livingbrands

Vote for truth

It's not my country, so you might say I have no right to a point of view on the US presidential election. But what happens in the US affects all of us, and as far as recent Republican administrations are concerned, often for the worst.

And so the worst, for me, is seeing McCain and the crazy woman from Alaska in the White House.

So vote for truth and vote for change.

(Thanks to adpit for the McCain heads up)

10 things we didn't know before the 37th week of 2008

1. Baseball was played in Surrey in 1755.
2. There are algae that can bend light.
3. Women are more prone to nightmares.
4. The British Antarctic Survey needs a full-time plumber.
5. While everything else is getting more expensive, broccoli is getting cheaper.
6. Radio adverts can be banned for being too quick.
7. Zoroastrians were the first religious adherents to incorporate the end of the world into their beliefs.
8. Portraits of famous people often look like the painter instead.
9. When the police fire a baton round, they aim for the belt buckle.
10. Goats are a cost effective way of clearing waste ground.

(Borrowed from the BBC)

For sale: 1 Higgs Boson particle (nearly new)

OK, after my earlier anti-physics rant (more to do with memories of days gone by than the impending end of the world), let's return to the strange phenomenon of how the white lab-coated crew over at Cern have managed to be become this week's hot web 2.0 thing.

And if they can do it for particle physics, anyone can do it (next time your client says their brand's just not right for doing stuff on line, here's your answer).

Following on from the Large Hadron Rap, we now have them trying to sell off a nearly new Higgs Boson particle on ebay (proceeds to Cancer Research).

There's an entertaining video, explaining that they're having a clear out at the lab (best line: "also known as the God Particle, just to annoy Richard Dawkins"). And some nice Q&As with interested buyers (Q: "How do I know it's the genuine article, and not counterfeit? how do I know it's not made in China, for example? Do you have the original box with serial number?" A: "You can trust us, we're scientists!").

Crazy guys. Crazy experiment. Get your bid in now.

(Thanks to The Chimp for pointing it out)

I met the Walrus

"In 1969, the 14 year old Jerry Levitan, armed with a reel-to-reel tape recorder, snuck into John Lennon's hotel room for a chat". And 40 years later he turned it into a film...

The olympics were great, but…

The paralympics are even better.

Don't know how much this is being televised in other countries, but the BBC went large in Athens and are doing the same again this time, both on-line and with TV coverage. In part, I guess, because we are actually rather good (clear no.2 in the medal table as I write).

But it is also really great to watch. Where the able bodied version was exciting, and had the whole national pride thing, the paras take you to a whole new level in terms of sporting achievement and triumph over adversity, with a great big dollop of emotion on top.

I'm the first to admit I cry easily, but there's a tear in my after every win. And swimmer Eleanor Simmonds had me howling - only 13, born with achondroplasia (or dwarfism), and only meant to be there for 2012 experience, but she goes and wins the 100 free in a very respectable 78 seconds. Amazing. And I challenge anyone not to be moved by her interview afterwards.

But only available to watch in the UK I'm afraid.

I hate physics

 
(backonthebus)

OK, so we didn't all die because of the shenanigans over at Cern. But, hey, we might have. And there's still time apparently, as the experiment is still trundling on (if trundling is what particles travelling at 99% of the speed of light do).

Then last night I had a school flashback.

Much as I now enjoy the occasional Beeb2 documentary on string theory or whatever, physics was never my favourite subject back in the day. It was the only one I could never really get my head around. And I never got on with the head of department either.

Anyway, Josh comes home last night with his first physics homework since moving up to secondary school. Lots of tears and shouts of "I don't get it". And that was just me.

Stupid (but I accept, important) subject.

Big Bang Day

Quite possibly I will never finish this post, as the Cern Large Hadron Collider is about to fire up and if it all goes pear shapped the world will cease to exist (or something).

Never has particle physics been so exciting.Or not. I'm listen live, and the can't get it fired up!

Anyway, Experience Manifesto has dug up a nice rap put together by the Cern press office to explain what's going on. Sound quality isn't great, but it's great fun. And, as EM says, it makes an unimaginably complex subject at least partially understandable in a way organisations with much simpler 'products' often completely fail to do...

OK, still alive so far. Maybe all will be OK......

The fourth screen

A bit self promoting (naturally), but this film from Nokia is worth a look.

I particularly liked it's point about mobile phones reconnecting people with the real world. As a bit of a phone-phobe, I'd not really seen things like this...but it works for me.

What to look for

Seth has a short but sweet post that makes an important but simple point; one of those that seems obvious...but only when it's pointed out to you.

And it is this. That online, finding what you want isn't the problem; knowing what you want to find is.

Because no matter how strange or obscure the thing you're looking for, it's out there somewhere…and probably in quite significant volume. In other words, it's just one quick Google search away.

But if you (or your consumers) don't know 'it' is what they are after, they can't start to search.

Which defines possibly the big challenge of the long tail digital space - helping people think imaginatively enough to seek out the unexpected.

Ask Us Anything (although you might not get a good answer)

Our number came up again this week on Marketing's Adwatch, and I'm afraid I ended up breaking my "if you haven't got anything nice to say don't say anything" rule in writing about the new 118118 commercial. Although, to be fair, I did start by saying I like the campaign. It's just this particular execution (and the service it advertises) that I have a problem with.

Anyway, here's what appeared in the magazine, as usual rather pointlessly and randomly sub-edited. What I actually wrote follows on. Don't know if it reads better, but it at least feels like my voice (ahh, the trials of being an artiste)...

 

Why has 118118's advertising been so successful?

For me, it’s the simplicity and flexibility of a visually iconic idea, with a nice line in engaging humour, that makes it one of my favourite campaigns. A combination that helped the brand emerge from the directory enquiries bun fight as Britain's default choice, despite having no real functional advantage. And 6 years on the campaign is still going strong, albeit with some costume changes along the way.

Which brings us to the new ad. It’s not one of the best, but all the building blocks are in place – the twins, silly outfits, facial hair, gags. And a new challenge from our Einstein-like geniuses to Ask Us Anything.

So why has their advertising been a success? “Because the 118 advert has a convincing power that made our customers try the excellent customer service we are providing”. Not quite the insightful response I was looking for.

And herein lies my problem with the new commercial (or, rather, the service it advertises). For all the logic of extending to enquiries about ‘anything’, this is, at best, fluff for the bored, lonely or drunk. And at worst, it just doesn’t work – my responses seemed written by a computer or a monkey, I couldn’t be sure which.

Here’s what the Twins had to say about the (then) topical question, what will Keegan do next? “It has been reported the Kevin Keegan has been quit Newcastle for a 2nd time after having discussions with the clubs” (sic – plural).

A final question then, probably beyond Ask Us Anything. Is using good advertising to sell bad products just the nature of what we must sometimes do, and OK if it boosts the client’s bottom line. Or are there times when we should just say no; that this is the wrong thing to do.