ThoughtSpurs

I have to confess to being a baby boomer. A late boomer (late bloomer too, come to think of it…only just started shaving). In chronological terms that makes me 43. So, not young, but not so old either. The other day I went to a fashionable Auckland cafe called Bambina. Actually I should say that it is more 'smart' than fashionable. Having been around since at least 1997 or 98 it has become something of an institution. I rather like the big central table, surrounded by chairs. Very communal, sort of like you might see at a childrens daycare/playcentre. There is a a long line of magazines arrayed through the centre, though not Idealog I noticed. Must have been stolen or in use… But here's the thing. I must have been the youngest person there. The well-heeled, fashionably dressed customers were all 45 plus, huddled in the café at 8 am, meeting before work. It was a vision of what the rest homes of the very near future will be like. Be afraid.

Day 1. 1. Motorola MOTOKRZR I went along to the launch of a new phone. Weird, but true. I wasn’t sure what I was expecting. In a funny sort of way I guess I thought I might learn something. Given that it was Motorola I though there might be some innovation. Stupid, naive boy. It was a cocktail party. The idea was to create a photo opp for Charlotte Dawson and other 24-hour party people regulars. In the absence of innovation (the phone has a glossy, reflective case), …play the fashion card. I don’t know the retail price, but I am guessing it comes at a premium. Yet it doesn’t even have G3 technology built in. I did get to meet some very interesting people that I wouldn’t usually have encountered. Tanya Thompson and Steve Hodge were interesting company (Tanya is the artist A.K.A. Misery who graced the cover of our best selling edition of Idealog). The promo pack I was given as I left was an equal disgrace. I’ve never seen anything as wasteful. Shrink-wrapped outer box. Lift the lid…revea...

I remember two things about Miss May’s class at Mount Eden Normal Primary School in 1969. First was listening to Neil Armstrong setting foot on the surface of the moon, broadcast over the school’s classroom intercom system. I was six, sitting cross legged on the mat… a man of the world, because I had travelled with my family from Scotland by boat, venturing through the bleak streets of Naples, my mum’s hand firmly gripped in one hand and my die-cast Thunderbird 2 (with fully operational Thunderbird 4 pod) in the other for safety; and skirting through the war in the Suez Canal prevented from stopping in Aden because of the shooting. I had even integrated with the strange sounding natives of New Zealand, with their weird accents, and suddenly it all paled with the words “One small…crackle…step…crackle…for man…”. But even that shock didn’t prepare me for what was to follow. Mathematics traumatised me like nothing I had ever known. When introduced to those little coloured blocks (whose nam...

Get in early. Stop it from being built. Save a billion or so. Rugby World Cup in Christchurch. Planned development of Auckland a separate issue.

If there is no one there to hear it does it make a sound? I spend too much time reading and writing blog entries. I suppose. My problem is that, though I know it is quite widely read, my rudimentary statistic package tells me that I've had over 8,000 visitors in the past few months and that about 25% are returning visitors. I'm interested in whether you find the content of the blog interesting and/or useful. Even if you are uncomfortable with leaving a public comment you can email me feedback or ideas by email

Collaboration is my hot button. It is all well and good having many great ideas. But getting them done usually requires people with complementary and specialised skills. I came accross an interesting collaborative project from MIT. It combines an Undergraduate Artist Emma Lindsay with a Media Lab Graduate Researcher Amber Frid-Jimenez. Click here to visit . The premise is simple: Tag an online movie with audiotags using the telephone. So users can leave commentary and opinion about the film by phone. Augmenting the collaboration is the addition of Japanese subtitles courtesy of a Visiting Researcher from Japan). The first of the movies is hardly brain surgery "How Do Average Guys Get With Hot Girls?" and the 7 second phone in commentaries reflect the topic, but the possibilites for the application, which widens the collaboration to the viewer network must have potential. I'd like to see a non linear way of experiencing the phone ins. Maybe there is some application to ext...

Let's face it. I can't implement every idea that pops into my head. So I'm giving them away. Open source ideas. Every Friday on the idealog magazine website. You might find something there that either stimulates another idea of your own. Or you could pick up mine and run with it. Free. The very idea would probably horrify an IP lawyer. Rule number one when you have an idea you plan to commercialise it then you have to keep it to yourself. Whn you don't, then your idea is in the public domain. Check out this week's Free Idea Friday And the first one...

