I am curious

Music Alive In Camden

Over the last few weeks Camden have been alive with music cortusy of the itunes festival at the Roundhouse.  Well done to Apple. 

Proud Galleries continues its commitment to local music with some great gigs at the Proud Presents TV Nights. These guys were awesome when I saw them a couple of weeks ago - Ou Est Le Swimming Pool. This is their first single. Interesting retro electro pop feel. Made me think of Sparks meets Pet Shop Boys. 

Samantha Heard was also playing and what a voice. 

Good luck to Ou Est.  

what is in a song?

The redoubtable C4 had a fine review of the best songs or No1's in the UK ever !
Well all very subjective!
But here you go: Love it
My view Bohemian Rhapsody can never be beaten.

Death of a tyrant

Read Robert Fisk's article in the Independent.....interesting insight into guilt and culpability.

Seeing these images below, made me think of this...

"The quality of mercy is not strain'd,
It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath: it is twice blest;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes:
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest: it becomes
The throned monarch better than his crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and fear of kings;"

I'm not sure why...it seemed like a just end....but then again....

 

Truth or Lies

Is this the truth behind ad agencies ?  Whatever happended to legal and honest ....?

And what language

did Mr Materazzi adopt to impart his views to Monsieur Zidane? French, Italian or English...?
Would an English player display a suitable command of their non native tongue to be able to react with such immediate attention? I wonder...

Will Coke's Sales Rocket?

Was buying my morning muffin in Tesco yesterday and had six school kids in front of me all buying 2 litre bottles of Coke and packets of Mentos...so much for Jamie Oliver's effforts I said to the checkout guy..."Coke Rockets" he said smiling... "new craze, they've been buying loads in the last couple of days, check it out on the Internet" he said laughing.

Not sure about what it does for these brands' values but it's perfect unpredicated viral advertising. I love it.  Suppose there must be some happy brand managers putting their feet up for the summer.

Happy slapping it's so yesterday...

BBC's Second Life

Watching Ashley Highfield, BBC's Director of New Media and Technology, at the RTS early evening event tonight, one thing impressed me - BBC's Big Weekend entry into the metaverse by simulcasting the event within Second Life.

Let's hope we start to see similar innovative thinking, maybe by some top 30 creative agencies...then again ...

Street Art

Amidst the urban spam this caught my eye and made me smile...

It was outside this fine and worthy establishment.

Big Ideas

No sure if you've checked out The Next Big Idea film competition shortlist at Getty Images. You can view  the shortlisted nominations until the end of today! Some great work here. My favourite - the idea of a mirror floating in space that could reflects, to present-day viewers, events that happened on earth hundreds of years ago. Nice.

What would Bill do?

Bill Bernbach said....If your advertising goes unnoticed, everything else is academic! (1989)

Wonder how he'd deal with the PVR challenge...and ad avoiders

Would be an interesting exercise to look at what Bill said way back when... and what he'd say now in our consumer controlled mediawonderland.

The Death of Knowledge

I spend a considerable amount of time in London’s fine fleet of black cabs.  During my 11 years in London I’ve marvelled at this unique band of men and women’s ability to navigate their way round this non-linear city and deposit me at, what often seemed to me to be, obscure destinations.  The source of their internal GPS ability is commonly known as– the knowledge – a process through which all aspiring drivers are required to develop a detailed knowledge of the 25,000 streets within a six mile radius of Charing Cross, with a more general knowledge of the major arterial routes throughout the rest of London.

As I departed Paddington Station yesterday I duly informed the driver of my destination and watched him input the address to his dashboard mounted GPS system.

I wondered… is this another example of world changing technology in action? Will GPS systems sound the death knell for the "knowledge"? 
And will we mourn the loss of those moments of discovery when a cabbie traverses a route that by-passes London’s arterial dullness and exposes the idiosyncratic streets you’d otherwise never witness.   

In The Internet We Trust?

Recently AOL in the UK ran a new campaign asking the question; “Is the internet a good thing or a bad thing?”

It’s funny, just a few years back whether we lived in villages, towns and cities, we had our networks, our communities, the communities we trusted.

They were our reference point for life. If we need help we knew where to turn, if we needed advice we knew whom to ask and if we didn’t know who to ask we were lost.

So it’s an irony that today I feel more trusting in the advice I gain on the Internet than that available within my local network or  community.

Everyday I find myself bound more inexorably to the global network   than the day before, an open source wonder world of advice and help.

I love it. Sorry AOL.

Keep it real...hmmmmh

Charles Leadbeater penned a thought-provoking article in the New Year’s Day Observer newspaper. His article “Keeping It Real…the New Luxury” Leadbeater highlighted the changing definition of “luxury”.  Traditional expressions of luxury have been the preserve of the aristocracy and mega-rich and desired by those of lesser wealth to aid their escape from the real world.

This got me thinking. Historically “a luxury experience “ was defined by what money could buy.

In our fast paced, urban, branded world maybe true luxury will be defined by what money can’t buy and by what we will value more and more; namely time and space.

But then again maybe inimitable economic laws will kick in and time and space will become purchasable commodities, just like carbon emissions.

Funny world this. 

Brand New World 2

Well I was surprised at some of the reaction to the EU product placement report.

Here is one selected piece from Monday's Guardian Online.

Ofcom welcomes product placement plans    

Chris Tryhorn
Monday    December  19, 2005

   Media watchdog Ofcom has given a cautious welcome to European proposals to relax rules on the use of product placement on television.

The regulator is now launching a consultation seeking views on a "restricted set of uses" of product placement by commercial television broadcasters.

"Ofcom believes that a cautious approach to the introduction of product placement has merit," the regulator said today.

"In light of this, the consultation seeks to examine how this proposed liberalisation could be interpreted and applied in the UK broadcasting market in a manner which clearly informs the viewer and safeguards critical editorial and programme genres."

I will post more on this in days to come.

Brand New World

Another example of the changing media landscape emerged yesterday as the EU waded in with a draft ruling on product placement in TV programming. With 30 second spot advertising revenues under pressure, PVR penetration growing(ad skipping) and mounting ad agency frustration over the inconsistency of product placement regulations across EU member states, the EU had to act.

Expect a frenzy of activity in UK as sponsorship companies, ad agencies, TV production companies and broadcasters all fight for slice of the action. Ofcom, the UK regulator will be at the ring side.