One Laptop Per Child initiative is so Lennon-esque.

It's no wonder that John Lennon was 'brought back to life' to help sell the One Laptop Per Child concept to the world. Imagine. A world where all children have equal access to knowledge regardless of wealth or lack there of. It's a beautiful thing to imagine such a place.

See the video below.

Protect the Humans

Amnesty International presents a message that cuts straight to the heart especially at this peace & love for all mankind time of the year. Scroll down to see the video.

And, Pepsi has apologized.

Online anyway.

Pepsi MAX & Suicide – a bad combination in any language.

A series of print ads for Pepsi MAX ran in Germany recently and have caught the attention of many online, including myself.

It is my understanding that the purpose of advertising is to sell something – a thought, a cause, a charity, an event, a product – in other words, to get people to part with their money or their time, which some say is money anyway. These ads have prompted me, as well as a good number of others, to spend time to comment on them. So in that respect, they’re successful.

But let’s step back a moment and look at the current global environment in which these ads are appearing.

World economy in turmoil. Global job loses and threat of a depression, with no foreseeable turnaround for the next 18 months or more. The holiday season and the inevitable spike in depression that accompanies it, fast approaching.

Maybe it’s not the best time to be selling a can of pop by promoting suicide as an alternative to loneliness and isolation.

Just a thought.

Motrin Mom Interplosion

Came across this story in AdAge today about how a relatively small group of mom's "brought down Motrin Mom campaign". I checked it out online - bloggers pages, youtube, and the creative in question - and at first I didn't get what all the fuss was about. However, after a few more viewings of the video 'Wearing Your Baby' it struck me.
In the video, the 'mom' is portrayed as a mindless, insecure fashionista who's chosen to wear her baby not because she's convinced it's the best thing for her baby and herself but, because she will be perceived as an in mom, inspite of the unnecesary (and probably harmful) pain it will inflict on her. And the coup de grace - Motrin is saying by implication, you go girl!
That's my take anyway.
Search 'Motrin' on YouTube for the video in question.

It's a new day.

And I'm very hopeful for the future.

Challenging Times Ahead

Global economic uncertainty has been the news for some time now and many companies have reacted by cutting back on advertising while others have seen an opportunity to grow their business. In any any case, maintaining a positive outlook is something that costs nothing but will, I believe, go a long way in helping to turn things around. In other words, keep smiling. Happy Halloween!

T-shirt to die for

I'm going ahead with limited production of this t-shirt design and hope to have them available before the end of the year so if you're interested let me know.

   I'm also looking into a charitable tie-in of some kind - Cancer Society is the most obvious but if you have any thoughts I'd love to hear from you.

James Garner files suit against McCain, Palin over use of 'Maverick'

Came across this funny tongue-in-check article by Steve Young online and the best part was some of the comments. Check it out for yourself at the link below.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/steve-young/james-garner-files-suit-a_b_124997.html

Not only was it funny, it also inspired me to create this knock-off of the Shepard Fairey Obama poster. I'm a fan of Obama but I'm an even bigger fan of James Garner - long live Maverick!

Apple knows how to open a new store.

Attended the opening of the Apple Store in Fairview Mall on Sept.27th along with my son who lives on his own now. It was my idea and a way to spend some time with him. 

    Neither of us had witnessed one of these Apple events before and being fans, we were curious. And they were giving away free t-shirts to the first 1,000 visitors. Piece o' cake. 

    We planned our arrival so that we'd have a half hour before the opening, thinking we'd grab some breakfast and then casually make our way over. They did say the first 1,000 visitors after all. No need to hurry, right?  Fortunately, we decided to have a quick look to confirm the store location before enjoying breakfast and surprise, surprise there must have already been 500 people lined up! Needless to say we hurried to stake our place in line - free t-shirt after all - and waited. And this is where the Apple experience began.

    At about 15 minutes to opening, a mass of cheering, enthusiastic Apple t-shirt wearing young men and women came pouring out of nowhere and started running the length of the line-up. It not only woke me up but it put a smile on both our faces. You couldn't help but get caught up in their energy. This went on for about 5 minutes and then, just as quickly, they disappeared. By the time we started coming down from this induced high, the store opened and surprising the line started moving, slow but steady, and after about 10 minutes we were just about in. And this is where the experience got ramped-up. 

