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"The leaders who work most effectively, it seems to me, never say "I." And that's not because they have trained themselves not to say "I." They don't think "I." They think "we"; they think "team." They understand their job to be to make the team function. They accept responsibility and don't sidestep it, but "we" gets the credit. This is what creates trust, what enables you to get the task done." (Peter Drucker)
Awesome commercial from Discovery! This is exactly the way I feel :-)
Greenpeace have created Onslaught video in replay to Dove's one, which says that Unilever, that is behind Dove beauty products, are buying palm oil from suppliers who destroy Indonesia’s rainforests.
The issue isn't just Dove, this the whole beauty industry and women, yeah like me and you who buy the beauty products chasing the vain beauty...
Wherever in cyberspace you are. Sounds great to me. There is nothing better than integration of platforms, it makes life easier and more structured in the vast spaces of online world.
Blog It is Facebook application that allows posting directly from Facebook. It works with different blogging platforms including TypePad, Movable Type, Vox, Blogger, and WordPress. It's also makes possible let everyone know about the new post - with one click you canuådaye Facebook, Twitter and Pownce.
However there are a couple of pitfalls - no option for images, videos. Tagging and catgories aren't available either. Not to mention spell check! Well thought but not sufficient as a blogging tool.
Innovation is about taking risks and seeing opportuities there where no one would imagine opportunities could exist. Innovation is daring to trasform something that exist into something new. Like this bicycle I've seen this morning.
Who said that you have to stay satisfied with ordinary city bicycle when with a little effort, tree branch, rope, colorful wires and pillow you can create super orginal street cruise. It is excellent!
I've found very interesting artickle on a research on DVR owners. We already know that DVR owners watch fewer TV ads and the latest research by Information Resources Inc. showed that buying of new packaged products in households owning DVR was 5% lower han in non - DVR households. About 20% of all brands in the study lost statistically significant volume in DVR households.
Reality can't be ignored. Reality strikes back. It can't be your ad isn't seen anymore.
Read more here in Marketing mag.
The new commercial from Sony...like no other. This time the film was shot in Miami and after balls, paint, bunnies and orgy or colors, we can be lulled by white foam. Nice. I like the slow pace of the movie and the feeling of being astonished. But...there is no WOW factor. Is it bad? After all, we people we like things we know. It makes us feel safe.
There is nothing worse for your business than bad presentation. There are estimated 30 million presentations each day and around 50% of them kill people. I wrote earlier about the scientific findings showing that power point isn't good for our brains, so I believe we should definitely do our best to improve those power point slides, that will probably never die themselves.
It was really interesting to read
Sorrell’s call and Ruth Mortimer notes in Marketing
Week:
“All our instincts as
clients, agencies [and] media owners are to encourage people to consume more –
super consumption.” He added that people had become used to: “The aspiration
that you should consume more; the aspiration that you should have a bigger car;
the aspiration that you should have a number of holidays, bigger houses [and]
multiple houses”.
His point was that marketers
and their agencies need to adopt a new way of thinking to stop this trend of
‘super consumption’ becoming a real problem. In an age of worries about global
warming and limited environmental resources, brands need to behave with
responsibility. He suggested that the days of companies creating items that
would quickly become obsolete could – and should – be numbered.
Sorrell cited Apple as an
example of a brand creating products that consumers quickly jettison in favour
of the company’s newer ones. While nobody can deny that Apple produces
desirable, design-led objects, they do tend to become outdated very quickly.
The company cut the price of its 8GB iPhone model and scrapped the original 4GB
model only two months after launch.
But should Apple really be
worrying about issues such as ‘super consumption’? As the economic climate
worsens, don’t marketers need to keep parting people from their hard-earned
cash? This is especially important when the finance director starts asking
difficult questions about how the company can afford to run TV spots when sales
are being squeezed.
Let’s apply some common
sense. Sorrell isn’t saying that marketers should stop doing their job
properly; this is the man heading an organisation that made pre-tax profits of
£817m in 2007, up seven per cent on 2006. He is a clever businessman and he’s
not suggesting that as spending is curtailed, companies should stop trying to
sell.
Rather, he is picking up on
an important point: any problem opens up opportunities. You can be the company
worrying about what ‘super consumption’ means for you or the one rubbing your
hands together with glee at all the potential new business it presents.
If people are less willing
to buy items in large volumes because they have less money, make a virtue in
advertising of how long your products last. Charge slightly more for them.
That’s good for the landfill sites and good for your sales.
Or what about finding ways
of getting people paying to ‘upgrade’ old products? It shows that you’re
thinking about obsolescence while still offering people the sexy new functions
and features they desire.
You don’t have to do these things, of course. You can fight economic
difficulties by cutting prices and laying off staff. But you can bet Sorrell is
already working out how he will address ‘super consumption’. That £817m profit
last year suggests he’s pretty good at turning his ideas into actions.“
That’s great to read that as powerful man as
Sorrell is standing up against consumption. Great initiative. Great idea. There
is no doubt that our society needs to address those issues. I like Sorrell’s
suggestion about getting people to pay for upgrading the old products. This
could be something that could definitely help solving environmental issues. My
concern is however about the companies’ power to fight against super
consumption. The common belief that all consumers are thoughtless puppets in
the hands of devil corporations. Consumption is the culture. Culture is not
nothing new.
