Fun reader for kids

Will all the talk about the iPad these last few weeks it seems we may have overlooked a fun book app for the iPhone.

It's PhoneBook from the Japanese company Media Arts lab.

Such a simple yet brilliant idea you have to wonder why nobody thought of it before.

It's currently on sale on the Japanese Amazon site. Click here to take a look.

Vale Dennis Hopper

Dennis Hopper passed away today. The man packed a hell of a lot of livin' into each and every one of his 74 years. And somehow along the way managed to find time to do some terrific football commercials for Nike. This is one of my favourites. it's from the 1995 Superbowl.

Message to 'Anonymous'

Don't be a Dick

No I'm not a dick.

Although if I was I'd probably be happy to offer my services in the hope that I might possibly get paid a token amount.

Regular visitors to DNA will know I'm no fan of crowdsourced creativity.

It's not the crowdsourcing I have a problem with. It's the devaluing of the only product our industry produces. Ideas.

Now it seems the people making the most money from crowdsourcing are looking for a new name for it.

And they're offering to pay $1,000 to the person that comes up with the winning name.

Now that might sound like a lot of money to a student hawking their folio but in the greater scheme of things it's peanuts.

Talk to any agency and that kind of money will probably get you between four and eight hours of thinking.

Why?

Because quality costs. And you generally get what you pay for.

Joga Bonita

The new Nike World Cup ad is currently all the rage across the blogosphere.

Personally I don't like it.

Of course millions of people do. But I don't.

What I do love though is this ad for Seara.

According to their website they're the official meat supplier to the Brazilian football team.

Pretty cute little ad don't you think?

Although I can't help thinking the team behind it spent a lot of time watching the Single Ladies football team episode of Glee.

Career advice

This story has been doing the rounds of adland gossipers. There's something in it for all of us I think.

Seems somebody went for an interview at CBP in Boulder.

They took a laptop with them to show their work.

Sadly the laptop in question was stolen.

Good news is the Boulder Police located the laptop.

Bad news is they contacted the IT department of the agency the person worked for.

Do I need to go on!?

Bang or whimper?

Many years ago I worked at a small agency where the managing partners constantly interfered in the creative process.

I remember one particular campaign I worked on where the boss pushed us into using a key client as the spokesman in a TV ad.

As you can imagine I fought against it. And lost.

Luckily when we screen tested the client he turned out to be terrible.

I picture a similar situation taking place recently in the offices of Marc Jacobs.

Except the client, boss and agency creative were probably all the same person - Marc jacobs himself.

Which is a pity.

Because anyone with half a brain would have advised against Marc getting his kit off to star in the ads for his new fragrance called Bang.

Up There

Special thanks to Mona for alerting me to this beautiful short film about old school billboard artists. It's from an original concept by Mother in New York.

Made me smile

Every now and again, and it seems to happen far less often than it used to, I stumble across an ad that just makes me smile.

This is one of those ads.

Good clean fun by BETC Euro of Paris.

Google Pac Man

They're celebrating Pac Man's birthday on Google! Man I love the ever changing Google logo. Best of all you can actually play the Pac Man logo game.

What a pity so many of the legal people who work on brands try and prevent this sort of stuff under the guise of protecting their brand IP.

Click here to go check it out.

Street style y'all

Read that headline. Look at those clothes. Then take a moment to wonder exactly what kinda weird 'n wonderful things happen when you go out dressed like that.

Public service announcement

Super sexy CPR. Brought to you in the interest of public safety by those kind folks at Fortnight Lingerie.

Lady Blue Shanghai

David Lynch is probably the last name you'd come up with when pondering who to direct your next commercial.

But believe it or not he's already done stuff for Calvin Klein and Armani.

So it stands to reason that he would be the right person to put something together for Dior.

Except it's not an ad. It's a 16 minute internet movie apparently.

Love to know what you think.

What are words worth?

I don't think I'm alone in saying The Economist is responsible for some classic copy driven advertising.

Very similar and also pretty good is the work done for the Financial Review here in Australia.

Sadly this campaign for the Harvard Business Review doesn't come close.


At first glance it appears to be aiming for similar territory to the other two publications I mentioned.

But let's be honest. The copy ain't that clever or memorable. And who on earth chose the colour grey for the ad below?


Agency - ZIG Canada

Facebook on the window

Find us in the Yellow Pages window decals are part 'n parcel of running a small business.

But these days there are other ways to get your business in front of an audience.

And one of the most popular at the moment is Facebook.

My wife's business Sybilla has had great success with Facebook.

So it comes as no surprise to me to hear that Facebook are introducing window decals like the one above.

