Reed Miscellany

tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-180772702009-07-07T06:16:10.020-07:00Reed MiscellanyHere are various odds and ends that have interested me enough to think they might interest you. Hope I'm right.Davidnoreply@blogger.comBlogger101125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-40215120675910754832009-07-07T05:14:00.000-07:002009-07-07T06:11:12.615-07:00Creatives 'not too bright', claims client

I just received an email from a fellow creative. Said creative had been given a written brief, which still bore a list of hints at the top for whoever was writing it. One of these read as follows:Brevity. Creative people are not too bright. [So] don't tell them what they already know and spare them what they don't really need to know.This seems an extraordinary attitude, and made me wonder how

Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254406764366639916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-8420084807105853292009-04-08T03:57:00.001-07:002009-04-08T04:22:22.955-07:00iPhone language

I've just been enjoying Johnson Banks' latest Thought for the Week: Me and my iPhone speak a different language.Apart from sub-editing quibbles with the title (it really ought to be My iPhone and I speak different languages, of course), I found myself nodding along with Michael's whinge about the iPhone's predictive text.It's the apostrophe predictions that really annoy me. Every time I have to

Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254406764366639916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-90001096843241778542009-01-23T01:37:00.000-08:002009-01-23T06:56:37.504-08:00Obamawaggoning

This week's election in the US was thrilling. We've seen a lot of very unpleasant history being made in recent years, so it was thrilling to see the explosion of optimism that blasted across the world from Washington on Tuesday.So it's rather depressing and wearying to see that not even this historic moment is beyond the grasp of those looking for any handy bandwagon to hitch their brand to.

Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254406764366639916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-71222471453845959782008-11-21T01:44:00.001-08:002008-11-21T02:12:10.475-08:00It's not 'laying people off', it's 'synergy-related headcount restructuring'

Thanks to my friends at 26, I've been alerted to this quite extraordinary bit of corporate language-mangling by Nokia Siemens Networks.And that's just the first paragraph.I'm not sure what people feel is gained by this sort of language. We all know what they mean, so why not be straight about it? They've merged, and that means they don't need so many people. It's an unpleasant fact of corporate

Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254406764366639916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-39875615620789382572008-11-17T03:23:00.000-08:002008-11-17T03:33:17.018-08:00You're not going out wardrobed like that.

The Oxford University Press US blog has announced that 'Hypermiling' is their new Word of the Year. Apparently, it means making your car achieve the maximum possible miles on a tank. Is that really the best of the year? I can't believe it.Much more troubling is the news, in the same article, that 'wardrobe' is now a verb, as in 'Eva Mendes is wardrobed by Calvin Klein.' Yuck.Also, I see Meh has

Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254406764366639916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-50142970607380995532008-11-17T02:23:00.000-08:002008-11-17T02:36:52.809-08:00Brilliant new film for Barnardo's

This chilling, smack-in-the-face film for Barnardo's is superb. It literally made my hair stand on end. I saw it on Scamp's site - he's the copywriter at BBH who worked on it. He did A Good Job (as did all concerned).

Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254406764366639916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-50591028568629489322008-11-16T12:32:00.000-08:002008-11-16T13:02:55.142-08:00Puccino's

It's been too long, hasn't it? Sorry. But here I am again, because I've just been reading this post on Brand New about Puccino's. Their copy-driven branding is all created by one man, designer and illustrator Jim Smith. Smith was taken on virtually out of college, and given a three-month contract that has now lasted ten years. I've certainly noticed their stuff on various railways stations. The

Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254406764366639916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-36756015761843487802008-10-07T12:12:00.000-07:002008-10-07T12:56:24.509-07:00Comedy imitates life (or at least branding)

I thought this was funny: Creative Review's spoof new identity, with an accompanying text using ludicrous jargon, apparently culled from real brand consultants. ("Our unique 3D marque - which we have christened the MaRble® - employs premium cues including the addition of vitreous accents denoting excellence and quality..." and so on.)But it was made particularly piquant by the fact that just the

Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254406764366639916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-9025625524251048662008-09-24T10:11:00.000-07:002008-09-25T02:25:23.841-07:00Today's Rant: The gorilla is a turkey

I must admit to a surge of schadenfreude as I read on Scamp's ad blog about the apparent failure of that drumming gorilla to sell Dairy Milk.The original article is on Brand Republic, and reveals that while the percussive primate may have been a favourite among bloggers, Dairy Milk's market share has actually dropped. (While its arch-rival Galaxy has gained ground.)I have to say, I never

Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254406764366639916noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-90862816723091983702008-09-24T09:45:00.000-07:002008-09-24T09:55:20.043-07:00If lawyers can single-space, so can everyone else

David has alerted me to this splendid site, Typography for Lawyers. Often, one feels that legal documents must have some sort of immunity from decent typography, but clearly they don't. When I got to the page about double-spaces between sentences, I started cheering:God, this drives me nuts. So many client documents come with these yawning gaps between the sentences, as if someone's hung the

Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254406764366639916noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-20415183808840252912008-09-19T06:47:00.001-07:002008-09-19T09:37:07.254-07:00What did they think would happen?

You ask a question like that, and then leave a nice, clear graffiti-friendly space. (The scribbler got a bit confused, but his/her question for God is, almost inevitably, 'What will win the 3.30 at Kempton Park tomorrow?')If God did exist, I'd ask him whether he gets to approve his own advertising.

Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254406764366639916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-22033066625965315402008-09-19T06:47:00.000-07:002008-09-19T06:54:33.051-07:00I know it's cheesy, but...