Many centuries ago, Aristotle wrote in ‘Politics’:
“The avarice of mankind is insatiable”
Over two thousand years later Leo Tolstoy wrote in “My Religion”
"seek among men, from beggar to millionaire, one who is contented with his lot, and you will not find one such in a thousand....Today we must buy an overcoat and galoshes, tomorrow, a watch and a chain; the next day we must install ourselves in an apartment with a sofa and a bronze lamp; then we must have carpets and velvet gowns; then a house, horses and carriages, paintings and decorations."
The desire to possess seems to be the part of our society across centuries. Mankind has known and enjoyed consumption over centuries. Consumption is not just modern times phenomena, this is something that has always existed and has it is roots in the social structures; this is the part of Weber’s stratification process, where status is based on the economical status and the non economical qualities like honor and prestige. Can Mr. Sorrell figure out how to change culture that thrived for thousands years? I doubt so, but his words open the door for the new and better vision. More responsible vision of doing business that appeals to consumers, who aren’t any longer only passive recipients of communication from corporations advertising. Due to technological empowerment, we have a possibility to change the world. Corporations together with consumers – people. After all we are all responsible for the society and the world we are living in.
Photo by Fanboy30
The new fitness centre was opened in Copenhagen - Hello Fitness. It is 100% green - the training takes place in nature. It sounds enough appealing to me! Sports should be exercised outdoors. There is nothing worse than smelly and dampy gym. The Hello Fitness combines the nature with the community. The idea is to create the feeling of support between participants extendend to online community. There is always someone you can exercise with, there is always someone to support you in your efforts. Fabulous idea and the it costs only ca. $20 monthly, which equals one pizza and DVD. The choice is yours :-)
You can also become fan of Hello Fitness on Facebook (it is in Danish only)
I have borrowed my Nikon D300 to my husband and see yourself what he came back with! Awesome shot of M51 the whirlpool galaxy. Incredebly beautiful og fascinating. I look at the photo and the questions about universe, our role in it are bubbling in my head. It makes me feel so small and kind of scard that I will never manage to find the answers... You can see more of his magic astrophotography on Flickr
I am aware that lies are ubiquitous in the
social life. For some time ago, I've met a very special person who was
denying the reality and the fact she sucked. She was confronted and proved
wrong but she kept on telling her version of the story to the world. The more
she sucked the more she lied and hurt people. It made me think to what extent we
are aware of the fact that we lie, to what extent we believe in our own lies. I
couldn’t avoid asking myself the questions – does denying and creating your own
reality equals lying?
Some say that lies are medicine against life.
Sound too tragic to me. However lies have become the part of our social
existence. We use lies to reduce the cognitive dissonance, to balance the
different roles we play in everyday life. Lies have become a form of social
mask we use to cover our failure, as failures aren’t accepted in our society
any longer. We lie to achieve social acceptance. Lies have become the way to
achieve a success. Lying has also another side – imaginary stories are the part
of our nature, are the expression of our independence and spontaneity. Story
telling is so often based on lies. We create our own personas and there is no
one to tell whether they are true or not, as the objective truth doesn’t exist. Lying was always the part of our culture.
But we are always aware we are lying, unless we suffer from being delusional. Lying is willful trial of misleading In order to achieve something. That’s unacceptable and harmful. I was raised in the sincerity spirit and have a hard time to deal with people who use their lies in order to improve their image and lies (that's the reason why I hate politics so much). What's terrible about lying is just that you can't stop - it is a snowball effect. You keep on lying, and every new lie leads to another. It is scary to see how people become entagled and inconsistent.
Lies are unethical, despite how strong we believe in things to be relative and that some lies can be justified depending on the cause we are lying
for. Is it true or not? Let’s leave it to the liars’ consciousness.
“Lies are the only way of escape for the weak”
(Stendahl)
Photo by Herr_Bert
It is a hypnotizing experience to watch this site. World Population. You observe live how the population of Earth is changing – growing. There is abundance of life on our planet. Fascinating, but scary at the same time. Since I was born the world’s population increased with almost by 2,6 billion people! Watch yourself…I am sure it will give you goosebumps.
I was writing an article about freeconomics and its consequences for music business when I thought about some other aspects of things for free. Working in agency gives you access to many free things. You get magazines, newspapers, free cinema tickets, invitations to theater and X-mass gifts. There is nothing unusual in that, you get free access to media that are the substance of our work. What’s interesting is to observe how people cope with the “free”. “Free” brings status with itself. It means you’ve been noticed and acknowledged important. Free means VIP. It is social currency that communicates to your surroundings that you are someone. Someone who gets things for free. And I would believe deep down in the reptile part of the brain, free makes you feel instinctively as a successful hunter. You get your share, so you don’t have to spend resources on it any longer.
Photo by broterham
