Monday as ever a scramble to get everything on track for the week, but enliven by a big box of donuts and some amazing weather, frosty bright sunshine first thing, followed by an end of the world style sunset.
Weird weather & donuts
Found while researching 'mapping'
This is a really clever 360 scrowlable image of London HERE. There is a 180 film of a drive through Berlin HERE. Not as cool as Immersive Video who can do 360 film of just about anything. but passes the time while i'm supposed to be finishing a presentation for tomorrow.
The scam truck
Fab find on Flickr via Boing Boing. Jepoirrier the snapper, includes the comment below, missing the Viagra, money transfer and dick extension kit, but i guess thats all in the trailer
richcgrey says:
Its a truckload of miracle diet pills, youth preserving aids, and all the other free stuff people from Nigeria want to send you. (The driver will even refinance your mortgage )
Crazy week!
This week we have been in touch with the Pimp My Ride guys about a really exciting project involving a stretched car of some sort with lots of exterior, as well as interior pimping! Sadly(?) Tim Westwood isn't involved but the creativity in the garage is phenomenal. We've also kicked off a new web 3.0 site which we'd love to tell you more about...but can't for a couple of months, so watch this space. Also on the agenda is loads of research into social media, which means I can sit on facebook all day and not get fired...doesn't it?
A healthy body means a healthy mind (apparently) so we've also been down to Yo Sushi to eat as much as is physically possible during one's lunch hour - it's 50% off right now so it would be rude not to. I'd love to say I'm going home each night to chill but I'm flat hunting again - no rest for the wicked!!
Michael Yon
Have just come across this amazing blog by an independent embedded reporter in Iraq. Raw news from a muddled campaign most people would like to see just go away. The writer Michael Yon ex-military himself gives you a feel for the soldiers lives. You get a real sense of the dusty, confused days these blokes have to put up with. The Iraq war has shown weakness's in most of the news gathering brands, But a blog like this is a true reflection of information now.
Westport in 3D
Really incredible project between Google Earth and the people of Westport in Ireland. A complete 3D render of the whole town! Takes awhile to load but its worth it. There is a great report on how it was done on THIS web site dedicated to Geospatial Technology, includes a screen shot of the wire frame build which really has a wow factor to it. The only thing missing is that you can't go into any of the pubs.
new fashion
Yup, packed my bag in a hurry before jumping on the bike and guess what? a whole new fashion statement is born!
Random handbag item
Fiona carries a mini tripod in her handbag! part weapon part (unused) still life prop
sad news
It was with a very heavy heart that we learnt on Christmas Eve that one of our clients MAXjet had filed for chapter11. Press release HERE. I spent just over a year working on the brand. It was an amazing ride, With a whole host of one-off experiences; like getting to park a 767!
I got to work alongside some genuinely great people, who despite pretty epic external issues still managed to approach work with good humour and grace.
As with any new concept in a competitive environment advertising has to balance the needs of building a brand with the immediacy of selling tomorrows tickets. This meant none of our new campaigns ever really saw the light of day. Which for us is the biggest shame as a bold concept such as an all business class airline demands bold communications across all media.
I really will miss the challenges that the brand had to deal with, but in the mean time we've got a whole host of airline concepts looking for a home.
Free calls anyone??
Firstly, Happy New Year to you all.
Now, if like me you overdid the texting/phoning at the Bells and are dreading this month's phone bill, jump into an O2 branded cab. They have installed phones in the back of each cab and are inviting you to make free calls. Handy. Let me know the longest/furthest call you manage to make...
Festive cheer
Oops, it's been a while since I last did a post so just a quick one from me to say Seasons Greetings to all and if you still need to get any fun Christmas presents, check out firebox.com as they are still delivering (just) in time for Christmas.
I'll have some of that
Omega3? I’ll have some of that.
Now I maybe pretty un-reconstructed but I shouldn’t give the impression that health consciousness and healthy eating are totally foreign to me – because they’re not. Having said this I still find it curious how my breakfast these days seems to leave old-fashioned muesli wheezing asthmatically in the dust.
Breakfast now resembles the multi-coloured aggregate we used to feed the guinea pig – who incidentally lost his appeal as a pet after about a week and a half, and then outstayed his welcome by about 3 years. Not that my breakfast has the same seemingly electric effect on my libido. Thank goodness – otherwise I wouldn’t be allowed on the bus.
Apart from the occasional Friday lapse – nuts, seeds, grains, oats, berries, dried fruits and other dried ascetica have now replaced the guilty pleasures of a sausage sandwich or a bacon roll. And this somehow goes to show how far the revolution in healthcare and personal well-being has advanced – far beyond the front lines of future featurers and early adopters, and well into the ranks of obdurate resisters skulking towards the rear.
With this and, for example, the resurgent media debate on GM foods in mind, it seems particularly timely that we have been working over the past few weeks on briefs for natural flower remedies and for foods (naturally) enhanced to deliver increased levels of Omega 3. So time spent looking at data, visiting gardens, talking to nutritionists and therapists, interrogating production processes – the usual drill – and also looking for hard evidence.
