In My Atmosphere

Blink.

noreply@blogger.com (Age) — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 01:45:00 +0000

People say that before you die, your life flashes before your eyes. If that's true, I want mine to look and feel exactly like this...

Effective.

noreply@blogger.com (Age) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:19:00 +0000

I came across this PSA on Conrad Lisco's blog - he's a smart and general cool dude I had the pleasure of hanging with briefly in NYC who posts a lot of interesting stuff. The TVC is part of a campaign to "delete" cyberbullying. I find this really interesting because this issue really a "new age" kinda problem, and maybe (?) the first time it's being dealt with seriously by Gov.

It's a great spot that I think is really effective; especially because it gives a good amount of time to communicating the MESSAGE at the end not just setting up a scenario like most TVC's cheaply do these days. I like it. I wonder how long before we have something similar in Australia?

Also check out... http://www.cyberbullying.us/research.php

Teh Radness #012

noreply@blogger.com (Age) — Wed, 04 Nov 2009 23:06:00 +0000

Thanks to everyone for some great links. Download here, the archive here.

Teh Radness #012

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Niko Bellic presents "Icarus"

noreply@blogger.com (Age) — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 07:22:00 +0000

One of the BEST user generated videos I've seen from GTAIV - let alone ANY game. It's amazing how great this title was and continues to be.

The Scariest Thing Is Doing Nothing

noreply@blogger.com (Age) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 23:54:00 +0000

Happy Halloween USA'ers...

November New Yorker

noreply@blogger.com (Age) — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 01:05:00 +0000

I love this... something true and something sad. Innocent kids and parents dealing with shit.

(click for the hi res version)

The Perfect Gift For A Man

noreply@blogger.com (Age) — Wed, 28 Oct 2009 03:11:00 +0000

A while back during #manweek, I wrote a post about my papa and what he went through on his journey to Australia from Italy and how this played a role in teaching me what it means to be a man in today's society.

Being part of a blogosphere of people sharing our feelings during #manweek was quite a liberating and rewarding experience. Quite a few people have told me in the past that I have a skill for being able to write with emotion... but I will admit that particular post was one of the hardest I've ever written for this blog. I don't know why exactly... but I do know I rewrote it about a hundred times. Maybe I just wanted to make sure it was right; that it said exactly what I wanted it to say. I'm still not sure it does, but I'm glad I went through the experience nonetheless.

With that, I'm super honored to have been able to submit the piece for Gavin Heaton (@servantofchaos) and Mark Pollard's (@markpollard) book The Perfect Gift For A Man - 30 Stories about Reinventing Manhood which launches today.

The book aims to get men talking about their feelings in a bid to help prevent male suicide in Australia. The book itself is available for sale via the Blurb Bookstore with all profits going to the Inspire Foundation, a national non-profit that delivers online programs that prevent youth suicide and improve young people's mental health and wellbeing.

It would be great if you just spent some time checking it out.

Thanks to Gavin and Mark for the opportunity :)

More Fail From Jordan Brand

noreply@blogger.com (Age) — Tue, 27 Oct 2009 22:07:00 +0000

There is a definitely a theme running through a lot of my favorite work from Jordan Brand...

Try.
Get bruised.
Beaten up.
Beaten.
At least you tried.
Use that pain to motivate you.
Try again.
Stronger.
Win.
Become legendary.

MJ's own speech for his induction into the NBA Hall Of Fame was drenched with this kind of attitude. Some people called it arrogant... those that know the man and his game know it's closer to 'drive'.

Here is the new Jordan Brand campaign... "Slap"

Too Much Blood, More Bandage

noreply@blogger.com (Age) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 04:03:00 +0000

Spot on.

Check Your Order!

noreply@blogger.com (Age) — Thu, 22 Oct 2009 05:37:00 +0000

Dude @BK4D threw this my way whilst we were stuffing around on Google Wave. Un-fucking-believable!

(click for detail)

Wow.

noreply@blogger.com (Age) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 06:04:00 +0000

I dunno what to make of this short film directed by Spike Jonze featuring Kanye West. What I do know is that I love it... mainly because for all his flaws, no other music artist these days is doing shit like this ever. EVER. Guy is mad original.

Apparently it was filmed over a year ago. Life imitating art??

Teh Radness #011

noreply@blogger.com (Age) — Sun, 18 Oct 2009 22:17:00 +0000

You know the deal. Download here, past editions here.
Enjoy!

Teh Radness #011

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Tribute

noreply@blogger.com (Age) — Tue, 13 Oct 2009 01:16:00 +0000

How to do a Michael Jackson tribute...

How NOT to do a Michael Jackson tribute...

Story Telling

noreply@blogger.com (Age) — Mon, 12 Oct 2009 00:29:00 +0000

Writing briefs, I'm always conscious of trying to wrap up the client business problems and objectives into an engaging story for the creatives to work from. I think this commercial for Canal+ tells a fantastic one really well...

Violence Being Beautiful

noreply@blogger.com (Age) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 23:37:00 +0000

A million frames per second... mesmerizing footage of bullet impacts.

Truth,

noreply@blogger.com (Age) — Fri, 09 Oct 2009 02:47:00 +0000

I def laughed at this... so true...

Lenny Kravitz x Justice "Let Love Rule"

noreply@blogger.com (Age) — Wed, 07 Oct 2009 03:10:00 +0000

The song itself is pretty average but the clip is quirky nice...

