More Mermaid Trends [UPDATED 03/08/13]

In October 2012 we wrote a post called "Mermaids Trending"... Well a lot has happened since then so here is a quick look at the next wave of mermaid trends.

Firstly, Netflix has just released a new children's TV series called Mako Mermaids, which is a sequel to the Australian produced H2O. The show is not only being promoted through news and entertainment media such as the LA Times "'Mako Mermaids': when does it start pulling teens to Netflix" but also the investment community. Venture Capital Post gives the show a write up in "Netflix new show 'Mako Mermaids', premiers Friday". This may be less about the mermaid content and more about watching how well Netflix builds its subscriber base, as well as checking out how well it performs when releasing an entirely new TV series in one go rather than serialising it once a week like conventional TV. 

Similarly, the Wall Street Journal's Market Watch did a story on it "Netflix hopes to make a splash with 'Mako Mermaids'". The rather non-imaginative and stern Business Insider's Australia give Netflix a little wrap over the knuckles in "Netflix Newest Original Series is Beyond Weird". Weird perhaps for a money-man (we like the alliteration but the more politically correct term is "money-person"!) but completely okay with pop culture audiences and mermaids lovers. BGR gets it right in "Crazy like a fox – Netflix now  bets on teen mermaids" when it identifies that audiences want niche projects and offerings (just have a look at the scope of romance subgenres in bookshops and you'll understand what we're talking about). 

Just so you know what it's about, Mako Mermaids centres around three teenage mermaids who are the guardians of Mako Island. Their names are Lyla, Nixie and Sirena. They fail to stop a 16-year old hunky boy named Zac from falling into the sacred Moon Pool, Zac turns into a merman with special powers. The guardians must grow legs, walk on land and attempt to get this power back. The trailer looks as if it has more action and humour than its forerunner and the underwater sequences look pretty good from where we are sitting. The first 13 episodes are out now and there will be more to come in September.

Mermaids are also featuring in the beauty industry. Mermaid Minerals has been around for a few years and is a favourite with mers. Some mainstream brands are now putting together special lines. For example,  The Daily Varnish covers a new sparkly mermaid nail polish "Under the Sea" range in "Sally Hansen Mermaid's Tale". Lots of pretty pics over on that blog post.

We explored the fashion fusion of mermaid and futuristic punk in our previous post "Seapunk Fashion" and we've seen the Black Milk mermaid leggings on some of our fans but fashion bloggers are now doing stories on fashion trends inspired by the aquatic world. Check out "60 Mermaid Fashion Statements" on Trendhunter.com. Here we see Gothic Mermaids, Golden Disco Mermaids, Fish Scale Fashion,  Sci Fi Mermaids, Knitted Barnacle Bling, Deep Sea Hair Decorations, and so much more.

There's even a faux Vogue cover featuring "Couture Disney Princesses" including Ariel from The Little Mermaid swinging her tail-less hips down a runway with dangling fish skeleton jewellery and a cover story called "The Gills of Glamour". 



Even the airlines are getting into the mermaid spirit – American Airlines' magazine American Way recently featured Hannah Fraser (AKA Hannah Mermaid) in a lovely two page article "A Modern Mermaid Tale". Hannah is the pioneer of all things mermaid – her photo shoots and fashion sensibility is legendary. What's more, Hannah represents the true essence and spirit of a protector of the sea – she swims with extraordinary marine creatures and is an aquatic eco warrior who puts herself on the frontline to save our sea life. There may be lots of faux Animal Planet documentaries but Hannah is the real deal and we've included the trailer from her upcoming documentary series which also features Philippe Cousteau Jr as something to watch out for in 2014. The Huffington Post who is at the forefront of covering mermaid trends also did a great interview with Hannah on her mermaiding activities – you can read it here "Dolphins, Sharks and Mermaids, Oh, My! Interview with a Real-life Mermaid and Ocean Activist".

Finally, we cannot explore mermaid trends without the latest lot of hoaxes. We covered the news style interview Mermaid: The New Evidence on our "New Mermaid Footage" blog post a few months ago, but we have a new and very "blurry" doozy for you right here too. It's called "Amazing Mermaid on the Rock". The Animal Planet name is attached once again... fancy that! 



Tears of a Mermaid Movie Trailer from NINETEEN87 on Vimeo.

Email Hoaxes [UPDATED 2/4/09]

I've blogged before about one of my pet hates – the dreaded mail and Internet scams and hoaxes. Well, a few minutes ago I received an email that's been doing the rounds for at least three years to my knowledge (because I've received it about a dozen times in one form or another) and which also popped up on FaceBook recently – it's the one about the murdering twosome Jon Venables and Robert Thompson, who killed toddler Jamie Bulger in England in 1993. According to the email they've just been released from gaol and are supposedly in the process of being shipped to Australia. You're supposed to sign a petition to keep them off our shores. 

Well I've just discovered a great website called Hoax-Slayer, which nullifies this scenario and many others. Some of the broad subject areas covered include Nigerian scams, celebrity email hoaxes, and virus information.

This website also gives you tips on how to recognise a hoax or scam, as well as how to deal with them. For example, it tells us that these email hoaxes cover a range of subject matter, including:

Supposedly free giveaways in exchange for forwarding emails

Bogus virus alerts

False appeals to help sick children

Pointless petitions that lead nowhere and accomplish nothing

Dire, and completely fictional, warnings about products, companies, government policies or coming events.

So ... don't send any of these tall tales our way. We don't have time for them and they deserve no energy. And by the way, Venables and Thompson were released in 2001 and God knows where they are!

UPDATE: Just today I received an email about a woman in Texas dying from a disease called leptospirosis, which was caused by rat urine on a soda can top. I ran it through Hoax-Slayer, and hey presto, up came an entire page on the subject and yes, you guessed it, it's a hoax that's been in circulation since 2002 with a Belgian variation as well. I LOVE YOU Hoax-Slayer!