For Fuks Saké

PR Case Studies ref: McClaren '08

When you start a new job, don't pretend to be someone you're not. Like pretend to be Dutch. Or simply be a twat. Full marks to the Mirror for bringing this to our attention.

It's Still A Girl's Game

Lacoste...tennis 75 years from now.

Maybe I just don't understand the word "trailer"?

The was a bit o' commotion during the week, announcing an exclusive on the forthcoming Oasis album, the cryptic as ever, Dig Out Your Soul. Now I always thought of a trailer as being a teaser to a forthcoming release, think the 5 mins you sit in a cinema just before the butter'd popcorn starts to makes you want to vom, a sneak peak of the forthcoming attractions. So, naturally enough I though that the particular trailer would include a view snippets of the new album, maybe an interview or something. Yeah, it don't work that way.....

Instead you were given a chopped together career spanning sub-iMovie video, that showed nothing too interesting or even never before seen, and then the last 20 seconds you get a verse, a few video montages from the album sleeve, and then......nowt. You mean I cancelled that laser eye surgery for that? In the words of the txt-spkn generation....WTF!!??!! If you add this to the 20 secs they gave away via text message last week, maybe this is the future? Is this how albums will be released? Via 20 sec clips, every week. Imagine the anticipation.

I foresee Be Here Now levels of hype, followed by Be Here Now levels of disappointment.

Arsene Wenger: Planning Director

As a hesitant young man with bad skin and a few months work experience I had the chance to launch the first ever official Arsenal website. As the football hacks filed in next door, I gave Arsene Wenger his 2 minute briefing.

"You see Mr Wenger, it gives Arsenal fans all over the world the chance to meet and discuss the club. Look - 'gooner73' has just started a conversation....'

"Who's that French bloke we're signing? Vieira?"

"And if we click on here, we can see that someone has replied," I continued.

"Fuck knows, but he'll probably be a criminal like those cunts Hillier, Merson and Adams."

As expected, Wenger was unflappable. But he then offered an insight I never forgot.

"In sport, information and exchange is what drives us. I am all for open-ness and technological progress, but it is wise to retain some mystery and mystique. It keeps sport special."

Tim Whirledge has written up the new All Blacks campaign from adidas. The All Black jersey is probably one of the most iconic sporting items of clothing going. Rugby is one of the pillars New Zealand's culture. To wear the All Black jersey in New Zealand is the nation's equivalent of a knighthood.

A nice video aside, adidas have responded by making it un-special. Open up the trade press and it says, you've got to do blogs and stuff. You know - let consumers get involved and things. adidas have come up with the idea of weaving an "Adi-thread" in it, which means fans can get their names sewn into the crest, thus helping them "get closer to the team." The shirt is no longer for sporting immortals, but for Fred and Margaret from Rotorua too. The mystery and mystique starts to fade. The sport starts dropping down from its pedestal. It starts becoming a product on a shelf.

Reminds me of the time Umbro turned the England shirt grey, because it went well with jeans. Wenger wouldn't have signed that off either.

The 00's: Remembered For Music, Or Technology?

I saw this question on a forum and it got me wondering, will the 00's (I loathe the word noughties) be remembered for the technological advancements in music, rather than the music itself?

The 50s gave us rock 'n' roll, the 60's pop/rock/psychedelia, the 70's glam/funk/disco/punk, the 80's more punk/more disco/new romantics/hip-hop/acid house/indie/baggy/shoegaze the 90's more shoegaze/more indie/grunge/britpop/trip-hop/gangster rap/trance/techno/post rock etc... (not an exhaustive list by any means) but this decade...Coldplay-esque stadium rock? Won't the decade be remembered for the iPod and file-sharing instead?

Is there an exhaustion? I've struggled to come up with a better answer than electro, which to be honest is merely a sub-genre of dance. When was the last band to come out, and the world just collectively went "....WTF!"? The Klaxons? Maybe, but then I think their sound is just following on from early Acid House.

