Sunday Serenade: Harvey and Rabbit

This video is full of so many things that I LOVE! Advertising: good! Dogs: good! Terrible singing voices: good! Every time I watch this I love it more and more. Happy Sunday!

Big Stupid Adventures

Many, many hours of my life have been spent on planes and trains and boats and cars; queuing in airports and waiting on platforms and sitting in traffic trying to get somewhere. Hey, I like travelling as much as the next person, but transport just makes me weary! However, in the last six months my life in transit has depressingly stalled. I haven't even seen a plane since September and I've hardly been outside of the city since January.

The result is that I'm now itching for a Big Stupid Adventure! Yeah, a plane home would be nice. But it is not enough. Months of sitting still have me longing for something like this:

Yep, Nike again. I'm just loving all of their marketing right now.

Adventure is what I'm craving but my bank account protests (loudly and rudely). For now, the best I can do is dream. So I've decided to start a new blog-series of all the Big Stupid Adventures I wish I was setting off on right now! Not making any promises on how regularly these will appear. But I've got plenty of stupid ideas to share.

#1: Around the World in 10 Days! I actually think this is a STUPID adventure. But hell, what an experience!  And made infinitely cooler with your best mate making a cool film along the way.

Sunday Serenade

A little romantic jingle meets a very effective advert meets some motivation for me to put back on those shoes and get to training!

This also kind of makes me want to be ginger again.

Ryanair walks the line on Sexy v. Sexist

Twitter has been a-buzz today with the news that Ryanair's recent print advert was deemed "too sexy" for UK media. Well, actually not too sexY but too sexIST. There's a big difference and I'll try my best to show you what I think that difference is. 

Here's a picture of the advert that appeared in two UK newspapers. I'll let you decide for yourself on this one. What do you think? Is this good advertising? Is this okay? Ladies in particular, do you want to fly with Ryanair now? Better yet, are you inclined to work for them now?

 

The folks who get to decide what adverts get banned are the ASA: The Advertising Standards Authority. They don't only make decisions about the sex-factor, but also keep a close eye on advertising for alcohol and tobacco, adverts directed at children, and female body-image among other issues that arise. 

Recently, the ASA banned a L'Oreal advert featuring Rachel Weisz. Here it is:

They were advertising a product that supposedly makes your skin super-smooth. But in this image her face is digitally altered to make her skin look smooth. It's photoshop and not skin cream that achieves these results. The ASA says that is false advertising and will not allow it.

But what about those Ryanair girls? The women that appear in the adverts are actual cabin crew who volunteered to take part. So that's not FALSE advertising, right? It can't be offensive if the women wanted to do it, right? That's what Ryanair says, but the ASA disagrees. 

Sexy is okay. After all, you don't have to work in advertising to know that sex sells! Sexist, however, is not okay. Let's look at two adverts by Axe that the ASA has reviewed. One was banned and one wasn't. I think this is the prefect precedent for the difference between sexy and sexist.

Here's the banned one:

This one wasn't banned:

Can you see the difference? There's actually an alternate version of that second one where the ladies in the end do move their hands. That was not approved for tele. Ok, so it is a fine line. But at the end of the day I think the ASA is a necessary organisation. I really think that most of the time they make the right call. 

What do you think? Was it the right call to ban the Ryanair advert? Are there any other banned adverts that you think are unfair?

If you'd like to learn a little more about the whole affair you can see what the BBC reported here, or what Huff Post had to say here, or get the SkyNews take here. 

Beat the "walk of shame"

We've all been there...

I LOVE this advert! I feel like it really captures the atmosphere of the holiday season and gives us all some helpful advice: if you're looking good, the shame is dramatically reduced!

What's your worst walk-of-shame moment? and What's your best strategy for beating the embarrassment?

The Grinch who told the truth about Christmas adverts

Charlie Brooker's rant about this year's Christmas adverts in yesterday's Guardian has become quite the talk around town! He's titled his article: "This year's Christmas adverts aren't adverts, they're 'events'. Ghastly events", and added a tagline that pokes fun at all the sappy cry-babies in Britain: "The John Lewis commercial doesn't make me cry. It's just an advert for a shop". You know, after all the emotional hype about this John Lewis advert that literally had grown men admitting to tearing up in front their teles, I expected more of a backlash against Brooker's witty cynicism. But No! People love it! Only days after tweeting away about how that advert "changed their lives", Britain has changed tune to laugh along with Charlie at the ridiculous spectacle of it all. I don't mean to call the country a bunch of hypocrites, not at all. Rather, I think it's the perfect example of how ready Brits are to laugh at themselves. It's a great quality and one that is characteristic of this country.

