Courage

Via Daria and apropos this post and this tweet.

Espresso

A few days back I noticed Grant McCracken tweeting a bit more than usual and took notice of his observations which are always top notch given he's one of the most authoritative (and through his blog) accessible anthropologists (Chief Culture Officer) on the planet. In a subsequent recent post that taps into the his latest idea  of the Culturematic, he talked about the train journey from Chicago to Detroit where he was doing the tweeting. It resonated on so many levels and so here goes in trying to explain.

Sad to say but I was a train spotter as a youth and although I enjoyed the linear and meticulous checking off train numbers (especially the diesel locomotives) I think it was the freedom of running around the UK with a legitimate reason and a bunch of friends who were into it as well. Even Slough Train station is slightly exotic to a 12 year old. I remember well the first air skirmish for the Falklands war was announced by one friend who in admirable news-trainspotting manner, was carrying a pocket radio with him.

I guess since then I've learned that flying is not so glamorous as people might believe. The last time I was living in Hong Kong a few years back I spent so much time in the air, mostly between Chek Lap Kok and Shanghai that I was eating airline food most of the time and didn't even know that the Island I'm now living on existed. I thought Hong Kong was all about the bustling metropolis when in fact, a lot of this wonderful island is well preserved from insatiable property developers and has delightful sleepy fishing villages that I talked about in my Sok Kwu Wan post. Here's some more pics.

Sleepy Hung Shin Ye Beach

Feet firmly on the ground at Pak Kok

Time on my side.

Sand, rock and sky.

Horizon where it should be.

Kit on the beach.

City in the distance.

Trekking pony at the ready.

Whichever way we wish to 'cut the data', it's a leisurely life that proceeds slower (we can't save time, only spend it) and I've long felt that train travel is a more civilised affair than the cattle prod bullying that takes place in the air. Of course some trips aren't possible without air flight, but if there is an alternative, the train is more human and humane.

I don't know about you but I'm not in a rush to be a pensioner. I've got all the time in the world.Is it an illusion of our times, that we need to achieve more and more, faster and faster. The present is being created and destroyed at the same time isn't it?

So do we need to be smarter instead of faster? Going slower saves time is a counter intuitive truism that the Kingdom of Thailand taught me. In Siam, rushing is seen as vulgar. Though I'm still a novice at keeping a relaxed pace. Because it takes awareness and discipline.

So you can delineate for yourselves the tension between slower train travel and the fastest 'regular' train service in the world where I suspect I may well have broken the land speed record for tweets (which is awesome and ironic) but I'll just leave that thought hanging as obscurity and ambiguity challenge us to think just that bit harder than certainty. Or so the 48 Laws of Power once informed me.

And so I break another law starting a sentence with and. Warren Buffet the arch investor of our time (who has mastered the art of folksy image yet ruthless investor) just recently plowed an awful lot of bread into 'America's future'. If you're not paying attention, then don't say you weren't warned. Here's a clip of what I was trying to convey last year at 204.43112224608285 Miles per Hour

And so slower, is slowly getting better. 

Believe.

Robots Wanted

I was struck by this post from a young Singaporean Woman I met in Bangkok earlier this year. It coincides with Rob's post earlier today, and makes it easier for people back home to understand why local Singaporean marketing agencies (and many Asian comms agencies) have a reputation for cadaverous creativity....Impetus Marketing Group in this instance.

Video Petitioning

I can imagine seeing more of this kind of 'signable' video petitioning emerging. This example is for the Copenhagen (COP15) Summit in Copenhagen during December. It brings to life the traditional petition format which looks a bit tired when adding a name to the email listings we've seen over the years. 

However Adam and I are having one of our most extensive comment threads over here on the subject of climate change on an earlier post and in some ways it's a personal exchange that we tried to Skype but which we've take into the open here and still has a bit to run as we untangle fact, fiction, evidence, logic and sentiment. Either way, if you're not thinking about this crucial subject you're probably avoiding it and one thing is sure. It's unavoidable in the final review.

