ThoughtSpurs

I wrote an article, published in the New Zealand Herald , about the value of reason in advertising. The news from England demonstrates, again, that the very reasonable expectation we co-exist and value tolerance over violence and hate is harder to come by that one might expect. Even here in remote, pacific New Zealand the backlash against the muslim community is disappointing. Perhaps I am an idealist (and I hope I always will be) but I still hope that reason can prevail. Acts of terror do nothing to positively affect perceptions. The west also needs to take responsiblity for its behaviour. I'm no analyst but I wonder if reducing demand for oil products would defuse the molotov cocktail the Middle East seems to be. That way we can leave them to it and get on with our own ways of life and enjoy the differences instead of hating them. Just an idea....whaddyareckon?

Big week ahead. I have agreed to spend half my time working for BrandWorld, the company I formed in 1996, at which I created the hugely successful Family Health Diary format. I kind of made myself redundant when the FHD property took over the focus of the business like khudzu. Given that I focus on concept, prototype and initial implementation and that the product is something of a template there wasn't much productive work to be done. All of our energy and resources were directed to selling and producing the TV and magazine properties. I sold my stake in 2000. I've come back now that there are more resources and much bigger set of goals to achieve. SInce I left I have remained in touch with the company, developing other properties like Eating Well and IN2IT as a consultant- with many more in the pipeline. I have also agreed to lecture at Massey University in the design faculty. I'll be covering marketing communications design and design research. I'm looking forward to...

There is something about modern celebrity that I wonder about. What exactly are the talents of Britney Spears or Jessica Simpson? Am I being unfair? Yes they are very attractive women. Well, Simpson is. Not convinced by Britney. Am I asking too much? Celebrity is quite different from talent. Take Paris Hilton. She certainly has a talent for publicity, it seems she can hardly engage in an intimate moment without it appearing on the internet or the front page of every tabloid magazine and newspaper on the planet - and now an Osbourne's style TV show. I watched Paris' TV road trip show a couple of times. Can't fairly comment on modern media if I don't consume it. To be fair to Paris; the publicity is usually unwanted, isn't it ( Yeah right - to coin a phrase. What was I thinking? A momentary lapse. My real issue with bimbo celebrity (and I am using that as a blanket term) is that the media/publicity machine churns blonde, beautiful girls with the same intensity as the...

I recently learned that the woman I loved and lived with for three years had been carrying on an affair behind my back for who knows how long before I ended our relationship. Oddly, I don't mind the betrayal (we'd both been married twice before and had many lovers before we even met; fidelity in that respect seems a quaint abstract - medieval ideas about virginity or 'purity' come to mind), but the deception is a different thing…I could have chosen a different course - had I known - and I like to choose my own path. It serves to remind me of the misunderstood and certainly overestimated concept of loyalty in marketing - as if we can truly expect fidelity from people in a world filled with infinite choices. It doesn't matter that people might behave in a fickle way and choose the next brightly coloured thing. More power to them. Don't simper, don't run after them. Be true to yourself. Enjoy what you do. And adapt. If you make hand crafted guitars but teenager...

How bizarre. The British Lions are here in New Zealand. So far it has been terribly dull, Other than the advertising frenzy, led by the likes of Telecom - leveraging their sponsorship investment. And isn't that the point? Money and marketing is far more interesting than the thing itself. The media has taken the opportunity to wax lyrical about how things have changed since the Lions last toured New Zealand, and further back when the Lions were ambassadors for the Old Country and spent time actually mixing with people in local host communitities - in rugby clubs and RSAs. Back then rugby was still an amateur sport. The Lions touring New Zealand now are an altogether different animal. Sir Clive Woodward's shadow looms over the team. The puppetmaster. If he could secure the World Cup of Rugby for England, why wouldn't he be able to work the magic for the Lions? The team has a over 100 personnel. Bear in mind that there are 15 players in a rugby football team. I heard a repor...

Well Michael Jackson is found innocent of every charge levelled against him. I heard it on the radio just moments ago. Not unexpected. Even casually noticing, rather than watching the news of the trial I kind of got the vibe that the single minded proposition (if I can borrow advertising parlance for a moment) was that it was Jackson himself who was the victim. The victim of avaricious people willing to exploit Jackson's weirdness, declining fame and the generally accepted meme that he is a child molester (on the grounds that there is no smoke without fire and funny looking people must be baddies - thanks to Hollywood and the Borthers Grimm ). The problem with being The One & Only is that, by being iconoclastic and setting yourself apart from the norm, is that you are going to either find acceptance or not. And that acceptance can be fleeting. Jackson once stood astride the world of pop music. His fortune was collossal, his repertoire rightly feted as an important cultural cont...

Squeeze would have been delighted to be honoured by his peers at this year's Axis Awards. Not only because of the accolade, but because he was usually actively involved in the creation of ads and didn't like being billed as part of the support team. Paul wasn't a frustrated creative person, like so many 'suits', he saw his role as to create fertile ground for clients to accept work that was challenging. He liked to build trust with his affable demeanor and boyish charm. He made the process fun. I've written about Paul before (Sorrow's Gift) and, as the time passes since his death I've thought about him often. Paul tended to consume ...objects, food and drink, substances...people. I look at pictures of him socialising with my family when my son was born and feel a certain nostalgia for the time we spent working together. It was often fraught. We walked out of an ad agency together, convinced we had their largest client in the bag. We didn't, as it tu...