But Brooker doesn't restrict judgement to just John Lewis. Oh no, everyone get's a hit! Littlewoods, for openly advertising the "truth" about Santa Claus; Morrisons, for the inappropriate sexualisation of British food (not to mention cricketers); and Marks and Spencers, for cheap exploitation of momentary celebrity. He's harsh but he is hilarious!

Morrisons has got to be my favourite! I'm very curious to know whose idea it was to start this Christmas advert with a reference to a [very bad] Kevin Costner film from the 80s?? "If you build it, they will come!" Now, I know there is often a cultural confusion of the two sports, but the people at Morrisons do know that baseball and cricket are not the same... right? In fact, I'm kind of insulted by the comparison. And if you were in doubt about Brooker's interpretation of this ad as overtly sexual, take a closer look at the busty butcher making eyes at Freddie over the "British Beef". Yup, there's no two ways about that; food = sex. Can't say I completely disagree, but it's an unconventional and amusing representation of the Christmas Spirit.

The icing on the cake in this article is Brooker's shock and awe over who managed to produce the most appropriate advert this Christmas: Iceland! Well there's an ending no one was expecting! Well done Charlie, witty and refreshing as ever. 

Intrepid Fridge Forager

If you live in the UK and you own a TV, you've probably seen this advert a few times this year. But watch it again, you know you love it!

This tele advert is the shining star of a whole campaign put out by Lurpak: Good Food Deserves Lurpak. I LOVE this campaign. It is built on the premise that in a world where everyone is always busy and fast-food and ready-meals are quick, cheap and easy, fewer of us are making the effort to cook real food. Of course, for a company that produces and sells butter this isn't ideal. You don't need butter for your microwave dinners. So these ads are inspiring consumers to cook and eat REAL food. But the point that makes it brilliant is that most of the ads feature really simple, hearty, tasty food; you don't need to be a Master Chef to make an omelet.

from here

from here

from here

from here

These are some of my favourite of the print ads. They are plastered all over tube stations across London and I gawk at them shamelessly all the time. Though in true form, I've borrowed all these pictures from somewhere else as my own photographic skills are seriously lacking. In my search I also found that Lurpak's Flickr is a gem for food porn! Score!

There are tonnes more of these around and I'm sure many of you have seen them. What's your favourite?

Wednesday Friendsday

This weeks list of things I find on the Internet is friend-themed. (in the loosest sense of the word "themed").

1.) The Democratic Republic of Facebook
We all know friends aren't real unless they are on Facebook. This article is a little reminder that while we may love Facebook, we may spend ridiculous amounts of time allowing it to consume our lives, we may use it as a tool for everything from chatting up that hottie we saw on the train to sending wedding invites. But Facebook doesn't belong to us. It is not ours. We belong to it. Important lesson here!

2.) Magic Brownie Adventure Movie
Have there ever been two better friends in history than Cheech and Chong? I mean, they are the epitome of friendship. Now here is a "film trailer"-come-advert that highlights the significant role of Brownies in friendship (and digestive systems).

3.) New Condoms
I wouldn't want to alienate any part of my audience by appealing only to platonic friends. This one is for the "special friends". It is a tumblr that puts brand slogans on condoms. Now wouldn't you rather have one of these than a JLS face on your rubber?

4.) The Adventures of Tom & Atticus
Nothing compares to the friendship between a man and his dog. Here's a blog about a guy following his dog around a bunch of mountains. It is really sweet and sometimes funny. And when all else fails, cute pictures of a dog.

Happy Wednesday! Go make some friends.

The Best Country in the World and The Worst Company in the World

If there is one thing that gets me vex it is really bad customer service. Not because I demand perfection and expect to be served like a queen. But because it is SO easy to do very basic things to make your customer happy and SO rare that people even make an effort.

A few days ago I was on my not-so-rare rant about the best country in the world; it's Barbados obviously. Not that I'm biased or anything. There is a long list of reasons why Barbados is so great, but good customer service does not usually appear on that list. In fact, I'm among quite a few Bajans who often get distressed, and frankly, embarrassed, at the level of service in some of the most tourist-visited places. Like the Airport, for starters. It is not that Bajans are a rude people, not traditionally anyway. We used to have a reputation for being warm and welcoming, kind and helpful, funny and good spirited. But more and more I come across cashiers at Super Centre whose only form of communication is grunting, shop clerks in Cave Shepherd who think it is helpful to finish their chat on the phone before doing their job, and my real favourite, taxi drivers who like to tell young ladies that they have got particularly attractive rear ends. Their language tends to be more colourful.

