Many moons ago I found myself walking down a narrow, crowded street in Brussels. Brussels is a vast city full of mixed cultures stemming from the Dutch, Belgian and, of course, the French. We all know what they say about the French.

I was a youngster at the time, about 19 years-old, fresh out of my first year at the University of Minnesota. At the time, I was an aspiring broadcast-journalist. I wanted to absorb all of the diverse culture I would encounter in my voyage across the pond. My home in Europe was the one and only - the home of Anne Frank, a never-ending chain of canals, windmills, tulips, red lights and those ridiculously funny looking shoes. Yes, oh yes, Amsterdam.

Contrary to popular belief, Amsterdam has much more to offer than just coffee shops, women, thick dark beer and euthanasia. But, only in Brussels do you see the Dutch and French butting heads and challenging each other to see who can be the most inappropriate. Only in Brussels would I find the most outrageous form of advertising. In my voyage, it became clear that Western Europeans are not afraid to show naked bodies and use profanities and drugs. There is nothing but honesty – sugar coating is absent and unheard of.

I peered up at a brightly lit advertisement in a store window. I did not take a double take, not a triple take, but a quadruple take. That’s right. Had I sat at that coffee shop too long? Because I swear that sign says… (insert your favorite curse phrase consisting of f!%$ing h$ll).

That was the single most eye-catching advertisement I had ever seen! How many times do you look at a banner ad four times? How many billboards have made your jaw drop?

At the time, I had no clue that three years later I would be working for a digital media/advertising agency. Today I look back at this moment and consider how censorship impacts advertising and society on various levels throughout different countries.

In the U.S., we would never use profanities to attract professional attention because we are a society driven by political correctness. It is a commonality throughout the U.S. that the media must avoid offending any person on any level. Are people really offended or harmed by the use of profanities and nudity or is the nation, as a whole, a little too sensitive? Consequently, does this sensitivity hinder or help society? It is as if through this “principle” of political correctness we create our own version of a naïve bubble-cushioned reality.

It is essential to point out that this meticulous censorship does not only impact advertising strategies, but also journalism. For example, I once attended a lecture given by a photographer for a well-known Minneapolis-based newspaper. He was in Iraq when an Iraqi family got blown up in a land mine. One small boy survived with critical limb injuries. The boy’s legs were gone. There was nothing but blood and tears. This was all captured by the photographer. The photographer was determined to have these photos in full color on the front page of the newspaper. But, they were not. Instead, the photos were cropped, faded to black and white and put on page 7.

Media, specifically journalism, is supposed to be society’s gatekeeper. News organizations are supposed to be bi-partisans reporting the truth and facts. But, how can this happen if our culture is so sensitive to the brutality that honesty may bring?

History and media coincide with one another as our media tactics and tendencies have evolved over time. Events in American history have dictated a large part of our media’s characteristics as the media consistently reached turning points as the nation did.

(Please note that it is not only in the U.S. where such censorship is found. But, there is stark contrast between censorship in the U.S. and Western European countries as mentioned.)

Censorship impacts our perception, knowledge and awareness. It may prevent personal offense, but it ultimately neglects society because it deters media from relaying the truth and demonstrating honesty.

After a month in Europe I became accustomed to the bluntness of the culture. It was something short of culture shock to return to the bubble cushion that is the U.S. Perhaps it is all perception, everyone’s perception is different and every perception is questionable. But, it is these varied perceptions that create the necessary discussion to mold the future of our media’s landscape.

So, let’s butt heads (oops, can I say butt?).

With some friends of mine recently returning from Vegas, it got me thinking of bright, eye-catching, cool, elaborate and over-the-top means to get a message across.

In the world of interactive, sometimes the use of widgets, Flash, or other “bright, flashing things” can interfere with the more important messages or tactics that a site is attempting to execute on. It reminds me of the traditional marketing/advertising star burst. In that case, what was (or god help us still currently is) intended or used as support or enhancement to the message simply became a distraction. That same sort of issue is now translating itself to the interactive space.

To be clear, Flash, widgets and the like aren’t necessarily a bad thing (unlike their traditional counterpart, star bursts). In fact, a majority of the time they can be a very well-used and effective tool. However, as more people and companies learn the ropes of the interactive space I just hope that we’ll avoid the use of Flash, for the sake of using Flash, but rather use it in a useful and supporting manner to progress the larger objectives and goals of the brand or company.

The problem is, too much Flash may help a site look cool and be eye-catching, but when it comes time to actually USE the site or get information what is that technology platform doing to the user’s interaction? How is the Flash interrupting a smart, clean and strategic navigation structure or information architecture? How is too much Flash causing longer load times and a slower site? How is a site made of entirely Flash hurting our online visibility in search engines? How are you hurting yourself with a primarily Flash site, when a part of your audience doesn’t have the latest versions of Flash or even have it all?

Without the intent of bashing anyone or any particular site, I’ve included some examples where they might consider those types of questions to provide a more usable product for their customers:

-www.rmgconnect.com
-www.innerstrengthstudio.com
-www.tampax.com (this isn’t flash, but I just can’t believe they have sideways navigation…did I miss something?)
-Just about any car company website

Creative Director Chris Cortilet was admitted yesterday to Methodist Hospital after loosing his fingers in a vise grip. Chris and his team were out scouting possible imagery to illustrate a story they were doing on safety, when all of a sudden Chris was being tortured by a vise grip. “I didn’t even see it coming,” said Chris, “One minute I’m walking through the plant looking for a story to tell and the next minute I’m in the throws of a life struggle with a vise grip. It just wouldn’t let go, and I could hear the bones breaking and blood was everywhere. Eventually someone released the grip and I fell to the ground. The next thing I know I’m in the hospital. They brought the fingers back to the hospital, but there wasn’t anything that they could do at that point. They put them in a jar for me and I have them in my room.”

After Chris was removed from the facility around 2 pm OSHA sent a team in to examine the scene and to access the vise grip. It’s likely that they will have a report by the end of the week. One of the experts on the scene said, “We can’t understand what happened, vises just don’t do these things. We’ve never seen anything like it. It’s likely that we won’t have a complete picture until we finish the interviews with witnesses, clean up the scene and have a forensics expert review the fingers. At this time everything is a mess.”

Little more than a month after removing their shows from iTunes, NBC appears ready to kiss and make up with Apple and return their lineup to the iTunes Music Store.

No NBC shows are on the store yet, but it seems that this would be forthcoming with the 2nd half of the TV season about to start.

This could’ve been a negotiating tactic, but I wouldn’t be surprised if NBC relented seeing as how Jobs was able to strike a deal with all the major movie studios, not to mention the enormous success of the iPhone.

Read the original article on TechCrunch.