Firebird!

Ah, Pontiac...

As one whose company's URL is also one of the more iconic model manifestations of the brand, that the parent will endure is good news.

I kind of enjoy the near daily enquiries from the likes of Billy Bob in Arkansas requesting a new axle for their muscle car.

Sadly, we are in no position to oblige, but always point them in a cheery way towards more productive directions.

It may begin at home. Not much good if it stays there.

BARNADOS 'BREAK THE CYCLE' AD

A discussion on what might work. Or not.

Smells like?

New year, new Nicky Campbell phone-in show on Radio 5 Live

Me, I'm just trying to visualise how 'The new-look BBC Radio' sounds.

Sometimes I like to tease

Troll bites sock

With some ...irony?... you will need to click to find out why.

I might be the best thing that ever happned to these two.

Had to be said...

Strictly Come Dancing

'Strictly Come Dancing is not a dancing competition. The X Factor is not a talent contest. The Queen Vic is not a real pub, and Basil Brush isn’t actually a talking fox. They are all entertainments. Dragons’ Den isn’t real venture capitalism, and I’m a Celebrity. . . Get Me Out of Here! isn’t a real jungle or, indeed, real celebrity, and everybody there has been begging their agents to get them in it. You are all suffering from a common green-room delusion: you believe your own billing. You are not on television because you’re experts or gurus. You’re there because you’re either funny, hateful or shaggable, and if you’re in any doubt which, then it’s not the latter.

The public votes for what makes the best television. If that means dismissing a dull genius for amusing crapness, they’ll do it without thinking. Hands up anyone who remembers the name of the men’s ski-jump gold medallists the year Eddie the Eagle came last? Exactly. Who knows, who cares?'

I may even invest 10p in voting for Mr. S myself, if only to see if I can force the BBC to try rigging another 'correct' result.

Gaurdian - It's time for the last dance

Telegraph - Strictly Come Dancing: can we vote John Sergeant back in?

Telegraph - John Sergeant has quit while he is ahead

Poor old Aunty.

Can't even do bread and circuses without meddling... fouling up... and making their position even more precarious.

Indy - Strictly scandalous – Beeb short-changes viewers again

'When things go off message the BBC really can't stand it,"

In one. Shame they still seem able to fly in the face of those who pay for them whose messages they seem more and more unable to 'stand' and need to 'correct'.

Poor Aunty. The can't even do bread and circuses without cocking up, meddling, making things worse, and making their position even less secure.

Thing is, as it stands, they remain essentially unaccountable and hence immune, and hence will not change. Unless persuaded in a way that funding-addicted market rate talents might appreciate.

One man's 'work' is another's award winner.

Did Gorilla Ad Work?

On this basis:

'I saw the report from TNS that showed Dairy Milk sales have been growing at less than 2%, while sales of Galaxy are growing at 12%.'

I'd say... not so much. Shame. I liked it.

But if you get just the right mood in the room, you might get away with... 'depends on what you mean by 'work'. Using the 'quotes' action with the fingers of each hand will defo help in this.

Irritation? Have we the ads for you

Nomination: Irritating ad of the year 2008

Sorry, I'm still having to err on a generic collection, namely any that have my near-teenage boys steering clear of any woman whose various orifices are either itching or set to explode.... which they then get together to discuss with others loudly in restaurants.

Oh Doctor, I'm in trouble

WHO IS YOUR CHOICE OF ACTOR TO PLAY REPLACE DAVID TENNANT AS DOCTOR WHO?

Ru Paul.

For a combination of reasons that might get me to the highest levels of BBC PCB4talent remuneration asap.

I can do web 3.0, me

Has Twitter reached a tipping point?

Having been told I was already 10 years too old to 'deal' with FaceBook, and MySpace, and proving it by not responding to endless Funwall and slightly more intimate invitations to be someone called Candy's 'special friend', I have to say a big thank you for at least being deemed 'normal' at last.

FWIW, I think Second Life is pretty keen, and might... make that might see some value in hooking up something like Twitter as an interactive complement to an eco-conference idea I am working on.
JunkkMale

Nice to see a little humility...

