You want an iPhone right now? Here you go.

This is not an iPhone, not the actual thing. It's one of those smartphones with a stylus. Who wants a stylus? (The download is 1.2Gb, you've been warned.)

You want a Mac but you don't want to spend 4 big ones for laptop? He has that too.

But he's not the first. There were others before him. This guy is on to something. I wonder what Apple would do if they found out what he's done. If they do, let's hope he comes out unscathed.

Awesome.

Coke-Mentos Domino Effect experiment #214. Watch it.

I have links like you can't believe.

Download the earliest iPhone teaser ad in HD.

Ooohh.. look what I found. I wonder what's on the site. Hmm... let's make with the click.

Follow instructions that appear on screen. Failure to follow instructions results in friends looking unimpressed. Have a nice day.



The Hole - video powered by Metacafe

The latest spots by CPB for VW - via youtube.







That's it. Three of 'em. Found at adgoodness.

I thought that a link would be enough. But then again, what if the site goes down? Where can I go to read the whole Russell Davies memo again? It's all here.

Better safe than sorry. I copied everything over to this post. With original accompanying pix. Read it. All credits should go to Russell Davies (see, I don't steal other people's intellectual properties).


1. Hire advertising people, you get advertising

As Dan will admit (claim?), when they started they found it very hard to hire conventional advertising talent. No-one would move to Portland. So they got people who'd failed elsewhere or kids straight out of school. These people didn't know how to make advertising. Or not in the way it was supposed to be made. They worked out for themselves how to communicate, seduce, persuade, engage, how to make a stunning piece of film or a compelling couple of pages but if often didn't look much like advertising. Even now, thousands of years later, when some of the habits have ossified and they really, clearly, do know how to make advertising there's an inclination to push it further, to not make advertising. I think this a lesson for everyone who wants to be the w+k of the future; hire just advertising people, you'll get just advertising.

2. The key to creative genius; work harder

I know it's boring but this became so incredibly clear to me. The most exciting, inspirational, talented thinkers and doers just work harder than everyone else. Often they also work more effectively, so it doesn't necessarily look like hard work, but basically they put in more hours, pay more attention and care more than the regular folk.

3. You can't divorce the medium from the message

W+K never gave up on its own media people. Media thinkers and media doers were always integral. And often the smartest people in the place. This led to innovative and informed thinking about not just what we'd say and how we'd say it, but also where we'd say it. So w+k didn't get stuck in that trap of shoveling creativity into a pre-bought schdule. We didn't fill 30 second boxes with stuff. You've got to have media people in the building, it makes life better.

4. Do good work, the money will follow

When I moved from Portland to London I was one of only two people in the London office who'd also worked in Portland. And I think the rest of London management couldn't quite believe Dan when he'd say this to them. They wanted to believe it, but they'd grown up in big London agencies where the bottom line is all. There's not a lot to say about this, it's just true.

5. Hold everyone to the same standard

I moved to Portland to work on Microsoft. It was clear in about 5 minutes that we were the pariah half of the agency. Everyone was either Nike or Microsoft. It was like high school. Jocks and geeks. They did fantastic work every 5 minutes, won all kinds of awards, got to meet celebrity athletes. We struggled to get any decent work through, won nothing, attended three day product briefings on Exchange Server.

And we all knew it would have been so easy to just roll over, give Microsoft exactly what they wanted (which was obvious and do-able) and rake in gobbets of cash. We could have funded a dozen pro-bono accounts which would have made us feel better and won us some awards and life would have been almost sweet. Except we weren't allowed. Peer and management pressure made it clear that everyone was held to the same standard, however hard our client and our task we were expected to do extraordinary and thrilling work. This seemed divisive and wrong at the time but looking back I realise it was genius. Because if you have multiple standards you have multiple agencies. If you treat some clients as creative opportunities and some as cash cows that's just what you'll get. And sooner or later the cash cows will leave the field. Everyone's seem what it's like to be the Account Director on the regional retail account that'll never do good work. It sucks. And it sucks even more when you have to sit and present your work to all the guys who work on the cool accounts. Kudos to Dan, he always expected us to make the work better. And, sometimes, before we got fired, we did some pretty decent work.

6. You can tell from the work if people enjoyed making it

This seems more true to me every time I walk in another agency. The places that are miserable make lack-lustre work (is it chicken or is it egg?). The places with energy make energetic, fulsome, toothsome work, bursting with ideas. If the process is depressing, the work will be flat, if the process has life, the work will connect.