Via Jessica

Sir John Hegarty & Chinese Advertising

I've had a soundbite about China since I last worked in Beijing. One that I hope reconciles the extremes while allowing for a Springboard away from the dull, middle of the road and bland marketing that practically every Chinese 'brand' takes refuge in (often at the encouragement of very influential advertising agencies leadership just chasing the dollar with little conviction for the effort needed to persuade clients about how to be interesting).

I've been saying that that China is both a couple of years old and a few thousand years old. It's a way of saying "look at the diversity of your contemporary culture". It's a unique one that is brand new and ancient at the same time. This is more than just words as you can feel it as well as see it. 

It's visceral.

I'm really pleased to see Sir John Hegarty of BBH articulate a lot of what I've seen over the years in mainland Chinese advertising from his recent speech at the China International Advertising Festival in Nanning on October 29th last month.

It's worth a read if you've anything to do with China and advertising. Here are the highlights:

You can read the full speech over at the IPA website here if you have membership.

NOKIA N900 - (Speed Is King)

This works on so many levels. Via Joshua Spear who still calls them virals (duh)

Update: Original video deleted.

Bert & Ernie Update

I'm adding this to this. Happy Birthday Sesame Street.

Digital at the IPA (Tim Malbon - Made By Many)

I watched this some months ago and have been trying to remember where I saw it. Anyway, I've found the source and all I can say is that if you're beginning to grasp the real time nature of adaptive marketing as outlined over here, this is simply the best video to explain clearly how digital is best seen as a Jazz ensemble rather than an Orchestra. It's precisely why the old war nomenclature of tactics, campaigns and targets are increasingly irrelevant in advertising. 

Think about loving your customers up if they're not glued to main stream media all day long.

Blimey

David Hayes Vs Nikolai Valuev

Somebody needs to update Nikolai Valuev's Wikipedia entry. That wont be me though. I hope this video isn't removed by the time you get to see it. It's very panto.

300 seconds

Twitterfall

It's a bit good isn't it?

You can read (or listen) all about the Moral Maze program on Radio 4 over here. It was a good way to discover another real time application that surpassed the quality of the content being observed. Quite a few laughs and apparently a few of you were keeping an eye on the #moralmaze hashtag taking my Twitter follower account over 1200 although no doubt I'll say something and lose a few of those. It's all good.

The Client's A Wanker

Brilliant new fresh blog called I AM THE CLIENT over here. Go check it out.

Adscam

I've had the pleasure of getting hammered with George Parker of the notorious Adscam one or two times in London and San Francisco and I can confirm he is full of piss and vinegar, although those less familiar with the legend would be surprised to learn that he was once a running fanatic and actually uncannily accurate over a number of important industry prediction issues on his blog which is mandatory reading over here.

Anyway, earlier today (OK so I'm up at 4am these days but I nap at 9am so it's all good) I got this DM from George on Twitter

..and I laughed....because  in no particular order: Now he's definitely out.

But not before coming back in again...

Then he's off again

Then back in

One last time??

Fuck Twitter, I need a drink.

Maoxian

How rude:

Clearly a man of refined taste:

Via Maoxian

The Naughties

Andy has just posted the graph above revealing the relationship between new technologies and the lag that subsequently catches up to play a reinforcing role for truth and transparency. As it's the Noughties we're living in I think he's picked up on some very tasty irony for this. It's a post I'm envious I hadn't thought of before and is well worth checking out over here.

X - Rated

One of the defining moments of British cultural insight was the death of Princess Diana. I"ve never forgiven you for devouring every bit of grubby news about her love affairs via the tabloids, only to do an about face turn at her funeral when the crowds finished baying for one of our cultural gladiators' blood only to toss flowers in the way of her funeral train and weep openly before a sea of suburbia clapped their way, meme-like into Westminster cathedral during her brother, Charles Spencer's historic j'accuse speech pointing the finger at the Royal family for their meanness of spirit and narrow minded ostracizing of a wife they had pre-selected for their son, the Prince of Wales.

