Sometimes the ad industry can take itself a little too seriously... not so with John St.

In this video case study in the style of an industry awards nomination, John St talk about their client: 8 year old Chelsea and the challenge to show differentiation in an already cluttered birthday market.

Above the line, below the line, word of mouth, and return on investment year on year are all included.

Enjoy

It was a High School residential art trip and one of the activities was a tour of Jim Ede's house (Kettle's Yard).

Specifically I recall a couple of pieces; the Etana, Giardino a Mezzogiorno, Pietra (Italo Valenti) which I was amazed at both it's simplicity yet it's appeal, plus 'Quia per Incarnat' by David Jones - maybe my first impression of typography as art? I would definitely say that these stand out for me as art-what-inspired-me. http://www.flickr.com/photos/301202/3754336397/

If you are in Cambridge, it's well worth a visit, from a nostalgic memory of a school trip about 15 years ago. Looks like the creperie in Hobbs Pavilion has become a Thai restaurant though. Shame.

I picked up a copy of the Happy book from one of their training sessions earlier this year when I worked for my previous company.

Happy is one of those organisations I find really quite inspirational. They have decided how they wish to operate and they live by that. And it's fair. And it's profitable. And and and...

It, as all inspirational and ethical business books, is a little sandal-wearing and group-hug-like, but I suspect that feeling is more of a suspicion of change and difference as opposed to a dislike of intent.

Well worth a read, but if you are in London, you'd be even better attending one of their training session. http://www.happy-people.co.uk/

McDonald's customer data hacked

Tue, 14 Dec 2010 | By Russell Parsons

Hackers have attacked a McDonald’s database in the US containing the email addresses and birth dates of customers that signed up for promotions and its website.

The data was contained on a database managed by Arc Worldwide, part of the restaurant chain’s advertising firm Leo Burnett.

McDonald’s says that the hacked data did not include social security numbers, credit card accounts or sensitive financial information.

A spokesman for McDonald’s says: “The incident has resulted in an investigation by law enforcement authorities. Arc and McDonald’s are cooperating with the appropriate authorities as we work to protect our valued customers.”

He adds: We have attempted to notify all of our active subscribers, who voluntarily provided information in connection with the websites and promotions involved in this incident.

“We are also working with Arc and their database management firm to understand how the security was bypassed.

“We take the security of our customer information very seriously, and we will continue to cooperate with the investigation and with the appropriate authorities.”

Separately, McDonald’s chief executive Jim Skinner has launched an attack on the US “food police” that undermine parents.

In an interview with the Financial Times, Skinner responded to a recent decision by the San Francisco board of supervisors to limit free toy offers to foods that complied with calorie, sodium, sugar and limits by saying the decision “really takes personal choice away from families who are more than capable of making their own decisions.”

First this week, Lifehacker.com was hacked with the loss of a lot (1.2m?) email addresses and passwords... now McDonalds.

I'm fairly certain that although the McDonalds customers are genuinely quite pleased that their social security details have not been revealed, I suspect that regardless of the small print on sign-up it was very much a surprise to them that their details were even available to be hacked off their agency's server.

If you are responsible for the data security of your client's... customer's personal details, then this is surely a wake-up to check your own security, check whether you need to hold the data online, and check whether you still need to hold the data at all.

I bought a nice shiny laptop a couple of years back, an HP tablet laptop with swivelly screen and Windows Vista (don't laugh).

Just after the warranty ran out - it stopped working.

Odd, but sod's law, nothing more. No conspiracy theory.

Well probably not - should check the forums just in case someone else has had the same problem etc. (repeating in my head "I am not a geek, I am not a geek").

What could be weirder than a laptop black-screening on boot just after it's warranty has run out?

How about bloody hundreds of the things doing it?

So it's sat on the floor of my study gathering dust for 6 months or so, and I was going to chuck it away this weekend - thought I'd best just check the mighty google oracle again to see if anyone had managed to find a fix?

They've only gone and done it.

[PS: Mine's a HP TX2000 or TX2050 Laptop]



hi,
i'll keep this brief.
this portion of moby.com, 'film music', is for independent and non-profit filmmakers, film students, and anyone in need of free music for their independent, non-profit film, video, or short.
to use the site you log in(or on?) and are then given a password.
you can then listen to the available music and download whatever you want to use in your film or video or short.
the music is free as long as it's being used in a non-commercial or non-profit film, video, or short.
if you want to use it in a commercial film or short then you can apply for an easy license, with any money that's generated being given to the humane society.
i hope that you find what you're looking for,
moby

I seem to remember from the Moby doc on Sky Arts that Moby's big break came from licensing his music to commercials.

mobygratis.com may be a way to give back, a way to help not for profit filmakers, and I applaud Moby for that... but it might also be a very clever way of extending the reach of his music

Re-frame, change the context and you can highlight stupid normal things

Are the rules for business really that complicated?

According to Mr. David Kennedy (W+K), These rules were found in a desk drawer a long time ago. A six year old kid had come into the office one day with his parents and wrote these out to keep himself occupied while Mum and Dad worked. David found these and adopted them. "This was highly evolved way of thinking and we could learn from it."

Add to this the one rule my dad passed on to me, which was "2 ears, 1 mouth. Use them in proportion"

Sound stuff.