I guess my point is, where will the next sub-genre come from? Will we look back at the present and say to ourselves "I remember when all you could download was an mp3. An MP3!!!!" Maybe the reason I can't think of where the future of music is going to from is cos I'm sat here in an office, and not holed up in a studio, with Dr. Dre (who's Detox album, I'm very confident, will bend my head) actually trying to find the answer.

Dave Macnamara

You Don't See This Too Often Either

Fire alarm goes off during C4 News. Krishnan whatever his name is, does a runner.

You Don't Get This Kind Of Stuff On ITV

BBC Sport have unveiled their Gorillaz work for the Beijing games. There's all sorts of widgets, gizmos and irritants around the main characters Monkey, Pigsy and Sandy.

Have a look at this though....the 2 minute movie that will form the basis of their opening titles for the Olympic Games.

15 days to go - personally, can't wait. The sanctimonious whining of anyone from Spielberg to Konnie Huq can be parked to one side. Seeing China have its well deserved moment in the sun will be captivating, breathtaking and awe-inspiring. Londoners are about to get a big wake-up call.

Did 2 Girls & 1 Cup break the camels back?

  

  "It's the sickest thing I've ever seen."

"What worse that 2 Girls?"

"So much worse than that!"

2 minutes later;

"Meh."

Now before we start this, isn't a blog about, well that video. It's not about how far the boundaries of taste and decency can be pushed over the internet. It's more to do with just how it appears to me that nothing really shocks us anymore and why our immediate reaction to anything is "I've seen worse." Have we reached a mental saturation point? Why is it that the sight of two girls engaging in coprophelia not greeted with sheer disgust, and also an outcry as to how something like this can appear on our screens, freely available, and to be honest, not that hard to find.

For many years, if that was your bag, sure you'd be able to get access to it, but it would have meant a paranoid walk into Soho, to collect a brown paper bag of a dodgy looking bald man, with a ponytail and a pencil moustache. Now you can get your rocks off, in the middle of the day, in the comfort of you own home. Has the sheer level of media saturation that we have in our daily lives, receiving so much information on such a regular basis, and in such a realist manner, that we've simply grown immune to the element of surprise?

The other question is what has happened to our morals? Why are we not appalled that this sort of thing is in the media. Even videos of people watching the video in question, as seen above, have registered nearly 100 million views on Youtube. Theres no anger, its merely viewed as comedy. Of course theres the school of thought that 2G1C is all an elaborate hoax, and merely a well propped rouse. Well that nixes my argument so lets just discount that.

So have we reached a peak? Is there nothing left to shock, and we're all doomed. Will 2G1C merely be fodder for a Weezer video in 10 years time? Or maybe its just me, I spend far too much time on t’interweb, and I am now a soulless humanoid.

/transmission

Animated Street Art on Walls Or Something...

Brilliant, clever, creative 'wall' animation. Give it at least 30 seconds, it's worth the patience. Done by these hard workers. Spotted by Will.

Got My Mind Set On You

My first ever blog post for all those irrational enough to want to listen to the mind of Proudlock, which takes me nicely into the topic of said blog post, irrationality.

This week I have been reading, Irrationally by Stuart Sutherland (link below) to save me from the mind numbing, retardation of free newspaper reading. And it is amazing how unbelievably irrational we all are and fascinating the lengths we go to justify our irrationality to ourselves.

Take this example:

"The rivalry between groups may be so irrational that each may try to do the other down even at its own expense. In an aircraft factory in Britain the toolroom shop stewards tried to preserve this difference, even when by doing so they would receive a smaller wage themselves. They preferred a settlement that gave them £67.30 a a week and the production workers a pound less, to one that gave them an extra two pounds (£69.30) but gave the production workers more (70.30)"

Unbelievable! But leads to the question "do we all compete with people to our own detriment?"

Are you competing with someone for that promotion or to catch the eye of a certain someone? Are you sure it is the path to success? Are you even sure that it is actually what you want?

Brands are you so busy fighting the competition on micro issues that you have lost sight of the bigger issue? Being the best! Or at least yourself.

If you are constantly looking at the competition and reacting to what they do, how can you really be yourself? How can you produce your best? And most importantly why would anyone take notice of you?

David Proudlock

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Irrationality-Stuart-Sutherland/dp/1905177070/ref=sr

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