Tuesday, November 30, 2010

any guitar and any bass drum...



A nice little movie 'We All Want to Be Young'; the output of studies conducted by BOX1824, a Brazilian research company specialising in behavioural science and general trendspotting, around Gen Y, Millenials, Global Youth or whatever the latest catch-all term is.

Thanks to Gavin for finding, and as he rightly points out 'expect to see this coming to a presentation deck near you soon'...

muji christmas

What happened when the intern at MUJI got sent down to IKEA for the tealights...



Also in full screen glory at muji.com.

HT to the Hidden Persuader.

Friday, November 26, 2010

talent + innovation = dynamite *MUST SEE



This is just about the most amazing thing I've seen on You Tube in recent times.
This fella has built his own percussive pipe organ thing and knocks out a few mean tunes using what looks like kitchen utensils.

The internet was made for stuff like this.

change


Thanks to @trevoryoung for today's twitter nugget.

'Progress is impossible without change and those who cannot change their minds cannot change anything.'
- George Bernard Shaw

rockmelt



Rockmelt, they describe themselves as 'the browser re-imagined'.

I've signed up for the beta to see for myself.
You can too. Go to rockmelt.com and connect with your Facebook id.

sneakerpedia



People + Passion + stories.

Bringing people together, giving them something to do to create their own value.

Top marks to Footlocker.

Thursday, November 25, 2010

lindsay lohan is marc ecko’s AR muse



Here's fashion designer Marc Ecko talking about making his Fall 2010 launch and AR experience, featuring Lindsay Lohan - as the designers digital 'muse'.

Fans can storyform and save their own video by manipulating the virtual Lindsay through various chapters using the web application.

Ecko is reputedly be influenced by legendary American illustrator Robert McGinnis, who's film poster credits include Barbarella, Breakfast at Tiffany's, and umpteen iconic James Bond posters.


The AR bit was made by Boffswana, right here in Melbourne.

i am playr

I'm tickled by the prospect of I AM PLAYR.

'Mixing first person perspective gameplay, interactive video and storytelling through different media to create a rich gaming experience'

Where social gaming, deep media, storytelling/forming/dwelling and community collide.

With muddy boots.

I'm not mentioning the 't' word, Marcus has already told me off for that.



The full story over here.
Thanks to contagious.

fake it 'til you make it 2


A nice slice of wisdom from The Wire as the Eastside and Westside clash on the the basketball court.

Eastside 'coach' Prop Joe is called out by Avon Barksdale for his choice of attire.

Avon: 'How come you wearin' that suit? Its 85 fucking degrees outside and you tryin' to be like Pat Riley.'

Joe: 'Look the part, be the part motherf*cker'

Avon: 'You walking around with a fake fucking clipboard, you can't even read a playbook. Be for real... ya bunch o' bitches!'

There's fake it 'til you make it, and just plain fake it.

Cheers Petar for the nudge.

Wednesday, November 24, 2010

gang of four: free EP download



3 tracks to download, completely legal, from Gang of Four.

A new version of Glass (from '79 debut album Entertainment!), Sleeper (totally new non album track) and I Party All the Time from the forthcoming set Content.

Tuesday, November 23, 2010

if mandela had tweeted

Here's Jonathan MacDonald giving a dynamite talk at TEDx Youth in Manchester tackling the conundrum around the impact of social technologies on social change.

Jonathan asks: 'Is it the tools in our hands or what's in our hearts?'




Genius, Conviction, Imagination, Passion, Persistence, Compassion and Bravery being the seven key attributes he identifies as being in the hearts of people who have changed the world in some way.

He reminds us that Facebook is not among that list.

We now have the tools to propagate what's in our hearts faster and further than at any time in human history.

What are we going to spread?

branding

'Carefully watch your thoughts for they will become your words.
Manage and watch your words for they will become your actions.
Consider and judge your actions for they will become your habits.
Acknowledge and watch your habits for they will become your values.
Understand and embrace your values for they will become your destiny.'

I'm sure @herdmeister won't mind being quoted in the same context as Mahatma Gandhi, and he summarises thus:

'Brand is something you get.
It's the scoreboard, not the game'.

Monday, November 22, 2010

mott the hoople syndrome


Older readers may remember the mighty Mott. Emerging in the late 60's with a power r'n'b style and later morphing into bovver glamsters under the mentorage of one David Bowie esquire, Mott faded somewhat around '73/'74 in an unfortunate tangle of cliche and gratuitous self-reflexivity.

This gave it's name to, a condition known as Mott The Hoople Syndrome.

The syndrome described the point when the subject of Mott's oeuvre became simply that of being in Mott The Hoople.

Sadly this also equates to the bulk of what we see in the postmodern advertising space.
Brands talking about themselves, and to themselves.

Like the Bette Midler character in Beaches.

'That's enough about me...let's talk about you.
What do YOU think about me?'

Thursday, November 18, 2010

incidentally...

