Coke says “Hello” to Pepsi on Twitter. A brand first?

UPDATE: An historic moment in branding?
As a result of the twitter experiment below Coke said HELLO to Pepsi via Twitter (and started following them too). [Update] Pepsi responds in kind. All within 18 hours.
  http://twitter.com/CocaCola/statuses/2413906945

 

Pepsi replies:
http://twitter.com/pepsi/statuses/2423584043

Pepsi Canada joins in:
http://twitter.com/PepsiCanada/statuses/2423730800

And just like that, the world feels like a slightly better place.
Ahh maybe Twitter really is more than just “what I ate for breakfast.”

Thank you Coke and Pepsi for being good sports

What happened:
- We started the experiment at about 9.42am July 1 in Twitter (Original Tweet here)

- There were a significant number of RTs
- Coca-Cola responded less than 3 hours later with the tweet above.

Currently Pepsi have not replied or followed back… but we’re watching

The Original Experiment/Post:
Oh we all know Coke and Pepsi are age old bitter rivals but this is a new age of SOCIAL and we want to see something change between these arch enemies – even if it is just courtesy. Currently they are both on Twitter but at time of writing neither follows the other (http://www.doesfollow.com/cocacola/pepsi) or (http://www.doesfollow.com/pepsi/cocacola).

Join the fun: Let Coke and Pepsi know what you want: ReTweet this now!

Coke and Pespi Twitter accounts… why not end the cola wars and follow each other?
It would be like a public hug. (…Then you can go back to being rivals). So who’s first?

www.twitter.com/pepsi

www.twitter.com/cocacola

Well we want to see it happen… we’ll be watching…!
C’mon show us you have a sense of humour and do the follow!

Oh… The Re-tweets will keep coming at you until you do

 

UPDATED Following situation:

Post by:
-@eunmac

A Celebration of the Gaming Awesomeness of the 1990s

I’ve been into games since… oh, I don’t know. The early to mid-eighties and let me tell you kids that you don’t know what good games are about.

The 80s. Oh, the 80s. That was where it all started, but the 90s. Well, that was the era that took games out of the arcades and into gamers’ home. Back in our day, we only HAD 256 colours on the screen and we loved every one of them, let me tell you.

So many amazing games in one decade. Doom, Quake, Monkey Island, System Shock, Syndicate, Tomb Raider, MechWarrior…. ok, don’t get me started.

Gaming site Big Download have been celebrating the Gaming Awesomeness of the 90s with a set of galleries, focusing on two years at a time designed to make grumpy old gamer dudes like me get a bit misty.

Check ‘em out.

We Love The 90s (for PC Games):

1990-1991 | 1992-1993 | 1994-1995 | 1996-1997 | 1998-1999 | Wrap up

Who is Fake Stephen Conroy? Full list of Suspects.

This week the “REAL” Politician, Senator Stephen Conroy acknowledged the “FAKE” Stephen Conroy (http://twitter.com/stephenconroy) via (article on SMH) as “healthy satire” so we thought we would start the cheeky hunt for the person behind the mask. We don’t really want the person ‘outed’ per se as it’s much more fun not knowing, but below is the list of 25 suspects to date:

Name: Fake Stephen Conroy Location: Canberra Bio: I’m a 45 year old politician who’ll do anything to please you, baby. Don’t worry girl, I gots “protection”, and it’ll degrade my performance all night

Firstly, let us pay homage to the Fake Stephen (FSC). He’s actually pretty funny, satirical and most agree that the character is very well written. So… who’s doing the writing? We suspect it’s someone who’s already active on Twitter already – ie; they have two accounts running. At time of posting FSC is only following 69 people so we suspect that the guilty person may be linked to many of these in some way. We trawled various stats, engines and monitored conversations as well as looking through the #nocleanfeed list to come up with the following suspects… 

Update : Although we did discover the real identity of Fake Stephen Conroy during the compilation of the list, we did not include him in there. Unfortunatley the attention appears to have forced his hand  and in fact FSC outed himself a few days ago as Leslie Nasser from Telstra (http://www.linkedin.com/in/leslienassar)

