White Rabbit

I'll be here tonight having a listen to the music and watching things closely. I like that line they use. Designed by DJ's not Chivas reps. Encore un fois!

Electric Dreams

I'm annoyed and sorry because I should have posted about this at least a week ago, as it’s a really sexy idea. As ever with Web 3.07 triggers, I've been reminded by a post over at the excellent John Grant's Greenormal to get my shit together, because it’s really important. John who along with Mark Earls' book Herd, published possibly one of the most constructively important marketing books of the millennium so far, also recently did a post on how so many good ideas from the past haven't been utilized properly. I really got thinking about this when Matt Catt turned up to a party in a Sinclair C5 because not only did he tip up (and leave) in the coolest manner ever, but did so in an environmentally responsible way.

Beijing is looking very zippy with these electric bikes come bicycles that I photographed above. They may not look like a Hummer but then only cocks drive Hummers right? I want to look into these funny electric bikes a bit more and possibly buy one because I think they are a terrific urban transport solution.

I think we really messed up when we built our cities around the car and sent our kids into bedrooms instead of out to play. But if we could champion transport ideas like the above and the Sinclair C5 again we'd not have to worry so much about our children getting run over and they'd be able to learn all those social skills that we had a chance to. The ones that prevented us from turning into socially alienated school killers that love to post their dark obsessions on the internet.

OK rant over, but if as one global planner shared with me recently you're one of those advertising types who are in this business for the money can I suggest you buy John’s book or maybe read his blog and see how you can be both a 'legend' and do good at the same time. Otherwise you’re not part of the solution. And I got a problem with that.

Bikes for rent in preparation for the 2008 Olympic visitors outside Jianguomen Subway Station Beijing

Simple Semiotics

Earlier today I took a stroll northwards to the oldest shopping street in Bejing called Wan Fu Jing to think a bit more about retail communications and was confronted by some street advertising by Adidas. They pretty much 'own' the whole high street, which is either OK or just urban spam depending on your perspective. But let's park the media aperture question for a second because a lot of pants gets talked about semiotics in planning and so for a good pub bluff on the subject just ask yourself the question. Why are we unlikely to see this style of ad or the one below, appear during the London 2012 Olympics?

Of course there are still over four years to go and that whole shared endeavour thing might be in vogue by then. Lets see. Shortly afterwards, I nipped into a shopping mall for some noodles and I saw some more retail advertising and signage for a Chinese food chain that might just raise a smile. I am partial to a self referential joke now and again.

C'mon. In China? That's fucking brilliant isn't it? ;)

For the wise master's words (Bruce Lee was both articulate and a gentleman too) see my post on an interview with Mr Lee I posted over here.

My head is spinning....

....from all the little transactions that I can do in at least three different languages. Just not this one. So I did one of my 'moves' between home, work and home again. With a little help from a mobile phone camera, bluetooth, a printer and translation assistance from the very helpful Connie.

I'd really love it if Charles Stab did 'Me and my shit life with language barriers' some day :)

Sexy Beijing

I've been a big fan of Sexy Beijing for some time now or maybe its just Su Fei who has got it going on for me, as you may recall when I first tipped China's number one internet TV show off back here. On more pedestrian mattters, a few days ago I just had to get on the subway. The first free planning lesson in any country is to use public transport. There's so much to be learned from observing public social discourse, and on this occasion I had a real insight into how the Pekinese tick which gained momentum from a discussion I'd had some nights before thanks to a quality thinker called James about Anthony Burgess, A Clockwork Orange and some very provocative thoughts on the idea of harmony and socialization vis a vis personal liberty. I'm stoked at what is going on. James, I really hope you start a blog soon you'd be a very welcome additional voice.

Beijing is a supercity and to manage all that human traffic takes some order, or the system would be dysfunctional. It starts with queues on the subway platform. The train arrives, those disembarking get off and those embarking wait briefly, as you can see from the orderly queues in the picture below. Any dawdlers getting off the train are smothered quite quickly by those waiting to get on board. There was a heated discussion in my queue one day.