However! During my epic argument about the best country in the world, a Trini (one of those renowned Bajan-haters) conceded on the one point that he got pretty damn good customer service in Barbados. I was floored! And incredibly happy. Maybe there has begun a turn-around on my beautiful island. What's more, the next day I had to ring up the Barbados High Commission in London. I was fully expecting to hold for twenty minutes and then speak to a machine. Wrong! Two rings and the lovely Jackie answered. Not only was she pleasant and articulate, but she was also genuinely helpful. Can't say the same for the US Embassy; service was disgraceful. 

Not the best photo of The Best Country in the World
Batts Rock Beach

So we've got the Best Country decided. Now for the Worst Company - Argos. Ok, this might be an exaggeration. I'm sure there are arms dealers and market traders and soft-drink manufacturers and all sorts of other companies that do much worse things than Argos. It might not be The Worst but it certainly is Terrible. Mercia Garden takes a big load of the blame too as you'll see in a bit. 

Here is the tale of the Terrible experience had by a Friend:

Friend ordered a garden shed online, as one does, from Argos. Friend assumed she was getting an Argos product. Wrong! Argos out-sourced to Mercia Garden. Now the product was just slightly too big for the letter-box, so someone had to be home to collect delivery. Sure. No problem. Friend was given a day for delivery. No time frame; no "we'll come between 10 and 2"; nothing. So good responsible Friend sat at home ALL DAY! No delivery. Customer service department (if we can call it that) tells her, "Oh, we're very sorry. Bit of a mix-up. We'll deliver tomorrow". Fine. Good responsible Friend sat at home ALL DAY! No delivery. Ultimately, FOUR separate delivery dates were set up and still: No delivery. Now, I don't know what you like to do with your time, but Friend and I, we don't think sitting at home waiting on a non-existent delivery is particularly fun or productive. What's worse, the so-called customer service department is less than apologetic and less than helpful in sorting the whole issue out. 

Dear Argos, You Suck.

There's MORE! Friend, being a patient and forgiving and generally awesome person, makes another order from Argos. This time, for next-day delivery. Now, you may have seen all these adverts that Argos has got posted over half of London and ALL over the tele; they claim they can do same-day delivery, within 90 minutes if you're that eager for it. You'd think with the ability to do 90 minute delivery, the next day should be do-able. Wrong! The f-ed it up. Surprise surprise! For more on shit from Argos read this. 

Maybe one day Argos will surprise me in the way that Barbados has. Until then,I shall not be ordering from Argos. I will not be gracing them with my time and patience. There are a million other places I can shop and now, I will.

Things I find on the inter-web + some other junk

1.) Nursery for Men

I find this weird. And maybe a little bit offensive. I don't know... Men? How do you feel? I kind of feel sorry for Australians.

2.) Carlsberg prank

Beer adverts make me wish I liked beer. Not sure I would have passed this test. Would you?

3.) Porker floats above Battersea Power Station

I promise this is the only time I will ever link you to a Daily Mail article. It has good pictures, and that is why I chose it. Pink Floyd is re-releasing re-mastered versions of all of their albums. In case you don't know this (shame on you) their 'Animals' album featured a picture of an inflatable pig flying over the power station. To commemorate that album and to get some hype for its re-release, they put up another pig! Flying pigs = just plain funny. I live real near to Battersea now and so I got to see the big ole ham in the flesh. I think it's a clever PR move. Did any one else see her?

4.) Skip to Malou*

Fellow-blogger Malou has just started an incredibly cool series of posts called Windows to the World. She's borrowed the idea from somewhere.. and frankly, I'm jealous I didn't think of it first. Each post is a photo taken through a window from somewhere in the world with a short caption. Today is Dubai. Can't wait to see where she will take us next week!

That's all for today folks! Not too many words.

Things I find on the internet

So Wednesday's post got moved to Thursday. First, because I was lazy yesterday and didn't feel like blogging. Second, because there will be no Friday post as I shall be in the air somewhere over the Atlantic. So I thought I'd give you Thursday to hold over until next week.

