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

This morning at some hospital in India [you can tell I’m upto date with all that’s going on] our dear Hari gave birth to a lovely baby daughter.

Well I’m assuming she’s ‘lovely’ … a lot of that depends on whether she takes after his beautiful wife or not.

Anyway, it’s fantastic news and I/we wish the entire Hari ‘family’ all the very best for now and the future.

[PS: If you don’t call her Roberta, don’t bother coming back!]

… to Freddie, who starts his new gig at TBWA today.

So I was just over on the madvertising blog and came across a post detailing one of the most mentally brilliant ‘toys’ I’ve ever seen. 

Yes, it’s even better than R2D2 [which still hasn’t arrived despite having had our money for months on end and being promised delivery WEEKS ago] … and waaaaaaaaaaaaaay ahead of any mobile phone, games system, laser keyboard or robot dog I’ve somehow ended up owning!

So what am I talking about then eh?

Ladies and gentleman, let me introduce you to the PUCHI PUCHI …

This innocent looking little handheld device makes a bubblewrap popping sound everytime you press one of the buttons however – and here is the brilliant bit – every 100 squeezes, instead of a “pop” it emits either the sound of a fart or a woman moaning in ecstasy.

Only in Japan eh?

Of course it’s purely coincidental that I am going to be popping over to Tokyo soon [no pun intended] but while I’m there, I think it is pretty safe to say I’ll be buying the odd one or hundred, haha!

PUCHI PUCHI … suitable for all ages as long as you’re a weird or sad bastard!

[Thanks to Madvertising for bringing this to my attention even though I’ve repaid them by borrowing all their hard work pretty much word-for-word. I am the Julian Lloyd Webber of the Blogsphere]

I’ve given Starbucks quite abit of stick in the past … especially with some of their ‘seasonal coffee’ choices. [here, here, here, here, here and here]

Not only that, but I’ve never given the brand much respect because I believe they owe their success more to convenience of locations rather than their coffee or great customer experience.

Of course I’m probably in the minority with this view … plus I’ve been exposed to much better coffee than most Americans who all seem to obsessively love the brand from Seattle … however I’ve always maintained a great brand is one that people will go out of their way to engage regardless of price, distribution, innovation and heritage and in Starbucks case, I don’t know if that’s necessarily why people walk into their stores day after day after day.

Anyway, for once I have something nice to say about them because recently I walked into the shop near my office [I’m lazy, so what!] and saw this …

How beautiful is that packaging eh? 

And all that detail is not a print … it’s been individually die-cut.

OK, so the coffee ‘feels’ more like it comes from Thailand than Costa Rica, but you can’t deny it is very eye-catching.

Not only that, but given the packaging embodies such traits as indulgence, luxury, seduction and warmth, it emotionally justifies the huge price Starbucks are charging for it.

Of course having watched the amazing doco, BLACK GOLD, I should never buy coffee from these sorts of corporations again – however a massive thumbs up to Starbucks for appreciating the importance of packaging and design, which makes their ‘Festive Season’ cups all the more difficult to explain …

Yep, even lazier than when I copy what someone else has written on their blog and put it on mine.

OK, so the above picture is new … however where I’m going to direct you is old, because apart from the date [and the reference to Halloween] there’s nothing new I’d want to add to what I already said a year or so ago.

Which begs the question, “WHY PUT THIS UP AT ALL”? 

To which I reply, “BECAUSE I CAN”.

So if you fancy being bored click here or – the far better option – get as far away from this blog as is feasibly possible.