Mark stone's Blog

Is this a comment on mass media consumerist society? perhaps a debate? or an an ad against advertising?

Seen in Bournemouth July 2009.

Added by mark stone on July 24, 2009 at 6:00pm — No Comments

The Branded Cookbook

The Branded Cookbook: 85 Recipes for the World's Favourite Food Brands. Non-ashamedly brand orientated cook book using branded stuff against the trends of fresh, seasonal, organic, artisan fair trade or local produce. This uses the fruits of the corporate beast. However, you can only have tip top asparagus for 3 months of the year and make southern fried chicken in a (kellogg's cornflake crumb all year round.

The brands featured are… Continue

Added by mark stone on June 14, 2009 at 2:03am — 1 Comment

Twitter search or Google? Do both: Twoogle

Twoogle provides an easy way to search both Twitter and Google from one single site, obtaining original results from each service, side by side. It helps that this subject of twitter vs google is hot at the moment and a real-time mash-up split page is a simple answer.

Popular Wisdom VS. Pagerank

Twoogle aims to make it easier to benefit from the real-time results provided by Twitter and the relevant sites provided by the most… Continue

Added by mark stone on May 13, 2009 at 6:13pm — No Comments

Jamie Oliver De-innovation: Cook out of home.

The back to basics approach is sometimes a good thing. Celeb chef Jamie's empire covers lots of areas, chef wear, kitchen wear, fancy pants restaurants. However, this one seems to be a loss leading almost charitable offering within the expensive cookery school sector.

Jamie Oliver has success again. “Recipease” (that's recipe's with ease) in Clapham Junction is London's outpost to the Brighton original and is winning praise… Continue

Added by mark stone on May 13, 2009 at 5:30pm — No Comments

Footwear hiphop: Run DMC have Adidas, now De La Soul have Nike

Hip hop co-branding seems to be working in cycles. Run DMC sung 'My Adidas' in 1985. They signed a a $1.6m deal to work their hip hop with Adidas. Now De La Soul (contemporaries of Run DMC) are hailing My Nike+ in 2009.

I haven't heard it but even if it's a hip hop mix of other peoples tunes, that is still the essence of hip hop and De La Soul are masters of borrowing and remixing. Therefore it's not originality to complement the… Continue

Added by mark stone on May 12, 2009 at 8:41pm — No Comments

Consumer Generated or a Mock-campaign?

I noticed through twitter a funny photo-tweet concerning some amusing slogans on an 'Anti-terror billboard'. I thought it was the real-deal however, even with the amusing copy that people were writing, the message was still clear.

It's one of the few user-generated time-waster slogan generator sites that seemed to have a real purpose. Terrorism and low-level terrorism happen in… Continue

Added by mark stone on April 9, 2009 at 6:30pm — 1 Comment

Exactitudes: the end of the individuality myth?

Exactitudes, a contraction of “exact” and “attitudes”, was an exhibition and site showcasing some striking photography montages. Rotterdam-based photographer Ari Versluis and profiler Ellie Uyttenbroek have worked together since 1994. Inspired by a shared interest in the striking dress codes of various social groups, they have systematically documented numerous identities over the 14 years. Rotterdam's… Continue

Added by mark stone on April 9, 2009 at 6:21pm — No Comments

Getty Images/Flickr merger?

I read the article in The Indepentent about the strategy behind Getty images deal with user-generated showcase/sharing photo site Flickr.com. It makes sense that the professional corporate leader of image stock should work with the best of the pro-sumer generation of digital photographers.…

Continue

Added by mark stone on April 9, 2009 at 4:31pm — No Comments

De-innovation in the pub industry

De-innovation has happened again, just like in last weeks blog post on de-innovation in dieting: the raw meat diet, the reverse has happened again. A combination of nostalgia and point of difference marketing contributes to the new literary-focused pub 'The Swan & Edgar' opened yesterday down the road from me near Baker Street, a stone's throw away form… Continue

Added by mark stone on April 9, 2009 at 4:09pm — No Comments

A colin and chips? Sounds fishy to me

Sainsbury's has rebranded 'unfashionable' (doesn't sell) Pollack. The fish is being positioned as a cheaper than cod and guilt-free fish. It's an environmentally-friendly option as it's in plentiful supply off the British coast. Due to dwindling stocks of over-fished cod this could be an option as they taste similar. My old agency AMV are Sainsbury's ad agency and had a fair old go at promoting this which has grabbed them no less than front page… Continue

Added by mark stone on April 6, 2009 at 4:35pm — No Comments

Economy models explained

Sometimes it takes a 'speadable' email to make sense of the econo-politics. Enjoy!

