Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Attitude & Aptitude, Fashion, Porn, Pornhub
I recently received a t-shirt.
I don’t know who it is from.
I don’t know if I will ever wear it.
But for what it lacks in fashion, it makes up for it in intriguing.
Have a look …
How many of you read it incorrectly.
Then when it told you that, how many of you realized you had read the acknowledgement of your mistake incorrectly as well?
While there are many scientific reasons for this, another reason is our seemingly endless obsession for speed.
Speed trumps everything these days.
We’ve been led to believe speed lets us do more, achieve more, become more,.
And while I don’t doubt there are situations where that is true, it is also leading to more mistakes, more misunderstanding and less appreciation of what we have and should enjoy.
I accept I am literally the last person who should say this – just like I accept this is rather a deep conversation for a t-shirt that has purposeful spelling and grammar mistakes – but the genius of it is that it tells us we have made a mistake by making us make another mistake which forces us to accept we are addicted to the rush rather than just idiots who make the odd slip up.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Agency Culture, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Confidence, Creative Development, Creativity, Culture, Emotion, Empathy, Experience, Fashion, Insight, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Relevance, Resonance
I saw this person on the tube recently.
I don’t know who they are.
I accept I have no right to talk about fashion or shoes.
But a pair of brown crocs with some glittered-up stones glued to them feels the sort of things by a Blue Peter host would have come up with circa 1982.
What makes it even more confusing is they were carrying an LV bag.
And while I haven’t seen such an odd pairing since I saw Cate Blanchett and her husband, I have to say I loved it.
It was quirky.
It was individual.
It was the sort of thing that pushes ‘fashion’ and could either crash and burn or open up a new chapter of it. And given we live in a world that tends to play safely in the middle, the people on the edges are the ones we should be looking at and celebrating.
When Martin and I did our Cannes talk for Warc, we talked about ‘the edge effect’.
It’s a genuine term – associated more with nature than planning – but the point is still valid. If you want to move brands forward, play to where culture is heading not where it is and to do that, seek out the people on the edges not smack bang in the centre.
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UPDATE:
Since I wrote this post, I discovered these shoes weren’t the work of a children’s TV presenter, some Pritt Stick glue, some stones from the garden and a couple of tubes of glitter but a real live bloody shoe designer.
Christopher Kane to be precise.
And what’s more, they cost £325.
THREE HUNDRED AND TWENTY FIVE POUNDS.
Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahaha!
Suddenly my wifi cup, remote control ball and basically 99% of everything I’ve ever bought looks a wise investment in comparison.
So to Mr Kane, your career might be done but you made me feel better about myself.Ta.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Chaos, China, Chinese Culture, Creativity, Culture, Cunning, Devious Strategy, Fashion, Love, Marketing, Marketing Fail, Otis
Of all the places I’ve lived, China is the one that has left the strongest mark.
Frankly I absolutely and utterly loved my time there.
Sure part of that was because of Wieden – I loved and will always love them – but it was more than just that.
It was the people, the madness, the history, the chaos, the energy, the values …
Yes there were some things that bothered me immensely, but overall, I was intoxicated with the place and will always be that way.
I believe you can tell how much a place gets into your soul by how you react when it’s under attack. Not by guns, but by media and politicians.
If I look back on my 7 years there, I was very quick to jump to its defense when Western media decided to take an isolated incident and claim it represented the beliefs, behaviors and values of over a billion people.
Were there some shit things that happened there when I was there?
Absolutely.
Were there moments of madness and sadness that will never leave my memory?
100%
Are there some terrible restrictions on people lives and opinions there?
Sure.
But these are not isolated to China … every country has bad people doing horrific things, every country is creating an increasing division between rich and poor and in terms of government, countries either are doing their own version of ‘inflicting their will on the people’ or wishing they could get away with the stuff the Chinese government get away with.
I’m looking at you UK, Australia and the land of ‘the free’.
And that’s why I can still truly love the place and feel privileged for the experience it gave me.
I have absolute pride my son was born there.
Whatever happens in his life, he was born in China and for me, that means our links to the country will always be strong.
And while I will always be passionate in the pursuit of changing Westerners perceptions about the Middle Kingdom, there are some things that I just stand back and accept will just reinforce certain prejudices.
Some – like Uncle Martian – are terrible, especially as it was a conscious decision.
Some – like this, below – are perfection, especially as they were done in innocence.
[And if not, that’s even more genius]
China, I love you.
Lose the bullshit but please never lose your beautiful madness.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Advertising, America, Attitude & Aptitude, Authenticity, Comment, Creativity, Culture, Fashion, Luxury, Marketing, Resonance, Women
I’ve written how mental Gucci have been in the past few years in both their fashion and their marketing – though on this last point, it’s been quite refreshing from the up-itself-image-bollocks the fashion industry tends to perpetuate.
However I recently saw an ad for their lipstick that is making me think they’re doing more than just trying to superficially differentiate from the competition.
Yes brands like Dove have celebrated ‘real beauty’ before – though they also sold skin whitening products so you know that their intentions for female empowerment are not entirely true – but it’s rare for a high end fashion brand to do such a thing, especially in such dramatic fashion.
You see even though Dove celebrated women of all shapes and sizes, they tended to all be classically beautiful … however here is Gucci, doubling own on celebrating the beauty of the imperfect by showing what my American friends would say is a ‘British smile’.
We will have to see if they are truly going to push this agenda but in an industry so superficial they can make a puddle look like an ocean, this is a step in the right direction in helping women celebrate their own beauty, not someone else’s definition of it.
One of the thing I love in China is the amount of fashion faux-pas that I see.
It’s not just fashion with inappropriate wording on it – though that is a personal fave – it’s what passes as fashion.
OK … I know I’m the last person on the planet to talk about this, but if you’re like me and struggling to get back into work after the holidays, you could do with a bit of a laugh.
Plus this allows me to plug my dodgy instagram account of China’s weird fashion.
Have a top weekend.