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See how GLM Brand Affiliation Services can help your organization; call 1.512.815.8836 or email info@LanguageMonitor.com

President Obama’s State of the Union Address earlier this week provided the Global Language Monitor the opportunity to analyze the changing Obama Narrative since he rose to the national prominence some five years ago. GLM found three distinct narratives with the communication styles supporting each narrative forming arcs of their own, characterized by their specific word choices, styles of delivery, rhetoric, and diction.

Obama 1.0 Narrative
We had Obama 1.0 whose narrative was that of soaring rhetoric, of hope and inclusiveness, and meeting ourselves in the future.

Reprinted from The Hill, Washington, D.C.

This was the “Yes, We Can!” presidential hopeful who would lead us out of Iraq and Afghanistan, harness Iran, close down Git-mo, bring peace to the Holy Land and then get elected to the presidency. This was the time of short declarative sentences or finely honed sentences that would never end, but who cared? This was the un-Bush and proud to say it. This was yet another ‘New Order for the Ages’”.

Obama 1.0 Frequent Word Choices: Americans, Change, Hope, Dreams, Unity

Then the Bush Iraq war policies were kept in place (or even expanded), Guantanamo remained (and still remains) open. This transformation occurred as the hopes and dreams that Obama represented collided with a very real political reality, of war and terrorism, of K-Street operatives, and healthcare plans that had to be passed it in order to know what was in them.

This was the era when the top political buzzwords included ‘anger and rage’, the residue remaining from the (still-ongoing both then and now) global economic restructuring. GLM tested out the new meme and found that what had been characterized as ‘anger and rage’ was actually better represented as ‘frustration and disappointment’.

Obama 2.0 Narrative
The Obama 2.0 Narrative that emerged from the bitter and prolonged healthcare battle, where the behind the scenes wheeling-and-dealing seemed to equal (or even surpass) the worst in memory. Obama 2.0 was now viewed as an ‘aloof’ president who presided over the decision to ‘surge’ in Afghanistan, expanded Bush’s drone warfare, culminating in the president’s handling of the Gulf oil spill and the nationwide speech he then delivered.

Obama’s speech was considered a turning point by many supporters who longed for a leader who would demonstrate how an engaged president would quickly and effectively reach out to those in dire need during such an event (the direct opposite of the Bush response to Katrina). This was to prove not be the case – and the ‘Spill-Cam’ made it all the worse as the oil spouted forth, 24 x 7, for weeks on end.

The voters delivered their verdict on Obama 2.0 in early November 2010, where Obama’s party was pommelled by historic proportions.

Obama 2.0 frequent word choices: surge, Tea Party, deficit, oil spill, healthcare.

The Obama 3.0 Narrative

When President Obama delivered his third and possibly final State of the Union address, he used language that seemed to introduce yet another public persona. This would be his third since his emergence into the spotlight in 2007.

Judging from the language used during his recent State of the Union address, the Obama 3.0 Narrative will be very much like those of George W. Bush, with equal portions of the second term Bill Clinton, Ronald Reagan, and even a sprinkling of JFK. The Obama 3.0 Narrative’s word choices are only remotely attached to those of Ted Kennedy (and even Al Gore). Those of Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter were definitely eschewed.

Obama 3.0’s Narrative, according to his word choices and focus was on “American Values,” even citing “America as the indispensable nation” (Madeline Albright’s phrasing) apparently an updated reference to ‘American exceptionalism’, a phrase normally verboten to the American Left, since it can represent cultural imperialism and American political hegemony.

The president also emphasized phrases and buzzwords that are generally considered to skew right:

• Mentioned America and Americans nearly fifty times (vs. 11 times in his Inaugural Address)
• Defining issue was reclaiming American values.
• Offered unvarnished praise for the military
• Praised increased oil and oil production.
• Preaching fiscal and individual responsibility
• Highlighted “More feet on the border than ever before”

Finally, the use of negative words and phrases nearly surpassing that of positive words phrases in the State of the Union address.

• Weakened
• Shrinking
• Bailouts
• Handouts
• Cop-outs
• Fraud
• Dumping
• Out-dated
• Unnecessary
• Phony
• Obstruction
• Fiasco
• Plunged
• Unstable
• Corrosive
• Loopholes

Summary

Obama Narrative 3.0 is strikingly different than that of his campaign and early administration.

In some ways this could be the Left’s worst nightmare: a potentially transformative president, now turning into a Bill Clinton/Ronald Reagan hybrid.

In other ways this could be the Right’s worst nightmare: Obama as the 1996 Bill Clinton, adjusting to his Mid-term ‘thumpin’ and rushing to the center to win a second term.

GLM used NarrativeTracker Technology in this study. NarrativeTracker is based on the global discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture of what any audience is saying about any topic, at any point in time. NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, the top global print and electronic media, as well as new media sources as they emerge.

Paul JJ Payack is the president of Global Language Monitor.

The highest rated ‘branded individuals’ across fields include Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, and,  the former Kate Middleton.

Austin, Texas January 14, 2012 – Tim Tebow, the reverent, knee-bending, soft-spoken quarterback of the Denver Broncos, has now claimed another milestone:  Tebow now tops the Global Language Monitor‘s Sports Brand Affiliation Index (SBAI).   The GLM SBAI tracks the top athletes in a variety of global athletic endeavors and measures the strength of their ‘brand affiliation’  to their particular  sport.

Tebowing Child

For this analysis, GLM tracked athletes in American football, baseball, basketball, football (soccer), Formula 1, golf, NASCAR, tennis, track and field, skiing, and swimming.

The frenzy has only increased over the last week with Tebow’s dramatic touchdown pass on the first play of overtime to defeat the heavily favored (and defending conference champions) Pittsburgh Steelers.

“In the rankings, Tebow bested this week’s nemesis, Tom Brady, by a score of 100.00 to 38.96, and the defending Super Bowl winning quarterback, Aaron Rodgers of the Green Bay Packers, who scored 28.13 on the Sports BAI,” said Paul JJ Payack, president and Chief Word Analyst of GLM . “Perhaps more surprising, is that Tebow out-ranked fourteen champion athletes in more than a dozen global sports, among them the reigning champions of Formula 1, various Summer and Winter Olympic events, the National Basketball Association , Skiing, and Tennis.”

The Sports BAI is one of a number of  Leading Brand Affiliated Indicators that GLM uses to measure the influence of ‘branded individuals’ in fields as varied as Entertainment, Politics, Celebrity, Royalty, and the retired-yet-still powerful. The highest rated ‘branded individuals’ across fields include Lady Gaga, Justin Bieber, and, of course, the former Kate Middleton.

GLM has previous noted that the rapid rise of  ’tebowing’ as an English language word closely resembling the rate of  adoption of the word Obamamania in early 2008.   The first mention of ‘tebowing’ can be traced to the dramatic overtime victory of the Denver Broncos football team over the Miami Dolphins on October 23, 2011, when  Tebow ‘took a knee’  in a moment of prayerful reflection.

The Sports BAI is one of a number of  Brand Affiliated Indexes that GLM uses to measure the influence of ‘branded individuals’ in fields as varied as Entertainment, Politics, Celebrity, Royalty, and the retired-yet-still powerful.

GLM consultants employ its NarrativeTracker technologies for brand-affiliated tracking, forecasting, and analysis. NarrativeTracker is based on global discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture about any topic at any point in time. NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the top 75,000 print and electronic global media, as well as new media sources, as they emerge.

Non-sponsors Continue to Rank High on Brand Affiliation Index (BAI)

Austin, Texas, January 12, 2012. IBM Global Services, Dell, and Nike were among the Top “Ambush Marketers” for the London 2012 Olympics as ranked by The Global Language Monitor (GLM), the Internet and Media Trend Tracking Company. In the rankings, encompassing Q3 and Q4 of 2011, GLM measured the strength of the brand affiliation for each official Olympic sponsor as well as those of their primary non-affiliated competitors.