I suspect they're getting in early before FourSquare really takes off.

Talking of which, how soon before we see Facebook introduce some kind of location based service?

Correcting advertising

You can't beat a good bit of culture jamming. And the recent election in the UK saw a great example.

A very official looking Department of Advertising Correction van made its way around London giving Conservative Party posters a makeover.

Pictured below is a particularly nice example. Way better than your average political party ad don't you think?

Apple v Adobe

Looks like the Apple versus Adobe stoush has now shifted up a gear.

Twitter to the rescue

Great bit of Twitter toilet humour from Japan.

Seems a man was using the public facilities at a large camera store in Tokyo.

When he reached for the toilet paper he came up empty handed.

Major problem I'm sure you'd agree.

So he posted about his predicament on Twitter.

That's his tweet above.

Amazingly somebody saw it and slipped him a roll of toilet paper under the door.

Classic!

And who said social media was a waste of time?

Agencies as brands

If an agency is big in digital. Really big. And they proudly proclaim their expertise in social media, where and how do they find new staff?

Is their reputation such that they have no need to advertise because everyone’s heard of them and people are desperate to work there?

Or does their prowess in social media ensure that every employee knows someone who knows someone who would be perfect for an upcoming position?

I’d have thought both of those options would apply. But maybe not.

Today I saw a full page ad in an ad industry trade mag for a well known digital agency advertising a number of positions.

Which obviously means they’re doing well. Which is great.

But I can’t ever remember seeing large scale job ads by the likes of Saatchis, BMF or DDB.

Why? Because the big names of adland are also big brands. Brands that people aspire to be a part of.

Personally I’m not so sure this applies to the big digital agencies.

Which may be why one of the biggest and best in the country is running full page staff wanted press ads.

Extra dimension Playboy

3D appears to be something of a flavour of the month at the moment.

The JayJays website has been much talked about. As have the newly launched 3D tv sets.

Now Playboy magazine has done a 3D feature.

Can't believe they haven't thought of doing this before.

Actually they probably have.

Although I'm not sure how much better the articles will look in 3D.

Spaced invader

Might have to get me one of these handsome Space Invader ties for the upcoming MADC Award Night. You can order yours here.

Adjustable modesty

File this one under "only in America".

Around the Blogosphere

The latest issue of Marketing magazine has just arrived at good newsagents across Australia. As usual there is plenty to read including my Around the Blogosphere column. Talking of which I hast just uploaded my last column to my dedicated Around the Blogosphere blog. Click here to go take a look. And be sure to share your thoughts via the comments.

Must try harder

Call me a cynic, but I reckon that if The Furnace was a school student their teacher would write must try harder in their school report.

Word Domaination

Brilliant case study of Domaination for Converse.
Probably best viewed at full screen.

Lots o' Huggin' Bear

I am counting the days till Toy Story 3 is released.

And I have my fingers crossed that it maintains the high standard of the first two films.

Recently I read about a new character that would be appearing in the film. A big pink teddy called Lot's o' Huggin' Bear.

So you can imagine my surprise when a link arrived in my inbox for a TV commercial for the Bear dating back to 1983.

It looks and sounds like it dates from 1983 too.

Except it doesn't.

It is in fact a very clever viral promo piece for the film.

Yet another example of the genius of Pixar.

Director of what?

I've just read that Telstra has appointed Mark Collis as Director of Creativity & Innovation.

A very interesting appointment. But also a confusing one.

For those who don't know, Collis is a very highly regarded advertising creative director, who was a key figure in the original Earth Hour concept.

Telstra as most everyone knows is Australia's biggest telco.

Over at Campaign Brief the comments are running hot. Most of them are advertising related as you would expect.

Which is why I'm confused.

Surely a Director of Creativity & Innovation has more important things to focus on than advertising?

In fact I'd have thought that was the role of the marketing people.

Although Collis will apparently be reporting to the Chief Marketing Officer.

This is the first time (as far as I'm aware) that an Australian company has employed a high profile creative person.

So what role will Mark Collis play at Telstra? I'd love to get your thoughts.

Going cashless

Recently my wife took a stall at a Sunday market to clear some of the excess stock from her store.

In order to accept cards she needed to use an old school credit card machine.

Pretty soon she'll be able to accept payments via her iPhone.

Jack Dorsey one of the founders of Twitter has created mobile payment service Square.

Simply download the Square app from the iTunes Store.

Once you've done that they send you a small swipe reader that you plug into your iPad and soon iPhone.

Then you're pretty much ready to go. Easy!

Guru alert

Observational genius by my man Mr Jetpacks.

A wise man once said