about cars than one who likes the colour to match her nails, me, I'm of the colour/nails variety (although if it a '67 fast back mustang I'd be happy to change the nails).
At the end of the day everyone will find a new person to be outraged with soon enough... Any suggestions?
Wow..talk about sour grapes. "If you get a SL gig with a RL company - kudos. You've reached status quo" You've 'reached status quo'? Do you even know what that means? Status quo means 'to remain the same'. So how does one reach the level of same-ness? You may say this isn't jealousy, but while I was reading this, the entire screen turned green. It's quite evident.
status quo
The existing order of things; present customs, practices, and power relations: From Latin, meaning “the state in which.”
[Chapter:] Idioms
The American Heritage® New Dictionary of Cultural Literacy, Third Edition
Copyright © 2005 by Houghton Mifflin Company.
Published by Houghton Mifflin Company. All rights reserved.
So - I used it in the sense of currently in SL there are a lot of RL companies coming in. With all that said: getting a gig with one of these companies is evident.
Working with RL companies is a business for some people or groups of people, thereby making the whole process of coming in, making a wave, and leaving without a rip tide has become 'the norm'.
So I fail to see how getting a gig isn't status quo or in terms which are probably more expressive than two mere words:
Yeah everyone knows that companies are coming in - and some are so hard up that they will take a piggy-back ride from what seems like the first av they see (I'm pointing to the entire Playboy sim right now).
I do have to say though Malachi, that if this appeared to be jealousy then it was purely by mistake. I worked with an NFL legend in SL (Boomer Esiason) so I've anything but stars in my eyes over this. But hey wouldn't it be cool if I was super jealous and was just being catty? Wow talk about good post content!
You Orchid and your supporters crack me up. Hey, the Leo Burnett agency (one of the largest in the world) handles Pontiac. They do all their advertizing campaigns. They've been in business over 50 years. They handle the largest companies in the world.
From what I have heard they pitch their ideas to Pontiac, and they are experts, winning awards for their work with many of their clients.
And YOU know who Pontiac SHOULD have chosen? What the hell do you know about RL advertizing, marketing and promotions?
And IF you know so much, what the heck are you doing whining because caLLie cLine got this gig?
Why not get a job for an agency or hell, start your own, get Pontiac to listen to you, and hand you a few hundred million dollars a year so YOU can tell them what they should and shouldn't do.
LMAO, you've got to be joking. Do you realize how stupid you sound?
Oh and just whom would be a better choice? Maybe in all your knowledge you can phone them up and let them know.
I'm sure Megan Fox, Matt Dillon, and their other host of celebrity "voices" have a rich background in car mechanics, just as I'm sure Cindy Crawford, and Uma Thurman know how to make watches, (omega & tag heurer) oh and all the other celebrities who endorse things.
Maybe, just maybe, caLLie likes Pontiac, she has said she has enjoyed her work with them. Maybe she's smart, hard working, reliable, and professional too, who knows... but I would trust they thought long and hard before giving "just a pretty av" the job, after all, they could have created ANY type of avatar they wanted themselves if they wanted just a pretty face.
Wake up honey.
You may know cars, but you certainly don't know much about RL marketing or promotion, and yes sweets, deny it all you want, but you ARE jealous.
Ian,
There is nothing wrong with a person like Orchid to have an opinion about the world of the advertising spokesperson and how it tends to be a figurehead rather than someone with real life expertise.
Some of us also kind of had the hope that SL would be a little bit different. Since beauty is only a few sliders clicks away, some of us hoped for a more even playing field-- one where our brains and knowledge were our most important assets.
My first posts only hints at that and I even celebrate that SL fame can be turned into a lucrative SL deal. But I also suggested agreement on the more utopian vision of it (the whole expert on Dew example vs my own Diet Pepsi Goddesshood).
It's the freaking, "Mean Girls" blog. Of course they have strong opinions. I love that they say things I don't have the guts to say! I don't always agree with them, but this is one of my favorite SL blogs out there because they cut through the crap.
I am a little bit confused as to why caLLie is "famous" in SL anyway. She doesn't compare to quality like PixelDolls, Simone, or Nyte n Day. I visited her new sim and most of the products were created by others so she could slap a CC on them. And anyone with a sense of proportion can model in SL. If you read her blog and your IQ is above that of an ant the answer to the question "why is everybody always picking on caLLie" is straightforward. She's pedantic and self promoting. There are always backlashes against people who don't have much of a discernible talent and who shamelessly and constantly self promote. Need proof of that concept? Two words. Paris Hilton.
Yeah yeah, we've all seen the hype and poison over this bullshit. If you make a comment to the negative everyone says you're jealous.
Well, you know what. I'm not jealous and the rest of the MGs are too smart to give two shits about someone who doesn't matter in the bigger scheme of things. It's not about who or what CC is so much as it is about what she's NOT.
I do say, however that it is bad casting. You wouldn't ask a fat person to advertise your exercise equipment would you? No - cause they're a fatass who has obviously never used the equipment. Ask a comedian to play Hamlet in a broadway play? No. It's just common sense.