“There is more than pride at stake, since billions of dollars in incremental revenue are at risk for the official Olympic sponsors. In turn,  these same organizations fund some 30% of staging the Games,” said Paul JJ Payack, president of the Austin, Texas based Global Language Monitor. “Though ‘ambush marketing’ is well understood to mean ‘an organization knowingly exploiting a brand affiliation with the Games without the benefit of official sponsorship’, all perceived Olympic sponsors (according to their presence in the global media and statistically linked to the London Games) qualify for GLM’s Ambush Marketing Index.”

There are twenty-five top official Olympic sponsors divided into three tiers: Worldwide Partners, Official Partners, and Official Supporters. GLM tracks over fifty non-affiliated companies that are direct competitors with the Official Olympic sponsors.

Measuring each tier against their ambushers, GLM has found that, for the second half of 2011, two of the three tiers of Ambushers beat their legitimate competitors according to the  Q4 2011 Brand Affiliation Index.

Comparison of London 2012 Sponsors Vs. Ambushers by Q4 2011 BAI

Among Worldwide Partners

1. Coca-Cola,
2. DOW, and
3. McDonald’s

scored the highest on GLM’s Brand Affiliation Index (BAI) for Q4 2011.

In terms of movement, Omega and Coca-Cola both improved their BAIs by some 350%, over the last half of 2011.

Among Worldwide Partner Ambushers

1. IBM Global Services (Atos),
2. Royal Phillips (General Electric),
3. HP (Acer),
4. Barclaycard (Visa), and
5. Dell (Acer)

all scored significantly higher on GLM’s BAI for Q4 2011 than their Worldwide Partner competitors. In terms of movement, IBM Global Services, Dell, and KFC all improved their BAI’s by 250% or more through the end of 2011.

Among Official Partners

1. EDF Energy,
2. Lloyds TSB, and
3. the BT Group

scored the highest on GLM’s Brand Affiliation Index (BAI) for Q4 2011. In terms of movement, Lloyds TSB, the BT Group, and BP, all improved their BAI more than 100% over the last half of 2011.

Among Official Partner Ambushers

1. UnitedContinental (BA),
2. the 3i Group (Lloyds TSB)
3. Nike (Adidas)

all scored significantly higher on GLM’s BAI for Q4 2011 than their Worldwide Partner competitors. In terms of movement, the 3i Group (Lloyds TSB), UnitedContinental (BA), and Nike (Adidas) all improved their BAI’s by 250% or more through the end of 2011.

Among Official Supporters,

1. Arcelor Mittal,
2. UPS
3. Cadbury

scored the highest on GLM’s Brand Affiliation Index (BAI) for Q4 2011.

In terms of movement, Arcelor Mittal, Cadbury, Cisco Systems, and Adecco all improved their BAI more than 200% over the last half of 2011.

Among Official Supporter Ambushers,

1. Hebie Steel (Arcelor Mittal)
2. Kraft (Cadbury)
3. PricewaterhouseCoopers (Deloitte)

all scored significantly higher on GLM’s BAI for Q4 2011 than their Official Supporter competitors.

In terms of movement, Hebie Steel (Arcelor Mittal), DHL (UPS), and Ericsson (Cisco) improved their BAI’s by 250% or more through the end of 2011.

Customized GLM Ambush Marketing Rankings are released monthly up to and following London 2012. They can also be individualized for any organization. The Ambush Marketing London 2012 report features dozens of charts representing the interrelationship of each company to the Olympic Brand, their competitors and their partners. In addition, the reports contain exclusive and individualized Narrative Tracker analyses, the most advanced trend tracking analytics available. For more information, individualized reports, or a monthly subscription, call +1.512.518.8836 or email info@LanguageMonitor.com.

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The Projected Top Words of 2012

Rank / Word / Comments

Six-week rise of the Global Phenomenon

Austin, Texas December 12, 2011  (Dec. 16 update)– Tebowing, the act of  ’taking a knee’  in prayerful reflection in the midst of an athletic activity, has been acknowledged as an English language word according to the Global Language Monitor.

Tebowing Enters English Video

The rapid rise of use of the word  has seldom been equaled, mirroring, for example, the rate of  adoption of the word Obamamania in early 2008.  The first mention of the word can be traced to the dramatic overtime victory of the Denver Broncos football team over the Miami Dolphins on October 23, 2011.  During the victory celebration, Tim Tebow ‘took a knee’ and was photographed in a moment of prayerful reflection.  Tebow is the 2007 Heisman trophy winner who  led the University of Florida to the 2008 BCS National Championship.

Though there is no official agency for accepting new words (or neologisms) into the English lexicon such as France’s Académie française, since 2003 the Global Language Monitor has been recognizing new words once they meet the criteria of a minimum number of citations across the breadth of the English-speaking world, with the requisite depth of usage on the Internet, in social media and in the top 75,000 global print and electronic media.

“Sports have become significant generators of new cultural trends and memes that transcend the athletic arena”,  said Paul JJ Payack, president and chief word analyst of the Global Language Monitor.  ”The ESPN sports broadcasting network has widely championed the word.  Jared Kleinstein’s tebowing.com website, devoted to people posing in the ‘tebowing position’, has been wildly popular.  The New York Times has recently carried an editorial on the subject and the Chinese search engine, Baidu.com, already has hundreds of citations for tebowing.” (See  ’Tebowing Goes Global’ in The Daily Beast.)

The Urban Dictionary defines ‘tebowing’ as ”To get down on a knee and start praying, even if everyone else around you is doing something completely different’.

The English language currently has some 1.58 billion speakers around the globe.

GLM released its Top Words, Phrases and Names of the Year lists on November 10th. Occupy is the Top Word of the Year, Arab Spring the Top Phrase of the Year, and Steve Jobs the Top Name of the Year.

GLM employs its NarrativeTracker technologies for global Internet and social media analysis. NarrativeTracker is based on global discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture about any topic at any point in time. NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the top 75,000 print and electronic global media, as well as new social media sources.

Arab Spring is the Top Phrase of the Year and

Steve Jobs is the Top Name of the Year

Global Language Monitor’s 12th Annual Survey of Global English

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AUSTIN, Texas  December 6, 2011 (Updated from November 10) — The Global Language Monitor has announced that ‘Occupy’ is the Top Word, ‘Arab Spring’ the Top Phrase and ‘Steve Jobs’ the Top Name of 2011 in its annual global survey of the English language. Occupy was followed by deficit, fracking, drone, and non-veg. Kummerspeck, haboob, 3Q, Trustafarians, and (the other) 99 rounded out the Top 10.

“Our selections this year, to a large extent, reflect the ongoing political and economic uncertainty that seems to be affecting much of the developed world – with notable exceptions such as the Royal wedding and the continuing rise of China ,” said Paul JJ Payack, President of the Global Language Monitor.

“Our top words, phrases and names this year come from five continents… confirmation of the ever-expanding influence of the English language.

“The words are culled from throughout the English-speaking world, which now numbers more than 1.58 billion speakers. The Global Language Monitor’s Word of the Year rankings are based upon actual word usage in the English speaking world.

“In global English, words are not bestowed upon, agreed upon, or voted upon by cultural or academic elites but, rather, words are defined from the bottom up, that is, by the people themselves — and this is true whether in the East End of London, or south-central LA, the projects in Brooklyn, the slums of Kingston, the call centers of Mumbai, the streets of Singapore, the text messages out of Shanghai, or the fashion districts of Sydney.”

GLM employs its NarrativeTracker technologies for global Internet and social media analysis. NarrativeTracker is based on global discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture about any topic, at any point in time. NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the top 75,000 print and electronic global media, as well as new social media sources.

