flies for advertising

Alexey Titarenko - Photographer

Really cool long exposure images of Russian commuters http://www.alexeytitarenko.com/city17.html

Trouble in paradise as Mauritius rebrands

The Mauritian tourist board has replaced its old strapline (’Mauritius – Unforgettable experience’) with a new one: ‘Mauritius – C’est un plaisir’. The new branding, apparently designed to reflect the island’s French cultural influence, has been greeted locally with “perplexity and scepticism”, according to journalist Bhishmadev Seebaluck.

There is incredulity at the cost. The slogan was dreamt up by London-based marketing agency Acanchi for a reported 31m Mauritian rupees (£625,000). That works out at almost £50,000 per letter.

Apparently Fiona Gilmore, a director at Acanchi, appeared on Mauritian TV to defend the branding. She said that the actual slogan was just 5pc of the entire marketing campaign, or “the tip of the branding iceberg,” said Mr Seebaluck.

Sean Carey, an anthropologist who writes extensively about Mauritius, said that ‘C’est un plaisir’ is “weak and bland” and “too slippery and ambiguous” to be effective.

But how does the Mauritius tagline compare with other countries’? A quick trot around the internet shows that Mauritius does not have a monopoly on meaningless straplines.

There are two distinct camps in the tourism slogan arena. The most common uses a two-word structure, prefixing the country with a simple adjective or verb; Amazing Thailand, Enjoy England, Incredible India, Magical Kenya. These words appear to be totally interchangeable. I very much doubt, for example, that visitor numbers to India and Kenya would collapse if it was India that was Magical and Kenya that was Incredible.

Then there is the ‘pithy phrase’ camp; Brazil – Sensational!, Seychelles – Another world, Germany - Simply inspiring, The Kingdom of Swaziland - A royal experience, Hawaii – The islands of Aloha, and (an oldie) Australia – So where the bloody hell are you? Again, largely meaningless.

Some countries try too hard to be clever. New Zealand’s new wink-wink-nudge-nudge slogan is ‘Go all the way’, which is a clear attempt to sex up one of the world’s more staid countries.

Others are unintentionally hilarious. I am sure that the Colombian tourism ministry did not see the double meaning when it settled on ‘Columbia – The only risk is wanting to stay’.

Bearing all this in mind, Mauritius’s little French slogan doesn’t seem so bad.

Droid

This is an interesting way to launch what Google, Motorola & Verizon are hoping to be the iPhone Killer. A home made animation (with an ‘ok’ sound track) that crosses off all the standard things most people want in a phone before ending with a weird digital static transition & web address.

It takes you to a registration page with no more information. Yet, this video has cranked up more than 600,000 views on YouTube since it’s launch 3 days ago. The Verizon seeders are doing an amazing job! And it’s even got me interested to see what’s coming. It’s been rumored for a while, but this is the first material to come out for the phone.
c/o Aden Hepburn

Red Bull concept to get more fans on their facebook page

Wireless Electricity

Ray Ban Viral Vid

A viral video by Ray Ban, I assume it's to show off their new colours for the Wayfarer range. Cool idea!

Afterlife Billboards

Here's an example of a way to get in the face of consumers.

Blow Me.

Today businessman and inventor James Dyson unveils his latest product – a bladeless fan that will definitely change the ventilation and air-conditioning experience on your home.

As you can see in the picture above, the fan looks nothing close to your regular desk fan. The Dyson fan has a “loop” attached to a cylinder unlike the conventional rotating blades which means there’s no need for a grill and it’s safe and simple to use and clean.

The Dyson Air Multiplier™ fan works very differently to conventional fans. It uses Air Multiplier™ technology to draw in air and amplify it 15 times. With no blades or grille, it’s safe, easy to clean and doesn’t cause unpleasant buffeting.

The fan works by using a brushless motor (housed in the base) and unlike conventional fans, the air speed can be precisely adjusted with a dimmer-switch control rather than the traditional two or three-speed settings.

“I’ve always been disappointed by fans. Their spinning blades chop up the airflow, causing annoying buffeting,” said James Dyson.

“They’re hard to clean. And children always want to poke their fingers through the grille. So we’ve developed a new type of fan that doesn’t use blades.”

Because the motor is in the base, you can rotate the fan up to 90 degrees. It is also very sturdy because it’s made of acrylontride butadiene styrene, the thing they put into shock-absorbing items, like helmets and car bumpers.

The Dyson Air Multiplier fan starts at UK£199.99 and is available for preorder at dyson.co.uk.

RIO Olympic Bid Video

In case you havn’t already seen it, I thought I’d post up the official Rio 2016 Olympic Bid Video. It’s beautifully shot, isn’t over the top and to me, really showcases the every day lifestyle that I’d think Rio was all about. In fact, the footage kind of reminds me of Australia’s lifestyle in a lot of ways… On the official website, they recorded over 5.8 million supporter votes for the games, which to me, seemed well underdone for an Olympic bid? But congratulations to Rio for the win!

Long exposures of bugs under a street light.

flight patterns from Charlie McCarthy on Vimeo.

COMBO: Collaborative Stop Motion Animation

COMBO a collaborative animation by Blu and David Ellis (2 times loop) from blu on Vimeo.

The perfect way to round out the week on Cocojambo!

The Fame festival attracts some of the words best street artists throughout the summer in Grottaglie, Italy. This year BLU and David Ellis (acclaimed street art animators) got together to create this amazing piece of stop motion animation called Combo. (via ViralBlog, c/o DigitalBuzzBlog)

Woods named sport's first billionaire

Tiger Woods has broken through the billion-dollar earnings barrier, Forbes magazine says.

Tiger Woods has become the first sportsman to break through the billion-dollar earnings barrier, Forbes magazine reported on Thursday.

The 33-year-old American, who has won 14 majors, reached the latest landmark of his career when he won a $US10 million ($A11.32 million) bonus for his FedEx Cup victory last weekend.

According to the magazine's calculations, Woods went into the 2009 season on $US895 million ($A1.01 billion) which included prize money, endorsements, appearance fees as well as money earned through his golf course design business.

Even before picking up his end of season bonus, Woods had earned $US10.5 million ($A11.88 million) on the USPGA Tour this year, winning six titles.

Woods has been the top-earning sportsman since 2002 when he took over from former Formula One world champion Michael Schumacher.

His most lucrative commercial deal is with Nike and brings him over $US30 million ($A33.95 million) a year.

Forbes estimated that retired NBA star Michael Jordan will be the next sportsman to earn a billion dollars.

Jordan amassed around $US800 million ($A905.39 million) in his playing career and continues to make $US45 million ($A50.93 million) a year thanks mainly to a deal with Nike.