Friday 7 March 2008

Twitter Explained with Schweppervescence

I was in some old fashioned groups last week for Beijing University students and I learnt some pretty neat stuff. Best of all, again was really how nice the folk in Beijing are in general - innocent almost, if that doesn't sound patronizing (that excludes advertising folk and clients btw). I was describing this to a colleague and concluded that it's not the worst place in the world for the balance of power to shift from D.C. to Beijing.

As I believe it already has from a global psychological power-perspective.

Even more so in a few months when more people will be looking at China than at any time in the entire history of the country
. But more practically I can share how most of the youngish respondents were pretty conversant with Lost, 24, Desperate housewives and Heroes through P2P file sharing.

I thought it was a brave and edgy way for the curious and young to find out a little more about the frankly amazing media culture of the U.S. but after a little bit of probing it seems that in China, content like this is seen as being from the outside world more so than the U.S. specifically. Which raises an interesting view that I haven't really thought of since I first learned German in the early 90's and discovered that foreigners are called 'Auslander'.


Anyway, completely unrelated to any of this is the Twitter explained video which is useful for those still scratching their heads over the whole thing. Unfortunately it doesn't even come close to explaining the Twitter Karate that Sam and I invented over the weekend (with a little subsequent Twitter Wrestling from Angus




Lastly I want to post about this Schweppes ad which is easily the best thing since Gorrilla although I'm loving Singing Dog and Moonwalking Gorrilla. It highlights what for me is a growing problem and one that can only deteriorate as clever brands move closer to achieving feelings and move further away from 20th century messaging model, which has it's place, but more in an Adsense/Google way than the last-years-of-TV as we know it should.

Incidentally I think this could be a Golden age for advertising because the clever brands will mark out territory for feelings while the clock ticks for interrupted attention media. It's just a matter of time.
The difference between describing an ad using storyboards (or even using them in research) to seeing the final piece is too wide for me because it doesn't come anywhere near close to conveying the emotion that I feel when I see a fantastic piece of work like this. I did read about some of this brand talked about over at Rob's but I had no idea if the Cynic gang were involved with this piece while writing this post. Either way it stands for itself. Bravo!


Wednesday 5 March 2008

Escape



The Kaiser has started causing trouble again and kicked off with a drinks contest. Now I remember the meat contest when it was a very close thing with Russell's bacon and Marcus' Sausage, and truthfully I should confess that I played really dirty on Russell's blog in the comments section pretending that I used to work in a sausage factory and that I sneezed into the meat vat so I guess the Karma is heading my way. Anyway I was originally selected for Red Bull but as we won that business in a pitch over Christmas I didn't want to leave a taste in the mouth of blue collar folk that use it to keep awake rather than passionate. So I opted for a Cocktail that personified the simplicity and naivety of the 70's with a tropical coconut flavour. That and because the lyrics to Rupert Holmes' 'Escape' makes a reference to this cheeky refreshment.

There's no way on earth I'm going to sell this drink to you folks because you its just tasty and retro hip. I like a Gin & Tonic too which is what I'm up against so sorry about the plurality of it all.

Anyway you gotta go and vote so nip over here and join in, if you are up for it. I'm hoping that my brother R gets his partner to vote because it was Pam's inspiration that got me all excited about this very cheeky and underrated snifter. Give that lady a drink ;)

Saturday 1 March 2008

We Live In Financial Times


I absolutely love this print and poster advertising. When I first saw a version of it near Liverpool Street Station on the way to a meeting at Poke and a later interview at Mother I stopped in my tracks and had a mind rush about the 30 different things that made me think that if the F.T. have the class to hire an agency involved with the intelligence to come up with a line that defines widely held third millennium principle values and then articulate it with some beautiful artwork, then it's a publication I'd reassess.

But I have one devious question for the advertising aficionados out there who think they know their stuff.

How are the two executions different and why?