… is by wearing my new t-shirt from my friends at RedBubble.
Trust me, if you think you’re offended by it, you should see how my colleagues feel.
Sure, it’s not as good as the politician, Denis Healey’s “like being savaged by a dead sheep”, but it’s pretty good.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Culture, Empathy, England, Entertainment, Relevance
So yesterday I wrote about The Office and how David Brent may – or may not – have been influenced by 80’s cricketer Ian Botham.
I love that show so, so, so much so I cannot tell you how disappointed I was when I watched the movie Life On The Road.
Now to be fair, Ricky Gervais said this was not meant to be an extension of The Office, but it did feature the character David Brent so it’s pretty obvious I’m going to make comparisons.
When I first heard of the film, it was like hearing an old friend was coming into town and the trailer definitely raised my expectations but when I sat down and watched the final film, I was left underwhelmed.
I should point out this was not purely because it wasn’t anywhere near as funny as The Office, it was because Ricky Gervais had fundamentally changed the character of David Brent.
As I wrote yesterday, the genius of David Brent’s character was that while he was a delusional, terrible manager … his heart was in the right place which is why the people around him, put up with him.
However in Life On The Road, Brent became a bit of a dick – highlighted by the fact the people around him openly hated him – which resulted in you having little sympathy for the character because his cringe-worthiness was driven by arrogance rather than misguidedness.
This slight shift in character changed everything … and while Ricky Gervais may argue that the desperation to become a Rock Star would result in you becoming a more aggressive character than trying to be a manager of a paper-merchants [in Slough], I can’t help but feel it’s because Gervais has become disconnected to normal life, that made The Office so amazing.
Of course, that is to be expected given he is a multi-multi-millionaire and has the lifestyle that is about as opposite to the one he had when he wrote The Office, which should serve as a great reminder that one of the greatest skills anyone can have is to know when to walk away.
Though when I wrote about the guys at ATTIK, they said it better when they said …
“It’s like retiring from football and ten years later expecting to play against younger guys, it wasn’t the way to go.”
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Birkenstocks, Comment, Creative Development, Marketing Fail
So yesterday I wrote about my new birkenstock t-shirt … and I bet you were thrilled with it. Ahem. Well today I’m keeping with the birkies theme, but I’m adding a bit of Hollywood glamour to it.
No, seriously.
You see I was recently reading a copy of Empire Magazine – the film monthly – when there was an article on the classic 90’s romp, Con Air.
For those of you who need a reminder what it’s about, have a look at this.
Did you watch it?
They don’t make movies like that anymore do they.
Sure, it’s bollocks, but it’s absolutely amazing bollocks.
Hmmmmm, that doesn’t look so good written down, does it. Oops.
“So where’s the birkenstock reference”, I hear no one cry.
Well, in the article, they talk about how John Cusack – one of the movies stars – was a bit of a dick on set.
Apparently he didn’t really want to do the movie but – having resigned himself to having to do it – he decided to throw his star power around.
This is how he did it …
Have you read it?
Have you?
Really?
Well if you have, you’ll know that he insisted on his character wearing Birkenstocks.
Yes, bloody birkies!
Apparently his rationale was …
“I want to be the very first action hero who wears Birkenstocks. Charlton Heston wore sandals and he kicked ass. I wanna do the same”.
Amazing eh?
But even more amazing than that is that we now can understand why John Cusack’s career went the same way as MH370.
Which also explains why I ended up in advertising which, a friend of mine recently called, The MH370 of careers.