I’ve just learnt my kind, caring, talented friend RoObin Golestan has passed away.
I saw him a few months ago in the horrible Jamaica Blue where we talked about our hopes and plans … me in LA, he in Germany.
It was one of those chats you remember because we shared the type of stories you only pass onto someone you trust and respect.
I knew be was ill but I told him how he looked better than me. He told me how good he felt and how excited he was to meet the doctor in Shanghai after we had finished our chat.
I am utterly devastated by his loss. He was much too young and my heart goes out to the family he loved so much.
RoObin, you were a generous soul.
Whether it was in person or through reading the excellent chapter about you in Heather’s book, I hope you know how much you impacted the people around you because you did – both in terms of your generosity and infectious spirit.
I am at a loss.
Shine bright matey with your wonderful wild hair. RIP.
Filed under: Advertising, Agency Culture, Comment, Marketing, Marketing Fail
I don’t know if the article I’m linking to is true.
To be honest, it doesn’t matter if it is or if it isn’t, because I have no opinion on the matter.
Definitely not.
The only reason I’m sharing it is I have been called a social media whore in the past and this is my attempt to ‘upgrade’ myself to a social media escort.
The fact the article has some vague link to the industry I work in is purely coincidental, but as we’re here, I feel there are 3 things I should add:
+ I worked for WPP on 2 separate occasions.
It is a huge organization full of great companies and smart, talented people.
In my time there, my overall experience was generally positive.
+ WPP have done nothing illegal.
Immoral perhaps – given one of their agencies also did this anti-gun campaign – but not illegal.
+ While I appreciate that a corporation has a legal obligation to make money for their shareholders, a companies ‘values’ means nothing if you don’t live by them.
For the record, these are WPP’s values:
WPP & its operating companies have as their core values honesty, integrity & respect for people. These core values determine the way we approach business & they define the principles in which we expect our people to behave in the conduct of our business.
It will be interesting to see what happens with this story.
Or should I say, it will be interesting to see what happens next with this story.
A long held belief is that money makes you more attractive.
Not because you can afford cosmetic surgery, but because for some people, the prospect of wealth makes you look past the outer ugliness of the person who currently has it.
Well I recently saw a photo of Jeff Bezos and he proves wealth doesn’t just make you better looking, it makes you The Terminator.
I’m now going to spend the week trying to ignore the fact I look more like Jeff the book seller.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, America, Attitude & Aptitude, Corporate Evil, Culture, Marketing
As many know, America is the most obese nation on earth.
When you know this, I guess it’s less of a surprise when they say anyone who spends 2 weeks in America will put on approx 8 pounds in weight.
I could talk about the many, many reasons that contribute to this situation – from poverty to profit to, as I read recently, that the biggest fear for anyone who has guests is running out of food … hence they overcook by significant amounts.
Anyway, this is all an excuse to show you this picture …
As you can see, it’s a mountain of onion rings.
If you look carefully behind them, you’ll see the look of shock on my sons face.
Now you may think that is an optical illusion, but it’s not … it really was that big.
But here’s the amazing thing.
That wasn’t a portion of onion rings … that was a half portion.
HALF!!!
Seriously!!!
Apart from the fact if you ate that amount there isn’t enough toothpaste in the World to stop your breath smelling of onion for 19 years, that was the starter.
The bloody starter.
Now I like onion.
I bloody love onion.
But even I couldn’t eat more than a few strands and so there was an enormous amount left which – I presume – was then thrown away.
A while ago – 3+ years to be exact – I wrote about the insane portion control of the Hard Rock Cafe in NYC.
What made it worse was they were running a campaign at the time about stopping hunger.
Well given that obesity is a cause of so many illnesses in America – illnesses that have a huge, detrimental affect on the economy – I can’t work out why the government don’t mandate portion sizes at restaurants. Yes, I know for many people, they take what they don’t eat back home … but how much of that is actually eaten versus kept in the fridge for a few days and then thrown out.
The irony here is that fast food restaurants – the ones who often get the most abuse – are way, way, way better than more ‘formal’ restaurants.
Part of that is because they don’t want lawsuits against them … part of that is that they know their audience so well that they know how much they actually eat and part of that is that they have a huge number of stores, so they don’t have to win on quantity but simply offering the convenience of giving people what they want when they want it.
But these big ‘restaurants’ aren’t like that and that’s why I feel they are particularly guilty of creating food wastage.
For me, it is one of the worst things in society.
We have people hungry and we have people getting ill because of obesity.
It wouldn’t take much to actually start helping to reduce this, but sadly America has been sold the belief that quantity always trumps quality and until that attitude starts changing, then the allegedly most powerful country on Earth, will continue to act in a way that seems weak.
Filed under: A Bit Of Inspiration, Brand Suicide, Comment, Crap Campaigns In History, Crap Marketing Ideas From History!, Marketing Fail
Turkish Airlines have a history of questionable advertising decisions and it seems they still haven’t learnt their lesson because I’m not really sure flying an ad for their airline behind a micro-plane is the best branding idea I’ve ever seen.
That said, it will probably win a Cannes Gold next year.