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See the Photo Essay from the Toronto Star

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BBC Magazine: The rich: Exactly what does that mean?

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.2011, l’année Steve Jobs?

(Time Person of the Year?)

Nunberg also selects ‘occupy’ as the 2011 Word of the Year

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The Top Words of 2011

Rank / Word / Comments

1. Occupy – ‘Occupy’ has risen to pre-eminence through Occupy Movement, the occupation of Iraq, and the so-called ‘Occupied Territories’.   (Also named by NPR and Time.)

2. Deficit – Growing and possibly intractable problem for the economies of the developed world.

3. Fracking – Hydraulic fracturing is a controversial method for extracting fossil fuels from hitherto unreachable deposits.

4. Drone – The ever increasing number of remotely piloted aircraft used for reconnaissance and attack purposes.

5. Non-veg – A meal served with meat, originally from India, now catching on worldwide.

6. Kummerspeck – From the German seeing wider acceptance in the English, excess weight gained from emotional overeating (grief bacon).

See the Photo Essay from The Stylist (UK)

7. Haboob – A name imported from the Arabic for massive sandstorms in the American Southwest.

8. 3Q – Near universal term for ‘thank you’ now earning additional status after being banned from official Chinese dictionaries. Another example of the ever- increasing mixing of numbers and letters to form words.

9. Trustafarians – Well-to-do youth (trust-funders) living a faux-Bohemian life style, now associated with the London Riots.

10. (The Other) 99 – Referring to the majority of those living in Western Democracies who are left out of the dramatic rise in earnings associated with “the Top 1%”.

The Top Phrases of 2011

Rank / Phrase / Comment

1. Arab Spring – The series of uprisings, social protests, and rebellions occurring among many nations of the Arab World beginning this spring.

2. Royal Wedding – The wedding of the former Kate Middleton and heir-to-the-British-Throne, Prince William that captivated millions around the world.

3. Anger and Rage – Characterizations of the global electorate by the pundits, though closer analyses has revealed more frustration than anger and more disappointment than rage.

4. Climate Change – No. 1 phrase for the first decade of the 21st century; still resonates into its second decade.

5. The Great Recession – Though officially over, the media term most frequently used to describe the on-going global economic restructuring.

6. Tahrir Square – The scene of the ‘25th of January’ demonstrations in Cairo against Hosni Mubarak.

7. Linear No Threshold (LNT) – The methodology to calculate risk from exposure to radioactive elements from the Fukushima Daiiachi disaster.

8. Bunga Bunga – Re-emerged in the language through ‘bunga-bunga’ parties hosted by Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.

9. ‘How’s that working out for you?’ – The New York Times credits Sarah Palin, but it predates her use of the phrase by several decades.

10. “Make no mistake about it!” – President Obama has repeated the phrase thousands of times since his 2008 election.

The Top Names of 2011

Rank / Name / Comments

1. Steve Jobs – The citations for Steve Jobs topped those for No. 2 (Osama bin-Laden and Seal Team 6) by more than 30%.

2. Osama bin-Laden & Seal Team 6 – Who changed the world more? Al-Qaeda or Steve Jobs?

3. Fukushima – The epicenter of the Japanese Triple Disaster (earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown).

4. Mohamed Bouazizi – the Tunisian fruit vendor who set himself afire and became the symbol of Tunisian resistance – and the Arab Spring.

5. Chinese Paramount Leader Hu Jintao – The Rise of the Tiger being a primary cause of the Global Economic Restructuring.

6. Kate Middleton – She captivated the world with her elegance and style and continues to do so as the Duchess of Cambridge.

7. Muammar Gaddafi – Libyan strongman toppled in the recent insurrection.

8. President Obama – Hope and Change retreat further into the history books; the game plan is now for survival.

9. PIIGS – The nations of Portugal, Ireland, Italy Greece and Spain taken together for their untenable deficits possibly affecting the economic health of the Eurozone.

10. Yaroslavl Lokomotiv – The ill-fated elite Russian hockey team that was virtually wiped out in the crash of a three-engine Yak-42.

Top Words of the Decade

The Top Words of the Decade  Global Warming, 9/11, and Obama outdistanced Bailout, Evacuee, and Derivative; Google, Surge, Chinglish, and Tsunami followed. Climate Change was top phrase; Heroes was the top name.

Previous Words of the Year include:

2010:
Top Words: No. 1 Spillcam, No. 2 Vuvuzela, No. 3 The Narrative
Top Phrases: No. 1 Anger and Rage, No. 2 Climate Change, No. 3 The Great Recession
Top Names: No. 1 Hu Jintao, paramount leader of China, No. 2 iPad, No. 3 Barack Obama

2009:
Top Words: No. 1 Twitter, No. 2 Obama-, No. 3 H1N1
Top Phrases: No. 1 King of Pop, No. 2 Obama-mania, No. 3 Climate Change
Top Names: No. 1 Obama, No. 2 Michael Jackson, No. 3 Mobama

2008:
Top Words: No. 1 Change, No. 2 Bailout, No. 3 Obama-mania
Top Phrases: No. 1 Financial Tsunami, No. 2 Global Warming, No. 3 “Yes, We Can!”
Top Names: No. 1 Barack Obama, No. 2 George W. Bush, No.3 Michael Phelps

2007:

Top Words: No. 1 Hybrid (representing all things green), No. 2: Surge
Top Phrase: Climate Change
Top Name: Al Gore

2006:
Top Word: Sustainable
Top Phrase: Stay the Course
Top Name: Dafur

2005:
Top Words: No. 1, Refugee No. 2: Tsunami No. 3: Katrina
Top Phrase: Outside the Mainstream
Top Name: (acts of ) God

2004:
Top Word: Incivility (for inCivil War)
Top Phrase: Red States/Blue States No. 2: Rush to War
Top Name: Dubya/Rove

2003:
Top Word: Embedded
Top Phrase: Shock and Awe, No. 2: Rush to War
Top Name: Saddam Hussein, No. 2 Dubya

2002:

Top Word: Misunderestimate

Top Phrase: Threat Fatigue
Top Name: W (Dubya)

2001:
Top Word: Ground Zero
Top Phrase: ‘Lets Roll’
Top Name: The Heros

2000:
Top Word: Chad
Top Phrase: Dot.com
Top Name: W (Dubya)

About The Global Language Monitor

Austin-Texas-based Global Language Monitor analyzes and catalogues the latest trends in word usage and word choices and their impact on the various aspects of culture, with a particular emphasis upon Global English.

For more information, call 1.925.367.7557, email info@LanguageMonitor.com, or visit www.LanguageMonitor.com.

Non-sponsors Ranking High on Brand Affiliation Index for London 2012

Austin, Texas, October 10, 2011.   Subway, Red Bull and Sony are among the Top “Ambush Marketers”  for the London 2012 Olympics.

The Ambush Marketing Rankings for London 2012 were released earlier today by The Global Language Monitor (GLM), the Internet and Media Trend Tracking Company.   In the rankings, GLM measures the strength of the brand affiliation for each official Olympic sponsor as well as those of their primary competitors.

Among Worldwide Partners, Samsung, McDonald’s, Visa, Dow and P&G scored the highest on GLM’s Brand Affiliation Index (BAI) for London 2012.

Ambush Marketers can, and often do, out-perform official sponsors.  “The term ambush marketing is well understood to mean that an organization knowingly exploits a brand affiliation with the Games — without the benefit of official sponsorship.  However, all perceived Olympic sponsors according to their presence in the global media, and statistically linked to the London Games, qualify for the Ambush Index. GLM measures whatever perceived relationship exists between their organizations and London 2012”, “said Paul JJ Payack, president of the Austin, Texas based Global Language Monitor.  ”In some cases the brand affiliation is due to successful current or past affiliations, such as that of Lenovo and the Games.  Other times, it is because of clever (and legal) marketing efforts that exploit a company’s association with individual Olympians or sports in general, such as Subway ads with an Olympian who has come to symbolize the games themselves, or Red Bull securing naming rights to the Cycling venue.”