Of course there's a lot more complexity than just a binary view of good and bad but even with all Diana (Princess of Wales) faults it was evident that despite her fondness for playing up to the cameras, promiscuity (is Harry really a Windsor?) and possible manipulation of public sentiment, the good shone through, and her championing of AIDS, love of her children and campaign against British arm dealers selling UK made land mines (hated by the establishment) were proof of that. 

It's for this reason I still like the Prince of Wales for his principled stand on architecture (one that Ayn Rand's Fountainhead chimes nicely with), his proposal for a multi faith head of religion (as opposed to just Church of England) and dedication towards sustainability. He may be a bit wacky but this pales into insignificance when compared with the British publics attempt to whitewash their own hypocrisy on sentimentality and the cause and effect thereof.

So what is it with the X factor? I listen each season to a large number of UK tweets in what apparently is a mix of obsession and loathing much like our former tragic heroine and yet I can't help but feel like some sort of digital ethnographer on the tail end of observation, viewing a murky world of consumer designed TV, shaped by a rolling narrative of the unexpected mixed with the salaciously expected. 

Its easy to be sniffy about popular culture and while very aware that I've long lost the ability to be able to force interest over the medium term in that which is considered entertainment for the majority of Brits I'm still confounded by the gusto for garbage.

But really.....some of the most clever people I know are up to their hips in the banal viewing and low end wading of trash culture which reminds me of the bread and circuses to keep the end of empire crowds from recognising the depth of problem solving required to address the pressing issues that surround us all. 

I get it. I don't like it. Do we get what we deserve? Probably.

My thanks to Ruby Pseudo for her post and the essence of Ros Bifs culture marketing that inspired my own.

Word

It's been a year and a half since I last did one of these.

Google Connect

One of the great things about social media is the sheer flexibility of it all. I don't have any rules and I'm completely entitled to change my mind at any moment as to how I run this blog. Management reserves the right to be an arse hole and so forth. 


However, as a fully paid up "data junkie" I had an epiphany the other day while thinking why so many of the people on Twitter are in some sort of cluster link fuck fest and yet fail to really engage in what makes Twitter delightful. So, I've decided I'm going to remove some of the social networking tools at the side of this blog (as well as pipe some of you who just link on Twitter into Friendfeed) so this is really the last chance to make it easy for yourself and join Google connect. I'll still be on it but it wont be on display as I'm cleaning up my data streams or rather going for a full on tweak that is really never ending. Click below and join in or don't. It's all good :)

For Fox Sake

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	Mon - Thurs 11p / 10c
For Fox Sake!
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Health Care Crisis

Long before it was safe to do so, when the United States was reeling from the sky scraping collapse of three buildings in New York and any suggestion of even handed analysis or    probing and difficult questions was yelled down by people screaming 'they hate our freedoms'. I made my political position clear although you might be surprised to find I'm neither Democrat or Republican.


What annoys me is that those same people baying for blood invariably couldn't point to Iran on a map and are unaware of having their political opinions shaped by the media and its business driven agenda (industrial military and media complex and so forth or MIC as its often known). FOX is most certainly part of this machine as is CNN although they are both complicit in addressing real issues.


Noam Chomsky made clear this complex communication topic of media manipulation in his 'Manufacturing Consent' book. During that post 9/11 I was unpopular and (I lost friends over it) specifically yelling (to the TV) at the disgraceful cowardice of the White House Press Corps as they group fellated then POTUS Bush 43. I've also made clear my views on FOX NEWS (Fair and Balanced) over here but I think it's important that if you haven't watched how media really works that you take the time out to watch the Manufacturing Consent Video below.

There really is no excuse for not being informed and if you find it dull. Perhaps you need to  back to your day job because being part of the solution and not the problem is only for the sentient classes.

