Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, China, Colleagues, Communication Strategy, Content, Context, Craft, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Customer Service, Differentiation, Emotion, Empathy, Experience, Food, Happiness, Honesty, Imagination, Innovation, Italy, Leadership, Love, Loyalty, Management, Marketing, Mischief, Packaging, Resonance, Singapore, Social Divide, Standards, Strategy, Viz, Wieden+Kennedy
In the UK there was an adult comic called Viz.
It was filthy, hilarious and – for a long time – very successful.
And while they had many ‘star’ characters … from Sid the Sexist to errrrm, The Fat Slags … my favourite part of the magazine were the publishing company details.
Tucked at the bottom of a page, in extra small font, were a list of the people behind the magazine. Most people wouldn’t even see it, let alone read it … but if you did, you found magic in that small print.
Mischief. Personality. Information.
Nothing told you how much this was a labour of love for the people behind the magazine than their dedication to instilling their personality into every nook and cranny they could find … whether people would see it or not.
Brilliant stuff.
I say this because I saw a label a friend had put on a product they were selling at their shop.
Ai Ming was a planner in my team at Wieden+Kennedy.
She was very good … but decided one day, it was time for a change and so she went back to Singapore to open a Cheese Shop.
I know … sounds a bit random … but wait, it get’s better.
You see Ai Ming had an idea.
A way to combine her love of cheese and travel and be paid for it.
So she started The Cheese Ark … a cheese shop in Singapore, dedicated to selling cheeses from small, independent makers across Europe.
Oh but that’s nowhere near the end of the story …
So when she left Wieden – and before she returned to Singapore – Ai Ming went to work on a small farm in Italy for a few months. [I think]
While there, she discovered how amazing cheese tasted when it was made by people who loved and nurtured their product.
To her, it was a whole new world of taste and made every other cheese she had tried, feel unworthy of being labelled as such.
But she also learned something else …
You see she discovered many of these small, independent cheese makers were in danger of going under, because they didn’t have a way to compete with the big boys.
Said another way … this incredible tasting cheese could become obsolete.
So rather be sad, she decided to do something about it.
Enter The Cheese Ark … a shop that only sells cheese that originates from these small independent farms. A shop that is one of the only places in the World where you can get your hands on this incredible produce. A shop that charges enormous amounts of money to own a piece of their incredible cheese … not simply so you can have your taste buds tingled in ways you could never imagine … not simply because it allows you to show off to your friends about your good taste and status … not simply because it pays for Ai Ming’s travel, shop, employees and profit … but because by buying so much from each of these small farms across Europe, she can ensure that these small, independent cheese farms not only survive, but thrive.
Hence it’s called ‘The Cheese Ark’ … because its literally saving the lives of cheese.
How fucking incredible is that?
But Ai Ming is not just a creative business thinker, she’s full of personality and passion … which leads me to the point of this post.
You see I recently saw something that reminded me of those Viz publishing details I loved.
Something that communicated more than just the necessary details.
It was this …
How good is that?
I bloody love it.
A notice on a packet of cheese that’s more interesting, engaging, compelling and charming than 99% of ads – or any marketing material – out there.
Sure, not many people will see it.
Most may actively choose to ignore it.
But for those who do, they’re not just rewarded with the thrill of discovering something as enjoyable as the product inside it, they know they’re dealing with someone who really cares about what they do.
And they do. Because what Ai Ming has created is the Noah’s Ark of Cheese.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Brand Suicide, Comment, Content, Corporate Evil, Crap Products In History, Daily Fail, Daily Mail, Diversity, Home, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Prejudice, Viz
The Daily Mail.
God, how I hate it.
Pedlars of hate, half-truths and prejudice, while all the time claiming they are a ‘family newspaper’ that practices the highest standards of journalism.
For anyone who may be in doubt of how bollocks that is, I suggest you do one of four things.
1. Read a single edition of their rubbish.
2. Read about some of their biggest lies, that they tried to claim were true.
3. Read how they – and others – value convenience over journalism.
4. Read the rest of this post.
OK, I know I’ve written a lot about my hatred of the Daily Mail but just recently, it appears their arrogance of getting away with any old bullshit is reaching new heights.
I absolutely appreciate how hard it must be to fill a newspaper every day.
I can’t imagine the pressure they must be under given they always start from zero.
But I still don’t get how they can consider themselves a serious journalistic force when they post stories – on their front page – like these …
… and …
I mean, come on.
This is what they consider news?
A ‘find the obvious soldiers’ game and a ‘grey is the colour of chavs’ article?
Seriously, the wonderfully ridiculous adult comic Viz is more mature than that and they once ran a piece that said cat food manufacturers should be launching a ‘cat arse’ flavour, rather than chicken or fish or duck.
Look, I get in a war situation the enemy may find it difficult to spot a couple of SAS soldiers dressed in white from a distance when it’s snowing. But on a close up picture where they literally tell you there’s SAS soldiers dressed in white … well, it is even easier than those shitty hook-a-duck games you get at dodgy fairs around the country.
And as for positioning people who paint THEIR OWN HOME grey as enemies of British culture, well surely they’ve just hit peak Daily Mail condescending judgement?
What next, an ‘expose’ on how people’s choice of curtains, flowers or sunglasses are ruining Britain?
Christ, it’s grey.
It’s not like that person who built a fibreglass shark on their roof.
Or pained their house with red stripes, specifically to fuck-off the neighbours.
Or placed the Freddie Mercury statue from the Dominion Theatre roof in their garden.
The way the Daily Mail are going on, you’d imagine they were the national newspaper of the communist party.
