Archive for January, 2008
What I’ve apparently been thinking about
I found a thoughtcloud on technorati for this blog:
I hadn’t realised that I’ve been obsessed with TV lately. Must be the dark nights.
Heres one I drove earlier
I’ve been struck recently by the number of friends and colleagues with kids under 10 who tell me that their offspring are completely obsessed by Top Gear.
It appears that the likes of CBBC shows Blue Peter and Tracy Beeker have been usurped by the antics of Clarkson, The Hamster and Captain Slow. They’re idolised in the same way that I hero-worshiped Blue Peter’s Sarah Green, Simon Groom and Peter Duncan as a youngster.
Its obviously not ideal, having the nation’s youngsters introduced to the mantra of ‘speed is good’ at such a tender age but to be fair, Blue Peter may have been very big on helping-others-less-fortunate and making-your-own-Tracey-Island, but they never invented Motorhome Racing or attempted to turn cars into boats.
So all the COI need to do is persuade the producers of Top Gear to slip in a few how-to-cross-the-road-safely and don’t-talk-to-strangers messages and they could cut their comms budget by half.
Top Gear Dog and Blue Peter’s Bonnie – surely the similarity is no coincidence?
Oh. My. God.
Since I’m pretty sure this was made by a Yorkshire agency, the chances of my slagging off someone I know are enormous, but still…
…this TV ad for Jet2 (a low cost carrier operating out of the North of England) has to be one of the worst I’ve seen in a long time. Way beyond so-bad-its-good or ironic territory.
Probably very cheap to make. Which would explain a lot.
Aches and digital pains
After ODing slightly on the exercise front this weekend, I’m now hobbling around while my calf muscles tie themselves in knots.
My brain felt in a similar state this morning when I logged on to the usual post-weekend mountain of blogs, emails and news websites needing to be read and in most cases remembered.
If the majority of our knowledge is now being stored outside our brains (i.e. electronically), we’re going to have to develop more sophisticated filtering tools to a) help us find the information more quickly and b) remember where we last read it. Despite the best efforts of google, microsoft and bloglines, I’m still experiencing brain ache.
formal wear revival suits me
The Staufenbergers and this article in The Observer are both proclaiming The Return of Formal Dressing for Men. Apparently all the catwalks are full of sharp suits.
I know it’s a tad late to claim this, but I think I saw it coming – a major sign was that all the (young, male) uni students who come in to help our (young, female) PR team out at busy times have been turning up in shirt-and-skinny-tie combos instead of the usual tshirts. And a friend who works for a giftwrap business told me that they’re getting requests to organise boxes to hold shirt-and-tie gift sets for Christmas 08.
Which is great news. There are very few men who don’t look better (and sexier) in a really well cut and well fitting suit. Sadly though, very few men seem to know what a really well cut and well fitting suit is. If all that results from this formal wear revival is a load of old, shiny M&S suits being pulled from the back of wardrobes and into service, I think I might cry.
returning to the Age of Conversation
Work on the follow-up to The Age of Conversation has kicked off over at Drew’s Marketing Minute. You can even vote on which topic it should cover here. All proceeds from both books go to Variety, the children’s charity. Definitely one to watch over the coming months.
I’d like to speak to a Grown Up please
I had a friend over on Saturday night for a girlie put-the-world-to-rights session and we both ended up reaching the conclusion that we don’t feel like proper Grown Ups yet. To put this into context, I’m in my early 30s and she’s in her early 40s.
Its like when I had a blow out on the motorway last year. I got the car onto the hard shoulder and called the RAC. They promised to come and help me asap, but when I asked for some advice about what to do (seeing as I was stranded on the hard shoulder, in the dark, in the rain and there wasn’t an embankment handy to climb to safety) they put me through to a recorded message. What I really wanted was to speak to a nice reassuring Grown Up who would know what to do.
With all this social mobility and families spread across continents and I-am-Singleton-hear-me-roar independence, there isn’t always a parent or older sibling around to offer advice to the first generation that has been expected to just crack on and magically have a demanding-yet-fulfilling career while popping out babies, having a perfect home and garden, a lively social life and enjoying Nigella dinners every night. No wonder we’re anxious and confused.
There does seem to be a real opportunity for brands aiming at the 30-something market to position themselves as reassuring, knowledgeable Grown Ups to come to for advice. I’m sure its no coincidence that a quarter of B&Q’s staff are over 50 – I’m much more likely to ask a staff member who looks like someone’s Dad for advice on what paint to buy than a spotty adolescent.
It’s the 30-somethings who are buying their first lawnmower, pension, dishwasher, pram or puppy, and the brands who start offering the kind of reassurance (not bossiness or dominance) and guidance that we seem to be looking for are going to clean up.
Brand Managers – just watch 13 going on 30 to get an idea of the kind of inner turmoil we’re going through here…
In the second series, everything changes
You’ve got to give credit to the BBC. They’re really going for the full on interactive experience with their sci-fi programming at the moment.
Spooks Interactive was fab and now I’m hooked on the Torchwood online experience too. Its even more fun this time round as they’re sending me round blogs, myspace and very random websites to work out the answers.
The series itself is also sharper, funnier and more engaging than it’s last outing. Adding the cool factor of Spike-off-of-Buffy in the first episode helped too.
In fact, its everything Echo Beach/Moving Wallpaper should have been and wasn’t.
holding out for another one of us
I’m recruiting at the moment (if anyone knows any brilliant desk research/team support type people in the North of England, please point them in my direction). Its been really interesting discovering that the thing which is important above all else is that the candidates feel like ‘one of us’. Which is hardly the kind of criteria you can brief a recruiter on.
So we’re really back to talking about Living The Brand. I wonder how many job candidates take time to research a prospective employer’s brand and culture and try to embody those values at interview? AdGrads, take note.
technical hitch
For some reason, your (much appreciated) comments seem to be turning up attached to the wrong posts at the moment.
Jen’s response to that’s another hour of my life I can’t get back is here
Eamon’s responses to New Year, same old issues? are here
Sorry!