...in the right places.

Paul McCartney: grace under fire

'A few journalists had been invited, with perhaps ten leading British music critics sitting in the studio control room.'

That what it said on the seat backs? Or is being '.. in a hurry to get elsewhere' what gets one the qualification?

Now, I know Mr. McCormick has a long and noble career, and might well be in that exhalted circle, but it just came across a bit 'thee... and then there's me' this end.

And I often wonder if the value of such media representatives might be a tad less without the name of their employers, and the audiences they reach, on the card.

Just a thought.

Nanny says no

Spike the ASA, not the Cactus Kid

Seesm to me that we are moving more and more away from what breaks rules, to what some folk thinks ought not to be. Sad.

Who needs paying for their work any more?

Oasis plunders Sir Cliff? Leave 'em to it

Just a thought.

Can I lift your body of work and flog it as mine to someone (best to check for precedent with the Guardian legal guys)?

Nah, you're right. Who'd buy it?

The sword with two edges.

Punch. Why the KO?

The sword with two edges: The internet.

A world of an audience is presented. But a very hard to access set of pockets for your craft.

Doesn't perhaps explain the ongoing (long may it last) success of the other two, but as one who is involved in music production I'd hazard that, much as folk like the product, if they don't have to pay to get it... they won't.

42

Is government advertising a force for good?

Phew... my tentative 'sometimes' is at least in good company... so far.

As with all such questions, the answer can always be 'Yes', though usually depending on what is meant by 'good' and who for.

Gazing...

Does fashion advertising represent anything other than a very odd place few empathise with?

No.

But enough make enough money to keep the whole sorry thing spinning on its perfect, pierced navel.

And writing about it.

Physican, shoot yourself... in the foot

PR at the movies

As a result of working with a few, especially those I have hired...

Not sure I can agree. As to which character trait you refer to...

I am sure a gamut is covered in real life, and then reflected to necessary excess by that 'oh so worried about 'real' reality' world of media, film, etc, as sold to us poor public by whom, exactly?

Sucker for a survey...

Or a survey that sucks?

Amazing what I'll do for a 1 in 1M chance at an iPod.

But thanks to my PC remembering a lot of forms it can be quite quick.

However...

One thing I have noticed is how the guys who create these things seem to live on a different planet to those who fill 'em in.

In this Argos effort, I was confronted with a question on my decorating intentions. A yes lead to a series of ever more complex questions, so I ignored it.

Trouble is, when I came to uploading this was not allowed... all questions HAD to be filled in.

So I went back and hit 'No'. Sorted. Not sure that was the reply they were looking for.

Aunty's been bad. Give her some money to pay you compo.

Record fine over BBC's phone-ins

Pathetic. As is every payout from such as an NHS Trust if there is no personal penalty for the transgressors.

All you are doing is shunting more of the public's money around the ridiculous bodies that run or oversee these abuses.

Gaurdian - Cost of the BBC's deception scandals: nearly £1m of our licence fee money - Losing friends and not influencing people?

Aunty has been bad.

So we give another government-related body our money to atone (not extra, just taken from budgets for 'essential services', probably). No one, of course, is responsible... or accountable.

No wonder she, various quangos and the mob that presides over the whole sorry lot are losing friends... even here.

Sadly, I work in the private sector, and it's possible I may one day look the wrong way at a favoured minority group. Unlike serious fraud, I'm guessing I'd be headed for Gitmo.

Spectator - NEW - Ofcom justice: fine the victims

Eating your words

Bernard Matthews to rebrand and focus on British roots

I'm having a bad day today.

First I saw the headline and thought they were going vegetarian with carrots, swedes, etc.

Then I saw 'big green tick' and... well...

It's Friday, it's two thirty, and it's tax attack!

Are you in favour of a new internet tax on downloaders?