The Suspects behind FST (Fake Stephen Conroy):

	Suspect	Modus Operandi	Suspect Rating
1		DuncanRiley Tipsters think that Duncan is a hot candidate for FSC. That cheeky smile which looks almost identical to FSC’s may hold the key.	9/10
2		Warlach A serious suspect, Warlach has been around long enough to know the tricks. Known to have created fake twitter accts in the past. Is FSC his creation?	9/10
3		FullTimeCasual A new entry on the list but a red hot suspect. His suspicious lack of a photo in his twitter avatar may mean he can slip into the darkness easily if found guilty.	9/10
4		DHughesy We have been informed that this infamous Aussie comedian may be practicing using FSC for some cool new comedy about Twitter. We suspect FSC’s words are too big for Hughsey, but he still makes the list.	8/10
5		BarrySaunders Normally gets highly involved in twitter conversations but not with FSC. Makes him look like a real suspect in this case.	8/10
6		Servantofchaos Respected blogger and Tweeter, possesses a similar sense of humour to FSC. A prime suspect.	8/10
7		TrevorYoung FSC insiders say suspect is based in Melbourne. Trevor Young’s writing skills certainly fit the bill as a PR WARRIOR…	8/10
8		Mspecht Definite candidate for the job and big nocleanfeed enthusiast. No twitter history with FSC makes him a suspect.	7/10
9		Turnbullmalcolm What better way to oust the current government than being the mastermind of the FSC twitter account? Must be a suspect.	8/10
10		Wolfcat Should have been in the list earlier – has been active on Twitter for a while and knows the tricks.	8/10
-		cameronreilly Top 5 Tweeters according to Grader.com, long history in the interwebs and definitely would have no fear of being FSC.	8/10
-		JonoH First person who FSC followed. Must be a prime suspect.	8/10
-		Jimboot One of the more active people in ‘nocleanfeed’ a hot tip to be FSC.	7/10
		renailemay The only published interview with FSC was conducted by the Editor of ZDNet.com.au. This makes him an instant suspect. Is this man the Peter Parker of Twitter? Hmm…	7/10
-		Silkcharm She has her mitts in everything else social so makes the list by default. Very few msgs to FSC makes her a prime suspect.	7/10
-		Jimboot One of the more active people in ‘nocleanfeed’ a hot tip to be FSC.	7/10
-		Trib With a mass of followers and outspoken character, he’s conveniently located in Canberra. Is he the real FSC?	7/10
-		Mspecht Definite candidate for the job and big nocleanfeed enthusiast. No twitter history with FSC makes him a suspect.	7/10
-		JJprojects With 3000+ followers, a twitter junkie, nocleanfilter advocate put JJ high on the suspect list.	6/10
-		Nickhodge Microsoft’s local pin up Twitter Star has a dry earthy wit similar to FSC. Talks to FSC a lot, but could this be a cover?	6/10
-		andrew303 Known to have more than one twitter account, is Australia’s most followed person on Twitter the guilty party?	6/10
-		Stephen Conroy (the real one) The perfect double bluff? You see… he’s not on Twitter, …or is he?	6/10
-		Bronwen Describes herself as combatant, maybe FSC is Bronwen’s side project. No contact with FSC to date – is this an alibi or evidence?	6/10
-		Aramadge News.com.au reporter that may see FSC as an interesting side project for a forthcoming story.	5/10
-		Granleese First person to respond to my request for information and leads about FSC. Makes him an instant suspect.	4/10
-		Mpesce One of the last remaining people with a cross on their avatar’s mouth, is this inventor the real inventor FSC?	4/10
-		Mumbrella Journo Tim Burrowes loves controversy so why not create it himself? Perfect motive with timing similar to launch of his mumbrella blog. Did FSC attract a few extra visitors?	4/10
-		Acatinatree Filmmaker. Active, lots of followers. Has a sense of humour. FSC might just be a side project for her…?	4/10
-		markpollard Strategist, highly active in Twitter, His no fear cheeky sense of humour puts him on the list.	3/10
-		KevinRuddPM He doesn’t use his own Twitter account too much – possibly because he’s so busy running the FSC twitter account.	3/10
-		eunmac As the author of this post, this could just be a diversionary tactic. Maybe I am FSC, or maybe not? Hmmm.	3/10
-		OzDJ Came up as the first suspect when I used a Twitter tool to find similar people to FSC.	3/10
-		Eskimo Sparky Husband, Father, Political impersonator? Is an instigator of prior twitter crimes such as Velociroflcoptersaurus.	3/10
-		Stilgherrian Political, outspoken, but would he send so many tweets to FSC?	3/10
-		Likeomg Social Media Advisor at Amnesia and copywriter. Would certainly possess the skills but may be too occupied by other things.	2/10
		JoelyRighteous Has not been posting much recently. Possibly to distracted by his FSC account?	2/10
		Davidlmorris Very quick to dismiss some of the suspects on the list. Is this the real FSC revealing himself inadvertently?	2/10
		LesleyWhite Conveniently “wishing” she was on the list may make her an outside possibility.	2/10
-		Julian Cole He manages to get his name on every other list so may as well stick him in this one just in case he is FSC…	2/10
-		DanWarne Another journalist for the SMH active on Twitter. Pops up on FSC’s follower list too. Is he just interested , or IS IT HIM?	2/10
-		SpellrUs Claims he should be a suspect. Always struck me as being too much of a nice guy, but you then again, those are the ones you have to watch…	2/10
-		ProBlogger Too busy tweeting tips to be a real suspect, but may be a dark horse in the matter.	1/10
		InJoke There is no chance that InJoke is the real FSC, but they felt that it would help them with the ladies if they made the list. OK good luck with that…	0/10

