Tiger Woo - MKULTRA Sports Edition

Y'all know Tiger Woods is an MKULTRA right?

Where did you think that Golf prodigy programming came from.

I don't usually take an interest in public figures lives and I really don't have any interest in Tiger Woods other than his mother's Thai extraction. But there's always been something quintessentially money focused about his golfing talent and a lack of interest outside the world of golf and money that I hope is a bubble which may now have been pierced.

This clip from Taiwanese TV gets away with far more than we're accustomed to and looks strangely accurate as well as a taste of the future.

The unusual spelling for this posts title is explained here, it's what the internet was invented for isn't it? 

Via Grant

Kasabian Football Hero - Society of the Spectacle

Is this what Guy Debord meant when he wrote Society of the Spectacle?


Via Andy & Eaon. 

Trailer For My Biopic 2009

Via helge Tennø

Human Behaviour

A few weeks ago I pulled an all nighter in a Filipino Karaoke (don't ask) and I was dumbstruck at how effective the stickers on the stairs (no elevator) were at communicating exactly who was in the building. Like local advertising on steroids for me, as by the time I got to the top floor there was no way to forget the company on the second floor. This however is more fun and inclusive and for me works as VW territory.

TSIMFUCKIS

Sitting in a bar in Hong Kong a couple of days ago, with easily the most interesting women who had the good grace to sit and listen to my "grand theory" which stretches from renewable resources to wealth creation (along with my latest stolen report to Hong Kong police by a TV Channel runner) and takes sometime.

"Anyways" as the Jamaican bad boys like to say I noticed a couple of publications that I asked the landlord to take with me.

The first had a picture on the front that I found unsettling and yet strangely compelling. It's called ADMARTASIA Magazine and I suppose you could say it's an Asian Craigslist but there were two (actually three) outstanding and compelling points to the publication. The first was the article on Progeria which highlighted once again that for some reason Youtube is the "lets get retarded in here hangout" for comments that are cretinous. It's just the way it is, 21st century acne and saliva or puberty-trying-to-type?

Later I picked the magazine up again and read the founders piece on the publication which are usually vanity puff pieces in Asia but in this case was written with honesty, balls and intelligence. The reason for the magazine? Because as we've all been talking about for some time and two friends are actually doing the future of the internet is print and I've tipped my hat enough times about "transmedia planning" over the years.

Ladies and Gentlemen meet Wayan Chan. Smart smart smart.

Boom Boom Boom Boom Boom Boom Boom Boom Boom Boom Boom Boom Boom Boom Boom

Obviously I cunningly set this post up by linking it with the title and cultural narrative reference of the previous post. 

I got it going on like that sometimes.

Sadly, I've met more "creatives" and seen more "creative" storyboards and read more "creative" treatments like this in Asia than I should ever admit if I didn't want to earn the wrath of the "creative" community. I could also write a swift list of people who I revere as advertising creatives but it's a lot shorter and I always tell them when I like their work.

Drunken advertising put a smile on my face too. Thanks to John for alerting me to them and    tolerating the whole bacon abuse situation.

Lost In Translation?

I've discovered that Youtube is brilliant for explaining a lot of stuff when my Thai language skills run out. The songs are often known, the lyrics are easily available and most importantly the point is made memorably.

Sometimes we dance around a bit too.

What more could you ask for? This one is for Ann cfx

With Heart

I've reached a conclusion on Prada but haven't drafted it yet. It will be completed shortly.

Breakfast at Sulimeys

I absolutely love this. Afer a few thousand hours of watching MTV in the 90's I'm pretty much burned out with chicks shaking their booty to tell me that something is hot, cool or sexy. Also I find putting myself out to listen to new music is tough in a Youtube format even if it's excellent content from people I trust to click through. 

I want to listen to new stuff with people, to get their opinion, feel some context and that's difficult if nobody is around or has time to spare. These three elderly music reviewers are just great. Joe on the right is open minded and thoughtful for an old codger. Ann seems a bit uncouth and lacks real depth but she is sparky and everybody's opinion counts. Bill is a bit in between and I guess balances things out a bit.