7. Brands that influence culture sell more

This feeling was always in the air. People were trying to build popular culture not piggy-back on it, trying to create new culture, not just repeat old ones. About the worst thing you could say about an idea was that it had 'borrowed interest'. And it was palpably clear that this instinct led to more effective, more profitable brands. So I remember writing 'brands that influence culture sell more' in a creds deck and getting the highly prized Wieden nod of approval. That was a good moment. (Or at least I think I remember writing that, it seems to have turned up in other places too, so maybe I heard it somewhere first, perhaps through some sort of strange wormhole into the future.)

Wondering what in the world does that mean? It's well explained here.

When we started, no one in their right mind wanted to come to this weird little city on the banks of the Willamette (Portland, Oregon), cut off from the cultural mainstream, hell, cut off from culture, period. A city with virtually no nightlife. No history. I mean, the first house here was a log cabin built in 1844. That wasn’t that long ago, guys. The only ad people you could get to even consider moving here were people who had been fired from every legitimate and illegitimate agency in the country. Or kids fresh out of school, who didn’t know any better.

We started as a ship of fools. And that, I firmly believe, is why we have succeeded. We were struggling to figure out what an advertising agency actually was. And our one and only client, Nike, was trying to get a grip on what a client was supposed to do with one. We were both incredibly stupid. That was the key. See, when you don’t know, you try desperately to find out.

But the minute you think you know, the minute you go – oh, yeah, we’ve been here before, no sense reinventing the wheel – you stop learning, stop questioning, and start believing in your own wisdom, you’re dead. You’re not stupid anymore, you are fucking dead.

Continue here.

My friends and some former colleagues know that - some appreciate it, some didn't. Most likely, it's because the words that I choose to use. Those who appreciate know that it's coming from the desire to see something better, improved. Those who didn't probably see it as ignorance; as "don't question things, it's not your place" or the popular "put yourself in that pair of shoes and try to do it on your own".

That's the thing. If I do it on my own, I'd probably achieve the same results because I'd be in the same place. Things are different when solutions come from those aren't knee deep in it. It's clear to those who are watching, the observers.

If and when I write, it's because I'm on the outside. There are others out there who see things better. Accept it and move on. Listen for the solution.

Okay. Now that the message is clear, let's talk about what's wrong about this country. But before somebody screams, "political blogger, arrest him!" - don't. Listen first to what bloggers have to say - at least some of us - before you authorities act.

I have nothing against fast food. I have it once or twice a month when I'm too tired to busy to go grab a proper meal in the afternoon. No big deal. But here's what eating me up. A recent report at thestar.com tells the story of a certain Minister calling for the banning of fast food ads. Why now? Can you say "election"?

Do some other campaign. How about lobbying about helping the people in Johor who were affected by the massive flood recently or criticizing Astro for not showing enough PSA (Public Service Ads/Announcements) highlighting their cause? Talk about that. It's good for your image and it (let's hope) helps the victims. Win-win situation.

Don't thank me for the idea. It's free of charge. If you want to talk about social responsibility, go help those people. Banning fast food ads isn't going to stop people from enjoying their happy meals or help businesses grow.

Sure you get support from consumer associations and health groups. They want their 15 minutes of fame. Everybody wants their 15 minutes of fame. This is what happens when you talk before you think clearly of the consequences: You're advocating the idea that fast food advertising shouldn't be promoted.

What's going to happen to the people in advertising agencies? McDonald's would pull their account and a bunch of creatives get a pink slip each. What's going to happen to their families while they're out of a job? Bills pile up. Husband and wife gets into unnecessary arguments. Some file for divorce. Then they battle custody rights in court.

Question is: How does that help the country? What if those creatives get their chance to do a great campaign for their client? And in the process, win some international awards? This country gets on the world map for having a few creative hot spot. Creatives happy, agency happy, client happy - businesses grow. When businesses grow, country happy. When the country is happy, Ministers pocket more money from businesses. Ooh don't be shy, it's an open secret that some of you are easily bribed. Here's half a million. Build a white house (sic) in Klang.