   All those Apple people who'd surprised us while waiting in line had now formed a welcoming 'gauntlet' that each and every visitor had to walk through, to no end of loud cheers and high-fives! Even the most jaded of people (ie. me) could not resist getting caught up in this. It was fun and it was memorable and it brought Apple to life.

   What more could you want.

'Internetworking'

Have just discovered Linked In which at first glance, looks to be a wonderful tool for online networking.
http://www.linkedIn.com/
As someone who has never been very good at face-to-face networking, this site appears to be just the ticket.
Not only does it allow you to ‘connect’ with past business associates, it also lets you connect with their list of contacts, providing they accept your invite to connect with you.
Once connected it also shows the chain or ‘six degrees of separation’ by which you’re connected to others which is very cool indeed.
It’s definitely worth checking out if you haven’t already.
In terms of real benefit, time will tell.
Hopefully it will serve me as more than just a business version of Face Book.
I’ll give it three months and provide an update.

'Greenwashing', Cause Efforts & Business

Reality check - all big businesses are in business to make money for their stake-holders. Period.
Their goal is not to make the world a better place for people to live in now, or in the future, unless... there's a buck to be made. That's the 'nature' of big business.
And once everyone accepts this fact, all the energy currently being devoted to exposing companies for pretending to care, can be devoted to supporting non-profit organizations that really do care.
Do you care?

Big Brothers & Big Sisters could use some help.
Talk about doing something today that will positively impact the future!
Visit www.bigbrothersbigsisters.ca

The 'Shopping for a new car' experience.

I read an interesting article in Advertising Age recently (you can read the full article here... http://adage.com/digital/article?article_id=125748 ) that outlined plans that GM "is getting ready to shift fully half of its $3 billion budget into digital and one-to-one marketing within the next three years".

"The goal is to go well beyond the banner -- GM spent $197 million in online ads last year, according to TNS Media Intelligence -- to encompass gaming, search, mobile and a broad array of interactive applications, according to several executives close to the automaker."

I'm assuming the purpose behind this shift is to 'connect' more with their customers.

What makes this interesting to me is that the auto industry in general has virtually ignored their primary consumer touch point that has existed since Model T's began rolling off the assembly line and that is, their dealerships.

Yes, they provide coop dollars to them and marketing materials but leave the rest up to them. Which means you could visit three different dealerships for the same automaker and come away with three different perceptions. Not ideal, when billions of dollars were spent to try and create a unique brand image and persona.

And it doesn't seem to matter which car maker's dealership you visit... they're all just showrooms with a bunch of sales people and desks (most of which look like they've been picked up at garage sales). And their sales pitch is uniform.

If you're negotiating price, then it's "let me talk to my manager" as he/she disappears for a few minutes.
Then there's the extended warranty & rust proofing which has always made me feel like maybe they didn't get it quite right when the built these vehicles. For me, this does nothing but cast doubt about quality and/or the character of the people I'm dealing with.

Dealerships are a built-in opportunity to connect with customers and to create an experience that not only makes the process enjoyable but is a reflection of the brand itself.

Regardless of what some guru's of the ether world may say, people are not going to purchase their vehicles online. Nor are they going to even make a final decision online. At most, they'll use the info they've gathered to make a short-list. And from there, it's all about the dealership and what the consumer experiences.

Would it be difficult to change the whole manufacturer/dealership relationship and how it works? Of course. Do auto makers really want to 'connect' with their customers? Don't know.

Tongue Ads... yikes!

(article from TrendHunter.com)

Coke Zero has launched in Brazil an extreme guerrilla marketing campaign using people’s tongues.

Several shops in Sao Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Porto Alegre and Salvador give free piercings with the brand logo, with the only condition of taking pictures to publish on the website which redirects to a Google Picasa Album set.

The agency who created the idea is Espalhe Marketing de Guerrilha. This campaign is also supported by a TV spot which features talking tongues and eyeballs with legs.

Ad Trek - Going where no ad has gone before.