The subway system (Die Tie if you're asking) shifts an awful lot of people around the city, and in my experience so far, is more often squashed than the London Underground which is a lot more extensive than the Beijing system completed in 1977. The Queens silver Jubilee right? Here's the view inside the train in the morning once all that getting on and off is completed. Lots more headroom there which is something the Northern and Piccadilly line can be a bit tricky providing to tall people like me standing close to the doors.

But the thing that really turned me on was the completely civilised way to exit the station. This one pictured below is new so its not very representative of rush hour, but the principle is the same. Notice how there is no barrier? Once you've handed in your ticket at the luxuriously manned (not turnstiled) subway entrance or swiped a 'tube Card' on a sensor, the journey is hassle free and you're good to go, on your way wherever you choose to get off.

This woman asked me why I was taking pictures of Subway exits, and when I explained she gave me her business card. Turned out we both work in the strategy end of communications and we're going to touch base when she gets back from Paris. Small world isn't it?

Moving away from public infrastructure (one of my favourite subjects), I have been shamelessly ambushed by McDonalds who have such a savvy marketing outfit, that not only do they know my weakness for a Sausage & Egg McMuffin breakfast, but have also accurately stationed a restaurant devastatingly close to my apartment. I thought I'd kicked the habit from my Brixton runs which were becoming less and less enjoyable but now that I'm back in the sausage patty groove I'd love to share a couple of points with you. First off is the amazing coffee in McDonalds China. Now I'm not a coffee freak although I do like my friend Terry's award winning Dakine Kona Coffee from his farm in Hawaii but other than that I'd be fibbing to suggest I'm an aficianado. I prefer tea generally, and I'm particuarly enjoying my Chinese and green tea these days. But getting back on track the McDonalds coffee here in China is on another level. To make the stuff bearable in the UK I'd need to order a latte or cappuccino, yet here its borderline fantastic and a real caffeine kick to boot. Which begs a serious question for me.

Why can the product be superior in one country and significantly inferior in another, and yet the logo and marketing communications have to be uniform? Does anyone else believe all that 'think global act local' pabulum? Whatever happened to 'when in Rome'? OK it's a little more complex than that but my point is that anything reduced to a binary input/output such as think this, do that is obviously questionable and in this instance is mostly about economies of scale with communication. That doesn't mean that consistency isn't important but as Richard over at Adliterate put it much more eloquently than I ever could, coherency is often more important.

I would go on but it does feel weird to be drinking from a Styrofoam cup again even though it insulates from the scalding heat much better than those cardboard affairs that seem to need doubling up anyway. They could quite easily have just as large a carbon footprint when all is said and done as far as I can figure out. Just less biodegradable I guess. Its one of those throwback things that I'm getting used to again. Its frightening how quickly we normalise from change and how much we disproportionately fear it in the first place. The other point that struck me as telling were the charity boxes in McDonalds over here. You may recall I did some qualitative research for a Childrens Charity back in London and I've a post about that process to finish yet, but ever since then I've been chucking my spare change into the box and so I notice details like this. McDonald's children's charity boxes in China are not chained to the counter as they are in the UK. I think this says a lot about social harmony, division in society or the benefits or socialisation versus liberty of the individual. I haven't figured it all out yet and will need to go into some more impoverished places to get a fuller understanding but I'm formulating ideas on subjects that I haven't really thought about for a long time now.

Tiananmen Square

No excuses for shooting it in Sepia or the hat and art direction in the photo ;)

Chinese Entrepreneurs

I really like the following excerpt from "Random thoughts from 5 non-stop days in 7 factories in three provinces in China." by the Silk Road International Blog.

"Factory owner and millionaire, 35 years old, tells me that the road out in front of his factory he built with his own hands when he was in high-school. The local govt required all households to provide unpaid labor for specific lengths of the new road. His father was a teacher and away at school and his mother was over 40 and the only one home. So he had to miss much of one year of high school to fill the State-mandated labor quota. These are the type of people that you’re dealing with in China—you need to know that they can wait you out. They are not intimidated by your pressure. They know they can dump your product in the local markets if you back out. You need to understand that you’re probably not nearly as important to these many factories as you think you are." I have had clients think their Chinese supplier will never let them go and then have to pay a very steep price to learn otherwise.

