tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:58:20 +0000http://www.reedwords.co.uk/reedwordsblog/reedmiscellany/misc.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (David)Blogger81125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-2832408465366091092Thu, 21 Aug 2008 08:44:00 +00002008-08-21T01:58:20.279-07:00videoEA SportsTiger WoodsviralNeatoramaThis is just the way it's going, isn't it? EA Sports see a YouTube video by some guy who thought he'd spotted a glitch in their Tiger Woods golf game, and they make an ad in response. With Tiger. And put it up on YouTube. And Neatorama picks it up, and it pops up on my RSS from Neatorama, and I pass it on to you. Consumers driving advertising. (I'm tempted to say 'calling the shots', but that http://www.reedwords.co.uk/reedwordsblog/reedmiscellany/2008/08/ea-sports-on-ball.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-1461864429180162653Wed, 20 Aug 2008 16:30:00 +00002008-08-20T09:33:36.071-07:00humourconveniencecopywritingpackagingcopy If life gets any more convenient, I won't have to move at all.http://www.reedwords.co.uk/reedwordsblog/reedmiscellany/2008/08/what-on-earth-will-i-do-with-all-time-i.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-2281950321788713681Fri, 15 Aug 2008 09:45:00 +00002008-08-15T03:56:10.900-07:00blogbattery hensex-batchickens Entirely unrelated to anything brandish or copywritery, I am hereby fulfilling a promise to my wife that I will promote her new (and first ever) blog on my site. Wendy recently convinced me that our home was perfect apart from one small detail: an absence of chickens. This has now been rectified, with the arrival of six former inmates of a battery farm. These slightly battered ladies rejoice http://www.reedwords.co.uk/reedwordsblog/reedmiscellany/2008/08/personal-plea.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-6996742213064190042Fri, 15 Aug 2008 07:33:00 +00002008-08-15T01:10:31.813-07:00YouTubeFC Twentefootballsteve mcclarentone of voiceAgain, this is just irresistible, although only tangentially relevant. Steve McClaren, famous for making something of a hash of the England manager's job, has taken a new role with Dutch side FC Twente. Interviewed on Dutch television, poor Steve guarantees himself a top spot on YouTube by adopting a bizarre sort of Gallic/Dutch accent, presumably in an attempt to make himself understood. http://www.reedwords.co.uk/reedwordsblog/reedmiscellany/2008/08/steve-mcclarens-new-tone-of-voice.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-4415723888615019909Wed, 13 Aug 2008 13:38:00 +00002008-08-13T06:38:10.125-07:00NetworkSolutionsemail marketingcopywritingemailURLtone of voiceI just received an email from the new CEO of Network Solutions, through whom I own a couple of URLs*. Look: Do you know, I have a feeling I wasn't the only one to get this email. Of course, I'd know that anyway, whatever it said. But you'd think a large company, especially one that deals exclusively in online services, could at least address me personally. And it would help if the first http://www.reedwords.co.uk/reedwordsblog/reedmiscellany/2008/08/how-to-make-your-emails-even-colder-and.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-8350016119140141670Tue, 12 Aug 2008 08:59:00 +00002008-08-12T01:59:41.073-07:00CERNLHCsongrapLarge Hadron ColliderI'm trying to find a way to tie this into copywriting, tone of voice and all that, but basically it's just enormous fun. I guess it's about using words, and about a very surprising tone of voice for CERN. Anyway, on September 10, they're going to switch on the 27-kilometre Large Hadron Collider at CERN, which is a ludicrously exciting thing to do. 'What did you do at work today?' 'Oh, I http://www.reedwords.co.uk/reedwordsblog/reedmiscellany/2008/08/hippest-scientists-on-earth.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-1384960742997771467Mon, 11 Aug 2008 19:58:00 +00002008-08-13T03:33:12.843-07:00commercialadvertising"Watch Your Own Heart Attack""BritishHeart Foundation""Stephen Berkoff"Coming home from London the other day, I was faced with a poster inviting me to WATCH YOUR OWN HEART ATTACK. It's a pretty arresting headline. I forgot what time the ad was going to be on telly, but I've now seen it online. And so can you: The original poster was brilliant, in that it was completely un-ignorable. Even though I forgot when the ad would be on, it lodged in my head and I knew http://www.reedwords.co.uk/reedwordsblog/reedmiscellany/2008/08/your-own-heart-attack-or-just-stephen.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-3607970940549342139Mon, 11 Aug 2008 10:42:00 +00002008-08-11T03:45:35.118-07:00laptop"StephenFry"anagramApplewriting...could spot that 'Apple Macintosh' is an anagram of 'laptop machines'. These are the little, nerdy, crossword-solver things we writers really get a kick out of. And it's as good a reason as any to post a belated recommendation of Fry's splendid blog.http://www.reedwords.co.uk/reedwordsblog/reedmiscellany/2008/08/only-stephen-fry.