Cripes. I was going to say 'who using a net connection would vote for a tax on something they may not use just because a bunch of grasping numpties can't figure out how to separate and/or address those breaking the law from those not', and then I looked at the split. I remember at school the whole class being kept in because someone had misbehaved and we either couldn't (be not knowing) or wouldn't (D'uh) shop him. Yes, he got a rinse in the loos for not owning up, but the teacher lost many, many friends with access to chemicals and still maturing moral compasses.

Responsibility and Accountability

But almost never any consequences.

A piece on the BBC news that was worth being aired (can happen).

One side only putting their case, so there may be more to to it, but this was about a pensioner having to fight their PCT for access to a drug.

Thing is, as pointed out, the PCT is throwing tens of thousands in legal fees fighting this when they will soon have to supply it upon NICE approval.

If this is as outlined, it defies logic that the person who made this decision remains in their job.

Worth Every Penny

Just watching BBC Breakfast News, with a slot on Prince William on Royal Navy duty somewhere exotic.

Reporter, who has, one presumes, flown there for this 'story', addresses busy heir to throne as he passes with this stunning question: 'How's it going, sir?'

HRH: 'Fine'.

Top stuff.

Starting anew

Moving between account management and creative......

I had a Civ. Eng. Degree and a spec. porty.

So I became a an account exec. and added 2 years experience to my ad CV whilst haunting the creative dept. in the evenings. Also attending creative seminars run by young creatives like Steve Henry (it was a while ago).

Then I took a risk and quit to make it in creative.

Dorland needed a copywriter on the Caterpillar account. I knew big toys, how accounts worked and had the porty to prove it. Got hired and a year later fired (happened a lot subsequently) when a new CD arrived and 'I didn't fit with the culture'.

15 years later I was co-owner and CD of one of Asia's most respected indies, with Christian Dior, Microsoft, SAAB, Porsche & NWA as clients.

Get in any way you can. Then you can figure your next move. Trust no one and always be ready to leap. There is no loyalty:)

'Course, the 'system' may be a lot different to then. But at least you're young, which has to be one point in favour. Whilst proving what you can do is not as important as who you might have been in the room doing it for, who you know still seems the best way forward.

CREATIVITY CORNER

POSTERS

Trendhunter - Awesome Outdoor Ads - 9 Not So Boring Billboards

Aunty's new 'passions'

BBC Good Food website relaunches as social network

I remain a tad intrigued, if a little concerned as to how this all works. I am sure they would not be so crass as to use my licence money to fund the service, but certainly it has been used to build the brand.

What do those* with whom this service on these sites now competes feel about all this?

*ps: I am not that happy.

BBC - BBC Trust report says news coverage is failing the regions - maybe becuase that £3.5B is not going to where some think it is... should?

Press Gazette - Regional publishers renew criticism of BBC local web plans

Press Gazette - 'BBC colossus threatens to undermine other websites'

Suffer little children

Today I am watching two teenagers on the BBC Breakfast sofa who have been tasked to speak on behalf of 'our traumatised youth in the UK'.

Why does the BBC pander to every interest group with an axe to grind and funding (four children commissioners?) to justify, and especially become equally complicit in setting up youngsters on national TV to feed the ratings frenzy for any news at any cost, no matter how valid (or not) the substance and what the impact may be on kids being used by adults to push certain agendas.

I am sure getting on TV is thrilling, and these kids can often be admirable, but in many cases they can prove less than comprehensible and frankly either waffle or end up unconvincing representatives of the causes they have been set up to advocate.

One today was asked something like 'how awful it is being a child in the UK these days'. Faced with such a loaded question the poor kid froze and in an near politician-perfect manner fobbed off the answer on 'someone else'.

And only yesterday I was watching two Girl Guides under the same glare, as part of some 'the world and its dog is making us want to be things we shouldn't' effort by another interest group. When challenged on what they did want, the whole thing fell apart when one tried to articulate what is patently not going to happen, namely that media should only cover the good stuff that celebs do and ignore the negatives.

This is just cheap time-filling at best, made worse by using kids to make already dubious points about kids that are blatantly steering certain adult agendas, whilst serving the poor individuals being toyed with in the spotlight poorly.