By way of the excellent China Law Blog

Pure Theatre

Via Dead Insect

Beijing Pumps

I saw these after failing to find some lip balm as the cold and dry air here is harsh when it blows. Serendipity led to some window shopping and then ducking into the Adidas shop near the office. Sadly they didn't have my size. However, Alisha who I met last night gave me an insight into women and expensive shoes that is solid gold. I love my job I really do.

"The east shall shake the west awake
And ye shall have night for morn"

- James Joyce / "Finnegan's Wake"

America is not at war, the Marine Corp is at war. America is at the Mall

Brand Fusion - Adidas & Goodyear

Moxie and I were talking about exactly this idea in London. Expect more of this.

"The east shall shake the west awake
And ye shall have night for morn"

- James Joyce / "Finnegan's Wake"

America is not at war, the Marine Corp is at war. America is at the Mall

---

Can you guess the film? Search Charades!

And more.

"The east shall shake the west awake
And ye shall have night for morn"

- James Joyce / "Finnegan's Wake"

America is not at war, the Marine Corp is at war. America is at the Mall

Modern Beijing

I can't access my blog so I thought i'd try a post using other methods. This is modern Beijing. Like no other.

"The east shall shake the west awake
And ye shall have night for morn"

- James Joyce / "Finnegan's Wake"

America is not at war, the Marine Corp is at war. America is at the Mall

---

Chasing Chip

China's cities are tiered according to their size and development and yesterday we headed out to a tier 4 city called Ba Zhou, and then even further afield into the rural economy to get a feel for what it means when a household mobile phone purchase requires a few months or more of saving. I've really been looking forward to this part of our work because as I've pointed out before it doesn't take too much effort to win over the cosmopolitan elite with bells and whistles but the solid working people from the rust belts and further afield work hard for their money and it takes considerably more respect and sensitivity, not to say thinking, in order to understand more fully the contexts of their lives. The pampered classes like you and I are a pushover in this respect. First off I was struck by the polythene sheeting for the windows of one household above. It was pretty chilly but warm tea was served and we were treated as welcome guests with apples and oranges and even cigarettes left by a clean ashtray.

Cooking is done with a coal fired oven and I got thinking of Graham and his Pheasant plucking which took 45 minutes over here, and how much more work it woud take to cook the thing, not to mention the cleaning and maintenance. I regret now that I didn't get a shot of the steaming dumplings under the lid of this one. Its not quite the same as taking a phone call over the new Smeg Oven while peeling off the cling film wrap from some Sainsbury's pork chops is it?

Yes it's a huge living room compared to many city dwellers but all I could think of was how much harder it would be to heat up with those polythene windows. Good for the kids to crawl about in the summer though. On the right is one of those huge posters depicting a non existant idylic rural scene such as smoky waterfalls, that are so popular right across Asia.

There are two types of coal used in these parts and this is the lumpy stuff that gets broken down to feed the oven. Behind me is the local coal dealers stock pile.

Which is purchased by the households and then kept in dryer conditions because gas mark 5 to get the frozen pizzas nice and crispy isn't so easy to achieve when dealing with damp fuel.

Then there are the coal briquettes which are used for the relatively primative central heating. They are more efficient in terms of quality and the size that allows them to burn stronger but also for longer. I was particularly excited by the winter cabbages being stored here because when I heard about the whole 'stocking 200 heads of cabbage' for winter in Chinese households I couldn't quite imagine how it worked but in the cold of winter its practically a fridge outside and so they are maintained. I'm also rather fond of cabbage in soups, as well as buttered with some creamy mustard. Out here though its pretty much a staple food.

I couldn't help but imagine that this scene hasn't changed since the the middle of the century and further back really. It wouldn't take too much to knock out a Hovis inspired Ad for those phones evoking the romance of a bygone era would it? Point being its far from gone yet.