What you do with your money or how you get your half a million, is your business. But when you say things that are not considered as intelligent or useful in public, remember, there are repercussions. And these repercussions affect the general public.

p/s

Want me to write your speeches and statements? For RM3000 per day - after taxes, I'll write post-winning speeches and/ statements. Positive results guaranteed. But, I don't work weekends or after 6 p.m and I don't entertain last minute requests or changes. What you see is what you get.


Here's another issue.

Malaysian ISP - clean up your act.

What I want to say has been said by A. Asohan. Read all about it here.

Labels: public service

Out the blue, for the - I don't know how many times - Xp crashes on me. I know, I know. Every time when I write, I should do it on a notepad or a word pad. Save it and copy then contents and post it on blogger so I don't waste time and run the least risk of losing my post in case Xp crashes.

Well my previous post was about 12" inches tall. That's a foot of thought - not a footnote but a foot's length of post lost because Xp crashes for no apparent reason. Amazing software.

What's more amazing is that, Gates is touting that Vista is the cure for Xp.

Cure for Xp? I didn't know that Xp was a disease! A billion dollars spent on development and nothing for its customers to say "they changed that and made it better", it's as good as Xp. Perhaps even worse.

Here's a review by a smart woman, Erika Jonietz, for MIT telling us how she, an avid supporter of all things great for humanity, at least she thought it was (read: Windows Vista), lost her fervour for Windows and became a Switcher. She switched to the Mac right after she did the review. That's a HUGE thing.

Here's what a committee has to say, a group of Microsoft apologists trying desperately to undo her work by telling us that Vista is imperfect for a very good reason: Great computing by letting others do their job of building software and hardware. Thing is, no matter how good your design and coding rules are, there will be mistakes due to a large number of people working on it. Remember this kids, numbers doesn't always come to great decisions.

Of course, there's no such thing as a perfect operating system or OS. There's no perfect anything come to think of it. But there's such a thing as well thought-out, elegantly developed, user-centric OS. Many flavours at that. The Mac is such an example. But you knew that I was going to say that already didn't you? Well what you didn't know is that, the Mac, however proud they are at advertising its Unix underpinnings, is not nearly perfect. But at least, it's going in that direction with stability, practicality, by stepping aside and letting the user do their work and not to mention elegance. Some say that elegance is moot from a practical POV. Nothing could more impractical than saying that. Here's a fact: However practical something is designed for, it's hardly inspiring when elegance is out of the equation.

But what they fail to understand or acknowledge is that, elegance IS the one of the key points that makes a product stand out as a, product.

If attention to detail says a lot about a person, then that is a lot for a computer designed by a bunch of people who's anal about attention to detail. Can you say same thing for Xp? Or Windows in general? The Mac is an expensive acquisition. No doubts about that there.

Am I upset? You bet. I've lost a good amount of time over the years from unexpected crashes, worms and viruses. From retyping my posts and notes. Thank God that my office bought an iMac and lets me use for work daily.

"What about Linux then?", you say. After a few months of actively using Ubuntu Linux for work and entertainment, I have come to a conclusion that it needs more work to be accepted by the masses. Being free and open does not always entail a good user experience.

It doesn't crash and take down everything that you were working on with it. A simple command followed by a passworded permission let's you install or remove a program and almost every single program out there for Linux is open source. Great computing for the masses who can't afford to run buggy Windows or an expensive Macs.

But the problem lies in the implementation.

How many users would actually go out and read and download programs that they need online. They're used to buying it at software retail stores or from an online retailer. Or how about setting up internet sharing? Think it's easy on Linux? Think again.

Downloading for free can be a problem when no body is policing the development and a lot of companies are not moving to Linux as fast as we wanted them to - so there's not much of corporate or street cred to rely on as word of mouth - or even elegance.

This story is not about expensive Macs or user-centric but hard to use Linux. It's about spending a billion dollar and coming up with nothing revolutionary. Might as well roll out a new OS by 2010 instead of today because there's no point in just selling a pretty interface minus the goodies underneath the hood. That's like going out with a beautiful girl and have the dullest conversation in the history of dullest conversations.

So what's point? Here it is: Buy an expensive Mac and be free of virus or network related worries OR download a Linux OS, burn it onto a CD and install it - minus the elegance of design or thought - yes it works but no it's not inspiring and there's also a steep learning curve.

However, I venture to say that by the time Windows comes out with Vienna, Linux would have reached a phenomenal stage in it's development life. Till then.