Tropicana Sun

Last Monday Tropicana created a 'giant' man made sun which they suspended from a crane in the middle of Trafalgar Square at about 6am. The purpose was to show that 'brighter mornings made for brighter days'. It's a nice idea, helping to brighten people's mornings with a giant ball of artificial sunlight. But I just can't help but feel it missed the mark a little.

It could have been so wonderfully glorious, illuminating London on a dreary Monday morning for all those groggy-eyed commuters. But instead it just looks like an oversized streetlight. And it's suspended from a crane, magical. Really magical. I wonder how they did it? Probably with a lot of expense.

And despite its size, I highly doubt this actually happened;

Image lovingly borrowed from the Daily Mail.

I mean, come on, it's still 6am on a British January morning.

It truly is a good idea and Tropicana clearly had their heart in the right place, but it just lacks the oomph it needs to make this a great campaign. So I did a bit of research that helped explain my disappoint. They'd done it before. They'd already used this idea and it was perfect the way it was. Tropicana Canada has set up a similar but a much better executed 'giant sun' in the Arctic. And we all know that the Arctic sees a hell of a lot less sunlight than  we do.

So why bother remaking it? Why bother making it into a version that, in comparison, seems half-hearted? Probably because the Marketing/PR department thought that it would be better to interact with the target market through a uniquely British art installation? And it is uniquely British, for all the wrong reasons.

So now I'm just going to leave you with the beauty of the original, so you can see how it should be done and why it should have been left as it was.

The U Code

Well the video explains it, but I genuinely think this is an amazing idea. Would be really useful for the dating industry, just walk around with a pre-programmed message to attract people. Like super, super speed dating.

However, this definitely scares the hell out of me. I mean this idea has untold possibilities for the marketing industry. But I can just see that 10 years from now, we'll all have personal QR code tattoos, that you can update as and when you like, with your favourite things and interests. Maybe it's linked to your facebook? So that all someone would have to do would be to scan your elbow and you'd be a just a giant walking target for personalised advertising.

But I expect people thought this with the creation of barcodes as well.

The Final Problem

Right well I don't want to go all fan girl on you, which I shall try my best to resist doing, but Sherlock.

Oh God.

It's just that it can't be escaped. There's no denying that Sherlock Holmes has had a lot of cultural impact over the past year, what with the release of the Hollywood Movie and the BBC's Sherlock. But after the release of the sequel and the second series of Sherlock the popularity for this canon has flourished. If you flick through the freeview channels there are now even repeats of the previous series such as 'The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes' and book sales have seen an almost 50% resurgence since the beginning of the films/series.

Isn't it amazing the effect that a few well written episodes will have on our consumer behaviour. Not to mention my friends and my own behaviour. Because I can't help but escape the discussion of how he supposedly faked his own death. The internet is just teeming with theories as to how it was done. I have had many conversations about it with my own mother and people I work with and to be honest I just don't think I can wait a year.

But I really love the effort that Moffat and Gatiss have put into creating the Sherlockverse.

Watson's Blog

Molly's Blog

Sherlock's Website

and crucially Richard Brook - Red Herring or real?

So if anyone would just like to work it out for me, that would be greatly appreciated.

The Joy of Books

I'm carrying on with my awesome book finds.

Have you ever wondered what happened in a bookshop after it was closed? Well this is footage from a small bookstore in Toronto, they placed cameras around the shop at night and some freaky stuff started happening... just kidding! This is a stop motion animation made by the bookstore after they rearranged their shelves. Apparently it took them many, many sleepless nights and you can see why.

Their main aim was to show the joy that you get from a real paper copy of the book rather than an e-version. Now I'm quite open to change in the field of books but give me a physical book over an e-book any day. I just couldn't live without the smell!

I wish this was what actually happened though.

Book Landscapes

Just a little bit more book art for you, this time from an artist called Kyle Kirkpatrick.