I watched the show Risking it All on tv one just now. Possibly the best business show I have seen since The TroubleShooter, starring Sir John Harvey Jones. If you are at all interested in setting up a business make an appointment for 9.30 Thursday on TV ONE (NZ)

"Deliberation is the function of many. Action is the function of one." Charles de Gaulle

I like that Converse the shoe maker (now owned by Nike) go about their marketing in a different way. They've really embraced the audience that love their Chucks. I love mine, though they make my feet smell for that authentic retro ambience. Check out Mr Anderson, an authentic boy in a bubble. One & Only for certain. The converse site is well worth a visit. While you're window shopping, I like Bend to Baja for the Patagonia brand as well (how to make an established outdoor adventure apparel brand get quick traction with the surfing fraternity. There is something to be said for whimsy.

I am speaking at the Careers and Transition Educators (CATE) Conference next week in Rotorua. Introducing high school guidance councellors to the concept of the creative economy and working through some of the issues I believe are important for our kids when they leave high school. It's one thing to talk to jaded business people, it's quite another to talk to educators. I came across this movie on a blog I get a feed from Another Planning Blog. I can promise you that I won't be singing in my workshops. Ever. Watch the clip it is what I can only describe as surreal. The Office meets Singstar:

Following some random links on the web I found a shopping site that has some features I've never seen before. Like.com . It makes the Ferrit experience seem a little feral (in spite of their very funny new ad campaign). Oh, and you can buy Idealog on Ferrit , can't be all bad.

The Lord of the Rings meant a lot to me when I was a kid. It seems that turning the thing into a film(s) spoiled the magic for me. I preferred my own imagination to Peter Jackson's and the Weta Workshop's. To commemorate the publication of Peter Jackson's authorised biography check out this charming little ditty from YouTube. When the time is right I'll write my autobiography. It will, of course, be unauthorised.

Interest in things like farmer's markets seems to be gaining momentum. I was interested to see that the Britomart area in downtown Auckland is going to host one. That's great for me, its a stone's throw from my apartment. A welcome addition to the neighbourhood. Bluewater group are making great progress in bringing life back to the once derelict precinct. ( read the article in Idealog. ) The proposed stadium on the Bledisloe wharf is an insane idea an ugly carbuncle and the wrong thing to put on Auckland's waterfront. The whole process smells rotten. I'll talk more about this when the rage subsides.

Short entry. I have enjoyed watching the Dragon's Den. We sponsored the Australian series with Idealog magazine and I think it did wnders for our fledgling profile. The kiwi series has just finished. Not really up to snuff, not enough respect betwen the 'dragons'. The local producers didn't seem to have the maturity to understand the concept and much of the feedback I have heard from seasoned business people confirms my view (though I would be interested to hear yours). The British show was the best of the three. The BBC have a good site to support the series. I found this on the site I think will be useful to anyone who wants to persuade someone to come on board with their idea. (make sure you click the video link at the top of the story).

I like this, The Blower's Daughter by Damian Rice, made famous by the film soundtrack Closer. Am I going soft in my old age? What is the difference between sentiment and nostalgia? For years I wanted to make a compilation of sad songs and call it 'Good Grief' (in the dot com era I even owned the URL). I'm sure it would be a hit. Who doesn't have favourite sad songs. Now it's just a playlist on my iTunes. I've had an idea. I found that a lot of the music I loved at different parts of my life are on YouTube. I thought it would be amusing to make a web page with a time line incorporate the clips and mae a matrix of associations with events that were hapeening at the time - for me, and in the wider world. Hard to describe…haven't thought it through completely.Who'd have thought that Rory Galagher's million miles away would be on video on he web. He was the first live act I ever saw. Auckland town hall, 1980 (if I remember rightly).

I don't know if you saw this on 6o Minutes last night, or if you have been one of the 5 and a half million people who have seen it on YouTube. This story is yet another example of both Generation C at work and the democratisation of media. It goes like this…Teen band make a video of a guy giving away hugs one day a week in a Sydney, Australia, shopping mall. His name is Juan Mann (classic). The City Council bans him from his work unless he buys public liability insurance. The guy in the band (who works in a shop - they are not a hit band at this point) documents the petition process, then sets a song he has recorded to the edited clips using his mome computer. The result is touching and the song fits acceptably into that kind of angsty rock ballad format. Before you know it, Good Morning America and Oprah come-a-knocking and 15 minutes of fame is extended a litle further. With luck and good management The Sick Puppies will parlez it into a career. Heartwarming stuff,…yes? Perfect ...

There's a line in a Malcolm MacLaren 'song' - All this scratchin' is makin' me itch . I think it was Buffalo Girls . I may be wrong and, given that Google is at my fingertips,that may be unforgivable. That's one of the sad side-effects of the internet. I, or you for that matter, can be endlessly right about all sorts of things. Just the other day a friend emailed me from her office, asking what character in what film spoke the line: " Mr Phat has just resigned. I'm the new chairman of the board. He always did like that Mausoleum. [dramatic pause] Put him in it ". It sounded a bit Ian Flemmingish, and a quick trip to the Internet Movie Database confirmed it within seconds. James Bond - Man with the Golden Gun (spoken by Christopher Lee in character as Francesco Scaramanga). What might once have passed as General Knowledge had become Specific Knowledge. I am not quite ready to let go of uncertainty.I felt a pang of nostalgia for the days of blissf...

