Meme Huffer

The Sleazy Listening Experience

You've heard the podcast, now prepare yourselves for the live experience.

Yep, I'm dusting off my headphones and playing some records with my buddy Crazy Baldhead (aka Jasper from Spacific) at the Big Chill Bar. Expect old-school funk, soul, hip hop, reggae and general niceness.

Next Wednesday evening (7th Feb) from 8ish. Come along and say hi.

(image from the Vinyl Record Generator)

Keep questioning

Mark over at Holy Cow has written a great post on the need for planning to probe, to question and to refuse to settle for the easy answers.

Read it, share it, do it.

Grave-spinning

I'm kinda struggling to describe how bad this ad is... but I'll have a go.

One of the most iconic (yet over-played) images from last century, re-created to sell dodgy trainers.

And all done on behalf of a subsidiary of that well-known socialist organisation, Nike...

When the revolution comes, whoever did this should be first against the wall.

"Our every action is a battle cry against imperialism, and a battle hymn for the people's unity against the great enemy of mankind: the United States of America" -Ernesto 'Che' Guevara

Bye Beeker

My office will be a much sadder/duller/stupider place now that Beeker has left the building.

I'll miss you, kid (but we'll always have the plannersphere).

GQFP #13 -Be persuasive

I'd been working on a slightly tricky brief, and this gem got us out of the "new & improved" dead-end:

"Advertising isn't a science. It's persuasion. And persuasion is an art" -Bill Bernbach

And relevant, given both the recent pillow fight over at Adliterate and Jon Steel's recent presentation.

(I do try to keep it topical).

Yes, it is

Snapped this in Toronto last month... bang on, I'd say.

GQFP no. 12 - Be audacious

I was having a browse through Fast Company and found this great article  written by Garry Kasparov, which extolls the virtues of  courage and of thinking beyond conventions. Worth a read, especially in light on the heated debate taking place over on Richard's blog.

"A brilliant strategy is, certainly, a matter of intelligence, but intelligence without audaciousness is not enough."

(photo courtesy of Stephen Burtch)

Starbucks-arama

Earlier this week, The Guardian reported on Starbucks London-centric UK expansion plans, with a new outlet opening every two weeks over the next ten years, focussing on London... which reminded me of this: (oddly, YouTube only seems to have a Spanish language version...)

OK, so there's probably no fighting it, but at least go get a decent caffeine fix (we love Flat White on Berwick St, Sacred on Ganton St, Monmouth in Covent Garden & Borough and -my local- The Coffee Plant on Portobello).

Insta-ad

Thanks once again to the Generator Blog, who have pointed us to The Ad Generator. In their own words, "the ad generator is a generative artwork that explores how advertising uses and manipulates language. Words and semantic structures from real corporate slogans are remixed and randomized to generate invented slogans. These slogans are then paired with related images from Flickr, thereby generating fake advertisements on the fly".

Some of the results have a certain Dadaist charm:

 

   

Sam Kekovich jumps the shark?

It must be that time of year again -the new Sam Kekovich lamb ad is hitting TV screens all over the 'lucky country'.

For the third year in a row, the blokes from Meat & Livestock Australia and BMF are using Sam Kekovich to convince Aussies to eat lamb on Australia Day.

As much as it pains my Kiwi soul to say this, the 2005 and 2006 spots are two of my favourite ads from recent years. But I'm bloody disappointed with the latest effort.

For those who haven't seen them, let's start at the beginning:

Then, in 2006:

And this year's attempt:

Shame.