The Musings Of An Opinionated Sod [Help Me Grow!]


Social Experiments …
November 16, 2007, 7:00 am
Filed under: Comment

I love social experiments – love’em, love ’em, love ’em.

Even before I met the astounding Paul Britton [he was one of the UK’s prominent criminal profilers and also worked with the FBI] I felt they were a powerful method to truly understand what people did/thought/felt rather than putting all my trust in something like a traditional focus group.

That doesn’t mean I don’t value things like focus groups, of course I do but they – like social experiments – are not the be-all and end-all to consumer understanding and should never be treated as such.

To be honest, one of the main reasons why I/we love to include this approach is that we believe it helps you [and the clients] actually SEE and FEEL what people do as opposed to just accepting what they claim.

Now over the years I/we have done all sorts of controlled experiments – including quite a few ‘questionable’ ones – and while this approach has got increasingly ‘trendy’ over the past few years [especially with things like The Tipping Point and the far superior Freakonomics] it saddens me this approach has been cheapened to some late night trashy television show, even though things like Candid Camera and You’ve Been Framed were around way before I was.

Anyway, whilst the entertainment version of ‘Social Experiment’s is limited to exploiting laughs [as opposed to truly creating a controlled – and as far as possible – quantifiable situation] the consumer insight value is still quite powerful, even if it is done on a very limited scale.

With that in mind, let me introduce you to a sick little film which shows how men [or at least this man] can be spineless and shallow little fucks!


56 Comments so far
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That video is horrible but this post isn’t. I know there is a school of thought that says forensic profiling is akin to fortune telling but you should write more about your work with Paul because what you did with him got me hooked on character and social triggering and led to a whole new way of how I approached planning.

Comment by Pete

vast improvement on yesterdays shit even if pete is slobbering all over you like a 2 dollar crack whore.

i take it campbell is still in chinese isolation. maybe i should communicate my insults via nps blog though thats so bland swearings probably not allowed 🙂

and if you want to hear more stories about social experiments pete, buy a fucking book because we invested a shit load of coin in supporting campbells little foray into “cracker” territory and ill be fucked if were going to give it all away for free 🙂

come back soon rob, petes whining and i want to make sure youre not poisoning lee against me

Comment by andy@cynic

You are the poet lauriette of compliments aren’t you Andy 🙂 You can tell Sarah your theory of my unnatural interest in Rob at dinner tomorrow 🙂

Comment by Pete

cock 🙂

Comment by andy@cynic

You are incapable of leaving a comment on NP’s blog Andy. It’s too tricky for you and you are “technically challenged” anyway.

Arse. [smiley face winking]

Morning

Comment by Marcus

oi brown, i resemble that remark 🙂

cock

Comment by andy@cynic

It’s Friday isn’t it? It’s Andy’s and Marcus’ mad friday comment action isn’t it?

I’m bored you up for it chubby?

Comment by Marcus

My oh my you guys are fantastic entertainment. I have stumbled across this blog two days ago and have been hooked not least because I knew Rob very well a long time ago … and he has turned out to be everything I would of expected! It would be far too boring to let him know who I am so I shall just carry on checking in now and again for a bit of light relief!

x

Comment by BTBB

*gets popcorn to watch the Andy and Marcus show*

Comment by Rob Mortimer

Sometimes, in business meetings, I pretend to fall asleep, dribble down my chin and fart very loudly. When my boss get’s angry and wakes me up, I always ask if we’ve landed or if I’ve missed the duty free and I get fired.

Discuss.

Comment by Marcus

too busy making my next batch of popcorn

Comment by BTBB

Children like to get new things so every three weeks, I steal my children’s pet hamster and tell them it’s passed away and gone to the great hamster heaven in the sky. I do kill the hamster because you should never lie to your kids. That would be wrong.

Discuss.

Comment by Marcus

i’m not particulary interested in becoming part your next social experiment or having my intelligence (is that spelt correctly?) assessed

Comment by BTBB

I feel misunderstood.

Comment by Marcus

misunderstanding is the biggest disadvantage to e-comms, i’m sure you’ll get over it. ok a quickie (story of my life). there is always a time and a place to lie to anyone. like i flushed a live fish down the toilet last week, it had a fungus and was going to spread to the others, what did i tell my little girl when she noticed it had gone? the cat ate it.

Comment by BTBB

If she kills the cat you know who to blame…

Comment by Rob Mortimer

Did the cat catch the fungus?

Comment by Marcus

but the cat is old and not too well so when i get it put down in the coming months she won’t be so upset and i won’t be the baddy.

Comment by BTBB

ive just come across a rare john lennon quote, “life is what happens when you read campbells shite blog” quite smart for a scouser.

now who the fuck is this new person. do you know me as well? are you a bloke or a bird? do you own a video of rob pissed. do you really give a shit? do i really give a shit? should i be here? fuck it, got work to do, go on your mindless stream of mindfuck marcus, make rob shit himself when he comes back to civilization.