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-3677825213186404322Mon, 28 Jul 2008 09:14:00 +00002008-07-28T03:55:52.121-07:00postercopywritingbrandorangetone of voiceI know I keep going on and on and on about Orange, but it is the brand that consistently upsets me the most. The tone of voice is consistent, I'll give it that. But it's so consistently unctuous and supercilious and syrupy that I just want to gag. Coming home from a meeting last week, I spotted the latest sticky-sweet globule to have dripped from Orange's honeyed spoon. It was this: It turnshttp://www.reedwords.co.uk/reedwordsblog/reedmiscellany/2008/07/orange-makes-me-go-bit-puce-again.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-773656954159384469Fri, 25 Jul 2008 16:38:00 +00002008-07-25T09:56:23.119-07:00copywritingstrapline www.considerateconstructorsscheme.org.ukhttp://www.reedwords.co.uk/reedwordsblog/reedmiscellany/2008/07/refreshingly-straightforward-strapline.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-7173253299645513626Mon, 23 Jun 2008 16:50:00 +00002008-06-23T10:29:57.166-07:00campaignscharitypovertygraphicgirl effectinternetdesignwritingThis is how it's done: I found this quite captivating. It's a perfect example of being brave about tone of voice. Poverty, AIDS, malnutrition, education... are these subjects about which we can be light - even funny - and still get the message across? This little video shows that not only is this possible, it can actually be the best way to get the message across. I love the little "(http://www.reedwords.co.uk/reedwordsblog/reedmiscellany/2008/06/words-and-design-for-better-world.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-5281577312401036Wed, 18 Jun 2008 16:24:00 +00002008-06-18T09:35:25.340-07:00clevertextwordlewordsinternetnovelwritingWordle is a rather splendid thing. (Discovered, as is so often the way, via Russell.) If you paste a chunk of text into Wordle, it creates a cloud of the most frequently used words, their sizes relative to their usage. (Like a tag cloud.) The one here is from the first 61 pages of my novel, Rag and Bone Dreams. Goodness, a copywriter with a novel on the go. Who'd have thought it?http://www.reedwords.co.uk/reedwordsblog/reedmiscellany/2008/06/oh-my-wordle.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-7027361885195610271Fri, 13 Jun 2008 14:11:00 +00002008-06-13T07:22:09.887-07:00volkswagenVWadvertisingbrazilguerillaThis is a lovely idea from Brazil: If you can't be bothered to watch it, VW looked for cars with dents and scratches on their rears. Then they put stickers against these marks, promoting the Polo's parking sensors. A nice touch is that the stickers are the same colour as the cars (as much as possible, presumably), so it looks like the type has actually appeared on your bodywork. Via Adverboxhttp://www.reedwords.co.uk/reedwordsblog/reedmiscellany/2008/06/great-guerilla-stickers-for-vw.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-2396281028301058243Tue, 10 Jun 2008 21:22:00 +00002008-06-12T05:17:39.214-07:00commercialfallonadvertisingballoonsrip-offTVorangeSonyanimalsThere's a thread developing here, isn't there? I've been noting TV ad rip-offs for a while now (here and here), and now there's another one. We've just had BMW doing Honda, now Orange do Sony. When the ad below began on my TV the other night, I thought, 'Here we go: Bravia again.' But it wasn't. It was Orange, whose marketing continues to get up my nose in all sorts of ways. Not only are they http://www.reedwords.co.uk/reedwordsblog/reedmiscellany/2008/06/now-orange-has-made-sony-ad-surprise_11.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-7212326615929925360Wed, 28 May 2008 20:20:00 +00002008-05-28T13:23:40.693-07:00hondacommercialcopyadvertisingTVbmw Bizarre. Oh, and I know I'm just a lone voice in the wilderness, but that end line? That should of course be 'Fewer emissions'. Tut.http://www.reedwords.co.uk/reedwordsblog/reedmiscellany/2008/05/why-has-bmw-made-honda-ad.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-893007387514874763Thu, 22 May 2008 16:13:00 +00002008-05-23T03:31:54.948-07:00artQuestion Mark Insidepublic artwordsSt Paul'sMartin FirrelllanguageI've just come from tea and cakes at the Chapter House of St Paul's Cathedral. This is not the sort of thing I do every day, as you might imagine. In fact, I've never done it before and probably won't again. So I should thank Martin Firrell for inviting me. Martin is a public artist, known for projecting often provocative messages onto public buildings. (He's also a branding consultant and http://www.reedwords.co.uk/reedwordsblog/reedmiscellany/2008/05/whats-your-question-mark-inside.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-2394192199998912669Fri, 09 May 2008 07:55:00 +00002008-05-09T00:58:36.828-07:00proper nounsgrammarfunnynounswritinglanguageBBCFrom the BBC website this morning. Enough said, I think.http://www.reedwords.co.uk/reedwordsblog/reedmiscellany/2008/05/why-its-important-to-capitalise-proper.