If It’s Pink, I’ll Have It!

The week the GHD pink hair irons came out, we all went ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ over the lovely pink colour; in fact we go ‘ooh’ and ‘aah’ over anything that’s not black and dull so this was novel. Sadly the GHD came with a price tag and we all pretty much own a pair of straighteners in which we have invested a reasonable amount of money anyway but a second one in a cool colour doesn’t sound too bad.

The only problem is most of the Christmas gift idea catalogues came out these days:

And randomly browsing through one, Boots are apparently doing some cheap looking pink straighteners:

 

This is a bit sad in a way because most salons have displayed the GHD ‘Kiss’ irons and if you’re in the least bit interested to get a new pair you’re probably aware but your budget might not match the price. What’s also sad is that those unaware that pink GHDs are out will think this is where it ends if you want a pair of hair irons that isn’t black. And either GHD is selling their product or their product is not helping GHD sales. Not quite sure which.

Technorati Tags: GHD,hair,boots,christmas,pink,hair irons,straightener,shopping,women,girls

What They Teach You…Or Don’t

I’ve just finished reading ‘What They Teach You at Harvard Business School‘ which is a book that doesn’t seem to have a purpose really. I can’t spoil it either because there’s no grand secret you learn from it to make up for the fact that you weren’t rich or smart enough to go there but if you see it in a library read the author’s intro. If that doesn’t put you off then it must be that it’s intriguing you somehow.

Yes, the book title sounds like some ‘How to’ kind of book but really it’s not. I just have a magnet for books that sound like they’re trash because it makes me wonder why people read them. And what they could learn from them.

But there’s something about the intro and there’s this bit where the author says he read a guide written by current (or were they former?) students. It contained advice on what HBS is, what it is not, what you should expect, what to bring with you during your stay and one of the things it did mention was ‘don’t bring that musical instrument you always wanted to pick up again’ with no explanation whatsoever as to why not. Whereas most universities here encourage you to pick up from where you left, it’s not the case at HBS but what it does seem to me after reading that is most graduates have a very, very different mindset. It’s just business. Nothing else. For every hour you spend in university it’s not about another extra one or two hours spent reflecting and doing individual study. It’s more like three or four. And a job. 

I bet they’d love the Economist pizza boxes though:

Because pie charts have always looked like, well, pies and pizza I suppose.

Crunched

If you feel credit crunched and going through a recession is finding your favourite place half empty at peak hours then most likely you’ll notice everyone’s gone for the winning ‘things you can do at home‘ approach. B&Q stocks heaps of paint buckets in case you ever want to redo that living room which has proven to be the source of your dissatisfaction and the irritable home syndrome. Tesco is now the UK’s biggest discounter while The Guardian won’t settle for parmesan from Lidl.

In the meanwhile, I’m happy with the ice cream sleeve and music in my headphones as other irritated people keep doing my head in with small, stupid stuff. Apparently the lipstick theory returns too. Is it surprising that women buy and use more lipstick when they don’t have money for other things?

Do they also eat more ice cream at home?

Monkey and Grandma Proof

Here’s something that’s a bit of a dilemma to me: what do you call something that’s been done and done so many times before yet people never seem to get bored of it, in fact some discover it so late they think it’s brand new and interesting? And no, it’s not a bloody lolcat, it’s the ‘monkey test’:

First a very old one, from 1970:

Then a more recent ‘making of’ one for Panasonic Toughbooks:

And then because the monkeys probably seemed too condescending, you put your laptop to the test with grandma:

 

I’m not sure which one’s the worst out of the three.

APG Romania Gets Going

It’s really, really exciting that APG Romania is voting for its new chairman (a tie between Stefan Stroe [ro], whom I met while at Leo Burnett but now with Grey and Stefan Chiritescu of BBDO) and that they’ve started thinking of creating high quality content in the style of APG UK (or elsewhere) due to an initiative from Elena (behind Planner’s Eye blog on planning.ro which I can’t seem to access through any browser). It’s a shame that there are no worthwhile projects or documents translated or even adapted in Romanian. Not even ‘What is Planning’ which was edited this year on the occasion of planning’s 40th anniversary.

It’s also a bit of a paradox, I think no one really has time to write anything about it while they’re busy with actual day-to-day work (Jeremy Bullmore wrote three times as much content when he stopped working in advertising to start with) but there’s a serious lack of resources that planners could use and not enough motivation to create new content. Depending on whom they elect, I have this feeling that from this month onward, APG Romania will be in good, caring hands.

That Wispa Thing

It’s a shame that I didn’t get to take any photos of this but around the city centre, almost every bus stop has a Wispa ad on it. Wispa was the controversial chocolate bar from Cadbury’s that made an exit stage left five years ago only to be brought back by a Facebook group. According to them, if the internet was right and people do want Wispa back, they will reintroduce it permanently.

What I don’t find amusing is that I did see Wispa bars in WH Smith at least one month before the actual re-launch. In fact I remember seeing them in August, which is worrying. What’s great about it is that before they even put up the ads (the launch should have been in the first week of October), the Wispa and Double Decker shelves were always empty by the end of the day.