Among Worldwide Partners, the companies with the highest Brand Affiliation Index for London 2012 follow:

Leaders:  Highest Brand Affiliation Index

As you can see, Samsung, McDonald’s and the others are tightly tied to the upcoming games.

Not all organizations are faring as well in the BAI.  Here a few of the laggards in having their identities tied to London 2012.

Laggards:  Lowest Brand Affiliation Index

Among some Worldwide Partners, non-sponsor Sony scores a far higher BAI than the Official Worldwide Partner, Panasonic.  The same is true for Lenovo and Acer as well as Subway and McDonalds.

Non-sponsors with Higher BAI than Official Sponsors

Finally, the scores of all organizations are indexed against each other, to better understand the relative Brand Equity rankings of Sponsor vs. Non-sponsor.

So non-sponsor Nike has 13X more brand equity associated with London 2012 than the Official Partner, Adidas, while the Official Partner BA’s three main competitors combined have only a fraction of the associated brand equity associated compared to BA (.33 combined).

The Olympics are still ten months off, enough time for the laggards to improve their performance.

The Rankings will be released monthly up to and following London 2012.  Complete information on the monthly Ambush Marketing Rankings for London 2012 Olympics can be delivered as a subscription.  For Subscription information call 925.367.7557 or email pjjp@post.harvard.edu.

About Global Language Monitor

Founded in Silicon Valley, GLM collectively documents, analyzes and tracks trends worldwide, with a particular emphasis upon the English language. GLM employs proprietary ‘algorithmic methodologies’ such as the NarrativeTracker for global Internet and social media analysis.  NarrativeTracker is based on global discourse, providing a real-time, accurate picture of what the public is saying about any topic, at any point in time. NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the top 75,000 print and electronic global media  media, as well as new social media sources.

Austin-based Global Language Monitor is the pioneer in web-based media analytics.

For more information, go to www.LanguageMonitor.com, call 1.925.367.7557, or email pjjp@post.harvard.edu.

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Eighth Annual Analysis of the Top Words from Television by the Global Language Monitor

Austin, Texas, September 20, 2011. The Global Language Monitor today announced that the ‘Royal Wedding’ of Kate Middleton and Prince William is the Top Television Word (or phrase) of the 2011 season. ‘Royal Wedding’ topped Charlie Sheen’s self-descriptive ‘Winner’ for the Top Spot. ‘Arab Spring’, ‘X-Factor’, and ‘Oprah’ rounded out the Top Five. ‘Fukashima,’ ’9/11′, ‘Obama-vision’, ’Chicago-style pols’ and ‘Zombies’ completed the Top Ten. Surprisingly the drama surrounding the killing of Osama bin Laden by Navy Seal Team 6 did not break into the No. 10.

“This apparently is shaping up to be the Year of Kate (Middleton). She has come to dominate the small screen through her engagement, her fashion choices and most of all her Royal Wedding,” said Paul JJ Payack, President and Chief Word Analyst of the Global Language Monitor. “Aside from the princess, this is the first time that ‘news’ has dominated the Top TeleWords of any given year. There are those who maintain that the pace of events is accelerating — and it does appear that social media is playing an ever-expanding role in that process.”

The awards are annually announced at the beginning of the fall television season in the US, traditionally opened with the 63rd Annual Emmy Awards. (Sunday, September 18th, 8:00 p.m. ET). This is the eighth annual analysis by the Austin-based Global Language Monitor.

The Top Telewords of the 2011 season with commentary follow:

1. Royal Wedding (Kate) — Kate reigns once more, this time on the small screen.

2. Winner (Charlie Sheen) – Winner, Tiger blood, goddesses … Fukashima was not the only meltdown on the world stage this year.

3. Arab Spring — The rolling unrest in the Middle East to some extent fueled by social media, such as Facebook and Twitter.

4. X-factor — In algebra, X is the unknown quantity or variable. In TV lingo it stands for Simon Cowell’s empire of dozens of X-factor shows around the globe.

5. Oprah – A name without precedent (or predecessor) rising to prominence because of Winfrey’s season-long farewell tour.

6. Fukashima – The epicenter for the Japanese Triple Disaster (tsunami, earthquake and nuclear meltdown).

7. 9/11 – The recent 10th year commemoration reminds that it is one of the handful of historical events whose date will actually ‘live in infamy’.

8. Obama-vision – The president’s appearances have turned increasingly more prosaic in the third year of his presidency.

9. Chicago-style politics (The Good Wife) – Rahm Emanuel vies with the Good Wife for the better rendition of a Chicago Pol’s life.

10. Zombies (The Walking Dead) – Continue to infect the world through dozens of shows on the small screen.

The Top Telewords of previous years:

2010 – SpillCam from the Gulf Oil Spill, followed by Guido (Jersey Shore) and Reality (TV)

2009 – ObamaVision — All Obama, all the time, everywhere, followed by Financial Meltdown and the death of Michael Jackson.

2008: Beijing (from the Olympics), ObamaSpeak, followed by ‘facts are stubborn things’, ‘it is what it is,’ and Phelpsian.

2007: “Surge” from the Iraq War political and military strategy, “That’s Hot®” Paris Hilton’s popular expression that is now a registered trademark, and “D’oh!” from The Simpsons and The Simpsons Movie.

2006: ‘Truthiness’ and ‘Wikiality’ from the Colbert Show followed by ‘Katrina’, ‘Katie,’ and ‘Dr. McDreamy’.

2005: ‘Refugee’ from the coverage of the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, followed by ‘Desperation’ from Desperate Housewives and ‘Camp Cupcake’ from the on-going Martha Stewart follies.

2004: “You’re Fired!” edged “Mess O’ Potamia” followed by “Girlie Men,” “God,” and “Wardrobe Malfunction”.

Time Newsfeed:  TV talk: royal wedding

According to the Global Language Monitor, royal wedding was the “top TV word” of the year. The second-place finisher was winner (courtesy of Charlie Sheen’s uber-public meltdown), and the third was Arab Spring, referring to the uprisings and revolutions that have taken place throughout the Arab world in recent months. At least something substantive made it onto the podium (particularly given that the fourth place finisher was X-Factor, as in the Simon Cowell show, and the fifth was—god love ‘er—Oprah).

Each word counts: The Global Language Monitor also produces an estimate of words in the English language. The number they came up with this year was 1,010,649.7 (the 7/10 of a word presumably counting a phrase a drunk person almost coined). Incidentally, according to their estimate, the number of words in our language is roughly 14% the amount of dollars Warren Buffett paid in federal taxes last year. Mega-rich, indeed.
Read more: http://newsfeed.time.com/2011/09/21/wednesday-words-the-buffett-tax-moustache-vocab-and-more/#ixzz1YchByMgg

By Toni Fitzgerald, Media Life Magazine,

Sometimes perception is better than reality, and so it is for the brands that have managed to associate themselves with the Olympic Games without paying the exorbitant rights fees that come with official sponsorship.

They’re commonly referred to as “ambush marketers”, and though the London Games are still nearly a year away, some ambush marketers are making more of an impression on Olympic fans than the official sponsors.

That’s according to the first ambush marketing rankings for the London 2012 Olympic Games, released by The Global Language Monitor (GLM), which measures the strength of the brand affiliation between each of the worldwide partners, official partners, and official sponsors and the London Games and then compares it to competing companies that are not officially affiliated with the Games

Sony, Subway, DuPont, Barclay Card and Lenovo are the top five companies with the highest unofficial London brand affiliation.

All have a stronger association with the Games than the official sponsors they compete against.

They’ve achieved this by incorporating Olympic imagery into their ads, such as athletes competing in the sports being contested in London.

