Stoopid, Stoopid, Stoopid.
Did you know that at a developers forum last night, somewhere in London, the presenter actualy publicaly admitted how his agency ripped off clients. How stoopid is that?! No wonder our industry gets a bad reputation.
Filed by sam.brownfield on August 7th, 2008 under Rant or Rave? | Comment now »
Fancy a Huggy?
Just noticed on the venerable www.e-consultancy.com that in their, admitedly very old, story on FMCG brands online http://www.e-consultancy.com/forum/503-fmcg-brands-online.html where they reference the Huggies site as a good example that the embedded link actualy redirects to huggiesclub-uk.com which is, of course, a porn site. Naughty! Naughty!
Filed by sam.brownfield on May 28th, 2008 under Uncategorized | Comment now »
Dave Trott’s Blog
As with anything that rises from obscurity to mass popularity with indecent haste, blogging has long been cannon fodder for any bored journalist, sage or cynic who’s mission in life is to have a pop at, well, the popular.
As it happens, we don’t do ourselves any favours in the UK. We (including myself) are not good bloggers. We tend to diarise and tell our stories rather than opinionate on others and further the debate. The Internet was conceived as a tool to fuel opinion by adding credence to what was said before. Our British (OK, English) mentality however is to hedge, sit on the fence and scuttle home before it gets dark; heaven forbid ruffling any feathers.
And so it is with great pleasure that, having played a hand in persuading Laurence Percival to saddle up and ride his keyboard that I can now take a teensy-weensy bit of credit for introducing one of the greats of the golden age of advertising to the blogosphere. He is quite possibly still wearing the same black suit as he was back in the day when Creative Directors wore the pants and everyone around them asked how high should they be pulled, but unlike his contemporaries he’s here, he’s online and he’s got something to say. Ladies and gentleman, I give you Dave Trott.
Filed by sam.brownfield on April 5th, 2008 under Rant or Rave? | Comment now »
Always The Last To Know
You know how it is, suddenly people are talking about something or someone as if it has always existed and you feel like the last to know. You miss a couple of issues of Campaign and before you know it you’re living in the hell of a Del Amitri lyric.
In this instance I am referring to new breakaway ad agency Adam & Eve. In two consecutive meetings I attend they are referred to with a familiarity that sends me hot-foot to the Internet to find what all the fuss is all about. There’s plenty of press on these guys, but I swear I have never taken so long to track down a website.
Unfortunately these iconoclasts have chosen a name with such search engine resonance that they may never make it to page ten of Google. Ok, I’m guilty of doing exactly the same, but they are up against sex toy sites, dating sites, a whole host of Jewish community sites and of course the story about how the world began. Or was it right and wrong? Or was it why women are to blame for everything? Whatever, they’ve picked a mighty hard task for themselves. And as for the site when I eventually found it…….in one of the meetings I was in someone tried to tell me that the site was simplicity itself; a statement of cockiness and confidence. No. It’s a holding page with a logo on it. They haven’t got around to building their site yet they’ve been so busy winning business.
Well here it is folks. Adam and Eve. Good luck guys!
Filed by sam.brownfield on March 28th, 2008 under Rant or Rave? | Comment now »
Say It With Sticky Tulips
I found myself reading the Guardian again today (over someone else’s shoulder of course). Why am I so rude about The Guardian? It has by far the best tech/internet gubbins. Anyway, I saw an article and here it is: internet blackout - millions across Asia & the Middle East have been left without Internet access because of a fault with an undersea cable. I was only explaining yesterday to someone how the Internet is like mercury and will find it’s way around a fault, but maybe it’s not as bomb proof as I previously thought. And this on the day that HMRC tax return site buckled and broke under the weight of users. What a shame. Having just seen Die Hard 4 (atta-boy Brucey) maybe cyber-terrorism is gonna happen. Judging by the way people in the above story felt “cut-off” from the world maybe the effects on an Internet strike would indeed be catastrophic. Imagine all those unanswered Facebook pokes!
On a similar note I’ve got to get around to writing a piece about Big Brother & The Internet, following the Facebook debate below, but I have a cold and no energy so it will have to wait. If you want to send me flowers to make me better (and I assure you I didn’t see this segway coming) try The Camaign For Real Floristry - it’s a hoot.
Filed by sam.brownfield on January 31st, 2008 under Rant or Rave? | Comment now »
That was the week that was….
Just to sign-off the week in which I returned from an extended tour of the worlds nether regions, a few notices:
Firstly, welcome to the Blognascenti Laurence Percival - great to see you on board and blabbing on with the rest of us. Thanks to my new friend Seb in Hamburg who says my comments on Facebook (below) are “less” than progressive. TeeHee! And finaly a big thank you to the great British public. Apparently the first pimple has appeared on Tesco’s perfect skin; in 2007 we spent more online (£46.6bn) than we did with Tesco. A small victory, but a fissure in their veneer nevertheless. Perhaps this year they will launch a search engine - Toogle?
