Blame it on the Bellboy

Great idea from Rob Campbell (two posts in a row, not bad going) hit my blog radar today.

Whenever you visit a (decent) hotel they have a conference board with details of all the executive meetings and conferences going on that day/week.

The idea is to have a single website where people can post pictures of hotel listings, and by looking at them all we can find out the important issues of the day to businesses around the world.

Its a great idea, and I hope people will help get it off the ground.
Visit the (work in progress) of the site here, and get snapping!

I am Robot Hear me Roar

Ah Sony. Once my favourite consumer electronics brand, now in a seemingly large doldrum.
Nice to know that they appear to be back on the right track in Asia at least.

Lovely idea, wonderful message, and nicely produced.
The idea of electronics not being seperate pieces of metal, but actually being devices through which we capture and find our own humanity is quite profound but entirely accurate.

As I can profess from the amount of time my walkman/minidiscs/ipods caused impromptu and embarassing dancing on the bus, and from my love of photography and film. Electronics do make us human. Its a wonderful insight, and I hope the ads continue as good as this.





Find out more about the praise this ad (his brand work) is rightly getting at Rob Campbells blog

Wheres the Beef?!

Just seen the print ads for Burger King, talking about the 100% beef nature of one of their burgers. (Or all of them possibly).

Not sure whether there is much clever planning going on there, it doesnt feel like it; but they are some very nice executions:

"As much beef as is mathmatically possible"
"Beef, the whole beef, nothing but the beef"
"99.99999999999999999999999999999999999% is just not good enough"

Nice copywriting there.

My Brain Hurts IV

Back from yet another interesting Northern Planning meet.
Topics for discussion included:

Doctor Who vs Torchwood (The former is good, the latter is not)
Magners vs Bulmers (The genius of ice)
Russell Davies (Who has met him, who hasnt, isnt he great, isnt the breakfast club tiny?!)
Second Life (Its the new "I hear these new fangled blog things are doing well, maybe we should get one)
New Songs (For Your Info Andrew they were: Enter Shikari - Sorry You;re Not a Winner, Deftones - Hole in the Earth, and Sebastian - Ross Ross Ross)
Hats (Flat and otherwise)

The bar served my favourite beer ever as well, so that just made it even better! (Asahi Super Dry)

Roll on number V!

Id Rather Have a Bowl of Shredded Wheat

So apparently Ofcom is going to ban the advertising of junk food in programmes aimed at under 16s. Not an entirely unwelcome move, but I wonder how much of an influence the government had in this decision.

I also wonder how this could affect agencies, specifically when budgeting for "junk food" or otherwise less than healthy food aimed at kids. Could this mean the end of Coco Pops ads (yay!) or Frosties ads(boo!), or will it just make them less common?

The BIG issue for me is just what difference this will actually make. Its not like kids buy the weekly shop. Ok, its designed to minimise 'pester power'; but I suspect it wont actually have that much of an effect if the parents still see the ads. (Its not like kids dont watch programmes for older people either!)

What if...

Disclaimer: This is NOT what I believe, this is not some argument, this is simply a question about a random theory that external pieces of work made me think about. Please do not take this as anything other than a question with no real answer.

Watching a tv show the other day about the environment, I was struck by the message that the human race is killing itself by wrecking the world around us. This was further impacted by a rather rash statement from an MP saving the world by not having kids.

But what if...

What if not having kids was a way of saving the world, and by definition the human race.

What if homosexuality is actually a natural evolutionary way of slowing the growth of the population. (Please please note: I'm not saying there is anything wrong with it. Its a chemical reaction the same as hetrosexual love).

What if god/nature created homosexuality as a way to save the planet (and by condemning it, religions were actually helping destroy what they believe god created).

Difficult questions. But ones worth thinkng about.

Northern Planning Meetings

Yes its nearly time for the next Northern Planning meeting.
Now known officially as "My Brain Hurts".

Currently planned for Tuesday 21st November in Sheffield. Any current or budding planners or creative folk from up north should head over and join in the discussion and drinking. (Normally more of the former)

My Brain Hurts IV is coming...

Paint Your Wagon

Ive noticed that the fuss over the new Sony Bravia ad has died down quite quickly. Its going to be very interesting to see what kind of impact it actually made.

I suspect that for all the hype, the end results won't be as impressive as they maybe expected.

Updating is still being hampered by a terrible wireless connection, my sincere apologies. New router in place later this week I hope!