Posts by: Carly Murray

To Puff or to Post?

So what’s more addictive than alcohol, tobacco or coffee? Well according to researchers from the University of Chicago Business School, fighting the urge to check Facebook updates or tweeting apparently proves more difficult to resist than a cigarette, a glass of wine or cup of coffee, which all prompted much lower levels of desire despite their addictive reputation.
 

Now, I don't smoke or drink coffee so I can’t empathise with such a statement … but wowzas! This simply demonstrates the addictive characteristics that lie within social media. In today's cyberworld having a social networking account could be said a MUST, and this research takes it a step further.

The survey of 250 people also highlighted that sleep and sex were the two things people most longed for during the day, but that the urges to keep on top of social networks were the hardest to resist.

For advertisers this is surely a great thing, but the challenge is how to become part of this irresistible urge rather than intruding on it. For the everyday consumer, these are not only cheaper past times but also healthier!

A pioneering 3-D erotic comedy outsells Avatar…

"Sex and Zen" - a remake of a 1991 Hong Kong movie featuring  full nudity and camouflaged lovemaking has attracted viewers from Hong Kong and mainland China to cinemas for their “popcorn surprise”. 

Set in the Ming dynasty, the film tells the tale of a sexually frustrated scholar, who after being introduced into the world of an aristocrat, realises his ex-wife is the love of his life.

The saucy production took £219,852 on its first day, eclipsing the previous record for Hong Kong set by James Cameron's 2009 3-D sci-fi epic Avatar, which earned £207,638 and nearly seven times the total Hong Kong take so far for Scream 4.

According to producer Stephen Shiu the film “met people's expectations” so if you’re eager to duck flying body parts, you need to get yourself over to Hong Hong and join the steamy queues.

Big Fat Gypsy Wedding 1: Brit Awards 0

And there’s me thinking Katie Price’s wedding was one of extravagance…Her wedding to Peter Andre had nothing on the weddings the nation has been tuning in to watch on C4’s Big Fat Gypsy Wedding.  The UK nation has experienced some jaw-dropping viewing as we've had the chance to enter the secretive world of traveller weddings. The series is an observational documentary and made predominantly from the perspective of Gypsies and travellers talking about their own experiences. Warm, intelligent, engrossing and funny, Big Fat Gypsy Weddings tells intimate stories on an epic scale, laying bare an exotic unseen Britain that exists right on our doorstep. Having watched this series I can say that, there’s no wedding like a gypsy wedding – amazing attention to detail, celebrations on a grand scale - and dresses with lights on!  I particularly enjoyed the story of 17-year-old Josie, who married 19-year-old Swanley.  Her enormous wedding dress weighed over five stone, but that didn’t stop her from dancing provocatively as she prepared to leave for the church accompanied by her friends, who were somewhat chaperoned, yet still wearing saucy outfits containing less material than a hanky.

Whatever we think about the show we are all watching it and were all talking about it.  This has been illustrated in the fact that The Brit awards suffered its lowest ratings for five years after an average of only 4.8 million viewers tuned in to watch the ceremony.  ITV1's coverage was overtaken by the final episode of Big Fat Gypsy Weddings, seen by an average of 6.5m on Channel 4.