Banksy; painting a False Picture – The Guardian Guide offered readers an interview on Saturday with famously reclusive street artist Banksy, who shared his thoughts on Rolf Harris, Top Gear’s Stig and his ambition to paint a “giant comedy cock” on the walls of the Guide if he ever broke into its offices. If only. As the Guardian’s readers’ editor said today: “An interview purporting to be with Banksy in last Saturday’s Guide (One last thing … , 18 July, page 98, the Guide) was, it transpires, conducted with someone impersonating the graffiti artist. We apologise to Banksy for this error and for any offence and inconvenience caused.”

On this day that has been gripped by the passing of two stars, namely Michael Jackson and Farrah Fawcett, we are surrounded by a media explosion, mass public reaction – not to mention of course the loss that two families have to cope with.

But what we have to do is put all of this in perspective. Get a grip and learn from this – as so eloquently put in an e-newsletter today from the leading catering and hospitality publication, and I quote:-

“I’m starting with the man in the mirror; I’m asking him to change his ways; And no message could have been any clearer; If you wanna make the world a better place; Take a look at yourself and then make a change. As the world digests the passing of Michael Jackson, the restaurant industry is also being asked to look inwardly and make a change on the controversial issue of service charge…….” News Editor, 26 June 2009.

Phew..er, a joke, surely? Afraid not.

So, after the devastating Italian earthquake, did they make comparisons to the downfall in popularity of Italian restaurants and the need to up their game?

What utter guff.

New dining table for International Space Station

The recent news item regarding the construction of a new dining table in the International Space Station raises some interesting points about the importance of human emotions and rituals, regardless of technological advances and it would appear – cost.

New dinner table top priority as ISS expands

“We are now going to have six people in orbit, so we will need to engineer another table, so we can all eat and chat together,” Russian cosmonaut Roman Romanenko said. Lunch is a ritual process in orbit,” he told journalists.

The average cost of lifting a kilogramme of anything to low earth orbit, typically where space stations and space shuttles spend their time aloft, is in the order of $100,000. Compared to this, the actual cost of food is negligible, in theory Astronauts should live on a diet of truffles and vintage champagne….and yet they crave simple foods that remind them of home, hash browns, m&m’s. They also place high levels of importance on how they eat…sharing meals together.

If we ever needed a reminder of how important such lowly matters as food and human contact are, this is a good reminder.

Brings a whole new meaning to the idea of food miles…

This simple concept has delivered staggering results

We’re really pleased to announce that we’ve been nominated for the Best Direct & Promotional Strategy at this years’ Drum Marketing Awards. A great achievement considering the tough competition, not to mention a highly esteemed panel of judges.

Our entry, the Paddy Power Cheque Book, a strategy to steal OTC market share from competitors and confirm Paddy Power’s price advantage, delivered demonstrable success. The campaign that included a cheque book mechanic, staff interaction, SMS strategy and vast data capture is now firmly engrained in Paddy Power’s ongoing retail strategy. Contact us for the full story.

The ASA recently confirmed that the atheist campaign, proclaiming “There is probably no God. Now stop worrying and enjoy your life” received complaints that it broke advertising code on the grounds of substantiation and truthfulness. With some of the complaints being that “It is given as a statement of fact and that means it must be capable of substantiation if it is not to break the rules.

So, although the ASA has not yet decided whether a formal investigation to see if the campaign has broken the ad code, we are left with a few morsels of food for thought:-

Firstly, substantiation and truthfulness. In the current economic dirge, we all, hopefully, appreciate the importance of brand and product differentiation to ensure we stand above the competition. With better service and better value being all too familiar claims. The heat of the spotlight is never as warm as it is now on brands to ensure they practice what they preach, if you’ll pardon the biblical reference.

Only last week, we heard Christopher Rodrigues of Visit Britain emphasising this point with the claim that the hotel sector could expect 50,000 job losses this year.

Raising service levels and quality of that service is the bed-rock for winning business in tourism. Not forgetting the current state of the sterling with its appeal to our Euro-hoppers, this is a time of great value that we need to embrace.

The outcome is quite simple – those who go the extra mile and get it right will reap the rewards. Ask and listen to what customer’s needs and motivations are and get a true understanding of the value they want and deliver some substantiation. Hang on, that sounds familiar….

And the second food morsel is whether the ASA take the plunge to cast judgement on the probability of God existing or not. Best of luck with that one.

Photoshop appears to have gone back to basics after someone created a real life version of Photoshop. Click on the link for a larger photo and zoom into all the tool bars. It’s genius!

View Image

I was introduced to a slightly disturbing and very interesting game last week. PAIN for the PS3 has been out a while now but I had never seen it.

The basic concept of the game is to pick one of the many selectable characters, stick them in a catapult and fire them into a large city environment attempting to cause them as much “pain” as possible.

Characters can get hit by buses, trains, take out other people, go through windows or just trigger various explosions. All you have to do is keep their momentum going hoping they get hit by something else!

I think the idea is brilliant and it’s extremely addictive but as you play it, it just seems a little bit wrong and sadistic!

check it out on youtube: PAIN video

Time for a break!

I found this example of mobile marketing from Starbucks that doesn’t leave a bitter taste!

It works by keeping things direct and the offer is strong, Starbucks do coffee! Let’s give it away for free to drive footfall! Simple.

Imagine your delight to receive a text on a cold March morning informing you that you can claim a free coffee at Starbucks!  And how convenient because you’re always close to a Starbucks store!