Everyone Is Talking About William F Buckley

Buckley was Special Forces CIA, a psycho-killer (qu’est-ce que) and a closet homosexual. Now watch again and tell me what else you missed. https://t.co/64aMRHxjq6 pic.twitter.com/tshWM6O10h

— CharlesEdwardFrlth ⚔️ (@CharlesFrlth) August 31, 2023

The CIA are unhappy with Gore Vidal (and by extension me) because he lived openly as a Queen whereas they blackmailed Buckley with his closet homosexuality. That's why the trained killer [Special Forces] threatens Gore Vidal with violence while Vidal sends him apoplectic by fluttering his eye lashes

There's a lot going on in this short clip, but I applaud those who listen or watch it twice or even thrice Trismegistus.

Trending

Gab.ai CEO Andrew Torba & Censorship

During the 2014 genocide of Palestinians in Gaza, Israel bombed a civilian population targeting and murdering 500 Palestinian babies, infants, toddlers, children and minors.  I was being followed by an extra 500 new Twitter users a week as a news source on the topic. That number was kneecapped overnight and I knew that Twitter had fallen to the ubiquitous Zionist censorship that makes films like American Sniper and publishes news demonizing any voice that stands against it, such as Jeremy Corbyn.

I remained on Twitter and had 41,000 followers with a retweet count averaging a statistical reach of between 5-8 million Twitter users each month. I had a hundreds of verified followers including Hollywood film directors, Hollywood Scriptwriters, Globally famous journalists and influential people who chose to follow me anonymously but privately encouraged my work, which raised awareness of systemic child abuse (now scrubbed from Google Search) and the Zionist genocide of Palestinians. I was recognised as outing a number of powerful child rapists and shifting the narrative that Israel is the only democracy in the Middle East and has the most moral army.

It was only a matter of time before powerful forces including Sunday Newspaper editors, House of Lords nutjobs and a plethora of child abusing, Israel-supporting fan boys and girls managed to get me suspended with no reason provided by twitter.

I was alerted to the new free speech platform Gab.ai and registered immediately noting that there were 20,000 earlier applications than mine waiting for a beta user approval.

Fortunately I was approved in minutes and either they know how to profile influential social media users or someone has shared all the Twitter accounts that have been suspended in the last few months including the celebrity voice Milo who is also on GAB.ai

GAB is populated by a lot of Alt Right users so if you don't like free speech it's not the place for you. They welcome all people so I hope those who can handle views other than their own register to join but do be patient while they scale up. I'm not Alt Right. I like their maturity though.

Google Search Trends - Boston Bombing Spikes False Flag

The search for Reality is the most dangerous of all undertakings, for it destroys the world in which you live." ~ Nisargadatta Maharaj

People are waking up after the Boston Bombing and Sandy Hoax

Google Insights (Post Millennial Tension)

It's that time of the year where I need to revisit my Google insights topic on how the search term 2012 is trending.  So far there's nothing to back up my still unarticulated hypothesis apart from a minor blip around the time of the Chile earthquake on February 28th, so there's nothing to say apart from perhaps introducing the 'Jakarta complex' (catchy name huh?). Or is it?

It's worth of course noting that Indonesia provides the most volume for the search term 2012 but it's a classical mistake for the quantitatively obsessed bloggers to attribute national scale when the latest data suggests it's Azerbaijan and Sri Lanka that are more interesting for analysis. The reason why 2012 is one of the few metrics I can use is that it uses numbers so it gets a truly deeper look at national trends than local languages. By that I mean "Revelation" probably has a different name in the Ukraine, though that is one search term I'd like to add for context and analysis. But 2012 it is so let's proceed with that and see what occurs. This might all end in tears since Misentropy pointed out to me the Baader Meinhoff complex but so far so good in my estimation. It's always a bit lonely out on the edge and ahead of the curve but it's been eventful thus far and that's what I'm banking on.

Old School

I've had to chuck away the Wilkinson Sword Quattro I bought because after a week or so's stubble it clogs up. Anyway I spotted this in Walmart earlier and thought a back to basics might be interesting to investigate.

China Protest

On Tuesday, I was tipped off that an SMS was being passed around encouraging people to place a heart on their messenger and boycott Carrefour in protest at the Olympic flame's experience in France. Sure enough my messenger now looks something like this.

There's no need to have an extended commentary on this except to say that nobody questions the Chinese people's love of their country. There's a lot to love, and I'm particularly fond of the people of Beijing. However all countries/governments get it wrong at some point and the real journey in life begins when we begin to love and trust ourselves.

I think this young Chinese man who blogs in English has an international and mature perspective that corresponds more closely with the Olympic Slogan of One World One Dream. I blogged about it over here and questioned the sincerity and logic. Nothing would please me more than if the Chinese people proved me wrong on this.

Chain Surfing

Via three billion

Beijing Fashion and Trends

I got caught in Xidan again last weekend. That flat peaked baseball hat thing that was hitting London when I left may not have arrived full-on in Beijing yet, but I do like the perched and slightly tilted action going on below with subverted logos .