What's great for me is that they take an easy to click away format through to proper engagement. Of course that's because it's me we're talking about and maybe a lot of young people will find it a tortuous way to listen to music. I'm just glad that the elderly get a crack at the whip in a way that isn't charitably forced. It just works for me. What do you think?

Via Jamie at Freshen me up

How To Pronounce Beijing

Let's start as we mean to go on shall we. No need for French emulation.

Film & Music Matter

Age picks up on a piece of film that is ace.

Follow Your Instinct

Just follow it. The ad is in your hands (don't forget to click in the Youtube video to direct the narrative - It's a new format)

Via Digicynic

Everything You Need To Know About YouTube

Via Katie Chatfield

Say it again

When I see citizen created content like this I begin to feel that part of the job of an agency 2 point something is to find an innovative brand association rather than write a brief for content.

Why not write a brief for the media companies to use it in such a way that people connect with the authenticity and creativity that is sprouting up on Youtube and elsewhere? This is probably heresy to the creative community, but in my view this piece of content is better than 90% of advertising. A creative media association would be way more effective.

Via Angus who consistently digs up kick ass digital on the net.

Bearbricks and Banal

There's a genre of Youtube video uploads with young, specifically doe eyed Asian girls staring into the camera or miming to Karaoke which I come across a few months back and then saw subverted over at Asi's, with a youthful American guy doing a very funny parody. You can check out the definitive curator of these Youtube uploads called mingming19, although I don't feel inclined to post the latest development which is a eurotechnopop (annoying nosebleed) variant that makes me feel a wee bit ill.

But what I do find interesting is the crossover of the Youtube visual to T Shirts pictured above which Gustavo and I came across last week at Xidan. I like this and I think its more interesting that the inspiration is citizen generated and shifts from digital first to the real world after. Note the 'BEARBRICK' in the young girls hand which is huge out here and across Asia at the moment.

Playtime

dreadedgmom

A post on Ian Tait's - Crackunit about the quality of YouTube commenting and community led me to do a bit of exploring. I discovered the 'Community Channel' Vlog by Natalie. She is an Australian born Vietnamese Asian, who at first glance comes across unfairly, as yet another vacuous and self indulgent net teen exploiting her natural good looks with a veneer of digital literacy disguised as drama talent vlogging. You'd be mistaken. Her video clips are wildly popular in the main because she is such a babe, but underneath it all there's a charming tenacity on her part to make engaging YouTube clips that often have a role playing make-believe narrative.

Natalie's videos generate mini waves of video responses from people like Van Awesome below that I particularly like, but what is remarkable for those video responses is that while in the main they are pedestrian (they're not meant to be Hollywood) there are flashes of rather good knowing film nods and techniques not to mention great humour. They're not consistently brilliant nor are they meant to be, but this is the future of community video entertainment and I can see no reason why Tim Tams haven't gone out of their way to offer Natalie a sponsorship collaborative deal, or indeed why a youthful brand isn't fostering the right environment where people like Natalie and Van Awesome can do stuff that keeps us coming back more often. Regrettably, I can just imagine that if they did, a monolithic and data driven marketing department wouldn't know how to handle a personality that is all about experimentation, making mistakes and sometimes mediocre musings on life with occasional flashes of delightful brilliance. MTV is surely missing a trick and so are a bunch of others. Snack brands seem ideal to me for this kind of bite sized entertainment format and shouldn't be an excuse for as Nigel Hollis writes, new media making old mistakes.

I guess the question is not so much 'is it good?', but instead, is it better. It seems that compared to other forms of entertainment and for up to 400 000 people who have watched Natalie's most popular clip, the answer is most definitely yes. Here's a video response to her work which has plenty of links for Natalie's own work. She may not be brilliant yet but I'll put money on it that she will be in the future. This is just the testing ground.

Lord Have Mercy