This Gentleman was the happiest and simplest guy I've met in ages. Only recently married his house was decked out with all new mod cons including the winter bed behind him which is harder than the summer bed because of a thinner mattress to allow the heat from the oven outside to permeate through. When oil reaches three hundred dollars a barrel maybe we'll all be a bit more frugal with how we use energy with ideas like this. It was also interesting figuring out why he'd switched from three consecutive international mobile phone brands to his intention to buy a local brand next. Initially his reasoning was that all technology is the same so why pay a premium but with some thoughtful probing it turned out his new wife was now in charge of the purse strings. Fair play to him I thought. Women make for great houshold finance directors, although I'd be inclined to communicate that those local brands are in fact a false economy.

One more oven shot from the Gentleman above, you can tell I like them can't you? I got the feeling that this one would be less frequently used to begin with, as he and his new wife took communal meals with his parents who live close by after building him his new home. I forget the Chinese word for this style of living. I like the way that relationships are maintained through meals though. They don't share the living space together but food helps to keep a sense of familial involvment doesn't it?

And here is their equivalent of a 7-eleven convenience store for those last minute veggie purchases maybe forgotten to be picked up at the local weekly market shop. There were quite prominent mobile phone operator tariff communications in that establishment too.

Those ovens do require feeding with some decent kindle to get that coal going, and this 53 year old woman seemed to be making reasonably light work of the load needed for her household. All in all it was a fascinating day but I got the feeling that I'd like to have done a couple of nights braving the winter chill and getting into the routines of their lives to really understand what it means to sell a liberating and democratising piece of technology such as a mobile phone to these folks.

A New Dawn

I've had some messed up sleeping patterns for a couple of months now, and I was kind of hoping that the continental move and time zone difference would cancel that out. It hasn't and so I finally got to sleep between 5 or 6 in the morning earlier today a wee bit worried that I'd be fading very quickly. However I felt quite perky on getting up and thought I'd take a snap of the view from my new apartment to share with you.

Ladies and Gentlemen, I give you "The Jing". The air here is frequently polluted but this morning (as indeed was the first morning I spent here in September) felt like a morning for heroes. The glare from the sun on the buildings was so strong that I nearly broke out into a chorus of 'The future's so bright I gotta wear shades'. Well OK I lied about that bit but what's a blog for if I can't blag a bit right? So really I hailed a taxi and made my way into my shiny new work place.

Shanghai

Nothing special here but a few clips and pics from The Shanghai. The city has its own light that I don't think I've quite seen anywhere else. It also has that feel during the day when away from the skyscrapers of being on a film set like a few minor details and its straight into the time from way back when. I like the way the laundry is hanging to dry indicating that there is no space inside. Needs must and all that.

Poverty is present in all big cities and this is a scene which can just as easily be seen in London or New York. It was taken in a shop entrance and I felt like I was invading his privacy but also by using a sepia colour it dramatizes the throw back to an earlier time. Yet otherwise the following clip could be anywhere in some senses.

Merry Bleeding Chrimbo

The idea of celebrating the birth of Jesus Christ always strikes me as a good thing. Depending on who you speak to the man could well have been a freedom fighter that spoke about love and peace, the John Lennon of his times, or a rebel that upset the Jewish faith. Some people don't even think someone special existed but its a hell of a construct to insert a fictional character into history with ideas that have spread around the world and are, in many instances, not so far from some of the other major religions including the social responsibility stuff from Islam and most of the eight major precepts of Buddhism.

I'm rereading Bulgakov's The Master and the Margarita at the moment (thanks Sasha) and I'm still blown away by that scene where Pontius Pilate has a splitting headache and fundamentally doesn't want to crucify Jesus but is under enormous pressure from the president of the Sanhedrin, the high priest of Judaea to crucify this awkward vagrant philosopher and let the common criminal Barabbas go free instead, as was the custom during the Passover to commute a sentence for one individual. Its so vivid that it might well be one of my most favourite chapters in any book ever. It brings to life, a life and death decision that possibly changed the world.

