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12 May 2011 17:08

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Politics: Meghan McCain responds to Glenn Beck’s “vomiting” at the sight of her

  • There really is no need to make something like my participation in a skin cancer PSA into a sexist rant about my weight and physical appearance, because I’m going to let you in on a little secret, Glenn: You are the only one who looks bad in this scenario, and at the end of the day you have helped me generate publicity for my skin cancer PSA, a cause that I feel quite passionate about.
  • Meghan McCain • Responding to Glenn Beck’s rather terrible criticism (if you can call pretending to vomit at the sight of somebody a criticism) of her involvement in a PSA about skin cancer awareness. The spot features a myriad of pseudo-celebrities posing in ways to make them seem nude, without showing anything explicit. Presumably because Meghan is a bit curvier than some of the others, Glenn Beck decided it was a ripe time to pretend to puke for a few minutes. McCain is absolutely right about this. Beck looks like the worst kind of crass antagonist, a millionaire in his middle age acting like some petulant, unfunny little boy because a younger woman doesn’t suit his ideal of beauty. It’s wholly sexist, and utterly shameful. source

20 Nov 2010 21:50

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Music, Tech: Protip from MC Paul Barman: Cell phones emit radiation, guys

  • Our friend (and reader) Shawn Vulliez sent this clip along to us, which features MC Paul Barman (a guy you might know if you follow underground hip-hop) noting the dangers of cell phones over animations that Vulliez (a well-known artist himself) created. Sleep with your cell phone? Keep it in your jeans? You may want to consider not doing that. source

22 Feb 2010 10:40

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Culture: “Embrace Life”: Wrap your arms around pretentious seat belt ads

  • This approach to convincing people to wear seat belts is a little art-damaged, but it’s definitely effective. Next time we’re riding in a car, we’re going to get a mom and daughter to wrap their arms around us. Just look at how effective they are in this living room!

22 Sep 2009 11:17

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Culture: Will Ferrell’s pro-health insurer PSA will get you to support LOLs

  • This is clever. This “pro”-health-insurer PSA strikes at the heart of the whole debate by “favoring” the health insurance companies who are just trying to make millions of dollars. Funny as heck. One of the best Funny Or Die videos yet.

25 Aug 2009 21:01

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Culture: The texting-while-driving video designed to scare you #(^@less

  • This video is very disturbing. But it’s arguably such a great example of a scared-straight commercial that it’s bound to stick in the popular consciousness for a while. Note: Please be careful while watching. It’s dark. It may give you nightmares. source

07 Aug 2009 12:08

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Offbeat: Protip from Brazil: Pee in the shower. It saves money.

  • There’s a great PSA for this. We’re going to link it, though. Brazil wants people to save water. What do the suggest? Peeing in the shower! Of course! Why didn’t we think of this before? The animated video, funny but just crossing over that line into wrong, suggests that members of the entire family do it. It also shows all sorts of other people doing it – basketball players, Ghandi, Alfred Hitchcock, Stephen Hawking – and if the idea of having dozens of people urinating all over our Web site didn’t disturb us, we’d embed it here. Instead, you need to click the link. source

10 Jul 2009 10:23

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Sports: Bad kind of irony: Steve McNair was shooting an anti-suicide PSA

  • Obviously, never is a good time for that ad to air. The former Tennessee Titans quarterback, killed last weekend, was working with Tennessee health officials for the ad, but it hadn’t reached completion. The murder-suicide nature of the attack, now agreed upon by authorities, really doesn’t do that ad any favors. How unfortunate. source
 

03 Jun 2009 21:03

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Culture: How do you teach kids about domestic violence? Create PSAs.

  • A few months ago, a survey came out saying Boston-area teens thought Rihanna was responsible for the Chris Brown domestic violence case. So, as part of a contest, they got high schoolers to make these PSAs to emphasize no, she didn’t do it. source