ThoughtSpurs

Hoopla is a book by/about hotshot ad agency Crispin Porter & Bogusky. Here's a good idea to promote it. Enter a search term and the book turns to content on the subject. Kind of like an oracle. I'm liking. More about Hoopla here.

I visited the Sculpture on the Gulf festival at Waiheke Island yesterday. It was quite an experience. The weather was as near to perfect for the occasion as it could have been (today it has packed up completely - the joys of living in subtropical Auckland - or, more accurately, sub-predictable Auckland). I had very little expectation about the event. I did wonder whether the sculptures would be scattered around the island with a tiki-tour bus to freight visitors from site to site. The reality was much easier. The works are displayed along a coastal walk around the edge of Matiatia Bay. The location was extraordinary. I have seen art in some of the world’s best museums and none had the impact of this setting. The first impression of the show is made when the ferry arrives at Matiatia Bay itself. On the right (starboard?) we passed a surreal, chrome droplet suspended above the water by the rocky shoreline. It reminded me of the effect in movies and commercials where a part of the action...

I've created a quick survey: what do you think of this blog. I know, I'm putting myself out there…but I guess, with blogging we all do. Click here to take survey It is anonymous…what do you have to lose?…

I had a very interesting chat with Greg Tabron yesterday. I have known Greg for years and have always thought him to be a smart marketing thinker and capable of seeing the wheat in rather a lot of chaff. As we sat looking over his drop dead gorgeous view of Auckland's upper harbour (which offers the possibility of being simply drop dead if you were to fall over the balcony), enjoying the sunshine, the conversation, not surprisingly turned to motorcyles (we both have owned Ducatis and Vespas) and cars, via some chat about the genius of Top Gear on television. Greg raised the views of Jeremy Clarkson on green issues . Clarkson has pointed out that motor vehicles account for a very small percentage of the CO2 emissions that global warming is attributed to. I think the figure is about 5%. Clarkson's passion is for cars, so he points out that of that 5% the majority is actually produced by trucks and heavy vehicles. Therefore the obsession with cars as environmentally mental is, in...

Why is this funny? It just is.

The weather has been good but I have been so busy that I have barely stepped foot outside. I have been in a frenzy, trying to complete the projects I have on plate at the moment so that I can become fully immersed in the big project for the year. I am preparing to begin a thesis in which I will test some ideas about brand theory and deployment in the context of the new, collaborative media landscape. Some of the ideas I have been mulling over since the mid 90s when I came home from Europe and started BrandWorld with Bill Peake and and Greig Buckley. The idea of homogenous brands, rather than playful brands that truly embrace the idea that consumer 'owns' the brand. I remember, in the early days of the business, each of the partners has a set of three different colourways for our cards. The recipient of the business card could choose what they liked. The partners chose their own sets, from the series developed by our designer (Gary Sullivan, whom I wrote about in an article for ...

I've just watched an hour or so of the best television I have seen for a long time. Francis Fulford is an eccentric English aristocrat (aka 'landowner') from Devon. You may have seen him in the all too brief televison series the F**king Fulfords, which chronicled is thoughts on life as a member of the landed gentry with little income to maintain his crumbling family pile. He is the antithesis of 'political correctness'. Every sentence includes the fuck expletive and he is as funny as all get out. The short clip gives you a taste, but not really the full flavour of the man. His show tonight was somewhat more considered. He goes on a road trip to see what the rest of England is like - ranging from a visit to a truly horrible precast concrete housing estate (which the National Heritage of England was either seeking a protective listing for or had gotten one already)to a dash of hypnotherapy (which, predictably fails). Needless to say our hero despised the buildings as...

Hot on the heels of my reference to the banned LynxJet ad here is another commercial that has been banned, this time in the UK. While there might be a similarity in the themes - a sort of renaissance of the 'real' man the reason for the censoring was quite different - complaints were received over the representation of the burger's size. Or should I say misrepresentation? Blogger Simon Law of the UK points out that the banning of the ad was based on 12 complaints, representing 'roughly 0.000025% of the British population'. It seems a cruel distortion that such a small number of dissenting voices can distort the reality of the majority of a population. It seems to give an extraordinary power to a few people who might be selected to sit on a standards board. I don't know who these people in the UK, but here in New Zealand the Advertising Standards Authority has a complaints board comprised of worthies from the community. Their brief biographies suggest they are...

Sent to me by a work colleague under the heading - 'Friday Funnies', just thought I'd share: Commenting on a complaint from a Mr Arthur Purdey about a large gas bill, a spokesman for North Westgas said, "We agree it was rather high for the time of year. It's possible Mr Purdey has been charged for the gas used up during the explosion that destroyed his house." The Daily Telegraph Police reveal that a woman arrested for shoplifting had a whole salami in her knickers. When asked why, she said it was because she was missing her Italian boyfriend. The Manchester Evening News Irish police are being handicapped in a search for a stolen van because they cannot issue a description. It's a Special Branch vehicle and they don't want the public to know what it looks like. The Guardian A young girl, who was blown out to sea on a set of inflatable teeth, was rescued by a man on an inflatable lobster. A coastguard spokesman commented, "This sort of thing is a...