Disclaimer: Noam Chomsky is my favourite Jewish Person. I imagine if he lived a couple of thousand years ago, that with legendary embellishment he could easily morph into that other profoundly important Jewish figure..Jesus Christ. Watch this and see why he's on another level. I know of no other person who cuts through issues with such compelling truth that it leaves me bewildered as to how he made the lonely journey to what become self evident conclusions.

Green Is Green

I was taking an early morning swim yesterday. It's a good time for me to think, and as ever when I'm surrounded by the sun, the sea and the sand I'm reminded how beautiful nature is and that we're really confronted by a logic bomb when considering how the system we all conspire to take part in, points at the asymmetry of global finite resources and our wasteful production (most products don't exist within six months of their manufacture) and of course our decadent disposable lifestyles. There's a way out of this and advertising or communications has a powerful and wealth creating role to contribute towards a virtuous solution but I've written about that extensively elsewhere (and here) although intend to probably recap on some of John Grant's The Green Marketing Manifesto at some point because many of those issues were thrashed out then.

In any case, I can quickly highlight that the behavioural changes required to make a sustainable lifestyle are largely a marketing problem and where there's a marketing problem there's a business solution if supply side economics are given the credence we already do.

Anyway I was dipping a few toes into the sea and I suddenly recalled that JWT's future trends watcher Marian Salzman was predicting back in 1988 that Blue was the new Green. That we'd be seeing the environment issue as a blue one where it was once green. A lot of us didn't like it at the time because many people from the consumption classes (I use that term deliberately) are still confused as to the extent of change needed and the last thing the communication classes should be doing is confusing them with bogus rebranding efforts. Anyway, Marian was wrong as most future trend watchers are. I've enjoyed some of her work in the past but frankly I think it's time that these charlatans should put their hands up and admit their error rather than just concentrating on their successes. Don't you?

You can read how common sense and Green won the day over here, here, here and here.

Silhouette

China's ability to make knock off copies on luxury goods is sometimes frighteningly close or at least visually. I bought this iPod copy recently for US$37 (8 Gigabyte) and while it's got lots of drawbacks such as slow boot up, quicker battery fade and slow processing plus no interface. It does  have a few advantages. It's got a radio and I couldn't care less if it was stolen like my last two were in Hong Kong. No shadow of a doubt.

What I'm Listening To

I've long been a fan of DJ Stewarts mixes from Bed Supperclubs Electrofrequencies in Bangkok on Monday night to his latest sets on UB Radio. To be frank. He's on fire at the moment with some of the best mixes I've heard him make in all the years I've been rating him as one of the finest DJ's in the business. You can download his UB Radio Sets over here. Breaks, House and Tech for those who need some taxonomy (or ontology if like me you're struggling to separate the two).

There's a feed over here you can pop into your iTunes for the cream. It's free..... as indeed "Everything should be (free)"  and which one of the sets (Flamgini at Funky Dojo) asserts.

Feedburner Statistics

A Star Is Born

Happy days before I got robbed in Hong Kong.

Kasabian Football Hero - Society of the Spectacle

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


Via Andy & Eaon. 

Cool Bananas

I just got back from another stunning bike ride round the island I'm living on. I'm very conscious these days that as oil prices spike and the threat of hyperinflation from printing money in the United States and the United Kingdom leaves us potentially looking at an impending breakdown in the food distribution system. It leaves city dwellers with enough food for two days as explained in this TED video I blogged about a week or so ago and so any opportunity to reconnect with nature is fascinating me at the moment and I"m slowly researching what kind of foods I could grow on the island as well as what is available in the wild such as these bananas. Even if my instinct is wrong and my views are alarmist, I just think it makes good frugal sense to see what can be relied upon and so I'm usually taking a bunch of these home with me for the return cycle journey. 