Filed by sam.brownfield on January 18th, 2008 under Rant or Rave? | 1 Comment »
Two Faced Book
Cocooned on the Eurostar the other day I was left with no option but to count sheep at 189mph or read a discarded copy of The Guardian. When my eyes eventually started to bleed I picked up the newspaper and came across Tom Hodgkinson’s article on why he despises Facebook, or more to the point, why he hates the “neocons” that are behind it.
His argument against Facebook, itself is that it detaches us from face to face social interaction. “What’s wrong with the pub?” he chimes. And in that he has half a point as there is genuine concern that we are breeding a generation of pallid-faced, socially inept, introspective teenagers who can’t make it out of their bedrooms. That said, since bedrooms replaced communal cave-dwelling, pallid-faced, socially inept, introspective teenagers have been synonymous with the firmly closed bedroom door. Nothing new there then. At least Facebook, may keep them briefly from sniffing lighter fluid.
Hodkinsons other oft-repeated moan is that “It simply mediates in relationships that were happening anyway” which, of course, is so off course, it is to run his ship into the rocks directly beneath the lighthouse. Facebooks genius is the re-connections it makes. The digging up of blasts from the past. Some welcome, some unwelcome and some down-right life threatening. I personally have made many re-acquaintances that have brought me great pleasure, amusement and new business and haven’t yet caused me to get divorced.
But really what Hodgkinson wants to have a go at is neocons, the USA, the CIA and Big Brother – the Orwellian version not Endemol. He hates the fact that a few very rich individuals are getting very, very richer through creating the platform upon which the bacteria of a real Big Brother can feed and multiply. Valid concerns indeed, but the Internet is a catalyst not the cause of the inevitable slide into bigger and more intrusive databases. It was going to happen anyway. While inevitability is not an excuse for complacency, sitting in a smoke free pub with the same people who you sat there last week with isn’t going to further anything. So Tom, get in the game or get out of the kitchen. You can be my Facebook, “friend” anytime.
Filed by sam.brownfield on January 16th, 2008 under Rant or Rave? | 1 Comment »
Keep On Keepin’ On
2008. In my childhood that was a year of science fiction. Now it is upon us and though the Martians may not land in the car park it will definitely be another year of pushing back the boundaries and fun, fun, fun in the world of the Internet.
The figures for Christmas 2007 online sales will be published shortly. They will inevitably have smashed every prediction and run into the squillions. There will be complaints about deliveries being missed and presents not being there for Christmas Eve, but that is something only Santa will ever get right.
The Golden Child, or was it the Golden Egg of 2007, Facebook, has allegedly plateaued, but I’m not so sure. In South Africa the under-16’s are successfully using it to protest against government legislation banning them from public displays of affection (kissing). And now that is has opened up its profiles to search engine indexing its boundaries are limitless. Is it over valued? I don’t think so.
That said advertising revenues will not keep every internet dreamer alive this year and there may be some causalities. But that’s life. Ogilvy are laying off staff due to the change in the nature of advertising. The great digital switchover continues unabated!
Bill Gates is hanging up his mouse and he and all the other people with a vested interest are predicting this to be the year of the device. Internet technology is going to permeate every device, appliance and runaway dog and child that can be held down long enough to have an implant.
Meanwhile, the assault on Google’s dominance will continue with the development of vertical search, contextual search, humanised search, Uncle Tom Cobbly search. And as ever Google will swat or consume away any irritants like a US aircraft carrier steaming through a dinghy race.
So, it don’t look like the sun is going to set on us yet. Back to work…..
Filed by sam.brownfield on January 9th, 2008 under Rant or Rave? | Comment now »
Internet Romp
To paraphrase Lennon and McCartney – “I think I’m (turning) sad, I think it’s today – yeah!”
The book I’ve just finished “SEARCH” by John Battelle has had me gripped like a Jackie Collins page-turner. “Read this on the beach and you’ll be there when the sun goes down,” I can hear the reviewers hollering.
Even more out of date than my last read - David Verklin’s “Watch This, Listen Up, Click Here” the prospect of the next instalment of SEARCH had me looking forward to bedtime like a newlywed.
My wife is close to despair and is looking for counselling groups entitled “The man I married has turned into a geek.” Soon we shall be battling it out on the Jeremy Kyle show as my thirst for behind the scenes digital romps and ripping Internet yarns is laid bare at the foot of our marriage while she yearns for another baby and a return to normality.
The book was first published in 2005 and an afterward added in June 2006. Sadly, reading it in 2007 knowing what one knows now and what John Batelle didn’t (markedly Google buying YouTube and DoubleClick) makes it a bit like reading a history of the Second World War with Stalingrad and Pearl Harbour omitted. Nevertheless, he caveats all the way through with “by the time you read this [insert topic] will probably have happened.”
Working in an industry where reading books on your own subject are perennially out of date is a problem. Or is it? Maybe I should use the Internet.
Filed by sam.brownfield on October 8th, 2007 under Book Reviews | Comment now »
The Internet - Defined
This is from Rebecca Blood’s book: Practical Advice on Creating and Maintaining Your Weblog. If you ever have to nail the essence of the Internet you won’t get much better than this:
“The terrible irony is that the more information is available, the less possible it is to know everything about even one subject. Because there is always more to know, it is increasingly difficult to feel that one knows even enough.”
Perfect!
