ThoughtSpurs

I have found the perfect place to read in peace. The swimming pool. When my H20 Audio headset arrives I'll be able to listen to audio books, right now it will be short stories, but as my aerobic capacity increases I'll work towards The Brothers Karamazov or War & Peace , I suppose music is an option too. What would the best music for laps be? As part of my new exercise regime I am spending my allowance on all sorts of paraphernalia to make the experience more palatable. Anti chafe shorts, lightweight running shoes - resisting the urge to become obsessive compulsive as I was back in the 80's when I got hooked into triathlons. It was in the very early days of the sport. I worked for an ad agency called MacKay King (famous for Terry King's cunning reverse takeover of Saatchi & Saatchi). The General Manager was Tony Thomas (now the business manager of the New Zealand America's Cup Team). Tony was also in charge of the Schweppes account and they were sponsoring t...

I spent the weekend in Martinborough, the charming little village, 45 minutes north of Wellington, famous for its vineyards and Food and Wine Festival. Not much was going on. I guess it is the middle of winter so I didn't have very high expectations. We were lucky to be able to enjoy dinner Saturday night at Wendy Campbell's French Bistro, which had just won the Cuisine Magazine regional restaurant of the year award. It is a nice little bistro, I guess it seats 30 people at a time. The award obviously caused a bubble of interest - or perhaps Saturday night is always full. I didn't really enjoy the meal itself - maybe grey old French traditional cuisine can't cut it when you have been exposed to fresh, well prepared contemporary food - available in any cafe or bistro in Auckland or Wellington. The owners are parents of John Campbell (of TV3's Campbell Live current affairs programme) and it was nice to meet his dad, amiably making guests feel at home. In spite if my c...

What are the odds? One of my colleagues from BrandWorld has been absent since last Friday. Well, thanks to the wonders of everyday, all the time TV he's been spotted - in Beijing, ringside, congratulating Nick Willis on his Bronze medal in the 1500 metre final (New Zealand's first track Gold since the hay-days of John Walker, Dick Quax and Rod Dixon). I'm kidding of course, we all knew Mike O'Sullivan was heading for Beijing (I think he was modestly keeping it quiet - its the kiwi way). I hope he has his Free Tibet banner with him

One of the most interesting people I have met in my career so far is Mike Hutcheson. When I was a young copywriter I worked for his advertising agency, Hutcheson Knowles Marinkovich. They were strange birds. It was the first open-plan office I had worked in. The building has a curious opulence, a converted early 20th Century space that is now the recording studio owned by the Finn Brother from Crowded House whose name escapes me presently. In contrast to the baroque surroundings were the accommodations for staff. Everybody had a trestle desk with an unfinished door as its surface - even the principals who sat among us. Hutch was the managing director. Of the three partners he was the 'people person'. Everyone loved Mike (as I am sure they still do). The democracy was all embracing - there were 'Good News Bad News' meetings. Hutch would analogize about the mountains and the balloon - the balloon being the agency and the mountains the challenges we faced - sort of...

I know this is already old-hat but I though you might be interested in it (from the New York Times : All my life I’ve been a successful pseudo-intellectual, sprinkling quotations from Kafka, Epictetus and Derrida into my conversations, impressing dates and making my friends feel mentally inferior. But over the last few years, it’s stopped working. People just look at me blankly. My artificially inflated self-esteem is on the wane. What happened? Existential in Exeter Dear Existential, It pains me to see so many people being pseudo-intellectual in the wrong way. It desecrates the memory of the great poseurs of the past. And it is all the more frustrating because your error is so simple and yet so fundamental. You have failed to keep pace with the current code of intellectual one-upsmanship. You have failed to appreciate that over the past few years, there has been a tectonic shift in the basis of good taste. You must remember that there have been three epochs of intellectual affectation...

Over on Tom Peters' blog he poses an interesting question under the heading: Hiring criteria. Are there enough people on your payroll who "lack common sense"? It's an interesting twist. Common sense would seem to be a desirable trait, isn't it? The antithesis of stupidity. Or is it? There are other expressions that have an insidiously stultifying effect, for example: Curiosity killed the cat. That's a doozy. In fact curiosity dragged mankind out of the quagmire of the dark ages. Society is ambivalent about breaking ranks but it is essential for anything new to happen. Somebody has to be dissatisfied with how things are now and apply their curiosity and inquiry to the problem. That said, I found it remarkable how many of my design students at Massey University utterly rejected my assertion that their mission in life should be constantly question how and why things were done, how things would be different if they tried to do things wrong, counter-intuitively an...