Though some object to the term “ambush”, it’s clear that their intention is to gain the positive affiliation with the Games without paying the sponsorship fees, which cost in the nine-figure range for top-level sponsorship.

“Few things in top-tier consumer-facing companies occur ‘naturally’ or ‘spontaneously,’ especially when they are engineered to look that way,” says Paul JJ Payack, president of GLM.

“This is why advertisers adept at associating themselves with an event, even though they are not ‘official’ sponsors of that event, can often out-perform official sponsors.”

Subway, for instance, is roughly two times as likely as official Olympics sponsor McDonald’s to be associated with the Games.

That’s mainly because swimmer Michael Phelps, the most decorated Summer Olympian ever, appears in Subway ads.

“Subway is acknowledged as a leader in this regard [ambush marketing] with their close ties to Michael Phelps, who in many minds personifies the Olympic brand and spirit: clean-living, hard-work, pulling himself up by his own bootstraps,” says Payack.

Some sponsors are still reaping the benefits of past sponsorship. Lenovo, for example, ended its sponsorship deal after the 2008 Beijing Games, but the company is three times as likely as the computer vendor that took its place, Acer, to be associated with the Olympics.

The benefit to these ambush marketers is clear.

They get all of the positives of Olympic sponsorship – the feel-good vibes, the legitimacy, the eyeballs – at a much lower expense.

The International Olympic Committee is not happy about this, of course.

During last year’s Vancouver Games, it successfully lobbied the Canadian Parliament to pass a bill restricting the use of certain combinations of words and numbers in advertising, such as snow, winter and games, to prevent non-sponsors from piggybacking on the Games.

Still, clever advertisers always find a way around that.

Red Bull, which consistently ranks near the top of the ambush list, recently bought naming rights to the new velodrome in London that will house the indoor bicycle events, ensuring the brand name will be heard in broadcasts even if its ads will not.

No permissions necessary.

By Paul JJ Payack

AUSTIN, Texas.  September 11, 2011.  For the decade, The Global Language Monitor, and its predecessors have been keeping track of the manner in which the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001 have changed the way Americans Talk.  We have updated our findings several times since, as the language has evolved with the ensuing events of the decade, most tragic (Iraq, 7/7, Afghanistan, the Global Economic Restructuring), others seemingly beyond surreal  (the Southeast Asian Tsunami, the inundation of New Orleans) a welcome few comforting.

Aftermath  by Paul JJ Payack

We have found subtle yet profound differences in our everyday speech since that day when terrorist attacks unfolded   on the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the pending targets in Washington, D.C., widely suspected to be the White House or the Capitol Building.  The changes we have tracked include the way Americans speak in terms of subject matter, vernacular, word choice and tone.

9/11

The first case is the use of 9/11, itself, as a shorthand for the 2001 terrorist attacks.  Using various web metrics, 9/11 outpaces any other name, including the spelled out ‘September 11th” by 7:1 margin. This designation, in itself, is quite interesting. It is true that Franklin D. Roosevelt proclaimed the Pearl Harbor attack as “December 7th, 1941 as a day which will live in infamy”.   But there were no “12/7″ rallying cries thereafter. Neither were the dates immortalized of the original battles of the Korean War, the Gulf of Tonkin Incident which preceded the major escalation of the Vietnam War, the Persian Gulf War, the siege of Afghanistan siege, or the invasion of Iraq.  Only the 7/7 attacks on the London  transportation system are recorded in common memory by their date (and primarily in the UK).  .

Ground Zero

The name Ground Zero now evokes a sacred place, where the World Trade Center’s Twin Towers once stood. It is also revered as a burial ground since thousands of bodies literally vaporized in the ensuing collapse with no remains found whatsoever.

Almost universally, it is capitalized as any other proper name, with a few exceptions, most notably the New York Times (and later legitimized in the AP Style Guide).

In fact, the Times continues to insist on referring to Ground Zero in the lower case, calling it, for example, ‘the area known as ground zero’.   Admittedly, ground zero also refers to the epicenter of a nuclear blast.  In the minds of this generation, this is a close as they have ever gotten to such an event (or ever expect to).

Names are officially bestowed in a number of ways, most often by bureaucratic committees following arcane sets of rules, answering to few. In this case, we kindly request those nameless bureaucrats to follow the lead of hundreds of millions around the world who have formally bestowed upon that special place, the formal name: Ground Zero.

Heroes

In mythology, heroes were men and women often of divine ancestry endowed with the gifts of courage and strength.  In reality, everyday heroes of the late 20th and early 21st centuries were sports figures (‘Be like Mike’ and ‘Where have you gone, Joe DiMaggio’), comic book and cartoon characters ala

Superman and Spiderman, and all too frequently ‘anti-heroes’ known for the colossal damage they might inflict upon a helpless (and often hapless) world.

Into this tableaux, came the heroes of 9/11, very real men and women, rushing into and up the Towers as everyone else was rushing down and out; rushing the cockpit of Flight 93, with plastic knives and forks and  hot coffee, forcing the startled highjackers to abandon their plans of crashing into the Capitol or White House rather than the previously unheralded soil of Swanksville, PA; and the men and women who quietly stood their posts at the Pentagon, just doing their duty, not knowing if they would be subjected to another horrific, and more deadly, attack at any moment.

Jericho Sounding by Paul JJ Payack

In the post-9/11 world, the term has now come to apply to any who place their lives in danger to foster the common good, especially ‘first-responders’ such as: firefighters, EMTs, and police, who quietly place their lives on the line every day.

Another historic change is the treatment of American soldiers with the respect they have been unaccustomed to since the days of the Vietnam War.  The public has evidently been able to separate the politics of the wars from the all-too-human participants.

-stan

The suffix in Persian and related languages that means, literally, ‘land of,’ hence, Afghanistan or Land of the Afghans, or Kurdistan (or Kurdish Territories), or even this relatively new moniker: Londonistan.  Talibanistan, referring to Afghanistan and the ‘tribal lands’ in Pakistan.  The suffix has been appropriated in various, often humorous, ways such as the famous New Yorker cover that referred to the various ‘-stans’ one encounters in post-Modern life.

The Demarcation of Time

The date 9/11 now has a special place as a time marker or time stamp; we now  frequently delineate time periods as either pre-9/11 or post 9/11.

The unCivil (or inCivil) War

Since 9/11, the political discourse of American politics has, arguably, descended to its lowest level since the Civil-War era when Lincoln was typically depicted as a know-nothing, Bible-spouting Baboon. Even speech of the Watergate era was spared the hyperbole commonly heard today, as respect for the institution of the presidency remained high, even though the President was widely disdained.

Today, political opponents are routinely called ‘liars,’ are typically compared to Hitler, Nazis and Fascists by those who evidently know little of either history or political theory.

When tragedies do occur (the inundation of New Orleans, the Gulf Oil Spill, the Global Economic Restructuring), no opportunities are overlooked to demonize the sitting president by the ‘loyal’ opposition.  And the vitriol has steadily increased throughout the decade as measured by various longitudinal indices of GLM.  In fact, much of the frustration with President Obama now associated with liberals and progressives has been trending upward since his inauguration, though it was overlooked by the conventional media and polling organizations because traditional polling and information gathering often finds itself at a disadvantage when compared to Internet and social-media based trend-tracking organizations.

It is very difficult to pinpoint the exact cause of this debasement of political speech and rhetoric, but it has been suggested that in the face of a nearly invisible, constantly morphing, enemy, we have turned the attack inward, upon ourselves, and our institutions.

Apocalyptic-type Terminology

In an exclusive of the worldwide media, GLM has also found a decided rise in apocalyptic-type terminology in the description of tragedies but even with events of inconvenience (such as Washington’s Snowmageddon of last winter or the recent Carpocalypse  in Los Angeles).  After all it does snow in Washington, D.C. every winter and freeways are frequently closed the world over for repairs.