Comment by andy@cynic

If that’s the case Andy…

Is it just me or is a simple ball of string quite the most perfect thing for explaining the concepts of evolution, quantum physics photosynthesis and the tying up of parcels that are to be sent with an international postal system?

Comment by Marcus

i only know rob, bird, no video but i have seen him pissed he swore it would never happen again has it? don’t really give a shit but its nice ‘seeing’ what Rob is up to.

Comment by BTBB

fucking hell, you must of known rob a long time then, the fuck hasnt drunk for 20 years. do you know his mum? she comes here too. did you ever shag him? was he shit? Will he remember you? im going to call him and freak him out. whoever you are, youve made me happy.

keep talking you bollocks marcus, im sure someone is paying attention.

Comment by andy@cynic

Ah fuck it, your right. And be sure to point out that “she said” he was shit in bed when you talk to him.

Comment by Marcus

yes I know his mum, i think he was a virgin when we met and i think i know who he lost it too, not shagged him but seen him naked and been in his bedroom several times.

Comment by BTBB

I love this woman! BTBB you’re brilliant – oh this is going to be so much fun.

Comment by Marcus

Jill is gonna love this.

Comment by Marcus

the bastard is busy.

fucker.

just seen new bird called this blog “light relief” and given campbell tries to make it quite serious, it means she really comes here for the banter that marcus and i offer.

thats fucking gold, itll piss campbell right off.

Comment by andy@cynic

Did you hear that George? Fucking brilliant.

Comment by Marcus

does he still have a sad collection of white shirts with holes in the elbows, puke style ties and an assortment of coloured jackets? snappy hey!

Comment by BTBB

gold. pure gold.

Comment by Marcus

weve just discovered the holy grail. the fucking holy grail. i cant wait till campbells back, cant fucking wait. off to meet george now marcus, hes going to shit with excitement. catch you later.

Comment by andy@cynic

BTBB do you have photos of him from back then?

Comment by Marcus

guys its been lovely but i gota go business to run, daughter to collect from nursery .. he can guess all he likes i have no intention of ever letting on who i am. ps jill love rob totally he is a top bloke but abs have never and will never fancy him.

Comment by BTBB

ties? you must of known him before me. he now lives in jeans, bad taste tshirts and fucking birkenstock sandals. and more shockingly, he managed to marry a top bird. shes obviously blind, but shes hot.

got to go but this has made my fucking week.

Comment by andy@cynic

abs? is that a clue? wheres sherlock holmes when i fucking need him. what a great day.

Comment by andy@cynic

This is the big one Andy. The one we’ve always been looking for. Oh, I love this blog.

Comment by Marcus

you plonker abs is short for absolutely shit can’t spell.. really going now

Comment by BTBB

oh i guess you non brits might not be familiar with plonker!

Comment by BTBB

this makes the da vinci code look like hello magazine. getting evils from katerina so must fuck off.

Comment by andy@cynic

I’m quite scared but fascinated too…

Comment by Rob Mortimer

ive been told. you could take over from lauren as my fave bird on this blog. bye all you fuckers

Comment by andy@cynic

Go on then Andy, liven my blog up. Someone has to..

Comment by NP

plonker?

youre not delboy from only fools and horses are you? dont answer, i cant afford to hang around any longer.

Comment by andy@cynic

as soon as someone shows me how to change websites you can be sure i fucking will np 🙂

Comment by andy@cynic

I don’t know what your problem is NP. It’s a good blog. We all love it. We’d love it more if an ex-school friend turned up saying that she knew you from way back when – when you were a virgin, been in your bedroom and seen your Kagagoogoo posters.

What a fucking brilliant day.

Comment by Marcus

Perhaps he’s too Shy?

Comment by Rob Mortimer

Jesus mother fucking piss shit hell, I thought it was just a joke but it’s real. I can feel my payrise is just around the corner now 🙂

Comment by Billy Whizz

What an unexpected turn for the better 🙂

Comment by George

So BTBB – you saw Rob naked twenty years ago? I assume you’re still in therapy.

Comment by John

i think the phrase i’m looking for is: what the fuck??!! 🙂
you are all bonkers.
the lot of you.

Comment by lauren

Having been teased by everyone – from my wife and business partners through to my Mum and blog “friends” I am glad I have finally got back to a civilization that allows me to ‘see’ the horror I’ve been subjected to, rather than just hear it.

I have been wrecking my brain as to who this may be and I have a sneaky feeling I know – and if it is, it’s far less scandalous [except for the clothese thing … which I’ll blame on youthful stupidity and Timmy Mallett] than you’d think.

Of course if it’s not this person then I am well and truly fucked! Ha.

Comment by Rob

I think you mean you’re wracking your wrecked brain!

Comment by John

That’s the one …

God I really did have a shit education didn’t I!

Comment by Rob

Oh I’m so late to all of this but this is fucking brilliant. Come back BTBB.

Comment by Angus

Yeah, you fucking love it don’t you Angus … well join the club [though I’m not in it, ha!]

Comment by Rob

did you ever shag him? was he shit? Will he remember you?

… Nice one Andy. Lets not mess about. The public has a right to know.

Comment by Charles Frith




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