If the colour of a house makes them – and their readers – so angry, it makes me want to hire a team to find the home addresses of all the editorial staff at The Mail and their readers and have them go round and paint their buildings different shades of grey and pink.
Instead, I’ll just be happy that my house is partially grey and that will deeply offend anyone associated with The Daily Mail.
And to think I didn’t believe I could love my house even more …
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, America, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Brand Suicide, China, Chinese Culture, Comment, Confidence, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Cunning, Embarrassing Moments, Fake Attitude, Food, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Mischief, New Product Mentalness, Packaging, Standards, Viz
The fast food industry is having a hard time.
As tastes change and a more healthy lifestyle becomes more desirable, it is getting more difficult for them to operate as they once did.
While some brands are evolving their offering – like McDonald’s – others are taking a more pragmatic perspective.
The most famous, recent example is the BK Mouldy Burger which ignited all manner of debate – often with people quick to say it won’t work without anyone actually knowing what the goal of the work actually was.
Well in South Korea there’s a burger company that makes BK look positively innocent.
It’s not just how they used Supreme to inspire their logo in a way Uncle Martian would be jealous of.
Nor is it their audacious copyright infringement of famous cartoon characters to talk about themselves.
And it’s not even their proud claims of being ‘100% Beef Meat’.
No … it’s none of those, it’s their utter confidence of their product over their competitors.
Take a look …
Amazing eh?
Not just the aggressiveness … but the choice of words.
Linking the words ‘burgers’ and ‘shit’ makes a mouldy burger look positively appetising.
Then there’s the fact it’s in English.
When I lived in China, there were a bunch of stores that used English in their copy.
Sometimes it was for the audience it was targeting.
Sometimes it was because they thought it made them look ‘sophisticated’.
But a lot of the time – as I think is the case here – they did it because it enhanced their ‘authenticity’.
Given burgers are very American, I feel their idea was that by using English and being aggressive in their tone, they encapsulated the American spirit and as such, could say their burgers were authentic.
Of course, given Burger King and McDonald’s are also American slightly undermines that idea, but hey – it doesn’t seem they really put too much thought into how they came across.
I must admit, when I saw it, I couldn’t help feel it was like a Viz fake-ad from the 80’s.
Viz – for those who don’t know – was/is an English ‘adult-humour’ comic.
Years ago, I approached them about starting an ad agency.
They said no, which still disappoints me as not only were their spoof ads brilliant, but based on both Billionbox and BK’s recent work … there’s more and more brands seemingly trying to copy their style but without the brilliance, clarity, humour or memorability as them.
This is so good I can’t even bring myself to add to it.
Except to say I won’t be adding to it.
God, I can’t help myself can I?
The only downside is that if I’ve started the week with posts about shit, how disgusting and low-brow will I have gone by Friday? Be afraid, be very afraid.
Filed under: 2025, A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Comment, Confidence, Content, Context, EvilGenius, Relationships, Relevance, Revenge, Rivalry, Social Media, Stupid, Twitter, Viz
Monday.
On the second week of this blog of the new year.
So what better way to start it than a post from Satan about Jesus.
There’s a lot of talk at the moment about the dangers and damage the internet – specifically social media – can do. And it’s all true. But then, anything in abundance with minimal control will do that – albeit, it’s worse when the person ‘in control’ is the egotistical, arrogant, spoilt, delusionist, that is Elon Musk.
However, among all the darkness is light.
Glimpses of the brilliant madness that the internet offered us all in the earliest of days.
Where people found ways to use it that served little purpose other than to add colour, weirdness and humour to our lives. Things like Star Wars Kid or Eric Conveys An Emotion.
But one other place that was a beacon for the good weird was, at least in its early days – when it was 100% Bird and 0% X – was Twitter. And while it is now a cesspit of hate, porn and ego, it still has some magic on there and two of my fave people are God and Satan.
Given I am not religious at all, that may seem strange. But what is even stranger is that they often post shit that I find far more sensible or insightful than many of the self-professed geniuses on there. Or Linkedin.
Of course, what they write has zero to do with religion and more pisstaking out of it. But like The Stones vs The Beatles … Oasis vs Blur … Coke vs Pepsi … Democrats vs Republicans … Kodak vs Fuji or Delivereasy vs Uber Eats … they make it – intentionally or otherwise – a 2-horse race so the cultural narrative around the topics and subjects they represent or cover are sucked up and conducted by them or about them.
In other words, they have a disproportionate influence in the direction of how and where the category travels … meaning it’s harder for others to break in and mess with stuff.
Not impossible. But harder.
Of course, there is also the danger of it backfiring. Where you get so obsessed looking to your side to see what your core competitor is up to, you fail to see what is happening behind you. Or in front. Or around. Just ask Nokia, for example. However, when done well – and with the right amount of self-awareness and openness – the power of the 2-horse race is almost unprecedented in its ability to shape a cultural and category narrative in your favour.
Which all sounds incredibly serious given this is coming from a photo of a tweet where someone is pretending to be Satan and taking the piss out of the ‘virtue signaling’ of Jesus.
Maybe it’s funny because it’s challenges the righteous pomposity of Christianity.
Maybe it’s funny because we all know someone a bit like this.
[Minus the death/crucifixion]
Maybe it’s funny because it’s petty and that can be funny.
But whatever the reason, it’s good … but still not as good as this masterpiece about Skegness by the Mablethorpe Tourist Board, courtesy of the twisted brilliance of Viz:
God, 2nd week in and I’m already at the barrel scraping level of posts.
It doesn’t bode well for the rest of the year does it?