Vanquished & Vanished by Paul JJ Payack

This trend town alarming references include:   Biblical, Hiroshima-type references, Catastrophe, Holocaust, Apocalypse, decimation, and End-of-the-World scenarios.  These alarmist references are recorded across the full spectrum of print and electronic media.  It appears as if the world is stunned the string of early 21^st catastrophes.  (By the way, the world still has to deal with the so-called end of the Mayan calendar extinction event that is scheduled to occur on December 22^nd of next year.)

The global media appear mesmerized by the constant bombardment of television images of apparently rampaging, out-of-control elements, such as

the truly catastrophic  combination of earthquake, tsunami, and nuclear meltdown in Japan, where authorities encounter vast difficulties in keeping  their own people fed, sheltered, evacuated, and, even, from dying on the street.

During the inundation of New Orleans, the Sunday Times (London) stated, “Devastation that could send an area the size of England back to the Stone Age”.  The story continues, “AMERICA comes to an end in Montgomery, Alabama … it has been replaced by a dangerous and paranoid post-apocalyptic landscape, short of all the things fuel, phones, water and electricity needed to keep the 21st century switched on. By the time you reach Waveland, Mississippi, the coastal town of 6,800 where corpses lie amid a scene of Biblical devastation, any semblance of modern society has gone. “

Everyday language changes with 9/11

Some ten years on, we now speak of terror levels (since obsoleted), duct tape, Homeland Security, Full-body scanners, shoe-bombs and shoe-bombers, the Freedom Tower (since renamed), Shanksville, the Ground Zero Mosque, Imans, drones, high-value targets, Ramadan, Burquas, face veils, Sharia Law, and scores of other 9/11-related terms that now inhabit the English Linguasphere.

But Big Ten Beats Ivies:  8-6 in the Top 50

Williams Tops Richmond as No.1 in the College Category

Austin, Texas, September 3 – After four tries, Harvard returned to the top ranking of American universities by Internet Media Buzz, edging out a strong challenge by Northwestern.  The University of California, Berkeley, Columbia, Caltech, and MIT – all finishing within 1% of each other – took the No. 3 through No. 6 positions.  Stanford returned to the Top Ten at No. 7, followed by the ever-strong Chicago, the University of Texas, and Cornell.

Memorial Church, Harvard

Following were Michigan, the University of Washington, Penn State, Yale, and Wisconsin.    Rounding out the Top Twenty were Princeton, Penn, UCLA, Cal Davis, and Georgia Tech.

“The TrendTopper MediaBuzz Rankings measure an institution’s perceived value using the same methodologies used to compare any other products of value, such as BMW vs. Mercedes,” said Paul JJ Payack, the president of Global Language Monitor.  “GLM’s TrendTopper MediaBuzz Rankings removes all bias inherent in each of the other published rankings, since they actually reflect what is being said and stated on the billions of web pages that we measure.”

See where your school (or prospective schools) ranks:  Click below to download your 2012 Guide for $19.97.

In a remarkable demonstration of the growing influence of the Public Ivies, some fourteen of the Top Thirty schools are public institutions, and now include eight Big Ten schools, six from the Ivy League (Brown and Dartmouth were the exceptions), three Technological Institutes – and four from California’s fabled University system.

Overall, the University of California system, as a whole continues to dwarf all other academic associations, leagues and conferences.  This is a fine tribute to a system that has had to endure a continued series of budget cuts and cutbacks.

The words, phrases and concepts are tracked in relation to their frequency, contextual usage and appearance in global media outlets.  This exclusive ranking is based upon GLM’s Narrative Tracking technology.  NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the 75,000 print and electronic media, as well as new social media sources (such as Twitter).

Big Ten Conference

The Top 25 Universities by Internet Media Buzz

Rank/University/Last/Comment

1.  Harvard University (3) – Dr. Faust sets things aright and Harvard again assumes the No. 1 spot in the survey.

2.  Northwestern University (31) – Catapults to No.2 while leading the Big Ten charge up the rankings.

3.  University of California, Berkeley (8) – Cal considers itself THE University of California and the rankings back this up.

4.  Columbia University (5) – Columbia has never finished out of the Top 10 in the TrendTopper rankings.

5.  California Institute of Technology (19) – CalTech nips its East Coast competitor for top tech honors.

6.  Massachusetts Institute of Technology (4) – The former ‘Boston Tech’ rejected Harvard’s repeated entreaties to merge in the late 19^th century.

7.  Stanford University (11) – The former ‘Harvard of the West’ has long emerged from Cantabrigia’s fabled shadow.

8.  University of Chicago (2) – Dropped out of the Big Ten in the late 1930s; loss of big-time football doesn’t seem to have hurt their rankings.

9.  University of Texas, Austin (10) – It new branding, “What starts here, changes the world’ is more than a slogan.

10.  Cornell University (7) – Few know that the Ivy titan is also a Land Grant institution.

11.  University of Michigan, Ann Arbor (6) – Took top honors twice in previous surveys.

12.  University of Washington (17) – U Dub, as it is affectionately known, is the emerging powerhouse of the Northwest.

13.  Pennsylvania State University (24) — Penn State’s new identity campaign has evidently been quite successful.

14.  Yale University (9) – Vassar declined an invitation to merge with Yale in 1966.

15.  University of Wisconsin, Madison (1) – Had a very strong global media run during the previous cycle.

16.  Princeton University (12) – The First Lady’s Alma Mater was originally known as the College of New Jersey.

17.  University of Pennsylvania (22) – The Wharton School greatly strengthens Penn’s brand equity.

18.  University of California, Los Angeles (16) – Tops in LaLa Land, though USC is making great strides forward.

19.  University of California, Davis (13) – Originally established as the agricultural extension of UC Berkeley known as the University Farm.

20.  Georgia Institute of Technology (27) – The Yellow Jackets ramble into the Top 20.

21.  Georgetown University (14) – Once again, the Top Catholic University in the land.

22.  New York University (18) – Growing global ambitions reflected in the global media.

23.  Indiana University, Bloomington (46) – Steadily gaining in prestige and the rankings reflect it.

24.  Boston College (39) – A generation ago, the Flutie Effect launched the school on its present stellar trajectory.

25.  University of California, San Diego (23) – UCSD receives about a billion dollars a year in research grants.

The Top 25 Colleges by TrendTopper MediaBuzz

The College category also produced a new No. 1,   Williams College of Massachusetts as a strong No. 1 in the College Division.  (Little Three companion schools Amherst and Wesleyan claimed the No. 7 and thirteen spots, respectively.)

Williams is the fifth different college to take the top spot since these rankings began, which now have been represented by the South (Davidson), the West (Colorado College), the East (Wellesley College) and the Midwest (Carleton College).  Wellesley was also the only Women’s College to top a general college ranking.

See where your school (or prospective schools) ranks:  Click below to download your 2012 Guide for $19.97.

In another first, three of the Claremont Colleges finished in the Top Ten:  No. 4 Claremont McKenna, No. 5 Harvey Mudd, and No. 6 Pomona.  In addition, another Claremont College, Scripps — the Women’s College, finished at No. 18.

The Top 25 Colleges by TrendTopper MediaBuzz

Rank / Colleges Fall 2011

Williams College Museum

1.  Williams College – The Ephs (or is it Blue Cows?) set the standard, once again, however a first in Internet MediaBuzz..

2.  University of Richmond — Richmond looking stronger and stronger in the classroom,  the athletic field and the media.

3.  Union College – A sometimes overlooked gem of a school making strides in the Internet age.

4.  Claremont McKenna College – CMC marks the beginning of the Claremont Colleges surge.

5.  Harvey Mudd College – One of the top technical schools in the nation finally getting it due.

6.  Pomona College – Perhaps the most akin to Williams on the list (minus the SoCal climate and beaches).

7.  Wesleyan University – Firmly wedged between Williams and Amherst, as is its usual fate.

8.  The Juilliard School – A school that truly deserves to be in the nation’s Top Ten, though it is often relegated to ‘Unranked’ or ‘Other’ categories.

