Digital Connections

Three Brand Logos with Hidden Symbolism

I'm definitely not the first person to blog about the design of these 3 logos, and I'm sure that I won't be the last.

These examples of symbolism in may be very obvious to some people, but I'd never noticed them until recently brought to my attention.

Toblerone

Toblerone was created by Theodor Tobler in Bern, Switzerland.

And Bern's heraldic animal for over 7 centuries is, the bear.

Look closely in the middle of the mountain... and you'll see a bear.

Amazon

I must have seen the Amazon logo millions of times, but have never noticed the arrow connecting the letters A and Z.

Signifying that Amazon stocks everything from A to Z.

The arrow is in the shape of a smile for customer satisfaction.

FedEx

If you look carefully between the E and the x, then you can see an embedded arrow.

The arrow is used as a symbol for speed and delivery, both FedEx communicative attributes.

There an interview with Lindon Leader the designer of the FedEx logo here at "The Sneeze".

Happy Birthday Ceefax

35 years ago, on the 23th September 1974 - Ceefax was launched on BBC.

Both my parents worked at BBC Newcastle, so I have a certain soft spot for BBC related stuff.

My childhood obsession for football results and league tables could only be served by hours of gazing at Ceefax. There's the old joke that, "This game would be more exciting on Ceefax", and as a Newcastle fan in the late seventies early eighties this is a pretty accurate representation on the state of affairs at St James'.

However I wasn't alone, up and down the country armchair fans would sit down on a Saturday afternoon, punch in "316" for live scores and just watch the numbers increase as the goals went in. Convergence was alive and well, by using the "mix" button a viewer could watch Grandstand at the same time.

Of course Ceefax was the start of Britain’s journey into Interactive Television, and in many ways the most successful, with 22m browsing 600 pages at one point. Wow that’s an advertisers dream!

Ceefax truly came into its own when breaking news. Live TV was somewhat of a novelty back in the 70's and Ceefax was a bridge between the event taking place and actually being reported on TV and radio news. Plus Ceefax would only report pure hard cold "brute facts".

Skysports News recently dragged on Richard Dunne's transfer from Manchester City to Aston Villa for close to 48 hours, with plenty of footage of footballers and agents driving cars in and out of leisure centres. Ceefax would have reported the Dunne transfer beautifully in 20 Characters

"R Dunne ManC - Villa"        

Brilliant job done, that even puts Twitter's 140 characters to shame.

Rather sadly we'll soon be deprived of Ceefax and its simplistic brilliance, as part of the analogue television signal, CEEFAX will finish with the "Digital Switchover in 2012.

In the meantime, Happy Birthday Ceefax!

The Economist: Did You Know (Shift Happens) 4.0

Did You Know 4.0

The Economist and XPLANE have released an update to the Did You Know? Shift Happens series, for The Media Convergence Forum (New York) in October.

They’ve done a fantastic job, it’s as entertaining and insightful as previous versions & its great to see “Did You Know (Shift Happens)” evolve over time.

While I'm posting about The Economist, I just quickly want to hat tip the Economist team at AMV BBDO. They presented their IAB award winning work for Thinking Space at last weeks IAB creative showcase & I was pretty impressed.

Seems that The Economist is on a roll!

Smell Like A Man: Old Spice - "Scents for Gents"

This glorious peice of advertising made me chuckle...

"Scents for Gents", new US Old Spice ad by W&K Portland,

They should run this in the UK - with absolutely no changes.

Daft Punk in DJ Hero - Brilliant Idea !!!

Whoever at Activision came up with the idea of putting Daft Punk in DJ Hero deserves a big pat on the back!

The teaser trailer video is seeded on YouTube and pretty much everywhere (drop me a line if you seeded it and I'll give you the credit!), and screen shots are up on the DJ Hero Facebook fan pages.

I don't own a gaming console - but this is the type of game that makes me think twice about buying one.

Hat tip to @Trendplanner and Wired for pointing this out!

James Martin (Celebrity Chef) v Brad Wiggins & The Twittersphere

Twitter still has the power to amaze me,

It is without question one of the internet's most powerful tools  - its ability to facilitate online group collaboration and self organisation is absolutely phenomenal.

But there is a dark side, it can be vicious, unforgiving and even assist in bullying, herd like behaviour....

And as of 9.03pm GMT, Monday 14th September there is a "live" example of this taking place.

Yesterday, James Martin the "celebrity chef" wrote the following in his Daily Mail column;

"The Tesla Roadster is the all-electric supercar that's as fast as a Ferrari ...but as quiet as a bicycle".

"God, I hate those cyclists. Every last herbal tea-drinking, Harriet Harman-voting one of them. That's one of the reasons I live in the countryside, where birds tweet, horses roam, pigs grunt and Lycra-clad buttocks are miles away. But recently, there's been a disturbing development.

Each Saturday, a big black truck appears at the bottom of my road, with bikes stuck to the roof and rear. Out of it step a bunch of City-boy ponces in fluorescent Spider-Man outfits, shades, bum bags and stupid cleated shoes, who then pedal around our narrow lanes four abreast with their private parts alarmingly apparent. Do they enjoy it? They never smile. I'm sure they just come here to wind me up."