Breaking Update:
Suspects were seen changing their avatars to that of Stephen Conroy’s – presumably to protect their real identity.

 
Above: View in Tweetdeck as some of the accused changed their avatars.

If you are on the list but you strongly wish to deny that you are not fake @stephenconroy post a comment with your full denial and alibi.

If you really are fake @stephenconroy (and not on the list and would like to be, follow @eunmac on Twitter and DM a message. We will keep it a secret.)

Fake Virals, Social Objects and Naked.

Today I presented at the 6th Annual Future of Digital Advertising for the IAB and AIMIA (#foda09 on Twitter). I talked about a few things, shared some insight on what I thought (hopefully) could help the digital industry further itself this year.

The main body of my preso was on the digital consumer and how brands need reconsider their approach, especially when using social as a tool. I discussed social objects – good ones, bad ones, great ones. I talked about Digital Brand DNA- something that Joe Crump our Razrofish NY Creative Director has pioneered with his ‘Digital Darwinism’ presentations.

In the last year I have come to believe strongly that great digital creative usually contains 7 digital brand genes that Joe Crump identified. See his full preso and video from Cannes (here):

- AUTHENTIC
- ADAPTIVE
- RELEVANT
- TRANSFORMATIVE
- FRESH
- IMMERSIVE
- SOCIAL

OK, so what about that Naked / Witchery Viral? (I’ve embedded their YouTube campaign in case you missed it). It’s clearly a bigger story than I realised (the SMH and Naked have both been in touch with me today as a result). The thing is, I like Naked as an Agency  – I like the way they challenge, stand up, break things, and do things that are counter intuitive. I know the guys well and we’ve worked with them many times on probably 6 or more different clients. In fact they’re one of the best agencies in town to collaborate with especially when it comes to their open approach to digital.

So what’s wrong with the above and why bother raising it, especially in a public forum? Well as you may have gathered my problem is not with Naked at all, it is with fake viral in general. In fairness, Naked were one example of a few I showed. QLD Tourism and Nike were both raised. We have a mountain to climb to be accepted (as advertisers and brands) into the new consumer landscape and these social channels are theirs, not ours. I know that consumers genuinely welcome cool clever intelligent advertising – but I cannot see any evidence that they like being deceived routinely. Comments below the videos often do the talking, especially when the deception is revealed.