Apologies for the vid being oversize... This embed wont let me readjust. BTW, a big FUCK YOU STUPID IDIOTS to the record companies that don't allow embedding of YouTube videos. That is beyond retarded... who'd of thought allowing your product to be mobile online for viral promotion would be a bad thing? FAIL.

Vintage Jordan

noreply@blogger.com (Age) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 02:33:00 +0000

Pre-NBA footage of MJ destroying some poor Italian team...
Wait for the monster dunk at the end!!

Teh Radness #010

noreply@blogger.com (Age) — Fri, 02 Oct 2009 06:03:00 +0000

Yeah it's been a while, I've been busy.

But here is some gold. Download here for the linkages or go here for past editions.

Teh Radness #010

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Have a rad weekend...

What Are Your Kids Learning At School?

noreply@blogger.com (Age) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 22:59:00 +0000

For anyone that read and scoffed at my post proclaiming the Black Eyed Peas to be evil; for those that doubted that their brand of utterly shit music wouldn't have a negative freakonomics style effect on society; comes this shocking development.

It appears that the BEP are going for some sort of cradle to grave strategy where they infect younger, more curious and malleable minds to drive meme style promotion of their crap music onto the rest of society. It is my theory that this viral feeding will allow the BEP to cross over all generations by tapping into the needs of desperate TV marketing execs and parents who worry about "staying connected".

Let me present a YouTube video featuring a whole cast of lost souls that demonstrate how this memic spread can occur...

Good effort in coordinating it, but that's where it ends. Soon, mainstream media outlets get a hold of this video and create content such as...

This song promotes such an epic level of lameness that even the douche-bags on (no-cred) CNN dig it!

Reporter With No Real Story: "Plus you gotta love a song that says mazal tov in it!"
Black Anchor Man: "I do."

The real danger here is aforementioned "older people" seeing this clip and feeling all fuzzy about a song that brings the youth together like this in a non-threatening or confronting way. Thus, ignoring the utter shitness of the song itself, the audience only registers the lasting effect of the song as a positive one.

See how this works? TV execs will identify the song as "hot" and start inserting it into promos, tv shows, slow motion replays... that's how it starts people, that's how it ends.

This kind of gentle manipulation is disturbing and must be stopped.

If my kid ever came home all excited and shit about this "project" they'd been working on around campus and then showed me this... I would instantly un-enroll and relocate them. For their own good. Stay vigilant people... BEP are after the children.

I <3 YouTube

noreply@blogger.com (Age) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:35:00 +0000

Billions of hits in under 4 minutes...

Gaming Status Updates

noreply@blogger.com (Age) — Wed, 30 Sep 2009 00:04:00 +0000

Gold courtesy of Ben Dux and Teh Rabies...

Even My Toast Has To "Move With The Times"

noreply@blogger.com (Age) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 07:50:00 +0000

The Hitler meme never fails to amuse...

PS. Nutella for the massive win anyways all day everyday. As my good friend Ben Dux would say... Nutella "tastes like fucking VICTORY!"

Jay-Z x JM x NYC

noreply@blogger.com (Age) — Mon, 28 Sep 2009 05:49:00 +0000

FML for missing this show on the Friday night I was in New York. No idea JM would make a surprise appearance and rock a full Jay medley including this blistering performance of D.O.A...

Two of my fav artists... Fail, Age :(

ICON FAIL

noreply@blogger.com (Age) — Sun, 27 Sep 2009 23:16:00 +0000

THE MOST ICONIC of Australian brands (that I lovingly refer to as "Satan's Semen") goes out with a much hyped product extension and calls for the Australian public to help name the new version. Not the most original idea, but it's fucking Vegemite and I appreciate the cultural importance of this moment.

Here's the campaign idea ad...

Yep, all good. Then, during the biggest sporting event of the year, they launch this...

Forget the client - my last post illustrated that you shouldn't always listen to them - but honestly, no one at the agency could see how bad this was? Anyone???

"The move is a bid by the food conglomerate to align the new product with a younger market -- and the "cool" credentials of Apple's iPod and iPhone."

Fuck me. Someone needs to tell Kraft they make wholesome family food. They are not Apple or Nike or American Apparel or freakin' Aston Martin or ANYTHING "cool" for that matter. They make spread. For toast. Spread.

Now I've been seeing and hearing a lot of people take the piss out of this new name, but then some so called media "experts" arguing that at least people are talking about it and the PR coverage (regardless of whether it's good or bad) should be seen as a win for the client. I think that is such a lazy attitude to have.

I hope the people responsible for this had the same experience as I did when iSnack 2.0 polluted the screen during the Grand Final on Saturday. I was at a pub, packed to the rafters with an energized crowd really getting into the excitement of a close game. When the ad came on, sure we were a captive audience, but the reaction was not one of "I might try that" over "WTF is that shit, are they serious?!" *cue laughing and embarrassment*

Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I thought one of the main goals for launching a new product would be to create desire, not ridicule. Just me, just how I would of gone about it. So for the idiots proclaiming the "any reaction is a good reaction" angle, just think that maybe Kraft might of really missed a golden opportunity to create something special here. All they've done is made their job harder because now the task isn't launching, it's trying to convince people to get over the stupid name.

Damn, JWT Melbourne has more to answer for than I thought...