9.  Carleton College – A past No.1 that continues to gain in global reputation.

10.  Bates College – With Colby and Bowdoin, one of the three little Ivies from the state of Maine.

11.  Pratt Institute – Pratt’s mission is to educate artists and creative professionals and, indeed, that is what it does.

12.  Amherst College – Always lurking near the top of the Liberal Arts College rankings.

13.  Wellesley College – The only Woman’s College to achieve No. 1 in any comprehensive national rankings.

14.  Bryn Mawr College – Katy Hepburn would be proud of how the little school has come of age (125^th anniversary).

15.  Middlebury College – Such a large global footprint for such a small school.

16.  Bowdoin College – Used to boast of being the first US college to witness the sunrise.

17.  Smith College – The women’s school of the Five Colleges Consortium around Amherst, Massachusetts.

18.  Scripps College – Yet another of the Claremont Colleges to emerge into the top ranks.

19.  Bucknell University – Bucknell is the largest private Liberal Arts college in the nation and its outsized reputation is beginning to reflect this fact.

20.  Oberlin College – From the Arb to the Arch the college holds many firsts in American academic history, such as the first co-ed college to graduate a woman.

21.  Colorado College – CC, of Block Plan fame, was the first No. 1 west of the Mississippi.

22.  School of the Art Institute of Chicago – SAIC deserves to be in the top reaches of any serious collegiate ranking.

23.  Babson College – Specialized in entrepreneurship before entrepreneurship was cool.

24.  United States Military Academy – Army and Navy were considered part of the traditional Ivy League a century before the Ivy Group sports conference was formed.

25.  United States Air Force Academy –  Service Academies are amazingly unranked by US News and others

The Top Specialty Schools.

Top Engineering Schools:   CalTech, MIT, Georgia Tech (College: Harvey Mudd)

Top Online/For Profit Schools: the University of Phoenix.

Top Business School:  Babson College

Top Christian School:  Wheaton College, IL

Top Military Academy: United States Military Academy

Top Multi-disciplinary Art & Design School:  Pratt Institute

Top School of Art:  School of the Art Institute of Chicago (SAIC)

Top Music School: the Julliard School

Top Catholic University:  Georgetown University

Top Catholic College: College of the Holy Cross

See where your school (or prospective schools) ranks:  Click below to download your 2012 Guide for $19.97.

The Global Language Monitor publishes the TrendTopper Media Buzz College and University Rankings, twice a year, with spring and fall editions.  Many institutions of higher education, including Wisconsin, Harvard, Boston College, and Vanderbilt have used the rankings as a validation of their recent reputation management decisions.

About The Global Language Monitor

Austin-Texas-based Global Language Monitor analyzes and catalogues the latest trends in word usage and word choices, and their impact on the various aspects of culture, with a particular emphasis upon Global English.  Since 2003, GLM has launched a number of innovative products and services monitoring the Internet, the Blogosphere, Social Media as well as the Top 75,000 print and electronic media sites.

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Source: Guide to Online Schools

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Source: More resources can be found at OnlineSchooling.net

Presence of media favorites, Princess Kate and Alexander McQueen, Tip the Scales away from New York

Berlin and Singapore Break into the Top Ten;

New Delhi slips farther behind Mumbai as does Melbourne behind Sydney

August 21, 2011 NEW YORK and AUSTIN, Texas.   London has overtaken New York City as the Top Global Fashion Capital for 2011, the Global Language Monitor, announced today.  London and New York were followed by Paris, Milano, Los Angeles, and Hong Kong.  Barcelona, Singapore, Tokyo and Berlin rounded out the top ten.   New York had reclaimed the crown from Milan last year.  Previous to this, New York had been the top fashion capital for five years running.  Berlin and Singapore broke into the Top Ten for the first time.

“We are seeing what the impact of two genuine media stars, Princess Kate and Alexander McQueen can have upon a global ranking.  Our numbers show that it was their presence that tipped the victory to London over New York,” said Bekka Payack, the Manhattan-based fashion correspondent of the Global Language Monitor.  “In the various categories, London took top honors in three, while New York, Paris, and Sao Paulo each topped the field in one.”

Buy Fashion Capitals items here

The list was expanded to fifty cities to recognize the growth of regional capitals with their distinctive styles and contributions to the fashion industry.  Top Movers on the plus side included Bali (+11), Rome (+9), Berlin (+8), Mexico City (+8), and Singapore (+7).  Top movers on the down side include Cape Town (-23), Prague (-22), and Miami (-19) and Jo-burg (-16), attesting to the heightened competition.

This exclusive ranking is based upon GLM’s Narrative Tracking technology.  NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the 75,000 print and electronic media, as well as new social media sources (such as Twitter).

The words, phrases and concepts are tracked in relation to their frequency, contextual usage and appearance in global media outlets.

This exclusive ranking is based upon GLM’s Narrative Tracking technology.  NarrativeTracker analyzes the Internet, blogosphere, the 75,000 print and electronic media, as well as new social media sources (such as Twitter).   The words, phrases and concepts are tracked in relation to their frequency, contextual usage and appearance in global media outlets.

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The Top Global Fashion Capitals for 2011, change from previous ranking, and commentary  follow.

Image courtesy of FashionFoieGras.com

2011 Ranking, City, Previous ranking, and Comment

1. London (3) – Kate Middleton and Alexander McQueen help raise the City to No.1 status.
2. New York (1) – New York is strong but London has Kate. ‘Nuff said.
3. Paris (4) – No. 1 in our hearts but No. 3 in the media.
4. Milano (6) – The Earth has returned to its proper orbit:  The Big Four once again occupy the top four spots.
5. Los Angeles (5) – LA solidifying her hold on No. 5.
6. Hong Kong (2) –   Down from No. 2 but tops again in Asia.
7. Barcelona (10) – The Queen of the Iberian Peninsula. Once again.
8. Singapore (15) – Up seven spots and into the Top Ten.
9. Tokyo (14) – Third Asian city in the Top Ten.
10. Berlin (18) – Completes a long climb into elite status.
11. Sydney (7) – Drops a bit but leaves Melbourne in the dust.
12. Madrid (11) – Iberia now has two cities firmly ensconced in the top echelon.
13. Rome (22) – The Eternal City set the tone for fashion throughout the Empire for a millennium.  Today the tradition continues, though on a smaller scale.
14. Shanghai (12) – Shanghai shines along with Hong Kong in the Middle Kingdom.
15. Monaco (Debut) – The principality debuts at No. 15 more than doubling the ranking of the next newbie.
16. Las Vegas (16) – Las Vegas and Monaco virtually tied on the Top Fashion Capitals ranking.
17. Melbourne (9) – Though a top twenty fashion capital, slips a bit in its on-going battle with Sydney (No. 11).
18. Moscow (20) – More billionaires (79) call it home than New York City and its continual move up the fashion rankings reflects it.
19. Amsterdam (17) – Moves up two spots ; now No. 10 in Europe.
20. Buenos Aires (24) – Dramatic rise as she moves into the Top 20.
21. Bali (32) – The world is discovering the allure that has been a quiet secret for centuries.
22. Mexico City (29) — The vast metropolis now claims the No. 2 spot in Latin America.
23. Rio de Janeiro (19) – Ever readying for the Summer Olympics, also strengthening its fashion knowhow beyond swimwear.
24. Mumbai (28) – Mumbai is beginning to display the swagger of old Bombay.
25. Sao Paulo (13) – A burgeoning fashion scene and a bustling fashion industry.