Fake Viral for Nike feat Taylor Momsen

I’m a big believer in being able to make mistakes in the search for progress (digital is a tough gig, and there are new things we learn every day so mistakes do happen), but why the same mistake over and over? I also can’t understand why the elements of risk associated with generating negative brand sentiment in consumer channels are not better understood. As I tried to point out today, the 2.5m tweets per day, 915,000 blogs per day are heavily indexed by Google and can quickly produce negative organic search results. Let’s face it – search is very important, especially if you are a digital ROI client. Why would any company want to see their first page of Google results polluted with negative blog posts about their brand? The reality is that the social media sword cuts both ways.

Unfortunately the knock on effect is that negative news like the above often impacts other agencies, especially digital ones. I’ve seen brand managers get nervous when they see things like this in the news and subsequently make rapid judgement that the social medium is too volatile and uncontrollable. Budgets get withdrawn. We all start to lose – and that’s where I have a problem, because we know enough about social now to start doing things differently, and do it right.

What’s the solution?
So here’s the thing – Fake Viral is completely possible, and without deception. There have been some great examples from the US. Here’s one from Coors:

Here’s another ad for Coors, deliberately designed to breed consumer imitations (of which there are many). Great use of Social Object Theory:

Rolling Rock ran a hilarious campaign on Moonvertsing (here) which although potentially controversial produced a great digital response. Again completely Fake but with full disclosure from day one. I could go on, but it’s late and I think you get the picture right?

 

In Conclusion:
There are better, bigger, broader opportunities to engage consumers using social media that can still be authentic, mysterious, realistic. Yes it’s a creative challenge but if we can start to get this right there are big wins for consumers, clients and agencies alike. Naked aren’t the first, and won’t be the last to feel the heat on this issue – but they’re a great agency and will rise above it. I do hope that in the future the industry will adopt some of Joe’s 7 digital brand genes, it’s a good place to start.

@eunmac

Australia’s Internet filtering too ambitious, doomed to fail

Ars Technica have written an excellent article attacking the various approaches the Government are considering for implementation of their proposed internet filtering system.

It’s tough being a government these days; who has the energy to clean up the Internet after a hard day’s work bailing out the financial sector? Not the Australian government, it seems. Rather than actually doing something about illegal content, they just make a list of it and tell ISPs to filter everything that’s on the list. Sidestepping the murky political details and—for the moment—the civil liberties problems inherent in this approach, let’s take a closer look at the technical aspects of such a plan.

Read the full article at Ars Technica.

Beautiful data : visualization links and examples

I’ve said in the past that some of the best Creative Directors of tomorrow will be those who also appreciate the usefulness of data and analytics. This may seem to be a contradiction in terms but in a digital world, a creative mind that is able to find meaning in spreadsheets, graphs and data may discover ‘gold’ that can compliment, add to, or even originate new ideas.

Unfortunately creative people are usually visual beasts who thrive on imagery, not numbers. (Ugghh!) It would be nice if we could decode ‘matrix style’ data into meaningful insight that allowed us to see patterns and trends. The good news is that there are tools and people that see data in a different way – I’ve listed some of my favourites below:

Data visualisation examples:

http://www.number27.org/work/maps/index.html

http://www.visualcomplexity.com/vc/

Other resources and examples:

http://marumushi.com/
http://infosthetics.com/
http://www.babynamewizard.com/voyager
http://manyeyes.alphaworks.ibm.com/manyeyes/
http://demo.qlikview.com/
http://www.neoformix.com/Projects/TwitterStreamGraphs/view.php
http://blog.instantcognition.com/
http://radar.oreilly.com/archives/2008/06/citysense-reality-mining-iphone.html
http://www.setpixel.com/
http://www.swivel.com/
http://www.cs.umd.edu/hcil/treemap-history/index.shtml
http://www.issuecrawler.net/

I know there are those who disagree with me on this, and I understand their viewpoint as I am also a huge believer in the expression “Knowledge does not always give you Insight”. Despite the difficulty in adapting to thinking in this new way I have become quite happy spending time in Excel etc and after a few hard years it has become my friend not my enemy.

