4th November 2017
@smithsonianmag. Where Do Ideas Come From? ‘A small mollusc known as the sea squirt does something strange. It swims around early in its life, eventually finds a place to attach like a barnacle, and then absorbs its own brain for nutrition. Why? Because it no longer needs its brain. It’s found its permanent home….Whether manufacturing cars, or launching modern art, creators remodel what they inherit. They absorb the world into their nervous systems and manipulate it to create possible futures.‘
Jimmy Wales appeared at this weeks Wired Live 2017 to discuss the launch of WikiTribune, his news venture, that claims to deliver evidence based journalism. As objectivity is (nearly) always subjective, this could be a tricky one. Some sources are, of course, suggesting that it is already biased.
How Snapchat has kept itself free from fake news….It’s proving to be a much more competent media company than either Facebook or Google. Facebook deliberately blurs the line between personal status updates, news articles, and ads—sticking all three in its constantly updating, algorithm-driven News Feed—Snapchat has taken a more old-fashioned approach. The app’s news section, Discover, is limited to professionally edited content, including dozens of channels maintained by old-media outlets.
From ItsNiceThat – ‘AMV BBDO’s #BloodNormal campaign for Bodyform and Libresse fought to break a longstanding taboo in advertising – showing period blood. The creative partners behind the ad, Nadja Lossgott and Nicholas Hulley, write about making the film, and their shock when it was banned worldwide.‘
Really interesting piece from Alex Danco (@socialcapital) – Taylor Swift, iOS, and the Access Economy: Why the Normal Distribution is Vanishing . ‘The world’s shift from Normal, Gaussian distributions of demand towards bifurcated, two-tiered distributions is a natural consequence of our shift from a world governed by scarcity to one governed by abundance.’
How Adidas Football, re-wrote its marketing script. The change in direction included a somewhat controversial, tongue-in-cheek approach. ‘The first example of Adidas’ new style came with the 2015 ‘There Will Be Haters’ campaign, created by the brand’s lead agency Iris Worldwide… the spot addressed – in a fresh and funny way – the abuse that comes with success in the beautiful game’.
By @eatbigfish – ‘Why drama is a strategic imperative for brands that want to get noticed.’ ‘The brilliant thing Pilpel has done is to understand the power of a little drama: to take a banal and clichéd loyalty mechanism and turn it into something I not only find appealing, but am actually sitting here and writing about for several thousand complete strangers.‘
From @jwtintelligence – ‘The youngest members of generation X are just over 40, but don’t call them middle-aged—midlife crisis is the last thing on their minds. Older millennials are more than 30, and adults in every sense—so why are marketers still lumping them in with 18-year-olds just out of high school? Meet the Xennials: the in-between generation redefining growing up.‘
Here are some of the social media ads Russia wanted Americans to see. For example: ‘Satan : I win if Clinton wins. Jesus : Not if I can help it! Press ‘Like’ to help Jesus win!’
David Mullins and Charlie Craig visited Masterpiece Cakeshop in July 2012, with Charlie’s mother, to order a cake for their upcoming wedding reception. This is their story (short video), which ended up at the Supreme Court. Treated Like We Did Something Wrong.