Characterising The Internet

14 characters that live on the Internet

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A few moons ago, but not so many that it's a distant galaxy, I met Marcus Brown at The George on D'arblay Street in Soho London where he made a special trip to come and see us from his home in Munich, Germany. One of his comments that rang out then and applies even more so, to this day whether it's transmedia, digital or otherwise was 'it's all storytelling'.

I don't think anyone does it better than Marcus including his latest offering Jack The Twitter. In any case, he's gone and done a presentation of his portfolio in the last couple of years for us and I don't think there's a better example of character-development versatility on the internet. Take a look and see if you know someone in your marketing department who is looking for something fresh that stands out. He's the champ.

Alexander McQueen, Gen-X, Post Futurism & Star Wars (Help me Obi Wan Kenobi)

One of my probably duller-than-I-think, and self important (dinner party) pieces I'm prone to doing now and again (usually if there's a good red to hand) is how surreal it is to be a Gen X'er. 

Don't misunderstand me. I know Baby Boomers and older who have more life in them, than many Millennials and so on and so forth but allow me a Gen X tale.

Below is the first taste of hologram technology I witnessed at the age of 8, living in West Germany watching Star Wars.

I don't remember the opening sequence being so special that I had to duck my head but that doesn't mean Star Wars didn't leave a massive impression on me; lots of things did at that age. However the Princess Leia hologram scene was unforgettable. The idea of not writing down a plea-for-help-message on a piece of paper (this was pre-internet) and instead using a plenipotentiary (of sorts) droid to project an hologram was sensational and yet plausible. The tonality projected through this medium imploring help, felt so much richer than any typewriter or pencil could achieve.

Here it is:

Yet Victor & Rolf's work in the Dutch Pavillion at the Shanghai Expo is just as, if not more seductive; and yet somehow while my experience of it is no more or less than any other person's enjoyment, there's just something delicious about the uniquely Gen X experience of overtaking the future. It happens a fair bit and I haven't even gone into the how amazing it is to juxtapose pre and post internet cultures alongside each other, though I will attempt to some day.

Hopefully here.

It was of course the late (and truly great) Alexander McQueen who did it best with Kate Moss. It's a pity that so much incredible creativity in the fashion industry get's ignored, I guess because, by and large, the egos in fashion leave advertising standing in the dust.

That doesn't mean advertising doesn't plunder fashion's inexhaustible creativity time and again. Above is my favourite piece by Alexander McQueen in 1999. 

Anybody know which brand ripped this idea off? It might be creativity but it is also definitely art. Something our lot could learn something from.

More blow jobs, less world wars