Iain
(Exec Creative Director, Amnesia Razorfish) – (twitter/eunmac)

Ooyala. Video Killer or just the worst name in web history?

Ooyala. Not the first time we’ve seen a new technology stamped with “built by ex-Google people”, (recently Cuil) but hey we’ll look at anything new when it comes to online video. OK let’s start with the worst bit: What’s with that name? Did they not teach URL strategy at Google? I’ve already forgotten it three times and keep having to look at the top of the page to remind myself. Say it with me… OO YAAAA LA or something like that. Spelling it after a couple of hours at the pub could be very tricky.

Is an adaptive bitrate the golden bullet?

Rant over, is it any good? Now there’s a stack of features on Oothingy’s site to benefit businesses and advertisers. It works with multiple serving platforms and has great analytics. Yes, that will keep a few people pretty happy as we all like more numbers to crunch, but in the recommendation age, the consumer holds a lot more power over the growth of technology platforms.

Let’s face it… every single successful web empire (eg: Facebook, Google, MySpace, YouTube, Flickr) made it there by putting the consumer first. Yes I get that this is more of a B2B offering, but remember that YouTube really killed it by allowing some groundbreaking comsumer features such as easy affiliation which made it the defacto video player for millions. Does Oojimaflip have anything that will significantly benefit the end user or content creator? OK, yes, there is one thing I did really like: the benefit of adaptive bitrate (meaning the video will fine tune itself to the users internet connection) but this is not something average users will notice if they already have a decent connection. The watermarking feature is handy for those wanting to stop their vids being shamelessly ripped. Bottom line, OOjamadoodah’s video player, appears to be a more bandwidth efficient video player with a rather nice analytics engine, but lacking in advanced social media capabilities. Let’s hope they’ll come up with some more front end features soon because the market is probably ready for someone to take the video player experience to another level.

“Help – can someone read what the banner says underneath us? We keep forgetting our own name.”

Ooyala means cradle in Telugu, a Southern Indian language. We like the name because it demonstrates what we are doing — cradling a new form of innovation.

Newsflash – World may end on Wednesday. Internet expected to experience problems as a result.

Today, the CERN atom-smasher / particle accelerator will open for business. This will probably generate a super black hole and destroy the universe (read more here). We’ve looked into this and calculated that doomsday may also have a devastating effect on the Internet.
 

 
Some of our programmers here have raised the flag that if the world is destroyed, this will cause serious problems for most ISPs leading to widespread browser failure. Experts believe that even Google’s new Chrome browser could be affected if the world is sucked into a black hole.

Is Google worried it’s new Chrome Browser might be destroyed by CERN? Google’s homepage logo today suggests that something sucks.

Note: There is a useful test online to detect problems with CERN:
http://hasthelargehadroncolliderdestroyedtheworldyet.com/

So, if you’re worried about the fact that you may not only be killed, but you may also be denied some higher than normal traffic to your Facebook page (quite normal when you die) you may want to go to Switzerland and form a protest group in the few days left before the serious tests begin in a month.

But if that sounds like too much trouble, just watch this video. Maybe the view count will go up and someone will notice that the world is about to end and save it:

The Particle Physics Rap. Yes it’s really bad and proof that Physics is still very very uncool.

Five digital technologies that will change the marketing landscape

Here’s an article I wrote for AdNews last month – it was edited down for publication so here’s the full thing. Uncensored:

We all keep hearing about the pace of change and how much we need to constantly shift our businesses both as agency or client. Sometimes it’s hard to know where to look with so much going on; an ever expanding web and new devices appearing daily in the consumers lounge and pockets … all places we need to harness for marketing success.

 
Batteries… soon to have a 30 year gap between recharging?

One thing’s for sure, it’s going to get more complicated, not less so I thought I would share five of the key technologies that are set to change the digital landscape in a significant way within the next ten years… here’s my TOP 5:

Massaud Airship Hotel Fake : Manned Cloud likely full of hot air.

Fancy flying around he world in 10 days onboard a luxury flying hotel? Well you may have to wait longer than expected. This story has been floating around the web for about 10 months and has made many mags and press, but time seems to be telling that it looks more like a little publicity stunt for architect Massaud (here).