For the record, it's not about celebrity endorsement either. CC wasn't half the 'SLebrity' she is now before Maxim and Motorati. She was in the right place at the right time and actively searching for this 'opporunity'. She's smart .. and damn good at getting in where she fits in, I'll give her that.
Oh, and one last thing... She's not saying anything my voice would say either. My voice would say a hearty "no thank you" to anyone who tried to make me a 'voice' of women in SL. Like we're all just one big lump of vapid, drooling, sluts that any one girl could speak for.
It's degrading to all of the REAL talented, smart, and hardworking ladies in SL who DON'T make their money on their backs to be lumped in with the ones who do and given a figurehead who has not once talked to me about what my voice would like to say. Don't take a fucking title like that unless you plan on making the rounds and hearing what all of the voices are saying.
We're fucking individuals.
I have my own voice.
I don't need anyone to speak up for me, thank you.
"Well, you know what. I'm not jealous and the rest of the MGs are too smart to give two shits about someone who doesn't matter in the bigger scheme of things. It's not about who or what CC is so much as it is about what she's NOT."
Interestingly enough, you still choose to spend time on someone you don't 'give two shits about'. Your logic is flawed. You don't care? Then don't waste web space on her. It's clear you care, since you are whining and such.
Jealousy is a horrible thing. Deny it all you want, but it is QUITE evident.
Would one of you mean girls be so kind as to direct me to where caLLie was named the "voice of all women in sl?" I surely could not find it in her blog, nor by googling it and I im'd her and asked her, and she said she had never known of receiving such a title, and that if she had, she would have declined as in her words "oh wow, I would never even imagine anyone could speak for all women, in SL or RL.... the women of SL are so wonderfully diverse, smart, and I can't see how anyone could accept a 'title' that would give them the role of speaking for all women, I certainly would not, it's not possible!"
So if she didn't know about this, and you all do, WHERE IS IT?
I found her to be quite down to earth actually, and when contacting her was wondering what kind of person I would run into. I have to admit most designers I've ever spoken to, haven't been too nice, so it was a surprise to meet someone that seemed quite approachable and spent more time answering me than I'd imagined she would.
The only other person who was ever this nice to me was Six Kennedy.
Anyway, if caLLie doesn't know of this title, then maybe you're mistaken and need to retract some of your comments.
We waste webspace on anything and everything. That's what we do. We stir up drama that is already there. Why? Because we can... and because we like to get people talking, even those who don't agree with us. This drama was just too juicy to walk away from. *licks her spoon*
Fine, call me jealous because I think someone with some background in what they are marketing would be a smart idea. Like I said, it's bad casting but hey, good for her. She did an amazing job hooking up with a RL company and I hope she makes a fat paycheck off of it - we could all use a little extra monies! ^^ Sure, I'd hook up with a RL company - but it'd have to be one I was familiar with and was willing to endorse, not just for fame. I won't put my name on anything I don't know and agree with.
"oh wow, I would never even imagine anyone could speak for all women, in SL or RL.... the women of SL are so wonderfully diverse, smart, and I can't see how anyone could accept a 'title' that would give them the role of speaking for all women, I certainly would not, it's not possible!"
That's exactally what I was saying.. only in nicer words. lol
FINALLY!!! and her self promoting comment is putting it mildly. She brags about every fart she blows and no its not jealousy its called we're tired of someone tooting their own horn when its not even deserved.
We sat down to discuss this campfire that has turned into a full blown inferno.
Chiming in with our two cents :) Opinions are just that. They are not fact nor is any one of them suitable for everyone.
This can be said of the Mean Girls as well.. We can be bitchy... and opinionated... sometimes... (we're women DUH!). We are a group who shares a blog but not always the same opinion. In fact, we do have our own individual opinions and don't so much like being told what they are! The two of us have very different opinions on this post in particular. However this is *not* our post and therefore we have refrained from chiming in.
what the Mean Girls share is a respect of one another and the trust that each one of us will provide thought-provoking, somewhat satirical, sometimes totally useless and unentertaining posts to entertain others if we can... and failing that... to entertain ourselves! This post has been read, reread, ripped apart looking for clues... it's been in our humble opinion... blown out of proportion. Callie Cline is indeed a very nice woman, but that was not called into question in this post. There is nothing malicious or particularly personal or inflammatory in the piece at all. It's a person stating an opinion... and as such, open to speculation and debate.
Besides all that... CC sells papers! kidding, kidding. Smiles people.
JellyBean & Rosie
Anon: "We're tired of someone tooting their own horn when its not even deserved."
Says anon in the blog where a bunch of people are claiming to be on some A-List when the vast majority of SL has never heard of any of them.
If that ain't tooting your horn, I don't know what is.
Anonymous, you say that someone is tooting their own horn? Look at the description of this blog:
"An A-List Cliques guide to..."
A-List? I've never heard of half of the people on this blog but then i've not heard of a majority of people in 2nd life but classing yourself as A-List is probably that biggest toot of all
Anon above me:
I wish you weren't anon because I think we'd be bestfriends.
Love, The Anon above you.
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