It's very satisfying and strangely I seem to be leaning towards a vegetarian diet or at least one with a 100 or so grammes of meat a week. I also understand from a tweet earlier that a vegan in a Hummer has a lower carbon footprint than a beef eater in a Prius because of the intensive farming required to breed cows for food.

I'd like to raise chickens here but after the last round of avian flu the government has put strict rules in place to prevent this. I'm sure that will be ignored if events take over legislation. In any case it's very rewarding as these bike rides for wild growing bananas take me through some of the steepest inclines on the south side of the island and I'm in better shape than I have been for at least five years when I last visited the Gym regularly. I look a bit like a Frenchman sometimes when I come home on the KLEIN bearing bananas instead of onions. Tropical living my friends ;)

Google Wave

I've been invited on Google Wave and I'd quite like to road test it. For those of you who don't have my gmail address and wish to have a go at using it, just drop me an email to my spam account which is cefrith at hotmail dot bomb. 

On Success and Failure

This may be a minority view that is indulgently and definitively littered with self referential contradiction, but I do know that Mr Armano has a similar perspective, so I'm not alone on this and so here goes. 

The propensity to indiscriminately use the word FAIL on twitter is surely incongruous with our times? Don't the brilliant (and arguably culturally important) W&K urge us to embrace failure? 


Surely there's so much to be critical and deeply concerned with in these pressing times that deserve a real sense of urgency and even justified anger?


What like?


Well, there's a strong case for George Bush and Tony Blair to face a war crimes tribunal for a judgement of truth about weapons of mass delusion? ..FAIL.. 


We appear to be living in a consumption frenzy (particularly in consumer Consumer CONSUMER electronics) that logically concludes with our species consuming ourselves. 


Haven't thought about that? BIG FAILURE$


Aren't you mad with the Burmese authorities preventing aid getting to their people after a devastating cyclone? FAIL....


What's your view on the earthquakes in Indonesia happening so alarmingly frequently that hardly anyone comments on them? 


Not important?  *FAIL*


What about serial typhoons in the Philippines then. Is that a {FAIL}? 


OK, then what's your view on our melting ice caps that will take out the Maldives alarmingly soon while our our internet carboon footprint exceeds that of the aviation business globally? ~ FAIL~. 


Something a bit closer to home and perversely a bit more intangible? What about the printing presses floating Sterling and Dollar currencies so we can hold the undeveloped world in an economic hologram trap of poverty and squalor? Ever thought about money as simulacrum? You should do. You really should and thus.....FAIL$ 


A toothless United Nations? FAIL# 


US & Israeli (both nuclear powers) largest ever war exercises under the leadership of a Nobel Peace Prize winner...Not bothered? FAIL%%%


Look around you. Noticed the greed, obesity and commensurate starvation? ^FAIL^


The list goes on and on doesn't it.


Shouldn't these be the issues we need to be indignant about? The ones we should SHOUT and CAPITALIZE our tweets for instead of a failed iPhone app or a subjective and erroneous view on a logo that is fully explained here and here but not here.


I don't care if your consumer electronics FAIL on YOU.


...and go easy on the gratuitous linking too because guess what? The information age means there's far more interesting stuff on the net than a person could ever hope to devour. It's the real reason you've stopped reading books isn't it?

If you like something. I'm happy for you. If something is pissing you off write a blog post or something but please stop filling up my twitter stream with garbage sentiment and garbage subjectivity and do share with me more of the trivial stuff like if you're having a nice cup of tea or have just broken wind in a lift. 


And please.......don't ever capitalize those letters with the solipsist rage of an ostensibly pampered and self indulgent confusion with tardy marketing comprehension.

Update: I see the infinitely more authoritative Anil Dash has similar feelings.

Synovate in Sok Kwu Wan

I've had my problems with Synovate in Asia. The first time I commissioned them (actually it was Asia Market Research who they bought out during the project we worked together on)  to do qualitative research followed by U&A studies for the Volkswagen brand. 