Web Chinese Whispers? Proving again that some web consumers are willing to adopt, believe and blog things that have very little grounding in fact – and then copy and paste madly, there really is very little to suggest this was any more than a ‘concept’ but the web and press have made it look like this project is really happening. I’m happy to be proved wrong, but I’m betting this is a tall story from Massuad that went a little too far…

Early Daily Mail Story here that fueled many blogs (did they really believe this?):
http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-511843/The-flying-hotel-Thunderbird-2-The-700ft-super-airship-gently-float-world.html

Is the NRMA’s carbon footprint campaign making them a profit?

The NRMA has launched a website to members that claims will help reduce their carbon footprint. Whilst the intent is to print less paper annual reports, the catch is they will only donate $25,000  on the condition that they receive 200,000 emails (or 10K for 100,000).

You see, for me the maths don’t stack up. If this many people opted not to receive an Annual Report (which is likely to cost a few dollars per copy in print and postage) then the donation ought to be the ACTUAL money being saved by the NRMA on printing – and it should not be conditional on how many email addresses are being collected.

Bottom line: For your effort and email address they will be donating 12.5 cents per person who opt not to receive the paper annual report. C’mon NRMA. Do you really think people would be signing up to this if they could see the real maths here.

So here’s my rant to the NRMA… Put your hand in your wallet and pass on the REAL savings from this campaign to the environment.

Now add in the metaphoric planting of virtual trees which have nothing to do with planting real trees and we have something that I think is rather misleading.

Unfortunately the takeout from most people I showed this to was that this campaign appears to have nothing to do with saving trees, but saving the NRMA internal costs. Tsk tsk.

http://plantaforest.mynrma.com.au/Default-HR.aspx

Australian Photonic Chip to increase Internet speeds by100’s of times

Here’s a bit of perky news from down under, CUDOS (Centre for Ultra-high-bandwidth Devices for Optical Systems) have developed a new material ‘chalcogenide’ – a type of glass that allows data to  be transmitted at previously impossible speeds by converting light into electricity – essentially a ‘photonic switch’ that is capable (wait for it) …of being implemented into current fibre infrastructure!

Here’ the bit where I get ranty… and shout at the Powers that Be: Australia, Rudd, Telstra- here’s your chance to correct the slowness shown in bringing Australia up to the forefront of digital. Grab this one and move fast! It looks like a golden opportunity

http://www.cudos.org.au/cudos/research/Research.php

http://news.ninemsn.com.au/article.aspx?id=594743

First Review of Nokia Music Store Australia.

Nokia appear to be taking a big bash at the dominance of  iTunes in the local market. With high hopes I tested it out by attempting to download the free single of the week. Unfortunately It didn’t go quite to plan. I’m quite a Nokia fan (since getting an N95) as most people in here know so this held some promise, I’ve also been waiting for a challenger to iTunes (even though I do mostly like iTunes) but I’m afraid it’s not good news…

First you have to register then install the ‘Nokia Media Bar’ – which is not the best experience. I did not really like the intimidating message below “To Play or Buy music you need to install the Nokia Media Bar”

Here’s the deal. I don’t want any more plugins. I don’t want proprietary players and I don’t need any more music player software… I just want to download my tracks and use them how I want with the software I want! Especially when what I’m installing does not work…

   It took ages to download the track and when I finally got it – this is what I saw…

Then this…

Sorry Nokia – although it looked promising …20 minutes later and I still haven’t been able to listen to anything…you just lost me.

The Worst Vista advert ever made.

Microsoft and Vista go all Bruce Springsteen on us in this truly horrific video clip. It’s an ad from hell, right up there with the Cisco Teleconferencing Ad (here) from last year. We want to believe it’s a p%@*take but until mullets are back in fashion, we’re not convinced. Shame really, after the brilliant ‘Bill Gate’s Last Day Parody’ (here) they go and make something like this. Be ready to cringe…

BTW: Who said we weren’t impartial?

Has Absolut gone too far with latest ad campaign?