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-6487641479830338489Mon, 05 May 2008 18:05:00 +00002008-05-05T11:12:15.540-07:00advertisingCape ArgusUNICEFWorld AIDS DayAdverblogAdverblog has alerted me to this brilliant little idea for World AIDS Day by the Cape Argus in South Africa. You can't really see on this image, but they've made each page number of the paper extend into a statistic about AIDS. (For a much bigger version of the image, click here.) This is the kind of idea I love: simple, enormously impactful and totally original - ideas that make you think, Why http://www.reedwords.co.uk/reedwordsblog/reedmiscellany/2008/05/little-bit-of-genius-for-world-aids-day.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-494572851485029188Tue, 22 Apr 2008 12:29:00 +00002008-04-22T06:34:09.349-07:00videoposteremptybillboardomgermanbillboardgoogleVia Billboardom, these brilliant posters for Google Video. Thank heavens for very simple, very brilliant, completely engaging ideas like this. Rather than telling you things are wonderful, like the aforementioned VW ad, this simply allows you to make things wonderful for yourself. And soak up the brand in the process, of course. This is the way it should be. http://www.reedwords.co.uk/reedwordsblog/reedmiscellany/2008/04/brilliant-and-simple.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-7444700657342905745Mon, 21 Apr 2008 20:01:00 +00002008-04-21T13:15:52.496-07:00volkswagenhondacommercialchoirVWadvertisingHaving just bemoaned the lack of originality in TV ads, it was with a sinking heart that I came across the latest VW ad (via Scamp). They're not making something physical this time, but is it necessary to point out the tonal similarities to all those other ads? That slightly kooky, hey-isn't-this-just the-greatest-world-we-live-in? kind of goofy/cleverness that infects all those cake cars and http://www.reedwords.co.uk/reedwordsblog/reedmiscellany/2008/04/enough-already.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-5771681690318451281Wed, 16 Apr 2008 08:10:00 +00002008-04-16T01:20:35.804-07:00mechanicalartpegsmirrordigitalDaniel RozinI've just discovered the work of Daniel Rozin, who creates these quite incredible mirrors made of wooden pegs, tiles and other materials. The mirrors are linked to software that breaks a video image down into a sort of pixelated form, and then manipulates the pegs (or whatever). The effect is extraordinary: This has nothing directly to do with words, I admit. But it's beautiful, captivating http://www.reedwords.co.uk/reedwordsblog/reedmiscellany/2008/04/digitalmechanical-mirrors.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-2134643649969559878Tue, 15 Apr 2008 08:09:00 +00002008-04-16T01:30:32.373-07:00climateprofilemcdonoughcradle to cradleVanity Fairarchitectureenvironment The latest of Vanity Fair's special 'Green Issues' includes a profile of radical architect William McDonough, who believes we can and should build things that, like nature, ultimately return all their raw materials to the earth, or at least to the factories, to be re-used. He calls it Cradle to Cradle, one of those brilliant rallying-call phrases that captures an entire philosophy in an instanthttp://www.reedwords.co.uk/reedwordsblog/reedmiscellany/2008/04/this-man-might-just-save-world.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-6770244076499475894Tue, 01 Apr 2008 18:11:00 +00002008-04-01T06:28:01.820-07:00johnson banksApril FoolMouseyMouseMicrosoft Advertising AwardslogoBut johnson banks haven't. This gave me a chuckle. Image nicked with the best will in the world. Please don't sue, Michael.http://www.reedwords.co.uk/reedwordsblog/reedmiscellany/2008/04/id-forgotten-it-was-april-fools-day.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-7896797640650606699Tue, 01 Apr 2008 13:04:00 +00002008-04-01T06:07:57.912-07:00punctuationwordserrormistakeHSBCleafletenglishwritinglanguageI just saw this in my local branch. All my Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells instincts erupted in a moment. Inside, they repeat the headline. But this time without the offending mark. So not only are they incorrect, they're also inconsistent. Why oh why oh why, etc.http://www.reedwords.co.uk/reedwordsblog/reedmiscellany/2008/04/well-for-starters.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike)tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-6655403105787038653Mon, 31 Mar 2008 09:12:00 +00002008-04-01T07:12:03.615-07:00Joshua Allen Harrisartstreet artplastic baginspirationsculptureYou've got to love the sheer ingenuity of these street sculptures by artist Joshua Allen Harris. They're made from plastic bags and tied to subway grilles so that when the train whooshes past underneath, the bags come to life... Someone will doubtless find a use for these to advertise something. Frankly, they'd be daft not to. But part of their appeal is how splendidly pointless they are: purehttp://www.reedwords.co.uk/reedwordsblog/reedmiscellany/2008/03/platic-fantastic.htmlnoreply@blogger.com (Mike)