The groups were a disaster. Poorly turned out, we were actually down to two respondents in one final group in which I quickly realised that the two female respondents had different models of the VW Passat. One old and one new. This is an unmitigated catastrophe for a neutral research setting in deeply hierarchical Thailand where animistic Buddhist tradition teaches that people have better lives (such as owning a new car model and not the old car one) because they were better people in their last lives. 


In any case mistakes happen but I had no option other than to recommission the research. Unhappy client, unhappy agency, grumpy researchers.

On the upside, a lot of those learnings contributed to my belief that there is a better way to do meaningful research and which I have written about more fully over here. However I was sorely reminded of the research mindset (or the type of people that research companies frequently hire (often creative wannabes without a creative flair) when I stood in for Rob at the emerging markets presentation last year where I talked about the social communication mobility opportunities for low income customers. One speaker from Synovate stood at the podium as if she was delivering a lecture and reeled out a papyrus dry presentation that reminded me of every reason why square duffers should be kept at  strict arms length from the creative industries.

Even in dull data there is a story to be told which can be brought to life. If I recall correctly the presentation by Mindshare was much more engaging and I discovered killer facts such as many young Thai people  in upcountry (rural) Thailand often buy magazines more for display value than for reading. Something I never knew before and I have more than a cursory understanding of the culture as I speak reasonably fluent Thai (along with a smattering of Khmer, Laos and Burmese) and have traveled extensively throughout the kingdom. Anyway, isn't this topic of magazine display much like a whole generation of iPod fans who don't even really like music yet love to have the badges of modernity with white ear buds and so forth on display?

But I've had reason to think there is hope for Synovate recently. A few weeks back I saw something really clever that I really really like from them. I was cycling around the island I live on and stumbled on the fishing village of Sok Kwu Wan pictured above from afar. 


In one of the outdoor restaurants there was a poster which blew me away. Context is everything and you need to picture this quaint little fishing village with lots of Chinese day visitors and the occasional Caucasian including me milling about to appreciate a great example of connection planning. We're not talking hyper commercial setting and yet I felt it was one of the best ads I've seen in ages. Now we can quibble about the message style, but I think it's brilliant. Imagine if you will. I've just taken a cycle trip to God knows where (I"m still exploring the island) on the southern and less populated part, and out of nowhere I stumble across a research company that I am very familiar with. At first I was confused. Did they have a satellite office in nowheresville?

The copy reads.

Brilliant isn't it? A two bit village on a largely ignored island and I come across some copy which applauds not only people like me who really can't help but sniff around the corners of the planet or the internet but also applauds the sort of clients who prefer to take an unusual boat trip or ferry to somewhere isolated for famous seafood and setting. It's like climbing mount Everest and finding a flag at the top with "Synovate woz 'ere but we respect your mountain climing skillz"


Just so you know, the only way to get here really is mountainous bike riding with gorgeous scenes such as this.

Descending the steep paths at speeds which I intend to film they're so scary and difficult to describe and then finally enter quaint fishing villages peppered with boats and restaurants or take a ferry from Central or Aberdeen on Hong Kong main Island.

I was impressed and even though I still think the research industry is largely conning the advertising industries clients by selling safety management and not risk management (I've written about it extensively and commented on it recently over at a Simon Kendrick's 'Curiously Persistent' blog here). 


Simon is a researcher who I do have respect for as he's not frightened to concur with what is self evident to a lot of people who are desperate not to drop the ball during their 18 month tenure of a marketing position. I don't mind that this is the modus operandi of most marketing clients but please don't try and talk up the creativity game when we all know it's not creative to knock out 95% of the advertising vying for our attention during the ad break. And most importantly because wanna be creative stiffs annoy me, keep the research people from whittling away a reasonably idea down to a bland idea with squares who should be actuaries or accountants. Anyway good start Synovate. What's your next move?


Update: I see Synovate Hong Kong were voted best market research agency by the industry.