Whatever the merits of these youngster's feelings, my two just thought these 'representatives' seemed inarticulate, sad and daft. Not what should be portrayed to encourage our youth on living in the UK today.

BBC - UK society 'demonising' children - If anyone is messing with our kids, I can think of a few more pressing guilty parties

Watched, but still defiant

Genius. Not sure if it counts as bias, but...

I am just watching the latest episode of Newsexcuse.... sorry... watch.

A viewer makes some truly brilliant points about plain bizarre reporting standards (a story on the North/South 'health divide', illustrated to serve the agenda du jour by focusing on middle-aged, beer-swilling, fag-smoking Mancunians ...in a pub, and in comparison young, buff Devonians... working out in a gym).

I will give presenter Ray Snoddy full marks for trying but, surprise, surprise, the editorial BBCer in a blazer simply says no, he didn't see an issue.

I truly do wonder what the point of this show is, at least in this form. Is it just to log a complaint as 'addressed' (7.45am on a Saturday to compensate for 10pm primetime news) and give some smug senior type a chance to vent at being got up early at the weekend by saying 'It didn't happen. Or if it did it doesn't matter. Or if does what are you going to do about it anyway?'

Comment is now.... confusing

Must be something in the water.

In the past few days (months, if you include the BBC) a few blogs I play with have 'revamped', all claim, for the better.

In almost every case* this has not been my experience.

A case of 'It ain't broke so let's fix it to make more money'?

Welcome to the new Comment is free

At the end of the day

Better late than never

Answers to your questions

At least I now have a few more entries in the 'what to avoid ' box on our designs.

* Bar one - Brand Republic - kudos - Welcome to Brand Republic 2.1

You're f...ull of it

Is The Apprentice killing marketing?

I am glad your piece went on to qualify, though in my view still nowhere near enough.

'BBC TV’s The Apprentice is a rare thing...'

And long may it remain so, though now its ratings success is proven, if nothing else, we will be cursed with the rush and glut of '1st to be second' inferior me-toos that will already be in can. However...

'.. – an example of broadcasting that not only entertains,'

Without a doubt, as does Dragon's Den. Or any spectacle that is the TV of the Coliseum. Only at least there the protagonists are seen on their actual merits, even if the fight is rigged, without key aspects being consigned to the cutting floor if they do not fit the 'narrative'.

'... but also educates...'

Sorry, can't agree. It shows 'something' as real that is not. That is not education.

'... and promotes the world of business to the wider UK population.' Again, sorry, no way. It presents a notion of business to sofa surfers who also think that X Factor is how you get rich and famous in music. Which serves but a minute sliver of society who make bazillions out of the lie. Mainly in media.

'Not only that, but it does so very, very well – it’s hugely popular across all demographics.' Latter, yes, self-evidently, though I suspect for all the wrong reasons. The former? Well, as you'll gather, I fear I must take another view.

Them. And us.

I used to be us. Now I am more them.

Us was the ad world, where perfectly good ads were dropped well before their sell-by date mainly because we got bored and fancied a change.

I am minded of this when I read this: As Honda's skydivers plummeted, its brand was heading heavenward

Thing is, as a normal(ish) viewer and despite reading more than my fair share of ad industry stuff, it all totally passed me by.

I recall some ads that now make sense, with guys practicing for a skydive and a URL something like 'difficult is hard to do.com', but it really didn't interest me enough to retain and check, and certainly I had no clue about Honda being the reason.

So, yet again, as with the recent Sex in the City hype, I feel I am being told something is a No1 Bestseller without much evidence that it is anything like.

I am all for creativity, and this is certainly innovative, but like with so much, the process seems to have become more important than the result.

Brand Republic - No more retreat. We must admit to advertising’s failure!

Biggest drawing in the world

Alerted by the Guardian Viral Video Chart, I quite liked this, creatively, if being a tad unsure environmentally.

Even the route it sometimes took seemed... odd, even in the cause of art

But mostly I was intrigued by loading a battery and switch in a briefcase on a plane.

Addendum -

TrendHunter - Mega Hoaxes - Biggest Drawing is a Fake - Ah, well

Green washes...um.. dirtier?