The precursor to Steve Jobs' keynote at MacWorld .

Richard Branson has been mugging for the press here in New Zealand. It is a routine he could do blindfold and probably has - like any great showman he knows the value of making an entrance. He was here to celebrate the third anniversary of the launch of Virgin services from New Zealand. Of course, being Branson, celebrate means party and probably getting wet with attractive airline employees. It is a wonderful way of making 'news' when there really isn't any, other than a vague promise to have a Virgin domestic service in New Zealand - before he returns for his next visit. That is a terrific way of avoiding commitment. If we never see a Virgin domestic airline here it may also mean Branson will not grace the screens of fawning media either. Whether that is a good or bad thing I will leave for you to determine. In North America Virgin are more eager to carve a chunk of the domestic travel pie for themselves. It would seem they have an airline ready to go (whereas NZ comment...

To celebrate my 200th entry here's a little gift. A film about a crazy gaijin who walks the length of Japan to impress his Japanese girlfriend. It's kind of quirky, but interesting and fresh alternative to standard travel documentaries. "If you give yourself to the journey, the journey will give its self to you…"

I am disgustingly in love with the Apple brand. I have been since 1984 (I know, a late comer). Apple has grown with me and outlasted three marriages-of one kind or another. All these years later…something new, …you're beautiful… Phone me baby.

I'm doing some work for Simply You and Simply You Living magazines to help develop web strategies. So watching Ugly Betty, the launch episode, was pretty funny. Ah, the world of fashion…Truth is blander than fiction I fear. Instructive though. If you want to make a TV show these days it should be like a comic book, serialised, exaggerated characters.Don't worry about depth. All you need is a concept (draw on out-of-copyright ideas from Brothers Grimm…hey, it worked for Disney) Speaking of Disney…I watched the Steve Jobs keynote at the Macworld conference. 2 hours. Epic. Longer than Toy Story. But hey…I WANT AN iPHONE! Endure the presentation on the Apple site. Sadly, 2008 before it hits Asia (I guess New Zealand is in there?…please…). Sheesh - 2 hours. Did I mention I want an iPhone. Now. The Golden Globes are on. Hey, here's an idea for a show: Nah, too good to share…first rule of Intellectual Property - don't say a thing to anyone without proper protection. All I ca...

A friend of mine said that I am a bad writer on the basis of some of my blog entries. She made the comparison with some big name authors (whose big names I have forgotten). An interesting point of view. Flattered though I am to be compared with august literary figures it is worth considering the nature of blogging. In my case if something pops into my head I might feel compelled to share it with you. It has little significance really-in the way that idle conversations between friends rarely have the intellectual quality of an Oxford Union debate (though I have to say the only one of those I have been privvy to was that of the much overated and grating orator - David Lange with his sneered 'I can still smell the plutonium on your breath remark'). The writing in a blog, and I am only speaking for myself, is a simple, unedited stream of conscious. It is opinionated with nerry a nod to objectivity. No need for such a thing. This is not The Economist magazine . There is another cruc...

See if you can figure out what brand is being advertised in this spot. Had me stumped. But I'm not feeling especially swift today. Just finished reading an interesting book. Branded Nation The Marketing of Megachurch, College Inc., and Museumworld. Very interesting reading. "Twitchell’s basic premise—that organizations live and die based on brand recognition—isn’t new. In recent years, publishers have churned out dozens of marketing books trumpeting the importance of brand recognition. What sets Branded Nation apart is Twitchell’s richly detailed examination of how religious, educational, and cultural institutions are jumping on the branding bandwagon. Twitchell, a University of Florida professor and the author of previous books on advertising and culture, takes a couple of lumps from critics who found some parts of his newest work reductive or incomplete. But overall, Twitchell’s persuasive arguments and enviable story-telling ability make Branded Nation an enjoyable—and enli...

I wrote this as a column for Idealog , but replaced it with something a little less stroppy. I refer to Howard Gossage, whom I recently 'discovered'. If you are interested in finding out more this site is very good . Here is a Gossagism I rather like: "If you have something pertinent to say you neither have to say it to very many people -- only those who you think will be interested -- nor do you have to say it very often . . . if it is interesting, once is enough. If it is dull, once is plenty." Of all the businesses in the creative economy perhaps none has quite the same inflated sense of importance as the ad business. Advertising agencies promote themselves as purveyors of extraordinary degrees of creativity. What other business has a ‘creative department’? All of this flies in the face of a swollen body of evidence to the contrary every night on television, in the newspapers and in virtually every other medium. Most advertising is simply an affront. It is rude and...

I think this speaks for itself… I'll try to think of something more insightful when I have a minute.

Question time: Should we become a republic or annex Australia in 07?