This Absolut campaign run in Mexico showing a map where Mexico dominates about half of the US has caused a big stir. Michelle Malkin is calling it Absolut Arrogance (here) and plenty of other people are piping in. It’s a highly sensitive subject matter in the US particularly on the west coast.

Absolut have enjoyed a pretty amazing run with their brand over the last few years – so have they crossed the line? It appears they might have because they have since issued an apology (below) – but is it too late? Bad news spreads fast on the Internet…

 

Absolut’s initial response below:

Pregnant man or april fool?

Is it a hoax or real life weirdness? So Thomas Beatie has told the world (or specifically The Advocate) he’s pregnant. I have a sneaky suspicion this is an April fool to be revealed on Tuesday. Now, I love april fools, but this is just so unoriginal. Many have done the pregnant man thing in the past so not a great choice for an April Fool. Here’s just a few of those man-mums …

Saatchi & Saatchi’s campaign for UK health education featured this pregnant fella. It was their second ever campaign and paved the way for Advertising domination. (Read more here)

Arnold Scwarzenegger played a less-than-convincing mother in “Junior” .. well more convincing than our friend Thomas.

However, my all-time favourite pregnant man has got to be Vyvyan from The Young Ones. He declares to the house mates he’s pregnant, they prepare for the birth only to find out the baby is not quite what they expected.

So let’s see what gets born on April 1st 2008, but I’m not convinced.

The problem with solutions

 

Apparently Picasso once said:

“Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.”

…which is a brilliant statement when you consider it in the context of digital design. The tendency of many visual designers is to rush into the execution of an idea before accurately assessing the original problem. Truly understanding the question is the best way to make sure you’re looking at the greatest number of possible answers.

Rushing to the most familiar answer (the kind that many designers find by slipping into their tried and tested design methods on the computer) means ignoring an infinite number of other more original possibilities.

This rant was inspired by a good book: How to Get Ideas, by Jack Foster. It’s a recommended read for designers trying to avoid the rut of doing everything same same.

License Agreement’s Out Of Control

 

Just updating my favorite piece of music playing software on the weekend I stumbled across a couple of random statements in the licensing agreement. Is this what the human race has progressed to???

It literally says:

“You also agree that you will not use these products for any purposes prohibited by United States law, including, without limitation, the development, design, manufacture or production of missiles, or nuclear, chemical or biological weapons.”

Ohh I love this one too, finally acts of God are recognised in a legal document:

“Without limiting the foregoing, under no circumstances shall 3Com be held liable for any delay or failure in performance resulting directly or indirectly from acts of nature, forces, or causes beyond its reasonable control, including, without limitation, Internet failures, computer equipment failures, telecommunication equipment failures, other equipment failures, electrical power failures, strikes, labor disputes, riots, insurrections, civil disturbances, shortages of labor or materials, fires, floods, storms, explosions, acts of God, war, governmental actions, orders of domestic or foreign courts or tribunals, non-performance of third parties, or loss of or fluctuations in heat, light, or air conditioning”

 

Sony takes 7 months to figure out how to reply to an email.

So I bought a very nice HD video Cam (HDRSR7) from Sony last July. Great camera so I even signed up to the MySony website where they were offering some great rewards for purchasing this product with signing up. Strangely, nothing happened so I emailed them (a few times from the form [image shown]).
 
On the site Sony says they’ll be back to you in 48 hours (pretty good eh!)

THE RESPONSE….
FINALLY a response email arrives over 7 months later :

Not quite what I was expecting… but at least they admitted their fault. Thanks Sony

Now if only I could remember what I was trying to get them to do…???

Updated Mon 11 Feb…:

The lazy toads at Telstra

I’ve just returned from the Telstra Shop, with my Creative Director, after waiting 1o minutes for someone to serve us. Whilst waiting, I snapped these 4 lazy shop workers with a demo phone, emailed it to myself from the shop and hey presto – it’s up for the world to see. Hardly a tabloid scoop, but I quite like the idea of busting their idle asses with the product they should have been selling me.

Next time you’re near a telstra shop, go in, take a photo on the demo phone and let’s see what gems we can gather.