Search results matching tag 'change'

Blog Action Day 2009 Takes On Climate Change

2292853 — Thu, 15 Oct 2009 14:47:00 GMT

Today 8,000+ bloggers from 144 countries, reaching 11 million viewers, are joining together to chime in with posts about one single important global issue of climate change. Did you post yet? Visit the Blog Action Day website to find out more about this event.

I take climate change personally.

I live here on earth, along with you and millions of others, and the damage our planet is facing because of manmade, careless actions infuriates me and makes me sad. Nature has given me some of the most memorable moments in my life. Today in London we have a beautiful day and I am enjoying seeing the sunlight light up the green leaves on the plants I have on my balcony. I'm enjoying looking at the green trees I can see scattered across parks in my neighborhood, and I'm looking forward to pulling away from the computer soon and going outside to enjoy this day before it slips away.

Will these simple pleasures I have from nature be no more in the face of climate change?

What personal moments spent with nature will only be left to memory, if every one of us does not do something right now to prevent climate change from happening?

Will the world leaders gathering at Copenhagen in December for the United Nations Climate Change Conference think enough about their own special personal memories of enjoying the natural environment, to make a true difference in how we tackle climate change issues?

Climate change is personal for me, and for you.

I've shared three very personal memories about experiences I've had in the natural environment on my blog for Blog Action Day 2009 and hope to read other blogs that tell stories about why they care about climate change.

Please post on your blog about your thoughts about climate change, and let's see if collective blogging can make a difference on this issue.

Taking climate change personally,

-Lisa

For a creative within the advertising industry are DESIGN SKILLS a necessity or an added bonus?

2419340 — Fri, 20 Feb 2009 16:53:44 GMT

Are design skills needed for a creative, or will a stick man sketch do? Does this differ from larger agencies to smaller agencies? Has the credit crunch effected this?

No more 'twee' ads please!!

2068370 — Thu, 10 Jul 2008 08:50:32 GMT

Can we all agree now to put an end to "twee" adverts? What started with orange powercut, sony balls, skoda cake, and spread to t-mobile, orbit 'closer', and o2 'better connected', has now got its filthy jack johnson soundtracked mits on McDonalds, with its new happy meal campaign. I don't know about anyone else, but what I look for in a McDonalds ad is bright colours, plastic looking food and possibly a joke or two. Not a hugh fearnley whittingstall esque tribute to wholesome rural values. It's McDonald's for Christ's sake! It seems no ad is complete these days without some painfully soppy soundtrack (preferably done by a 9 year old whisteling or playing a recorder) and a proposition so idealistic and sentimental that it bares no relation to the product it's selling. For some bizarre reason as our society gets more and more individualistic and un-community spirited, our beloved ad industry is in denial, squeezing out more and more ads about coming together, being "better, connected', 'closer, or 'better together', to quote just a few very recent big-brand campaigns. We all know fallon is to blame, but as fallon itself starts to move on from this style, why is it that suddenly all other agencies are imitating it ad nauseum? Can't advertising grow its balls back and make some un-derivative ads?

Re: RE: No more retreat. We must admit to advertising’s failure!

1792681 — Fri, 06 Jun 2008 11:22:26 GMT

John,

The title of my book, “Television killed advertising” is not to suggest that TV advertising is completely worthless but to draw attention to the damage that an over reliance on TV advertising has caused the advertising industry.

Coupled with the inevitable decline in the effectiveness of television advertising due, in part, to an earlier perception that over-estimated advertising’s power. In the industry’s days of dominance, peopled believed it could change the ways consumers think and behave, not just influence them to favor one brand in a category they were already considering.

Much of this sense of advertising’s enormous power and the almost inevitable effectiveness of image advertising grew as mass advertising followed mass manufacturing in the 50s’ and ‘60s. Mass manufacturing led to one-size-fits-all products. Local, individualized, and specialty products disappeared, and mass consumerism was achieved, yet strangely the recent statement “Advertising is a no win situation” appears to trouble the Advertising Community not at all!

Advertising has to change and my seeming anger is not anger…it is designed to be a “wake up” call to try an keep an industry alive to the need for dramatic change!

Why it's so important to get behind Moray

695124 — Thu, 26 Apr 2007 11:24:28 GMT

No-one in the Cafe Royal listening to Moray MacLennan's inaugural address as IPA President yesterday could have failed to be impressed with his message.

Campaign today reprints the speech on pp 30 and 31. There are conflicting signals from the Titanic right now, with plenty of activity on the deck chair front. It was good to hear that the IPA’s agenda is going to be fundamental stuff about maritime safety, iceberg watch and developing new forms of transportation.

Marketing, advertising and all forms of marketing communications make a vital contribution to the economy – on a macro as well as a micro basis. As Moray said yesterday: ‘we must show how creativity is inextricably linked to business success’. He leads the agency community, but he particularly deserves support from clients as well. Brands don’t just need brilliant advertising. They also need brilliant agencies. Looking around the tables at the IPA Members’ Lunch yesterday, I was very struck by the concentration of talent and experience. Agency folk may move around, but the stars display remarkable resilience and stickability. There is fantastic experience out there. They’ve helped to launch and build scores of stellar brands. And they are available to do it again. And again. If during his two years Moray can reach his other target markets - government and the public – that would be a huge achievement. But meanwhile, let’s see clients and agencies working together to promote the economic benefits of advertising.

Nostalgic about the future

695124 — Wed, 25 Apr 2007 07:55:23 GMT

Some mistake surely? We normally talk about being nostalgic about the past, or worried about the future. No, after attending the Adforum Worldwide Summit in Amsterdam this week I’m nostalgic about the future I had thought we were all looking forward to.I’ve been crazybusy at an international of intermediaries – or maybe a conclave of consultants. There are two Adforum Summits a year for people like me – agency search consultants from all over the world. In the spring we gather for two days somewhere in Europe, and then in the autumn for five days in New York. We meet agencies, who tell us about themselves and the future. And we hold internal workshops to consider research and reports prepared by colleagues. Since these ‘colleagues’ are effectively competitors, it is quite collegiate. Also, from time to time, scary. I may have a rail pass these days, but I have not been negative about the future for our business. I have been prepared for fast growth in digital, and lots of integration and branded content. But we are supposed to be pundits, and when the vision of the future, as presented by respected agencies and colleagues, is so far ahead of what you have been anticipating, it is really unsettling. In The Beautiful South’s album ‘Blue is the colour’ there is a number called ‘Mirror’. It’s about a prostitute’s dream for a better future. There is a haunting line in it: ‘a mirror bigger then the room it is placed in’. Just a few of the questions troubling me after Amsterdam:

Has the agency talent that brought the business to the bank of this mighty river, got the ability to cross it and make a useful life on the other side? Is communications planning going to take over from creativity as the killer app?
Can clients cope with the extent of change?
Will the famous Big Idea still work in an open source world, where the consumer is controlling the dialogue, and the agency working with dozens of communication partners?
More particularly, will opportunities to see become a redundant metric, as the consumer demands fresh stimulus all the time?
Digital is only 6% of marketing spend now, but it is already at the heart of everything we do. How are agencies and clients going to work together, when that figure reaches 16%, 26% and so on?
Is search, which already dominates digital advertising, going to spread to the offline world to the effective elimination of the interruption model?
And is data going to be the battleground? Or is it going to be the ability to interpret data and mine insights from it?

And to think that we used to believe the advertising business was all about people and ideas.