ThoughtSpurs

The Australian blogosphere was briefly alight with talk about 'Heidi', the girl who, supposedly had met a man in a cafe. Nothing so strange in that. But in a twist on the on the Cinderella story the mystery man left his jacket behind. Naturally Heidi took the garment home and enlisted a friend's help to create the video above as a message to the mystery man to come claim his coat (and, undercurrent, his girl). All a hoax by the Australian fashion retailer Witchery, who were in the process of launching a men's line. The jacket co-star turned out to be the star. Heidi even took the time to lovingly describe the jacket. I'm in two minds about faking it. On one hand it is harmless and trivial. On the other the extent to which the ruse was carried on after it had been outed as a scam seems silly. Can brands be built on a hoax? Well - Coca-cola have been doing it for years turning caramelised sugar water into a fantasy of togetherness and pleasure.

Over on Waiheke I like to visit the Saturday markets. Brings out the locals and sometimes reminds me of what the island must have been like before they started building me-too suburban homes with Linea weatherboards and corrugated iron fascia. Every week Mark Sommerset is there promoting and selling his books - I have talked about him before. He certainly has the knack of creating an experience around his brand. The stall, though it is as simple in scale as his neighbour's is a very sophisticated retail experience. Much to be learned in the strangest of places.

It's sad that Polaroid ended production of their 'instant' film at the beginning of this year. I tried to express it before, but it came across as hollow - given that me, and everyone else, had long ago adopted digital imaging. So much more instant than previous instances of 'instant'. Still, there was something about the SX70 I liked, it was insignificant - don't like it it? - take another. Rummaging today I came across these shots. This one is some of the crew from Rialto advertising. You can tell the 'creative' dudes, think sunglasses inside. Left to right: Carolyn Travaglia (became a famous makeup artist), Gael Praast (Simon Praast's mum but a formidable accountant in her own right - managed to assign MD's Tv to my smorg, easy). Centre, big smile: Megan (my son's mum - we got married). Back row: Ginga: Barbie Cope - stylish, iconoclastic studio manager - now photographer. Terry Stevens - art director, now commercials director in Europe,...

In the first edition of Idealog we were going to make a photographic spread representing the end of the wristwatch and the rise of all sorts of other ways of telling time. The feature fell on the cutting room floor. My favourite time-piece is the microwave oven readout, with my cellphone a close second. The watch's demise has seemed inevitable for years, but still it hangs in there. In something of a backflip here is an idea that loops back to the old Dick Tracey idea of the watch phone. With the current trend for fetishistically large wristwatches it maybe an ideas whose time has finally come. I don't like wondering where my phone is - I always pat myself down before leaving a location - phone, keys, wallet... It was comfortably and fashionable attached to my wrist I would have one less thing to worry about. Except, perhaps, looking like a Dick (Tracey).

I am not a great fan of showing clients lots of ideas. It conveys a sense that I am unfocused or can't make a recommendation. That doesn't mean I don't go through an evolutionary process to arrive at the recommendation. Simply that showing the client the workings is wasteful and indecisive. If you hand a choice over to the client, you are simply the raw material to be mined, rather than the high value end product. That said, I was fascinated by the design process for something called UKE (not even sure what it is). For non-design/non-marcomms people it might be interesting to see some of the process. Logo design from start to finish - CreativePool If you are ever in the position of commissioning creative work and are presented with choices, tell the vendor to man-up and come back with a recommendation (unless you are controlling fascist who thinks they could do everything better themselves and hires weaklings).

I rather like the craft in the this ad, but wonder about the shoehorning of a product into the idea - especially when the idea is something of an 80s cliche 'out of the box' thinking? (Which is a variation of 'think outside the square'. Is there nothing to commend the Audi Q5 other than its styling? - which is streamlined? What, is the competition Hummer or Jeep, the only two truly boxy SUV's I can think of. In my mind the real problem to overcome is that my perception of SUVs for unnecessary urban use is that they should be shot at with anti-tank weapons. (I may be biased as I was nearly killed on my Vespa scooter by an arse in a Nissan Patrol who felt so safe and secure that considering other road users before making an unindicated u-turn didn't even flash through his mind). Is Audi running out of steam as a brand? Are all car brands struggling to be relevant? And, finally, didn't Toyota New Zealand use that song for the launch of the latest version of the...

Glad the Daily Show is back. Their Christmas holiday hiatus was more like a lowatus for me. Rebranding is a hilarious topic at the best of times - I can see all those groovy design types lickin' their chops at the prospect of making design guidelines and manuals - maybe a logo or two. The GOP get the nub of it in this clip. W atch The Daily Show online.