It works in practice but does it work in theory?
Or is it the other way round?

Either way there's undeniably a few cute notions in this incidental media theme from Dentsu London labelled Making Future Magic.



At the end of the day their earnestness is admirable but I can't help but be slightly terrified of a near-future where every surface is a media channel to push messaging.

Just 'cos we can do something doesn't mean we should.

Basically I'm thinking this just equates to more noise and sometimes the best thing brands can do is just shut the f*ck up for a bit.

Tuesday, November 16, 2010

more post digital

As the digital-post-digital debate continues I'll point you to this sagely nugget from Russell Davies' blog this week.

'The only way to be a Post-Digital business is to be a thoroughly, deeply, massively digital one. To be digital in culture not just in capabilities. To know how to iterate in public, to do experiments not research, to recognise that it's quicker and better to code something than it is to describe it in meetings. You need to be part of the wider digital culture, to have good sharing habits, to give credit where it's due, and at the very least to know how to do ellipses in Processing.'

Monday, November 15, 2010

less is more



I was recently temporarily seduced by a NokiaN97 handset, with it's myriad of features, sliding keyboard, built-in sat-nav and all the rest.

In the end it went back, it was just too clunky, too complicated and the fact that they had thrown the kitchen sink at it made it ultimately unusable and a time-suck to do even the simplest of tasks.

In the quest for the iphone killer Nokia and many others bow to conventional wisdom that in order to beat the competition you need to cram more 'value', more stuff, more features into your thing.

Jimmy in this office just showed me his John's Phone as the antithesis of that.

They understand that for some people a phone is just that. A phone.
It makes and receives calls. End of story.

No text messaging.
No camera.
No apps.
One ringtone.

Here's their line.

'John’s Phone is the world’s simplest cell phone: you call, you hang up, and that’s it.'

John's phone does contain a simple address book, it's a deliciously analogue paper notepad and mini-pen, it's one nod to personalisation comes in it's 5 colour choices.
Snow (white), business (black), tree (brown), grass(green) and sweet (pink).

Sits alongside the Flip camera in the Less is More file - subset the product IS the marketing - and testament that doing one thing great is always preferable to doing lots of things with mediocrity.

Thursday, November 11, 2010

sharpies



Sharpies were a unique street subculture in Australian cities from the late 60's to early 70's. Essentially the bridge between skinheads and the bootboy faction of glam (a la Slade), the Oz twist of what we called Suedeheads in the UK.

This film is one of the great documents of the time, shot at Melbourne Showground circa 1974 by Sharpie Greg Macainsh.


Looking at this early pic of AC/DC from around '74 by Philip Morris - himself a touch sharp, he just picked up his camera aged 15 and began to capture the 60's rock'n'roll scene he loved - you just know that a couple of years earlier they were the people in this movie.

Fascinating.

Friday, November 05, 2010

junior


I'll be doing a turn as guest talking head at Junior, the Melbourne networking event for young ad creatives, photographers, writers etc on Tuesday 9th November.

It's at the Workers Club up in Fitzroy from 7pm.

All the deets at lifeatthebottom.

Thursday, November 04, 2010

stupidity


This terrified goldfish was sent in to the office in a plastic bag as an attention grabbing stunt by some so-called 'creative' type along with their resume.

Presumably they thought that this bit of wackiness somehow reflected their creativity.

All it reflected was utter stupidity, cruelty and total disregard for the life of a poor creature.

Moronic.

gimmix! part 2



The marketers dilemma when faced with that plethora of shiny objects and whoopee cushions with which to shout and fart into the void.

"I like too many things and get all confused and hung-up running from one falling star to another till I drop.

This is the night, what it does to you.

I had nothing to offer anybody except my own confusion."


Sal Paradise (Jack Kerouac) - On The Road 1951

a small belief can mean you'll never walk alone

Just to re-iterate a point that's been made in these pages many times.
There is a massive difference between a brand standing for something and simply making a vacuous mission statement or concocting some convoluted commercial proposition.

Dynamic engineering for the modern world or some other generic bollocks is NOT standing for something.

It might look nice in some brand onion but means diddly squat to people.
And it's people who you need to connect with.

Standing for something means putting a stake in the ground, drawing a line in the sand or putting up the flag and saying 'this is what we believe is right and this is how we make a difference in the world, today'.

Saying and doing something that actually matters.

Making a commitment.

Doing this saves time and money because you don't have to think and debate and argue the toss about what to do every time and it immediately connects you with others who share that worldview.

A small belief can mean you never walk alone.

I keep coming back to the five questions posed by Tom Peters in Re-Imagine.

1 - WHO ARE YOU?
2 - WHY ARE YOU HERE?
3 - WHAT MAKES YOU UNIQUE?
4 - HOW CAN YOU MAKE A DRAMATIC DIFFERENCE?
5 - WHO CARES ABOUT YOU?

This is where it starts.