Lovely music video

The Rules #48

Work with the best people you can.

They’ll inspire you, teach you and make everything you do a whole lot better.

I need your creativity!

The new year is starting to calm down to a merely hectic whirlwind, so I’ve decided to get my FAXR project going again.

Please put pen (or whatever else will leave a mark) to paper and fax me your work of genius. I’ll then post it on faxr.net for the whole world to gasp and gawk at. Here’s the fax number to send your work to:

In the UK: 0871 714 5367

In the US: 206-203-1116

International: +1 206-203-1116

Another great lecture from TED

I love TED lectures. They’re one of my favourite things on the internet. I used ted.com as my version of television until I’d seen pretty much everything on it that interested me. But the great thing is that they keep adding more lectures to it. And they’ve just added one of their best lectures yet - from J.J. Abrams the dude behind Lost and the forthcoming film Cloverfield. Enjoy!

Face #42

Mr Poo-Head appears on dog fouling signs around London. I love his hair.

How not to do advertising

This ad has been pissing me off for some time now. I enjoy looking at the foxy girl - but the creative mechanism is soooooo bad it makes me mutter swear words under my breath every time I see it.

The problem is quite simple really. The actual message is hidden too far down the hierarchy of information and it’s strong enough to have done something good with: you get paid to use your mobile. That’s good, right? (Let’s assume the strategy is OK to begin with.)

But instead you’re first struck by the image of a glamorous minx and then a large headline that has nothing to do with the offer and only then - if you can be arsed reading on - is the bloody tenuous link to the product. And by tenuous, I mean you could put any product in there. It could be for marzipan, horse saddles or genital wart cream. The dreadful creative mechanism of ‘xxxxx but/therefore/and yyyyy’ is a lame and overused one. And I can’t think of a single time where it’s made me go “I wish I’d thought of that!”

Someone please give the creative team a slap around the legs and make them sit in the corner and think about what they’ve done. This is bad, bad, bad!

Do you remember cheques?

Last night I opened my mail to receive the mixed blessing of a cheque. Yes, someone wants to give me money. That’s good. But it also means I have to go to the bloody bank and stand in a queue to pay it in. That’s bad.

I hate paying in cheques so much that I actually had to throw out a couple of them last weekend (very small amounts - I’m not that overpaid!) when I realised that they were over a year old and therefore out of date.

I can’t wait for these archaic inconveniences to be vanquished for ever.