What brought it home to us is that, in just about every market sector you can think of, consumers are increasingly and quite rightly preoccupied with the integrity of what they’re buying. They seemingly go in relentless pursuit of guaranteed provenances, authenticity, assured quality, proven naturalness, carbon footprints, whether it was grown by someone called Geoff in Suffolk, and so on.
There is an increasing crescendo of desire and demand for products which can stand up to the hard light of forensic consumer scrutiny.
And yet…
It’s also fascinating to observe how the consumer’s thirst for hard evidence and proof of integrity can still, at the same time be easily short-circuited by illogical trust in received but un-interrogated wisdoms, or by their putting absolute faith in the word of friends, quasi-professionals or (worst of all) plausible celebrity.
Take Omega3 for instance – and indeed you should – it will, after all, make you cleverer, healthier, stronger, suppler and younger. And who knows it may also enable you to breathe under water, see in the dark, juggle, play the violin, and it may restore your hair.
What’s really astonishing is the way it is being added to an ever-widening range foods, particularly foods suitable for children, without consumers really understanding what it’s doing there. Of course, they understand that Omega 3 is good for you and that our bodies need it, but how it works in a particular enhanced food seems rarely to be questioned.
Do they know whether their bodies can actually use the Omega3 they are ingesting? Do they know what sort of Omega3 it actually is? Do they know why their bodies actually need Omega3? Do they know that a lot of the Omega3 that goes in one end fairly promptly leaves through the other? Do they realise exactly how much of the food substance they are consuming they’d need to achieve a recommended daily allowance?
The answer to all of these is almost certainly no. And when you start to do the calculations, the real answer to the last question is quite mind-boggling.
Omega3, like so many wonder ingredients that have also gained unimpeachable status with the cynical and sceptical consumer, has become a kind of universal truth. Good in many respects but, as a demonstration of the consumer’s appetite for rigorous analysis, perhaps it shows that things haven’t changed that much.
So then, some oily fish for lunch? I don’t know, though; the cheeseburger looks awfully good.
ipod hacks -pah! build your own phone instead!
Seeing as just about everyone knows someone's brother's mate who has hacked the iphone we need a new challenge. Bug Labs have built a fantastic open source platform for hardware (sharing web 2.0 source code is sooo 2007). Jokes aside this really is a neat idea. Practicality might intercede (just about every phone I own falls apart due to misuse so one that clips together has no chance). I really hope they succeed- it would be great to see a whole host of kitchenware developed on this concept. Toasters that clip together with your fridge - that would be cool.
Information is king
Rainbow!
Working as we do on the 7th floor you do get some fab weather to watch. This huge rainbow went from Liverpool Street all the way to Kings Cross. Shortly followed by full on THX rain.
'Tis the season to be silly
Ok, it's Monday morning and I have lots to catch up on but my friend sent me this festive link which is absolutely hilarious (simple minds and all that)...
Ambient media
This site covers a bunch of ambient media stunts most of which have done the rounds but the Mini idea is new to me. A very simple banner on the entrance / exit to a subway. The visual shows a mock-up and in truth it would last about a nano second in real-life, a sad reflection of our chav infested transport networks.
Nostalgia in the air tonight
Ok to make up for my lack of blogging the last couple of weeks this one might be a bit longer than usual, so here goes...
It seems that a lot of players in adland are looking back to their youth for creative inspiration. Take Cadbury's Dairy Milk, for example. Love or hate Phil Collins, 'In the Air Tonight' is a cracking song and provides a powerful soundtrack to the gorilla ad. It takes me back to my days at home with Ma & Pa in the 80's, waiting for the cassette to load Horace Goes Skiing on my Sinclair Spectrum whilst attempting to master my Rubik's Cube. I digress...
Cadbury's have also re-launched, thanks to popular demand, the Wispa (I'm still hoping they bring back the Wispa Gold). The supporting campaign is based around an 80's revival for which they have a great interactive section on their website. No great surprise there perhaps but they've been a bit cleverer than most and created a facebook application which, if you sign up, is visible to everyone who looks at your profile page instead of being relegated to your groups list. Check out the sweatband!!
I recently saw the Aquafresh animated family ad again which I wish they would show every year around Christmas as it was done by Raymond Briggs, creator of The Snowman and again, takes me back to my childhood.
Finally on this theme of nostalgia, here is a fab Mini ad that aired in early November.
Over and out!
Fun in the East
Never a dull moment at an event like The World Travel Market. Not least getting there, Excel is a lot further east than I remembered (past the Olympic site and keep going)
Favorite moments at the show? toss up between the Borat designed Kazakhstan tourist board stand and Iran's 'Land of Peace' beach holdall's -a must for my next JFK flight with MAXjet. But in the end we went for the set of postcards from the charming Iranian representatives. These not only extolled the virtues of skiing (!) on Iran's highest peak 'Damavand' but invited us to marvel at the glorious opium, er, poppy fields.
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