26. Miami ( – More than just swim- and leisure-wear town.
27. Dubai (21) – Tops in its region but feeling the pressure from intense global competition.
28. Stockholm (33) – Stockholm and Copenhagen both moving up in tandem.
29. Copenhagen (34) – Up five on the rankings, as was Stockholm.
30. Santiago (31) – A strong No. 5 in the Latin America  region.
31. Florence (Debut) – Firenza undergoing a Renaissance in 21^st c. fashion.
32. Bangkok (35) – Quietly moving up the rankings.
33. Warsaw (36) – No. 2 in the Middle and Eastern European region.
34. Toronto (38) – Now known for more than its fine Film Festival.
35. Vienna (27) – This once Imperial City is staking a 21^st c. claim in its own right,
36. Chicago (38) – City of the Big Shoulders stretching out toward word-class fashion.
37. Dallas (40) – For Western Wear, please see Fort Worth.
38. San Francisco (Debut) – Makes the list, like Austin, for it quirky, eclectic style.
39. New Delhi (30) – A strong, emerging presence on the Global Fashion scene.
40. Austin (Debut) – Eclectic? Outlandish? Even Green Fashion?  Austin has it all.
41. Johannesburg (25) – Maturing fashion industry a boon to a city in transition.
42. Abu Dhabi (Debut) – Attempting to break into the world of fashion at the highest ranks.
43. Frankfurt (38) – Holding its own amidst a thriving European fashion scene.
44. Antwerp (Debut) – The legend of old becomes the reality of today.  A fine debut.
45. Atlanta (40) – Learning the ropes of competing globally, with a definitely Southern flair.
46. Cape Town (23) – In the process of gaining evermore attention for a worthy effort.
47. Krakow (38) – One of the world’s cultural treasures with a penchant for the eclectic.
48. Prague  (26) –Bohemian fashion influence is moving into its 2^nd millennium.
49. Montreal (Debut) – A strong debut into the Top Fifty.
50. Caracas (40) – Despite internal turmoil, fashion savvy can be hard to ignore.

Global Language Monitor Fashion Capitals from the Wikipedia

Top Fashion Capitals by Region:

Europe (12):  London, Paris, Milan, Barcelona, Berlin, Madrid, Rome, Monaco, Amsterdam,  Stockholm, Copenhagen, Florence.

Middle and Eastern Europe (5):  Moscow, Warsaw, Vienna, Krakow, Prague.

North America (11):  New York, Los Angeles, Las Vegas, Miami, Toronto, Chicago, Dallas, San Francisco, Austin, Atlanta, Montreal.

Asia (5):  Hong Kong, Singapore, Tokyo, Shanghai, Bangkok,

Subcontinent (2):  Mumbai, New Delhi,

Oceania (3):  Sydney, Melbourne, Bali.

Latin America (6):  Buenos Aires, Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Sao Paulo, Santiago, Caracas.

Middle East and Africa (4):  Dubai, Johannesburg, Abu Dhabi, Cape Town,

The world ‘rag’ business is estimated to be over three trillion USD.

AUSTIN, Texas,  August 9, 2011. Words have power. Names have power.   Three years ago we spoke to Newsweek about what should the then-current/still-current economic crisis be named. The ‘Great Recession’ was favored by the New York Times and eventually ‘certified’ by the AP Style Guide.  The Global Language Monitor’s position was that the economic crisis of 2008 did not resemble a recession, as we had come to define recessions, and the resemblance to the Worldwide Economic Depression of the 1930s was tentative, at best.

GLM’s position was that we were experiencing was not a recession, neither great nor small, but something of a wholly differing sort:  a Global Economic Restructuring.

Words have power. Names have power. In fact words and names can shape the contours of a debate. And, we might add, words and names carry the inherent capacity to lead us astray. Casting the current reality in the terms of those crises we’ve already experienced, provides the comfort (and illusion) that things are well in control.

It is about time that we admit that what we are experiencing is not a recession, neither great nor small, but rather a global transference of wealth, power and prestige on an unprecedented level, carried out, in von Clausewitz’s words “by other means”.

Originally alluded to as a “Financial Tsunami” or “Financial Meltdown,” the major global media seem to have gained a consensus on “The Great Recession”. In the beginning, most comparisons were being made to the Great Economic Depression of the 1930s, more familiarly known, simply, as “The Depression” in the same way that many still refer to World War II as “The War”. But even these comparisons frequently ended up referring to the recession of 1982, yet another so-called “Great Recession”.

Our recent analysis has shown that while the major print and electronic media have settled upon “Great Recession”, the rest of the Internet, blogosphere and social media world have largely eschewed the term. We believe the difficulty here stems from the fact that this economic crisis is difficult to express in words because it does not resemble any economic crisis in recent memory — but rather a crisis of another sort.

“On War” is one of the most influential books on military strategy of all time. Written by Prussian military theorist Carl von Clausewitz (1780 – 1831), it recorded one of his most respected tenets, “War is not merely a political act, but also a real political instrument, a continuation of political commerce, a carrying out of the same by other means,” which is frequently abbreviated to “War is diplomacy carried out by other means’.

We believe that the reason the “Great Recession” label does not now fit, as has now become obvious, because what we are experiencing is not a recession, neither great nor small, but rather a global transference of wealth, power and prestige on an unprecedented level, carried out “by other means”.   [Continued beneath the Graphic.]

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Source: Online Schooling

This fact has entrapped two U.S. presidents, from radically diverging political viewpoints, in the same dilemma: describing an economic phenomenon, that doesn’t play by the old rules. Hence, the difficulty experienced by President Bush as he struggled to describe how the U.S. economy was not in a recession since the GDP had not declined for two consecutive quarters, the traditional definition of a recession, even though jobs were being shed by the millions and the global banking system teetered on the brink of collapse. Now we have President Obama, attempting to describe how the U.S. economy has emerged out of a recession, though the collateral damage in terms of the evaporation of wealth, mortgages, and jobs remains apparently undaunted and unabated.

And the world, from China to Germany, stands aghast as we continue to argue, in spite of all available evidence that debt is a good thing. “We all say so, so it must be true!” seems to be the all-too-familiar refrain from Washington.

The regional or global transfer of wealth, power and influence, the destruction of entire industries and the so-called collateral (or human) damage are all hallmarks of what is now being experienced in the West.

If one carefully disassembles the events of the last decade or two, you can see them as the almost inevitable conclusion of a nameless war that began with the collapse of the Soviet Union, the embrace of a form of the free-market system by China, India and the other rising states, an almost unprecedented transfer of wealth from the Western Economies to the Middle East (energy) and South and East Asia (manufactured goods and services), and the substantial transfer of political power and influence that inevitably follows.

It currently appears that the Western Powers most affected by these transfers cannot adequately explain, or even understand, their present circumstances in a way that makes sense to the citizenry, let alone actually reverse (or even impede) the course of history. In fact, the larger events are playing out while the affected societies seemingly default to the hope that they ultimately can exert some sort of control over a reality that appears to be both out of their grasp and control.

The good news here is that the transfers of wealth, power and influence has proven relatively bloodless but nonetheless destructive for the hundreds of millions of those on the front lines of the economic dislocations.

And it is in this context that the perceived resentment of the Islamic and Arab states should be more clearly viewed. This is especially so as they, too, watch helplessly as the new global reality and re-alignments unfold.

In conclusion, it can be argued that the reason the “Great Recession” label doesn’t seem to fit now is because what we are experiencing is not a recession, neither great nor small, but rather an on-going transformational event involving the global transfer of wealth, power and influence on an unprecedented level, carried out “by other means”.

By Paul JJ Payack and Edward ML Peters.  Paul JJ Payack is president of Austin-based Global Language Monitor. Edward ML Peters is CEO of Dallas-based OpenConnect Systems. Their most recent book is “The Paid-for Option”, which describes how healthcare reform can actually pay for itself through the application of process intelligence and its attendant gains in productivity.

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