"Twenty minutes into my test drive I pulled round a leafy bend, enjoying the birdsong - and spotted those damned Spider-Man cyclists. Knowing they wouldn't hear me coming, I stepped on the gas, waited until the split second before I overtook them, then gave them an almighty blast on the horn at the exact same time I passed them at speed.

The look of sheer terror as they tottered into the hedge was the best thing I've ever seen in my rear-view mirror. I think this could be the car for me."

A simply staggering piece of "Journalism".... And amazing that the Editor actually authorised this? and of all newspapers ....The Daily Mail!

Brad Wiggins, Pro-cyclist was one of the first to pick this up on Twitter ...

"James Martin TV chef, The word cock springs to mind, stick to Ready Steady Twat mate"

"Meal suggestion for this Saturday Kitchen for James Martin, Spotted DICK!"

"Everyone check out on the web what JAMES MARTIN, TV chef thinks about the thousands of cyclists that enjoy riding bikes around the lanes"

"Hey James Martin, How about COCK au vin this Saturday"

as did his wife Cath

"am sipping a peppermint tea,then off to hug a tree before going on my bike with a cheeky wiggle of my lycra clad arse"

Even Taylor Phinney, Colorado based 3 time World Champion cyclist was on the case

"Speaking of douche bags... I present to you, chef James Martin!"

And within 6 hours Australian, Robbie McEwan also commented

           "@lancearmstrong maybe you can tweet out for a group ride around where this idiot lives."

If Lance responds with a tweet then I really think that things might go from bad to worse for James.

James Martin's wiki has been altered (see below as now changed back) and an "I hate James Martin" Facebook page has been set up - so far with 880 members. And The Daily Mail have removed and disabled comments on the original article.

Cycling Blog BikeRadar.com have also reported the story.

And Lia Hervey at SkyNews (@skynewsolympic), is getting ready to follow up. Earlier today Lia used Twitter to organise interviews with @CTC_cyclists @bradwiggins @cathwiggins and @cyclingweek.

James Martin is obviously a total fool for a) mowing down cyclists and b) bragging about it in a national newspaper. And for that he should make a full apology.

If Twitter is the catalyst for an apology then great - but as the story develops, a clear element of playground bullying / herd mentality can be seen at work....

This story is going to roll ..........

follow it here....http://search.twitter.com/search?q=james+martin

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Subsequent Podcast Interview with Rachel Konrad, Tesla’s Senior Communications Manager for the Tesla Roadster: http://www.thefredcast.com/?p=904

International Olympic Committee (IOC): All Together Now

Awesome...

Hat tip to the chaps at “Ads of The World” for drawing my attention to the latest instalment of the IOC’s (International Olympic Committee) “Best of Us” campaign - an animated commercial entitled “All Together Now”.

With five months to go before the 2010 Winter Games in Vancouver, The IOC has released a TV ad showing athletes from across the globe working together to unite the Olympic spirit. Six animated athletes are seen pulling countries together “symbolizing the inspiration of the athletes and their superhuman abilities to unite the world”

It’s a beautiful animated ad, which aims to bring the Olympic values of Excellence, Respect and Friendship to life and engage youth around the world.

“All Together Now” aired in the States during the 12th IAAF World Championships in Athletics (in Berlin, Germany), and is being made available to global broadcasters as a PSA (public service announcement).

Print work (below) has also been developed and we can expect a digital experience in the coming months. 

 

Great work by Cole & Weber United, and the rather talented guys at Nexus Productions.

(Best of Us - Stage one (2007) can be found here)

Advertising Agency: Cole & Weber United, USA

Executive Creative Director: Todd Grant

Art Director: Scott Fero

Copywriters: Jake Baas, Greg Lane


Executive Producer/Broadcast Producer: Pete Anderson

Production Company: Nexus Productions


Director: Fx & Mat Executive

Producers: Charlotte Bavasso, Christopher O’Reilly

Marketing In The "Non-Place": Airports

The last 10 days have been pretty hectic, and culturally diverse.

It started with a best friends wedding at The Landmark Hotel in London; followed by a 4/5 day planning session with the Emirates marcomms team in Dubai, and topped off with family time & a quintessentially English Saturday at the “The Henley Show”.

Without doubt, a week full of contrasts.

Sandwiched in there, were 4 hours spent in “non-places” .....  airports.

“If a place can be defined as relational, historical and is concerned with identity, then a place which can not be defined as relational, or historical, or is not concerned with identity will be a non-place”.

Marc Auge (French Anthropologist)

This eerie yet strangely beautiful video by Aaron Meyers helped clarify how much of a “non-place" an airport is.

I just wish that I’d understood the “non-place” 4-5 years ago when I was planning and writing creative briefs for Bacardi-Martini’s travel retail / duty free work.

The airport is devoid of cultural symbols. Apparently, it lacks codes which can be interpreted as "national" or "ethnic" ones. It objectivates freedom and equality - virtues of individualism. At the same time, the airport may function, for the traveller, as a kind of catharsis: The moment one passes through immigration into the departure lounge, one is removed from the impediments of society: Once there, neither the tax collector nor the family can reach you. You are a free individual.

(Døving, field notes)

A non-place requires non-marketing and by default non-briefs. An airport’s duty free shopping area is the Room 101 of marketing communications, a place where bland briefs rule – cultural identity is negated – oversized logos are king – individualism and cultural identity are left behind in the pursuit of mass global brand appeal.