Inspiration from Emptiness; Red Bull Canimation

Now anyone who knows me knows that I have a slight addiction to Red Bull, my car is littered with at least 3 empty cans at any one time. So it seemed only natural that I would be very interested in their most recent interactive marketing campaign; Red Bull Canimation.

They basically asked the public to create a 2 minute video using the red bull can as inspiration in either stop-motion, drawing or CGI format. This was both a way to find talented and budding would be animators/advertisers and to obviously promote the brand. Very clever using a brand 'that gives you wings' to inspire creativeness.

The winners were judged by a board of leading and award winning designers, creatives and animators including Merlin Crossingham from Bristol's own Aardman Animations. The winners in the 6 different categories were then offered great opportunities in design and animation companies that gelled with their particular talents. Red Bull, giving them wings into their new career.

This is by far my favourite; the winner of the stop-motion category Chris Butcher's 'Inspiration from Emptiness' . And you can sure see why he won. By mixing the Red Bull can with their other great achievement; formula one, Butcher really got the tone of the brief and perfectly represented their brand. Butcher's Red Bull canimation will surely take him on to better things.


Inspiration From Emptiness from Chris Butcher on Vimeo.

Rules for pedestrians

I've discovered a new pet peeve. People who walk on the wrong side of the road.

On my commute to work which is only a mile; along a pot-holed country lane, I come across many walkers, power-walkers, dog-walkers, pony-walkers, ramblers, amblers, joggers, runners, goats and cyclists. And out of all the people/animals I see on my drive to work only 20% have any common sense (obviously I haven't included the animals in my statistics as they lack basic highway safety skills anyway).

They all walk on the left hand side of the road with their backs to oncoming traffic, surely that's a recipe for disaster? If you can't see what's coming toward you, you cannot take the appropriate steps to make a hasty dash closer to the edge of the road. It's just selfish. These people just walk along, completely oblivious (and often with children!) and just expect you to move around them.

Now as there's such a large percentage of people who apparently have no idea how to walk correctly, I thought that maybe I had simply made it all up. Maybe I'm the one who's crazy and doesn't know how to walk. Maybe I've just been cursing these people under my breath for all this time, for no good reason. So I googled.

And I really hate to say I told you so, but it's coming... I told you so.

2. If there is no pavement keep to the right-hand side of the road so that you can see oncoming traffic. (The Highway Code, direct.gov.uk)


That's right it's a part of the highway code. Now I know posting about it on here isn't going to help, it's just a way to vent my annoyance. But hey, if even one person learns something from this or can at least now share in my peevishness, then I'll have achieved my goal. 


Maybe I should contact directgov and suggest they make an advert about this to raise awareness, possibly with some cute animated hedgehogs...?

Believe in a Better World Advert

I'm a bit behind the times on this one, but you have to admit that Coca Cola sure know how to make some uplifting adverts.

The Book a Month Mission: A Week in December

As promised I am starting phase one of the 'actually keeping new years resolutions this year' mission. To read at least one book a month and I'm beginning with this, A Week in December by Sebastian Faulks. 

Why did I choose it? Well although we've all been thrust into the cold, harsh, moody month of January with all it's post-christmas-indulgence misery I felt it was important to try and keep the festive spirit. We shall have to see if this logic pans out. Promising a satirical, dickensian scope of modern life; following the inter-weaving stories of seven individuals in the run up to christmas, I feel my hopes should not be misplaced.

The only problem is that I first bought this book about a year ago based upon my love of Faulks' other works; Birdsong and The Girl at the Lion D'or  which are two of my favourite novels. A Week in December though, I found strangely hard to get into despite my best efforts. Possibly because my tastes natural gravitate to the mythical, epic and fantastic; I found it quite hard to keep my focus when faced with a world of teachers, islamist students and hedge fund managers. Nevertheless I shall persevere only because I have such great respect for Faulks.

Whether the quotation 'it's richly entertaining and highly rewarding', on the jacket is true  only time shall tell.

PS. Any suggestions for future months are greatly appreciated.