Why am I talking about this? Well as I've pointed out elsewhere if you try and bring up politics and religion in general discourse today people think you're nuts. They really think you've lost the plot. Yet is it just me that looks at the insane Christmas consumption frenzy (as the planet heats up) and thinks that the rest of the world has gone nuts? Don't get me wrong I think its a great time for children along with an opportunity to talk about some the ideas that were shared a couple of millennium ago. But what we have now, is so far removed from the idea that started it all I now have no time at all for the whole Shitmas gig.

Just last night I took a scout around Beijing's Nan Jiu Ba Jie in the SanLiTun area to see if I could find any decent DJ's and sure enough I did, although I had to work my way through the usual expat dribble of crap hip hop, drunk for life anthems and low-so discourse. But on leaving one place I saw this poster and as much as I think too few women know how important top quality lingerie really is I couldn't help concluding that this poster captures the essence of Christmas in the 21st century. A self indulgent piss up with the chance for an office party leg over followed by mince pies, Christmas pudding, liquor galore and gifts all round without a hint of what the gift of giving is really all about.

History of Blogging

From Rinaz

Virgin Ata - lantic ; We salute you

I like the randomness of different travel modes and rarely do much thinking about what form of travel will be best. I like variety. I've taken fourth class trains to Chiang Mai in Northern Thailand, heaving with noisy chickens and snoring rice farmers in intense heat, or more memorably one dangerous 26 hour coach journey from Rangoon to Ngapali beach on the Bay of Bengal in Burma (easily the most beautiful and tranquil beach in the world I've come across). The driver on that particular trip used vocal instructions to a "co-driver" pulling a piece of string which led out the window and underneath the bus to control the breaks. I was OK with that (I had no choice actually) but late into the darkest of nights towards the end of the journey I was compelled to use some ferociously strong language as the driver started nodding off and careering across the road until he was jolted awake by some innate ability to save his and our lives.

I was the only one witness to notice we were facing impending death as my co-passengers were asleep, so despite having only a few words of Burmese I made it clear I would personally throttle him if he fell asleep again by roaring at him in language that would have made mid 80's Millwall fans proud, and gesturing wildly like I was wringing a chicken's neck. This worked a treat and he woke up permanently at this although the snoring passengers were none the wiser.

So it was with some surprise that I received a text from Virgin Atlantic the night before my flight asking for my passport number. We were all having a few cleansing departure ales the night before and eating my red rose that darling Sasha gave me, so I couldn't oblige at the time.


I called first thing the next morning and to my surprise was confirmed as having a chauffeur to Heathrow which kind of made me feel a bit spesh. But once you've flown Bangladeshi/Ethiopian Airlines or Air India its all Bisto after that as Ricky B would say. I was however highly impressed with the whole experience because once inside, the very pleasant driver checked me in with his mobile phone, and within no time at all I was driven into the new Virgin Atlantic 'Upper Class' entrance and passed through the whole shebang within minutes. Without even time to conclude that I wasn't going to have my socks X rayed by a surly Heathrow security attendant, I sashayed into the Upper Class lounge. Virgin have got it going on and I wont even go into the massage treatment on board the plane or the bar that allows travelers to socialise and mingle a little.

Here's a brief 'squirt' as they say in the TV trade, of the lounge. I was most impressed with the food selection which included brilliant breads, roll mop herrings, fresh anchovies and lots of yummy salty things that only the Scandinavians know how to do best. All in all, Virgin Atlantic have got it going on. We salute you.

testing if pics can be attached too email blog posts :)

--
Charles Frith
+44 792 3448067

'America is not at war, The Marine Corps is at war, America is at the mall'

Planning Scoff

This is Mr Humphrey or 'Word of Mouth Will' as he is known in some circles. He is easily the best networker in the Plannersphere and a bit of a bugger too I might add, but as he was cheeky enough to launch this blog without my consent (classic punk planning I might add and something I blogged about over here) I guess I'd better give a tip of the ol' hat to this little scamp. Will was kind enough to bid me farewell a couple of nights ago, so I'll post this photo in the manner I would most wish to remember him by. Tucking into the excellent scram of Maoz Falafel in Soho, and comparatively quiet ;)