These guys really made me think I'd lost my antenna for what's going on because their piercings and punk goth look had in my opinion overstepped what Beijing tolerates as acceptable. Its one thing to be rebellious but in my estimation their look (even though its ace) would surely lead to some kind of 'social alienation' in this part of China. I think Vivienne Westwood collector and fashion lecturer Robert De Niet in London would be particularly pleased with those bondage trousers which, like the rocking shoes she designed, are somewhat impractical but look insanely good. Clothes for heroes indeed.

I bumped into them later in that cheap clothes mall I've been raving about and had a chance to ask them a few more questions where they told me in quite good English that they were of Canadian/Korean descent and here to learn Chinese. This kind of pleased me because I couldn't believe how much attitude their style had, although I will always be slightly disappointed in a city that doesn't have room for a few Punk Goths. I understand that Worcester wasn't the sort of place to wear this stuff in 76/77 either!

Here are some examples of those insane T Shirts I've been going on about.

Does Linda know?

Thus adding another dimension to the uncanny valley.

I have no idea what Beverdially Sweetbones Brondnated Beveriseeds means but its the sort of thing I'm beginning to enjoy and expect from Xidan. One of the things I like about the cheap shops is the resourcefulness they put into making them hip, and here in the Jing it seems that using magazine photography covered in glass on the floor is one way the young can inexpensively add some attitude. A lot of the shops also take pride in having rare trend curiosities to attract people in. Although that is a post for another day that I'm keen capture.

Chinese Advertising

One planning topic that needs some understanding in developing economies is media literacy. Mary Goodyear has looked into this subject extensively, and you can read all about it over here and Fredrik did a splendid post related to the topic over at his.

From the outside it may seem that the creativity is often lackluster in this part of the world and for sure, it is in the main, like pulling teeth to coax the clients (and agencies) to go the extra mile and explore some of the dimensions of advertising that can be achieved. Forgive me if this seems like I'm pulling out unremarkable ads but this is one of the first commercials I came across that stood out.

This is actually quite a big deal for a paint ad in Asia. I can just see the spreadsheet marketer saying stuff like "you want to show people throwing my paint around?" or "what have birds, hay and diving got to do with my brand?", "why isn't there a paintbrush in the picture?", "can't we have a basso profondo voice in the ad?" and so on and so forth. The reason is that the people who frequently manage marketing and advertising in Asia are often the kind of people who can cope with high volume but really struggle with ideas like metaphors, feelings, emotions and expression. I should call a halt to this right now because I could go on and on but suffice to say that a lot of people have made a lot of money managing that huge growth and volume over the last 15 years or so and are at the top of their game without actually ever squeezing out a creative puppy.

So I think its a big deal that Saatchi & Saatchi advertising got this through and I believe it was subsequently awarded an Effie which pleased me if only because championing creative is so hard and because it won for those very same reasons I listed above, that I believe most China based marketeers and agencies are simply not geared up for. Clearly Chinese customers felt differently than the average marketing whizz often does, because they voted with their wallets and gave a 46% increase in sales value of high end products nationwide and more than doubled the targeted 20% increase. There are however a few problems before we pop the Veuve Clicquot, because the ad is way clearly an homage at best, and rip off at worst to the Fallon ad for Sony Bravia, which I think is even better than Balls. Here it is.

So you can park that Effie and all the planning plonk that goes into saying how good the agency and/or planner and/or creative and/or client were because all they did was probably add extraneous process between looking in the right direction for inspiration and actually getting on with ahem 'copying it'. I would however like to see more emulation of the good stuff and a stiff brush to sweep away the marketing mediocrity that needs to make 5.5 (million dollars) by 55 years of age....you know who you are! The problem is that a certain genre of adman has made a tidy living out of punting the lamest of the lame creativity and the emperor needs calling out on the absence of threads.

Sticking out is a big deal in Asian culture. There is an expression that the nail that sticks out gets hammered in, and yet it is my belief that this cannot pertain to advertising. The nail that stands out gets noticed in advertising or can even be outstanding. I've spent a lot of time listening to greatly opposing forces in meetings with spadefuls of advertising spiel and waffle that talks a good game on words such as creativity, brand values and vision but all boils down to the infinitely bland. Why is this happening? Take a look at that Joy Island's photography and the last few seconds of the Nippon paint ad and you'll start to make the connection because as soon as I saw it on the web, I knew I needed to know the story and find the photographer.


Lovely isn't it? There's more...


Brutal huh? Probably not for marketing communications but maybe another day as one of my more challenging traits is that I like to press buttons. Its only when someone explodes that I know their breaking point that I understand what they care about. One of my closest friends had exactly the same characteristic as me. We were both political junkies and we'd be at each other's throats over CNN and BBC world news. As early risers this would sometimes happened before before 6 AM when we shared the same apartment. Great times looking back, but returning to my point, through a process of saying the wrong things and seeing where the greatest sensitivity lies I've uncovered an uncomfortable truth about the powerhouse economy which isn't really a brilliant insight as its all been said before. It is however the most raw nerve in China. Innovation is not a trait that springs to mind in the PRC but the one that created the darkest face was when I rationalized the extra 40 slides being asked of me as along the lines of "so what you're saying is to copy other brand's mediocre strategy?"