And it’s great that the internet did most of the job for them. The outdoors are all text in Wispa font on a purple background and read ‘Don’t hold me to it, but I heard that Wispa is coming back’. Great, huh? or ‘Ross told Julie, who told Sarah, who told me…apparently they’re bringing Wispa back.’ (Approximate quotes)

Thinking about all those people who have never heard of the Facebook group (although very unlikely after news coverage), I’d be like a fat kid who just received candy (um) thinking that it could have been the Double Decker instead of the Wispa. Yikes.

Very, very nice.

A Couple O’ Weeks In

 

1. First and foremost people have started taking things more seriously as grades count towards the final degree.
2. We were asked to do a rough sketch of what our dissertation will be about. I’m doing mine on transmedia planning so I will most likely be bugging a lot of people about this in the future. Yeah, what a surprise, I know.
3. We’re also doing something called direct marketing which isn’t exactly new or a subject that woos me in particular but somehow I find it utterly fascinating.
4. We’re also doing market research, my dad would be very proud of me especially since he works for a group that claims ‘nobody’s unpredictable‘. We always argue that people are predictably irrational. That sounds better to me.
5. We do have two practical things to do, one to come up with some direction and creative executions for Cadbury Flake and the second to devise a brand extension strategy for a product of choice. Needless to say I make things more complicated than they are. But so far so good.

Very busy and liking it a lot.

School After School

I’d start this post by saying that as you grow old you grow wiser unless you’re me and keep repeating the same mistakes but only now I realise that slowing down was a good thing. Slowing down from the rhythm I had a few years ago when I’d wake up at 5, be in school at 7 and then made a run for it to get to work till about 8 in the evening. I think it was great, it taught me how to actually focus on what I’m doing in order to get the most out of it and even appreciate my spare time.

Before work actually happened, the best thing that ever took place was called ‘Leo Academy‘. It was Leo Burnett’s initiative to prepare ‘young guns‘ for working in advertising by teaching them the relevant things that concerned the industry. This happened because of two big reasons:

• There were no dedicated university courses on the subject of advertising or anything remotely related to real-life situations.
• Even though it is commonly known that you don’t need advertising studies to be creative or have great ideas, not having a clue about it implies that the agency has to train you one way or another.

It’s something they did because there was an obvious lack of prepared people joining the industry and standards should have been on the rise. Long story short, the first graduates got jobs in either Leo Burnett or McCann Erickson and other agencies. That includes people like Sergiu whom Andrew might remember as he was interviewed by him on planning stuff a while ago.

Shortly after a lot of other seminars and mentorship schemes started, including things like ‘The Road to Golden Drum‘ by BBDO Romania and McCann’s Creative Mentorship. When all that happens within a timeframe of two years, you know things are quite serious and there’s an obvious lack of polished and refined talent. I’d say most weren’t trained to face the business environment and somehow university degrees suffered from the same problem that put everyone off in my first year. We’re doing these essays but why are we doing them?

The one month Leo Academy thing was a one-month crash course in advertising. A bit like giving someone a parachute and giving them a kick out of the plane. It’s dead hard to fit project management, direct marketing, principles of marketing, media planning, A/V seminars, account planning and many other things in just a month. We weren’t that bad either, ended up second best team with shit creative output but decent strategy.

 

Looking back on things now, it was a really well spent month, that one. Only now in university we’re studying the things we were taught then by people who worked in the industry seven days a week, 365 days a year. And it was good. I miss that. But we’re finally picking up on stuff now.

‘Mad Men’ Is Still On Air

…at least they can say stuff like:

“Advertising is based on one thing – happiness. And you know what happiness is? It’s the smell of a new car, a bilboard on the side of the road that screams with reassurance.”

How to be Stupid

1. Purchase a bus pass worth £170.
2. Attach student card to the same slip.
3. Not listen when you’re told not to keep said bus pass in your coat pocket.
4. Inevitably lose bus pass on the way home, from the same pocket that made three credit cards go ‘missing’.
5. Panic, wonder what to do.
6. Call Stagecoach on day one after loss to see if anyone reported it to a bus driver. ‘Too early to tell.’
7. Call Stagecoach on day two, repeat procedure. No luck.
8. Go to the police station to report it lost. Police officer sends you back to get the receipt. 
9. Come home and trash the kitchen trying to get some food, grab receipt, run back.
10. Go back in, show lady receipt, wait as she enters data into computer, comes back and declares the internet isn’t working in the police station.
11. Go home research branch address, make a run for it.
12. Go to 24/7 branch which looks like the off-licence shop in a student area, full of people whining and everything. Be sent back because their intranet or something isn’t working either but they’re trying to fix it. Except their 3rd party ‘fixing guys’ don’t work 24/7 like them. Shame! (Did I mention how hard it was raining in Manchester at this point?)
13. Return next day to find someone else, repeat whole story, strain memory to remember when and how it all happened.
14. Get a crime reference number.
15. Run to university to get a replacement student card.
16. Run to Stagecoach depot in Manchester, look for head office, pay £25, get replacement bus pass.
17. Great success.

Now I’m going to kill myself if someone found my old one by accident. And this time I’ll write a note and put it in the blue slip saying I’m offering cake and tea if they return it.