Went to a gas station recently, it was early morning and before my coffee, and was blasted with commercial messaging coming from a video monitor built into the gas pump. There's was no getting away from it while I was using the pump which lasted about five minutes. And the whole time, I was getting angrier and angrier at this particular supplier for subjecting me to this. So... where will ad messaging go from here?

Advertisers have been seeking new ways to reach consumers since it all began but never to the fever pitch it has reached over the last 10 years or so.

Traditional media like television has ventured beyond the commercial break to promote themselves. It started with network logos appearing in the bottom right corner of the screen. Sports Networks adopted permanent banners across the bottom of the screen providing constant updates and info about upcoming games. Most recently, some networks have messages that pop-up right over the program your watching (like those annoying pop-ups you see when your online) promoting the next program! They obviously don't think very highly about the quality of their programming.

Advertising could always be found on TV, radio, outdoor and in all magazines and newspapers.
Now you can find ads in bathrooms including the inside of cubicles, in elevators, on floors, even on parking lot gate lift-arms. On every mode of public transport ... subway, bus, streetcar, taxi both inside and out. There's a company in the U.S. that's offering advertisers access to the cab drivers themselves for use as impromptu pitchmen.

However, technology is the real booster engine propelling ad messages.
Websites, viral email and video, podcasts, text messages, digital screens in-stores and even at gas pumps to name a few.

If the when, where and how ad messaging appears keeps expanding that the way it has been, in future no person on the planet may be able to avoid it no matter where they are.

So what's my point.

I have no point to make here but just to ask, where will it end and what will be the impact on us as human beings?

Marshall McLuhan said, "The medium is the message."
So what's the message? Will we evolve to be able to assimilate a limitless amount of messaging? Or will we become drones that simply react to it? Or...

Technology Backlash?

Here's an article I sourced from AdAge, a U.S. Advertising periodical. 

Is the end of technology near?

Too Much Infotechnology Can Lead to Brain Overload
Steve Rubel on Digital Communications
By Steve Rubel
Steve Rubel is a marketing strategist and blogger. He is senior VP in Edelman's Me2Revolution practice.
Published: February 18, 2008 Advertising Age Online Magazine

Conventional wisdom says the internet will continue to become more central in our lives, bringing with it productivity gains. And for more than 15 years, internet innovations have revolutionized marketing.

Culturally, however, there are some signs of a backlash against technology -- even among the most addicted. This trend is worth watching because it could slow down or even derail the digital-marketing train.

Over the last decade, Americans have become hopelessly addicted to information and busyness. We have all overheard people bragging about their back-to-back schedules and massive e-mail inboxes. There's a certain respect that flows to the individual who can manage 500 daily e-mails, almost as though he or she is the king of the jungle.

We crave information and busyness because it makes us feel wanted, needed and, above all, important. However, too much of a good thing is never ideal. And now that we have a host of new distractions such as Facebook and Twitter, many people have truly maxed out. Human attention can't scale, as much as we would like it to.

The successes of blogs such as Lifehacker and Lifehack and books such as "Getting Things Done" and "The Four-Hour Workweek" show that lots of people are eager for a quick fix. However, the data are even more damning. A Basex study published in December found that the pressure to respond in real time to instant messages, e-mails and text messages cost the U.S. economy $650 billion in 2006. Separately, annual productivity growth has slowed from to 1.6% in 2007 from 4.1% in 2002, according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics. The dirty little secret is that the internet may be hindering our productivity.

If enough people get the willpower to say "enough," net spending on gadgets and time spent online could decline. In a worst-case scenario, companies would retrench R&D spending, and innovation would slow. That's just one extreme possibility -- and the most unlikely.

The X factor here is actually a Y factor: Generation Y. These kids grew up in an age of information saturation. This generation has coping skills that most of us simply do not.

I am hopeful that as Gen Y comes of age, the likelihood of a doomsday scenario where people cut back on internet time remains unlikely. That's not to say there won't be pain, however, in the interim until Gen Y supplants the baby boomers in spending power and influence.

It begins...

Have decided to start sharing my thoughts with you, the unsuspecting populace outside of my world. We'll see where it goes...