Same Wednesday drill though: things I've been looking at online. Think you should look at them too.

1.) Are jobs obsolete?
I like this article. Mostly because I don't have a job and it makes me feel less depressed about that. Not sure I really buy into the idea of information and creativity becoming new market goods. We're all too accustomed to getting that stuff for free now. Still, it's a bit different. Something to think about. What do you think?

2.) Sciences Still Young
My entire academic career has been devoted to the social sciences. Many of you are in the same boat too. And we continue to hear (from policy makers) that social sciences aren't useful to society and government funding will be cut in all those departments. We, those of us who do social science, know that this argument is total bollocks. This article is a really interesting rebuttal to this kind of argument. We're just on the brink of cool discoveries in a lot of social fields. Methodology is expanding and getting better. What if all interest and funding for natural sciences had been stifled just as Einstein was about to give us E=mc²?

The Mute Girl of Portici

3.) The opera Belgium can't see
This one is about a play that has been a symbol of Belgian unity since there was such an idea as Belgian unity. I'm not really sure why to be honest. It doesn't make much sense to me. Anyway, there is a big production of this play coming along soon. But they can't show it in Belgium because unity is too controversial right now. I find the irony of this situation really quite funny. But more than funny, it is a really interesting illustration of how politics influences all spheres of society. I study politics. These things entertain me.

4.) Back to the Start
Ever a sucker for good advertising, Chipotle won me over with this one. Well, kind of. I don't live in a country where I can get Chipotle so I can't give them business. But I sure would after this advert. Can I get an AMEN for sustainable farming?

Piggies found here

5.) CUBE
Ah... the mystery of design. This is a lengthy intellectual interpretation of an incredibly simple object. If the first article is right, and ideas are the new currency, then this guy ought to be a zillionaire! He got all that from a box? I mock, but really I am very impressed (and a bit jealous). You'll have to read subtitles if you don't speak German.



Happy Reading!

What to Read this Week

This is an attempt to instate a weekly post. It is a list of random things on the internet I’ve read or watched this week. Some of them are serious, some of them are not. My mood tends to vary over the week and this macafouchette of articles and videos is the result.
Here is this week's list:

1.) Stop Coddling the Super Rich
Many of you have probably read this already. It was trending on Twitter and popping up all over Facebook. But just in case you haven't seen this, I'm drawing it to your attention. It's an op-ed in the New York Times written by Warren Buffett. Essentially he argues that America's financial problems could in part be solved by increasing taxes on the richest parts of the population. In my opinion, this is the kind of common sense that would make the world a better place. 

2.) What Google Didn’t Buy
Ok, enough with the serious. Time for some fun. The folks at Google have a lot of money and can buy just about anything. But they are missing out on some true joys in life. My personal favourite: an in-house cheese cave.

Mmmm... cheeeessee

3.) Post Conflict Potter
This didn't actually come out this week but I want to include it anyway. If you're not into Harry Potter this may not interest you. But if you are it is kind of cool. It is a real life foreign policy analysis of the fictional world of Magic. Personally, I really hated that final chapter where we look 19 years into the future and see a world that doesn't look any different. For me, this article was a better look into the future of Harry's life. It talks about the politics of the magical world in a post-war era. It's a little bit lefty but, c'mon, so is Harry. Anyway, give it a read!

4.) Jeremy Gilley
This is actually a video of a speech given by Jeremy Gilley, the founder of Peace One Day. If you've not heard of it, you can find out more here. He talks about how he started out his organisation and the ups and downs that got him to where he is today. He's a cool, well-spoken guy with an inspiring story.

5.) Beer Billboard Casts Long Shadow 
If you are like me, a sucker for super-cool advertising, this amazing artwork is really going to make you crave a Newcastle Brown Ale. I don’t even like beer. But I would drink one because of this.

6.) A veryimportant speech about social media 

This is a speech by the US Chief of Naval Operations. It is a bit long-winded and I’m going to admit that I haven’t read the whole thing. But the message is an important one: stop seeing social media as a security risk and start seeing it as a tool to engage more dynamically with an “audience of audiences”. If you use Facebook/Twitter/Google+ (and let’s face it, you DO!) and you’ve ever worried about how your profile affects your professional life, then this speech reminds you that your online life is not a professional liability but a very important tool.

7.) You LOL you Lose!

Another great advertising campaign/ fun way to waste time when you should be working/studying/exercising. Warning: might induce cravings for unhealthy dairy products. 

Happy Reading!