Good Stuff

A passing thought on Co-creation

It recently occurred to me that embarking on a collaborative marketing campaign is a brave thing to do for any business especially when you consider the potential for subversion. I for one (cynical old ad-man talking) can't resist the temptation to take the mickey when given the opportunity.

I guess, at the very least, this example of collaberative/viral marketing gets people to the site and raises general awareness but I'm not entirely convinced. It's still interuptive marketing if you're on the receiving end of it, slightly irritating in that respect. What do you think?

Questionable green tips

In connection with the recent Live Earth concerts Jennifer Aniston advised folk on her "brush-wash" technique to cleaning her teeth in the shower.

She said: "I take a three-minute shower. I even brush-wash - brush my teeth while I shower. Every two minutes in the shower uses as much water as a person in Africa uses for everything in their life for a whole day."

Is it just me or is this a little stupid. How on earth are you supposed to save water by brushing your teeth in the shower? Surely this will just prolong the whole thing? I don't know how Jennifer manages to hold the brush while she's washing under her arms but if she can pull that one off, I'm impressed.

Being serious for a second. I am all for people making tiny changes to their daily lives, the logic being that millions of tiny changes can make a huge difference but then again, how tiny is tiny? In reality what people need to do is make some quite sizeable changes. Stop driving to work, switch to green energy, don't buy so much stuff, don't have another kid.

A friend of mine recently told me about a guy who he knows who, after seeing Al Gore's 'An Inconvenient Truth' movie, went out and swapped his Land Rover for a Toyota Prius. It's a small step in the right direction but the worry is, he's now driving around in his Prius feeling like he's done his bit for the environment. Incidentally, Jeremy Clarkson (I know, I know) actually pointed out that if you really want to be environmentally friendly, you'd be better off driving a much smaller more fuel efficient diesel car like a VW Fox or Polo.

My point is, maybe we need to start thinking differently about the whole issue and stop kidding ourselves that small changes make a big difference. Maybe they don't. Maybe big changes can only make a small difference. Maybe we need to be a little more radical in our approach.

Back to the Live Earth event. John Grant questions whether it actually worked here. I have to say, I agree broadly speaking with him. Maybe saving the planet isn't really a rock concert thing. It worked for Sir Bob and famine relief in Africa but I'm not sure it translates to 2007 and climate change.

I promise my next post will be more positive,

Mr. Negative Pants, Copenhagen.

Badges 2

Following up on my earlier post, I found this pic of a badge I had when I was younger. I used to pin a small group of them to the lapel of my 'crombie' coat and before I rushed off down to the youth club to do a bit of moonstomping. In case you hadn't worked it out, I was a bit of a skinhead in my youth. Normally, I have to apologise for this and hastily try and explain that I wasn't one of 'those' rascist skinheads. The reality was in fact, most skinheads weren't. Actually, the skinhead brand (what have I become? If you'd told me in 1980 that I would become someone who refered to the skinhead movement as a brand I wouldn't have been pleased) has been perverted by the media over the years. You can read an interesting article on it here.