I walked past this yesterday......and thought what fun it would be if such a prestigious body was to allow itself to do this:

Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254406764366639916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-16768174875939929152008-09-11T04:46:00.000-07:002008-09-11T04:53:06.469-07:00Big ticket item

This is my ticket for the D&AD Annual launch. Did it really need to be quite so huge? So much for tucking it into my top pocket. (Did somebody say 'style over function'? Surely not.)

Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254406764366639916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-59524349414838997662008-09-10T09:10:00.000-07:002008-09-10T09:17:46.248-07:00Bloody students

Rather late in the day, I've discovered the D&AD blog. Scrolling back through time, I found a post from April about the D&AD Student Awards. It includes this picture:Honestly, what do they teach them these days?

Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254406764366639916noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-13586988221501223802008-09-05T03:31:00.000-07:002008-09-05T04:21:49.074-07:00Why does it matter if we make less mistakes?

So, Tesco has finally bowed to those who insisted they change their '10 items or less' signs. And, pedantic as it seems, I'm delighted.Of course, no one was confused by these signs. Their meaning was obvious, and you could argue that the new ones, saying 'Up to 10 items', are minutely less clear. Where's the cut-off? At nine or ten?So why does it matter which we use: less or fewer? It matters

Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254406764366639916noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-73282235686791373392008-09-04T02:29:00.000-07:002008-09-04T02:36:34.090-07:00My sort of gym

My sharp-eyed sister Kate has sent me this shot of a bizarre and hilarious bit of corporate naming. What were they thinking?

Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254406764366639916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-89225947613154788532008-09-04T02:04:00.001-07:002008-09-04T02:09:27.530-07:00Now my Orange payments are funding someone's musical road trip.

Oh good. Now some bloke is going round the country having a very nice time at my expense. Great. I mean, supporting young bands: yes. All for that. But the whole thing is overlaid with this 'I am...' yuck, and the ongoing, 'Look at us, we're just achingly hip and funky and cool and nothing to do with mobile phones at all' branding. They're consistent, anyway.Sorry. Come November and the end of my

Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254406764366639916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-29728946958777373142008-09-03T07:32:00.000-07:002008-09-03T08:18:50.098-07:00God bless pedants.

Picture pinched from the BBC homepage because this 'literally' thing one of my special bugbears.You can rely on certain factions of the British public to get very hot under the collar about language. And I for one love them for it.The BBC has listed 20 of the top language foibles its readers have griped about. Here's the short version, with notes:Of for have, as in 'I could of killed him...'For

Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254406764366639916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-66629228132426748472008-08-26T09:24:00.000-07:002008-08-26T10:15:40.769-07:00D&AD Executive Council Election: the shockign trooth

D&AD has announced the newest candidates for its Executive Council, and there are some very good people on the list. You can download their manifestos here. (If you're not a member, I'm not sure if you can see the relevant page - sorry.)Unfortunately, many of the candidates seem not to have checked their entries before presenting them to the world. They're full of things like:And the inevitableAs

Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254406764366639916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-66898162926136708212008-08-26T01:23:00.001-07:002008-08-26T03:47:09.068-07:00As names go, this is a stinker.

This is the new name for an American pool-cleaning product. Seriously. Can you believe it?It's memorable, I'll give it that.(Via Snark Hunting.)

Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254406764366639916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-28324084653660910922008-08-21T01:44:00.000-07:002008-08-21T01:58:20.279-07:00EA Sports: on the ball

This is just the way it's going, isn't it? EA Sports see a YouTube video by some guy who thought he'd spotted a glitch in their Tiger Woods golf game, and they make an ad in response. With Tiger. And put it up on YouTube. And Neatorama picks it up, and it pops up on my RSS from Neatorama, and I pass it on to you.Consumers driving advertising. (I'm tempted to say 'calling the shots', but that

Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254406764366639916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-14618644291801626532008-08-20T09:30:00.001-07:002008-08-20T09:33:36.071-07:00What on earth will I do with all the time I save?

If life gets any more convenient, I won't have to move at all.

Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254406764366639916noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-22819503217887136812008-08-15T02:45:00.001-07:002008-08-15T03:56:10.900-07:00Commercial b(r)eak

Entirely unrelated to anything brandish or copywritery, I am hereby fulfilling a promise to my wife that I will promote her new (and first ever) blog on my site.Wendy recently convinced me that our home was perfect apart from one small detail: an absence of chickens.This has now been rectified, with the arrival of six former inmates of a battery farm. These slightly battered ladies rejoice in the

Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254406764366639916noreply@blogger.com2tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-69967422130641900422008-08-15T00:33:00.000-07:002008-08-15T01:10:31.813-07:00Steve McClaren's new tone of voice

Again, this is just irresistible, although only tangentially relevant. Steve McClaren, famous for making something of a hash of the England manager's job, has taken a new role with Dutch side FC Twente.Interviewed on Dutch television, poor Steve guarantees himself a top spot on YouTube by adopting a bizarre sort of Gallic/Dutch accent, presumably in an attempt to make himself understood.Among my

Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254406764366639916noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-18077270.post-44157238886150199092008-08-13T06:38:00.001-07:002008-08-13T06:38:10.125-07:00How to make your emails even colder and more impersonal!

I just received an email from the new CEO of Network Solutions, through whom I own a couple of URLs*. Look: Do you know, I have a feeling I wasn't the only one to get this email. Of course, I'd know that anyway, whatever it said. But you'd think a large company, especially one that deals exclusively in online services, could at least address me personally. And it would help if the first sentence

Mike Reedhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/01254406764366639916noreply@blogger.com3