I got a pink ukulele for Zoë on the weekend from Bungalow Bill's Music Shop. She loves it. Seems to have a knack for quickly figuring out chords - well the fingering bit. The Ramones thrash classic is featured in the New Zealand Ukulele Companion (published by AUT Media - get a copy). I wasn't sure how it should be interpreted - the Hawaiian strum just kept coming to mind. But this video cleared things up for me.

Sometimes I like ads that fall under the loose description 'existential'. They don't mean anything in particular. The Cadbury Gorilla commercial (which recently began running on a moderately high rotation here in New Zealand) is an exemplar. The ad above is another. Unlike the Phil Collins lookalike, the cast of this ad don't actually do anything. The effect is curiously hypnotic. It means you can concentrate on the message. Not that there seems to be a message - except that Natural Confectionery Company's jelly snakes have natural colours and flavours. I did think that the sugar coated bear might have been significant - a rival product maybe? But no, looking at another commercial in the series - its part of the range. See, looking for answers just complicates things. There's nothing else for it but to bring on the trumpets.

I signed up for membership at the Tepid Baths and gym. I haven't joined a gym since 1996, when I came back from London. Back then I didn't make the most of it (never join a gym that isn't in your neighbourhood). So I expended more energy being grumpy about the contract than actually using it. The 'Teps' are an iconic part of the Auckland landscape and just a couple of hundred metres from my office in the Viaduct. Maybe I am inspired by the Phelps effect -or maybe I just see the pending train wreck if I don't knock myself into some kind of shape. It would be nice to drop some weight for summer too. I could certainly use some more energy. (Maybe that is why I have been slack about blogging recently? So, watch out for post-propulsion.

A dear friend of mine has a hearing impairment - she wears an aid. This commerial for the New Zealand Foundation for Deaf is brilliant - it demonstrates clearly what it must be like for her. I found it quite moving.http://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gif I like the spare exection, the straight delivery and the use of the demonstration technique. I'd pick it as a surefire winner of many awards this year. I think it was made by DDB Auckland - well done.

I spotted this wheel cover the other day in traffic. Ummm;…what were they thinking?

See more Paris Hilton videos at Funny or Die Possibly the most sensible thing I've seen from the America Presidential campaign. Very funny.

Interesting day to day - caught up with some of my favourite people. Lunch with Martin Bell and Vincent Heeringa from HB Media - we founded Idealog together and the lads have gone on to publish the successful travel magazine Inspire and sustainability magazine Good. They have also published a number of books - a large format volume about snapper in New Zealand - a slightly mad topic but nicely done. What caught my eye though was the Kiwi Ukulele book. I finagled a copy - I have always wanted to know how to play Blitzkrieg Bop on the Ukulele (and Anarchy in the UK), naturally enough I needed an instrument to go with the book so I went to visit my old mate Bill Lattimer up at Bungalow Bills on Kybher Pass Road. Bill is a living legend on the New Zealand music scene. He's an lovely bloke who is always happy to have a chat. Today we talked about how he is using the internet to grow his business. You should visit his shop - it is an Aladdin's cave if you love interesting instrument...

One of the saddest sites in Auckland City are the rows of rental bicycles that go unused every day. The concept is simple. Call a number from your phone and the operators will give you the code that unlocks the bike's security chain. Maybe it's winter, so there is less foot traffic down here in the Viaduct? Or maybe the problem is a little more deep seated. I took this snap when I went for a lunchtime stroll. When I came back to the office I looked at the image closely and noticed the web address of the operator. On closer inspection I see that you have to register your credit card online to be able to use the equipment. Not only is this 'too hard' but it eliminates the spontaneity of seeing the bikes and thinking "That's a good idea - I'll give it a try." Maybe we simply have too small a population to support the idea? Or the prospect of cycling in downtown Auckland is roughly as appealing as being a policeman in Bagdhad? (I've done it - commutin...

At the marketing awards last night my colleagues and I celebrated winning our third Marketing Magazine Marketing Award. So now, each of our media properties has a gong attached to it: Family Health Diary, Eating Well and Discover. I chuckle to myself because, though we are now a fixture on the media landscape, it hasn't always been the case. Over ten years ago it wasn't easy to sell syndicated media properties. I won't say it is now, either - we have a very committed sales team who perform exceptional feats to grow our business every year. If you think it is easy - I heartily recommend having a go - though buying a lottery ticket might be more fruitful. It is also interesting that the Steve Bridges from the University of Auckland, chairman of the judging panel singled us out - along with McDonalds - for entering every year. I thought that might be either an admonishment or a boost - it turned out to be the former. According to Mr Bridges it is evidence that we are cons...