I'm trying to think

Bom Chicka What?

Never say never, so here is a soapbox rant about advertising. I hate 99% of advertising. It interrupts my life, it breaks up my occassional evening in front of the TV and if it’s going to do that – make it funny, interesting, beautiful or at least entertaining. Currently on TV is one of the worst ads I’ve ever seen – it leaves me diving for my remote control every time it comes on – it’s the new Lynx ad from BBH, the one’s with added Bom Chicka Wah Wah. What an utter pile of turd! It is such a contrived meme designed to ping round the playgrounds of the UK. If this catches on I’ll shave my arse and run down Oxford St. butt naked.

Viral about virals

Latest work

Here's a site for Sony PSP I've been concepting and writing for the past few weeks. I'm quite pleased with it, the scripts are funny in places, it's nice to play with and you actually learn something about the PSP without realising you're being taught stuff. Hope you like it.

Will Haiku for booze

I thought it would be fun to run a little Haiku competition in the creative department at Agency Republic. With a bottle of vodka as the main prize, here are the results:-

Bertrand wins a bottle of Vodka for his suitably French existential ramblings. Well done.

The Future scares me,
The Past tries to catch me up,
So I miss the now.

Gemma wins a can of Heinz Tomato Soup for her dense Scotch broth of a Haiku (a woman in her condition can’t drink vodka either.)

Nothing more than lick
Spittle. Deliver liver.
Poltroon of verbage.

George is in third place with his charming off the cuff Haiku. A chocolate bar will wing its way to him.

It needs the set up to give it context:-

Robin: I didn't realise but the flash platform user group thing is happening tonight and not tomorrow if anyone's planning on going

Jon: What a shame, I can’t make tonight…

George:

so sarcastic jon
but neither can I, sorry.
oh look a haiku

3 from Carl. A forth place commendation for effort

along the right lines
with oyster, travel, autumn
just shy of a drink

a blog captures our
words for alcohol me me!
still no season, though

random bollocks these
haikus, you know; really they
don't quite span or scan

The best of the rest:

Abe:

A whole department
whoring language in faint hope
of cheap alcohol

Jon:

Fuck it, they can fuck
Right fucking off, fucking fucks
A sample from Carl

Bertrand:

Pigeons are ugly
Nobody likes flying rats
Except old people

Katie:

vodka is a friend
makes you funny and clever
and lose your wallet

Abe:

armed with a spreadsheet
her fascist fingers dictate
our every move.

James:

First line sets it up
Second line exaggerates
Bit limited no?

Juice drink experience

I've had this photo on my phone for a week or so and I still don't know what it means - "Juice Drink Experience." I take it that it's not real fruit juice so it can't be described as "Fruit Juice." So why can't it just be a "Fruit Drink" or even "Fruit Flavoured Juice." Where is the experience in all of this? It reminds me of Mark Earls book Welcome to the Creative Age - Bananas, Business and the Death of Marketing - where he basically says that much of marketing is a complete waste of time. When you think that Cape employed a food scientist, writer and designer and they best they could come up with is this - we've gone wrong somewhere along the line. Either that or you can just have a chuckle, take a picture and move along.

From doing to running

Right now I'm a senior creative at a pretty cool London ad agency. Every day I go and sit down with a funny and irresponsible Art Director and we come up with ideas for websites, interactive experiences and ads for big clients - we're working on Playstation right now.

How does being good at one thing, prepare you for doing something completely differently. I'm pretty good at at the writing and the thinking - but how does this prepare me for being a Creative Director? It's like a a racing driver becoming a driving instructor. I can't imagine Michael Schumacher's drive and determination would lend itself to instructing nervous drivers on how to drive sensibly and responsibly. His drive and determination made him succeed in a narrow band of excellence, not suddenly become an expert in getting the best out of people and and calmly directing and motivating them.

I've ordered some books - one's called How to Lead, the other is a book by the founder of St Lukes, Andy Law.

When HSBC have unblocked my credit card for missing a 5 quid payment, Amazon can send me the books. Then I will let you know how good a read the books actually are and if they shed any light on the prospect of managing and leading from the front. We'll see.

Money for old rope - well rubbish...

An annoyingly simple idea that demonstrates if you have a good one, do something about it...

http://nycgarbage.com/

This from the Guardian:

"If the package looks pretty, people will buy just about anything. So says an advertising executive in New York, and he has proved his point by selling boxes of rubbish for the price of an expensive bottle of wine. Justin Gignac, 26, has offloaded almost 900 carefully presented plastic cubes of trash from the street of the Big Apple at between $50 (£26) and $100 each. Buyers from 19 countries have paid for the souvenirs. The idea has been so successful that he is thinking of franchising it around the world. It all began when Mr Gignac was on a summer internship at MTV. "We had a discussion about the importance of packaging," he recalls. "Someone said packaging was unimportant. I disagreed. The only way to prove it was by selling something nobody would ever want." He scours the streets of Manhattan and New York's outer boroughs, typical contents include broken glass, subway tickets, Starbucks cups and used plastic forks. "Special editions" are offered at a premium. He charged $100 for rubbish from the opening day of the New York Yankees' stadium. Mr Gignac denies taking his customers for fools: "They know what they're getting. People get a kick out of it - they appreciate the fact that they're taking something nobody would want and finding beauty in it." Typical customers include people who used to live in the city and want a down-to-earth souvenir. He claims he has even sold to art collectors. Realising that the concept appears to be a genuine moneyspinner, Mr Gignac has registered a company and is employing his girlfriend as vice president. He declines to discuss his profit margins: "It's actually quite a lot of effort putting them together - but yes, garbage is free." Mr Gignac is considering diversifying into trash wallhangings. He maintains that he has been contacted by people interested in replicating the scheme from as far a field as Berlin and London."