I've since found that the "copy" word is like a red rag to a bull, like spilled blood to a boxer, like throwing paint around to a paint marketer (ok I'm exaggerating) because in the absence of innovation all that is left is correctional marketing and 'the middle way' between too much emotional and too much rational in a brand. Then stick it through the research process designed to remove any of the interesting bits and lastly link test it so that if there is a shred of an idea remaining, we can drill it out and stick in something the respondents wanted instead. I ask you, why don't we just give our TARGET market some pens and watch them under the cross hairs with a snipers bullet until they have written the ads themselves?

Maybe this is why some people don't want the blue collar migrant workers as their customers because WHO would want those people in our nice focus group room with free snacks and refreshments, even though they are the backbone of the country. I mean, their media literacy sucks anyway doesn't it?

I always thought that the point of really good advertising, as with any facet of popular cultural expression is to lift people in some way through humour, feelings or observation because ulimately it elevates us all in the end doesn't it?

Or as a very clever and young person said to me last year. Confusion makes you smarter.

Steamed Buns & Hip Kids (Past and Future)

There's no need to throw out the past to embrace the future. The past is part of our fabric and contributes to our future. If we hide from history and pretend it didn't happen, history disrupts our future happiness. Coming to terms with the past is part of growing up.

I've finally moved out of the dreadful serviced apartment environment to a 2000 year old (rebuilt) Courtyard House by the Forbidden city and I'm loving the sheer history of it all. The peace and quiet of the neighbourhood really appeals; particularly the birdsong in the morning. I only knew I'd missed real twitters once I'd heard it again. Anyway I've always wanted to live only a stone's throw from Tiananmen Square.

Close by is a traditional shop that sells the freshest steam buns and dumpling soup I've had since I've been here, in an environment that is proper Beijing. I much prefer this type of restaurant to the luxury ones so often preferred by the expat community over here.


Some old boy takes that hulking dough and kneads it old-school-stylee into the right consistency by hand. He looks like he's been doing it for decades.


It doesn't take much of an imagination with B&W photography to visualize being back in the past, to a time when secrets were whispered in darkened alley ways for fear of public humiliation from the Party during the naming and shaming episodes of the cultural revolution, or perhaps the rarely mentioned Great Leap Forward which people from the West will know more about than many under 30 who are local.


So to provide some contrast to my morning steamed buns and dumpling soup (cost: 1 1/2 Euros) We did a bit of a Xidan run again on Saturday and I'm starting to like the scruffier shopping mall with mad T Shirts that aren't always trying to be so hip, but because of the sheer volume and variety of output that China produces, sometimes score a Black Swan for creativity and luck on the most random of details such as words and spelling, or Kitsch design serendipity.


Again these Beijing youngster are terribly endearing and for me constitute the really nice side of the people in this wonderful city. There is a naivety there, but as you can see it's not always incongruous with having personality or their own style.


Maybe we should get some of these folk into the agency ASAP because I'm starting to feel the pain of not hearing about creativity or ideas in four months, while definitely seeing it constantly outside the confines of the agency walls. These kids are the future and China is going to be a wonderful place for it. That I'm confident of.

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.

Saints & Sinners

charlesfrith

I pretty much owe my discovery of planner blogs to PSFK some time ago when my back was against the wall looking for trends in of all places Korea. If it hadn't been for their generous linking to other blogs I'd have never discovered the best blog ever and also picked up on some of the themes that I've always held close but had never really found likeminds with which to share ideas and discuss. PSFK began 2007 with a conference on trends and inspiration in New York, and then followed up with a mid year gig in London which I attended and wrote about. They are now kicking off again with a top lineup of presenters and panel discussion in LA on September 18 next month.

Readers of this blog have been offered a 50% discount to attend which is only available for a short while and I'd recommend any folk who are in that neck of the woods to take advantage of this while it lasts. So without further ado here's the link and I'm pleased to highlight that Piers has also invited some provocative speakers such as Missy from Suicide Girls who is going to talk about her alt.porn empire and Blair Witch creator Mike Monello among others. There's more details here if you cant book in time to take advantage of the discount because its still worth going.

I'm confident that this conference which is already garnering attention for snipping out the word marketing will be cut from the same cloth as the London gig in June which was a definite taste of where our business is shifting - because shifting it is. I'd love go again (and I may still depending on scheduling) if only to see George Parker speak because I'm increasingly convinced that he's the new sage of Idaho after being the first to call out Crispin Porter on their recently canned Man Laws and Orville Redenbacher campaigns. He was the first and I think the only industry person who had the balls to say it wouldn't work without going anywhere near a focus group or pretesting results.