ALTRUISM: You have 2 cows, and you give one to your neighbour.

SOCIALISM: You have 2 cows, and the State takes one and gives it to

your neighbour.

COMMUNISM: You have 2 cows. The State takes both and gives you some milk.

FASCISM: You have 2 cows. The State takes both and sells you some milk.

NAZISM: You… Continue

Added by mark stone on April 6, 2009 at 3:41pm — No Comments

Rent-a-Wife

The 'fuss free wife' is a personal concierge service offered by small SW LDN business Radish Kitchen. Fuss Free Wife Kitchen-Keeping Service involves paying a weekly charge to get your food sorted, the basics and even meals cooked for you, ready and waiting.

For £125 per week, she’ll buy all your basic groceries and stock you with freshly baked bread, milk and seasonal fruit. You’ll also… Continue

Added by mark stone on April 6, 2009 at 1:48pm — No Comments

Saatchi-ism

I have a local synagogue that is actually 'funded' by the Saatchi brothers and operates as a fairly low-key alternative to traditional synagogues. This is an alternative to the 4 main strands of Jewish congragations and communities. This is whether you are Reform' (partial to bacon), United (no bacon) and sects of Orthodox (don't say the b-word).

The location in St John's Wood, is within a mile of 6 synagoues mainly of United… Continue

Added by mark stone on April 6, 2009 at 1:38pm — No Comments

YouTube proves itself by curating an orchestra

YouTube wants to prove that it's move than a showcase of 'Animals do the funniest things' style tosh and it actually a real life community enhancement. Next week, on April 15th an entire orchestra of worldwide randoms will be collated together in NYC for a practise and then perform at Carnegie Hall (which I believe is of Royal Albert Hall proportions). Their entry auditions has been done on YouTube with lots of sponsors to get a piece of the… Continue

Added by mark stone on April 6, 2009 at 1:12pm — No Comments

Looking to agencies instead of music fans for revenue

The Independent recently wrote about the music industry using ads a new revenue stream, more secure than the traditional model. Here's the article in all it's glory.

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Having signed up Bob Dylan's "Blowin' in the Wind" for its next TV commercial, the Co-op has gleefully commissioned a YouGov survey into the worst music in ads. Sheilas' Wheels didn't stand a… Continue

Added by mark stone on April 6, 2009 at 12:54pm — No Comments

Trend: facial gesture control for your gadgets

The Mimi switch looks like in ear headphones but has infa-red sensors to track facial gestures that can work like a remote control. This piece of wearable technology is similar to the Minority Report style hand gesturing and moves towards a wink wink kind of command technology.

Faris wrote about the wearable web which involves the internet without a screen… Continue

Added by mark stone on April 6, 2009 at 12:03pm — No Comments

Fridge Door replacement gadget: The o2 Joggler

The o2 Joggler device is a wi-fi enabled family orientated PDA, it is described as 'Your new fridge door'. It looks like a 7" digital photo frame. The site made for the device is interestingly called O2 Family, which is the logical step to follow over 100% market saturation with mobile phones. Diversification happens now into the family communications sector. The device is a hybrid between the afore-mentioned dig photo frame with the touchscreen… Continue

Added by mark stone on April 6, 2009 at 11:37am — No Comments

De-innovation in dieting: eat raw meat

The latest diet to come out of Californ-I-A involves eating raw meat, sometime practically rotting flesh. Cavemen may have thought nothing of eating the raw flesh of a slaughtered animal, but things have moved on: boiled, baked, seared and grilled, almost everything we eat - except sushi - has been cooked in some way before it reaches our lips. However, this 'fad diet', the latest to follow cabbage soup, Atkins, 'no-solids' or the Lindsay Lohan… Continue

Added by mark stone on April 6, 2009 at 11:19am — No Comments

Water Filter Straw

This is design of the year. The drinking straw that provides clean water through sucking through it. It costs $3-5 and lasts a year.

Surely this can cure the… Continue

Added by mark stone on March 4, 2009 at 10:43pm — No Comments

Northern Soul return to our ads and contactless creditcards get fun

Remember the classic KFC Northern Soul ads form back in 2004? They raised the popularity of the US soul music genre that was big in the 70's in random Northern England social spaces such as bingo halls and casino's. True.

Well VISA have remixed a classic northern soul track. They've made a feel good ad featuring the 'crutchmaster' Bill Shannon an able-bodied conceptual dancer. The dancer isn't gliding along on wheelie shoes and he isnt a stunt man. He is a… Continue

Added by mark stone on March 3, 2009 at 10:00pm — No Comments

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