TOP TEN GREENWASH LINES

Hard comment to follow, that, if not in glowingly positive terms.

But it is a suggestion with some merit, if the critique on a post on Greenwashing seems a little po-faced, especially on a blog (not an entity oft noted for wall-to-wall thumby-uppiness in my experience. I am prepared to bet a few posts of late have even used the word 'hate' if I recall) on this topic.

So, Mark, your starter for, um, ten? Fresh ideas (and what's not to like if they are?) showing brands are making genuine efforts and sharing them in their comms appropriately and creatively.

I was going to pop a few down (and I'm sure there are some), but honestly will have to have a ponder and come back.

I agree with Chris on bags and booklets (just got an insert from one outfit who had commissioned the Guardian and an eco-expert. Being they are online I thought that was choice), but whilst most certainly a cliche a long life (if they are), low energy bulb is better than most. And hence welcome (would even save the PM a red face on the old receipts).

RIP..er

BEN & JERRY'S PEACE WASH-OUT WITH LENNON

You can never have enough awareness. Apparently.

I'm actually getting quiet interested in this disconnect on what gets spent on 'awareness', and what it actually achieves, vs. spending the immense amounts of money involved more directly on actually addressing stuff.

I'm not really being fair as there is no incentive whatever for a brand to do anything if they don't get brownie points for kicking in, but by lordy the sheer proliferation of rubbish coming out in the name of something that simply becomes Overwash is frankly astounding.

Least thee and me are talking about it. Revel In Peace, man.

For me, a fever usually just means feeling nauseous

This reminds me of all those No 1 best sellers, that have that emblazoned on the book even though it has only just hit the racks.

Sex and the City fever breaks out in the UK

I'm intrigued my such headlines, which often make me wonder whether they are reflecting reality on the ground, or an ideal yet to be realised, but hoped for in more rarified places. They can often look more like they have been copied off a press release.

There is no doubt a lot of money has been spent, and the return on that investment if/when the public responds will be a useful validation of the power of advertising and PR.

As in other blogs I am starting to see some obits on the trend to more modest behaviours as climate and credit bites, the beneficiaries of all the fine examples of such lavish lifestyle choices, and their cheerleaders, have much to be proud about.

Escapism is all, but here's hoping some realities are reflected along the way as well. Maybe it could be a case of 'Look, but don't feel you need to go into hock to emulate'?

I guess I'm just not the target. Sorry, Manolo.

All the angles

Great to pitch in on a silly debate. Let's see what I can stir up.

How can some using one creative technique 'ruin' anything?

Are 3-D logos ruining or revolutionizing logo design?

It's just another tool in an evolving communications armoury.

And at the end of the day, all that matters is... does it do the job?

Stand out. Convey the right message. Be remembered for the right reasons.

...but I don't know which half.

If you don't know what precedes that statement, this blog may not be for you.

I kick off with this: Why cutting ad budgets will come back to bite Boris

Gotta love the certitude of that 'will'.

Thing is, I quite like a lot of public service advertising, and think it is effective. I have also personally gained as a result of some messages, usually by not dying thanks to a wee voice in the back of my head courtesy of an ad.

But some... a lot... is utter cack. And beyond the execution, there is the distinct suspicion that mnay of these ads are cranked out more to build, or support empires, and are racked up and up by an unhealthy level of navel-gazing between various 'professional' practitioners for self-interest more than any real aim of, or success at making the public's lives any better. I'm am not sure what falls under the remits of the GLA and TFL, but it will be interesting to see what vital messages are left in... or out. I have to say the sheer number of press officers alluded to makes one wonder who the heck is/was doing what. In fact, though horribly tricky, I think a lot of public service stuff needs much more of a microscope on what it sets out to do, why, with what budget, and to what value.

So before whacking out a rather Mandy Rice Davis 'well they would say that' snipe, I'd say it ill behoves any industry to get too political too quick, when perhaps a wallet closer to home is playing more than a small part in comparison to one's moral outrage on behalf of the tax-paying public.