What *Queer Eye* Can Teach You About The Media

1. Show your passion.

The Queer Eye Boys are into what they do. You can tell. Their show has such a different feeling than the spin-off *Queer Eye for the Straight Girl* which lacks chemistry and authenticity. The synergy between the hosts and guests comes through when you connect to the host and audience through your passion. Things come alive. I hate that saying, *If you can't be sincere, fake it until you can.* That's such a cop out.

It's like all this new veneered furniture with one thin layer of real wood masking pressboard or
plywood. Yuk. Are you telling me you can't tell the difference between what is solid and what is fake? In *The Practician's Manual of Legerdemain* Ottawa Keyes says, *When it comes to the requirements for pleasing an audience, all the knowledge and instruction and apparatus in the world is worth less than one ounce of soul.* Ain't it so?

2. Be cheeky.

When Carson, the head Queer Eye guy says, *Is it hot in here or is it just you?* and then almost licks some shirtless hottie blond boy we're right there with him. Yup, temperatures are rising. He makes us laugh and sweat at the same time. Loosen up a little and see what happens. Be playful. Say something a bit dangerous. Or better yet, DO something dangerous.

3. Give good tips.

After each segment the boys give their take-home tips. These are little gems that help you remember to properly tame your tangles, manage your manners, or bolt your belt at just the right angle. Provide your audience with saucy soundbites that linger so they can keep enjoying you. Give them solid ideas that they can implement asap. I've come to think that it's not the big idea but the minutiae that is most important. Take your ideas down to the smallest level of detail so they are easy for people to implement.

4. Show tangible visible results.

Visible transformations make audiences swoon. Can you do a before and after? In one show the *boys*
helped a balding man who was married to his toupee give it up. His wife and his kids hadn't seen his head without the fake hair for many years. His willingness to finally be *seen* was dramatic. His transformation was both inner and outer. These kinds of transformations keep audiences spellbound. Think about how you can devise one for a show you want to be on.

5. Have fun.

What makes Queer Eye so great is that everyone has such a grand time. What good is all the publicity in the world if you dread it? M. Scott Peck says *The truth is that our finest moments are most likely to occur when we are feeling deeply uncomfortable, unhappy, or unfulfilled. For it is only in such moments, propelled by our discomfort, that we are likely to step out of our ruts and start searching for different ways or truer answers.* If you can let go of the outcome (no matter how important--because those are the hardest ones to let go of), you will free yourself to have a good time, anytime, anywhere, with anyone. What could be better?

Video Takes Over the Web

Today, the web has become one of the most common platforms for personal socializing and marketing products and services throughout the world. With more bandwidth, now available for almost the price of peanuts, it has become very easy to put up content in the form of audio, video and images as compared to plain text. As the web began to take off and technology improved, people were able to use and utilize more interactive forms of media via the web.

Because of this, one of the most effective advertising and communicative media- web videos, have taken the place of TV commercials, life experiences and short movies!
Websites like Youtube.com and the likes, have capitalized on this phenomenon and have rooted themselves firmly in to the world of videos, which are taking over the web.

With various playback technologies now supported by the web, it has now become easier than every to incorporate videos on any website, hosted on any platform. The cost of putting up videos on the web is all dependent on the purpose and goal of the web videos.

Many large and small brands alike, have realized the potential of websites like youtube.com, and are releasing videos on the web, for their marketing campaigns. Individuals too, utilize and release web videos over the web. Some videos released over the web, are about sharing life experiences, some are about personal interviews, some for dating and so on.

Videos have taken over the web like a storm and their popularity is ever growing and ever increasing. So much so that, today major search engines like Google and Yahoo are working on web video search algorithms. The popularity of videos over the internet has soared to new heights especially with the advent of web video blogs, particularly since the sole purpose of web blogs, in general, is to facilitate the sharing of information, be it personal or commercial, with one’s self and others.

Web videos have another, ulterior advantage as compared to other web media like images, sounds and animation; that being the power to grab attention of all individuals efficiently, since the average attention span of an average Joe or Jane is extremely short and plenty of other options are available. Since, web videos are efficient and more to the point, many prefer to watch rather than read or listen. Web videos also offer extremely high entertainment value, engaging potential readers and customers alike, and the same time they are competent in portraying what one may want others to know, be it life experiences or marketing bottom-lines.

Thus web videos are not only the best and most efficient marketing tools on the web today, but also the best way to communicate and stay in touch with family and friends, express one’s feelings or give personal interviews. The ease of use, entertainment value and attention grabbing ability of web videos coupled up with the fact that they are easy to make/record, upload and share, is video has taken over the web.