I don't know when the interview I am watching on UKTV was recorded, but Micheal Parkinson and Madonna has to be an irresistable match, right? Just after her disco oriented record date stamps it is my guess. American readers might not know who Parkinson is (long running talk show host) but I am certain you've heard of Madonna (who somewhere, somehow, earned the moniker 'Madge'). She has been in the news recently for her interest in adopting african children. I don't understand the furore about that. She can adopt me if she wants. I'd rather like having a nanny. Though a governess might be more appropriate. Madonna qualifies as The One & Only. Anybody prepared to disagree with me? The show reminds me of Paul Jeffreys, Squeeze, my erstwhile business partner (now deceased) who made the very shrewd decision to buy not one-but two copies of Madonna's controversial book ' Sex '. His idea was to open one (they came in a sealed foil bag) and leave the oth...

Martin Brown, who publishes the New Zealand Creative Circle blog , wrote a column in Idealog magazine describing some Australian clients as 'Muppets'. These archive films from the late 50's are conclusive proof that there have always been muppets in advertising. There are more on youTube, but I think you get the picture. Sometimes advertising ain't an intellectual thing.

Moulin Rouge , by Baz Luhrman, is one of my favourite films. Yes, it is ridiculous in parts. On first viewing it is disorienting. Repeated viewings are worth the effort. Luhrman describes his style as 'red curtain' theatre. No cinema veritae for him. If you are going to die of consumption, then do it with panache. The style harks to that mad form of musical theatre, opera. In fact Baz was an operatic director before moving to movies. His production of La Boheme broke from convention. Rather than simply casting the usual suspects as singers and chorus, based on experience and ability to fill a large theatre with unmicrophoned song, he developed the curious notion that beautiful young people, the bohemians, should actually be…beautiful young people. How odd. Moulin Rouge owes much to Luhrman's Boheme (which had Melbourinians lining the streets to secure tickets). The tango sequence is one of the best in the movie, the disruptive combination of the old Police song Roxanne wi...

#118- “It’s amazing how well you interpreted the brief. This piece is exactly what we wanted, you could not have made it any better, I love it. But I also think it’s too good. This is for a bigger client, a more international one. We’re not like that. See if you can do something shittier that we can use.” (Client, Marketing Manager) If you have ever worked in advertising and design the Adverbatum blog will have you laughing out loud and thinking, at the same time, I have heard this before, because the truth is that creative people are subjected to ignorance and stupidity on a daily basis. Of course the phenomena is a two way street. I'd love to see a blog by clients and account managers that detail the absurd, the ridiculous and bombastic twaddle that sometimes comes from the 'creative department'. Hmmm, I can think of a few I've been responsible for. Reminds me of an anecdote (apocryphal?) about forgotten kiwi advertising legend Len Potts (who entertained us with some...

When I began this blog it was intended to be rather more focused on my concept of the One & Only, which, simply put is an expression of individuality and authenticity in branding. I have referred to the worlds of art and entertainment, because it is often in those realms that iconoclasm holds forth by design or simply by dint of genetics. I recently watched a documentary on television about the abilities of savants, sometimes known as idiot savants or people who have a form of autism that grants them access to particular skills and abilities and denies them eery day abilities to engage with the world as others do. The film Rainman was, perhaps the most well know depiction of the condition. One chap captured my imagination in a dramatic way. Through a random blog link I found that the segment of the documentary about Peter Wiltshire was on YouTube. Wiltshire is flown in a helicopter over the city of Rome. Though he has never seen the vista before he will draw it in impeccable detail...

I've just written my column the Christmas issue of Idealog (happy birthday Idealog - has it really been a year?). Matt, our editor, asked me to write a piece about advertising. I wasn't so keen, I tend to be thinking about where advertising is going, rather than the latest, glossiest ads on TV. I wonder if I begin to sound like a guy with a sandwich board with 'The End is Nigh' on it. That's not really what I think. In fact, the opposite. The beginning is nigh. Things are changing fast in the world of communications and I am excited at the prospect of it. Excited in a bungie jump way. You know, your lizard brain is telling you that you're going to die when you jump off, but your rather more sensible mind is reassuring you that the rubber bands around your ankles will protect you from real harm... But anyway, I am reminded how much I really do enjoy advertising when it is crafted with care and has some form of intelligence present. By that I don't mean that ...