Yes. Yes, yes, yes. I’m doing this from now on and I don’t even care about Wall Street. I just hate junk mail.

I have no idea if it actually works out like they say in the video but it does seem like fun.

At 4:29, Sir John Hegarty of BBH makes a great point.

Mother New York recently relocated their offices, and rather than just do a simple move and renovation, they dressed the hoardings outside their new premises to advertise a multitude of different Mother businesses – Mother Rare Animal Hot-Dogs, Mother Cosmetic Surgery for Pets, Mother Insect Funerals and Mother Transsexual Moustache Clipping. It wasn’t just the hoardings either; they staged tastings, created ads, and interviewed passersby on what they thought of the new stores about to join their neighbourhood.

“It is an endangered species but we say ‘Fuck Orangutans’”

Nice one, Mother.

Epically cool film by Jim Campbell for Nike. It started as a contribution for a Nike sponsored art project that “challenged the function of shoes” however Jim failed to make the deadline. Luckily, he finished it in his own time and this is the result.

someofmywork.co.uk

This is my entry into The 2010 Big Ad Gig. It’s only open to Americans so when I don’t win I’ll convince myself that I would have won if only I was American.

The task was simple, use one of the five existing 5-second clips provided and create the rest. I instead used two of the clips and created nothing.

Don’t get me wrong, I like technology. I think new things, the cutting edge, whatever you want to call it is great – I find it really interesting. But the thing about new technology and advertising is that it’s a bad mix. Too much time is needed to be spent talking about and educating consumers on this technology, rather than taking that time to convince them why you’ve got a good product that they really need to buy. Let’s look at one example, at this point in time, with only 1.1 million users worldwide (I may be wrong on this, but it’s the figure I’ve heard) – foursquare IS NOT a good advertising medium. Ashton Kutcher as an individual has over 4.9 million followers on Twitter. Not enough people know about foursquare, let alone use it, and those that do are too busy playing around with the easy to grasp but unimportant functionality of it. Yes, you might get credit for being ahead of the times but how will this realistically affect your sales? Other people may argue that it’s good for the brand in the long run, never mind about the immediate sales. Phooey (First time I’ve ever used that word, could well be the last). A week, a month, a year after you’ve been the first to introduce the technology, someone else will use it in a way that is bigger, better and more talked about and it will be their brand that benefits, not yours. Why? Not necessarily because their idea is better, but because the medium has grown widespread enough to warrant housing an advertising idea. More people will “get” it.

So, should advertising creatives, agencies and clients be interested in new technology? Definitely – if not out of curiosity then just to see what might be coming up. Should they jump on board and try to be first just because it could be the next big thing? I don’t think so.

–

Back to the streets and eventually back to the hotel. We debate about dinner for a while – order in (only menu we have is for Otto’s Pizzeria) or venture out? The thought of pizza again has us venturing out into the rain and on to Sammy’s Noodle Bar. MASSIVE dishes. I finished mine, Jonelle ate about a quarter of hers. We doggy-bagged the rest and looked for a homeless person on our way home.

Almost right out the front of our apartment and finally someone asks for money – “Excuse me sir, can you spare some change?”

“Sorry, I don’t have any. Would you like some food?” as I offer the Chinese.

“No. I’m homeless, I just want some money for the metro so I can get home.”

There’s something wrong with that statement. “We haven’t got any but you’re welcome to this.”

“Ok, I’ll take it. Thank you for being so kind. Have a good evening.”

Fuck you, fussy fucker. That was too hard. Next time I’ll just thrown it in the bin and let you fetch it from there.