CR.AP update

It's been a while since I've updated on where we are and what we're doing.

We're still at Union and we have to ask about our job at the end of this week. So we're shitting ourselves about that. Work is still relentless, the pile of briefs is continually growing, the current amount due is a mere 4 for the end of the day. Recorded more Historic Scotland radio yesterday and more on Thursday so it's nice to be getting better in the script writing department. 

We also shot a viral last week for STV which due to low budgetness means we are editing it ourselves. Guess that could be a really good thing... or not. It's due for release on Monday so I'll show it the world then.

The other week we made a low budget UGC advert for STV jobs, here's the damage... and yes that is CR.AP dancing at the disco... aren't we cool. 

 

Finally we're also at Newblood this week, on the Sunderland stand. So if you are going, say hi to Keith our tutor, and I'm sure he'll be excited to talk to you.

Youtube Boone Oakley Website

Boone Oakley have created the first ever youtube website... it's fooking genius and a lovely tool. The attention to detail is beautiful and it's just premium design with the ability to link to thousands of people while they surf youtube.

Take a look here

I so wish I'd had this thought. I've started discovering the new abilities of youtube recently but this is by far the best use of it yet. I'm waiting for a lot more of these to appear very soon.

Damn them. There's 1 of my arms sold.

Obama is amazing

This is why we love this guy at the moment


And within hours he's been spoofed. Brilliant!



Although PETA have waded in (oh dear...)

The group People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals wants the flyswatter in chief to try taking a more humane attitude the next time he's bedeviled by a fly in the White House.

PETA is sending President Barack Obama a Katcha Bug Humane Bug Catcher, a device that allows users to trap a house fly and then release it outside.

"We support compassion even for the most curious, smallest and least sympathetic animals," PETA spokesman Bruce Friedrich said Wednesday. "We believe that people, where they can be compassionate, should be, for all animals." from msn news

Friedrich said that PETA was pleased with Obama's voting record in the Senate on behalf of animal rights and noted that he has been outspoken against animal abuses.

Still, "swatting a fly on TV indicates he's not perfect," Friedrich said, "and we're happy to say that we wish he hadn't."

Strangely the Deputy press secretary Josh Earnest said the White House has no comment on the matter. No...Really?! It's a fly. Not a Panda.

Today's brief

That was one of our briefs today. That is by far the best one we've ever received. I know it doesn't look much, but seriously I know what it means. It's due next Thursday. Honest!

Creative briefs get more creative every day.

The perfect father's day present

Get your hands on this people!

Flame by Burger King

Always wanted that fresh flame grilled smell? Well now you can. At just £4.99 you can make yourself smell like you've been working in a burger van all day.  The perfect gift for father's day. Made in a handy pocket size canister, it's definitely pocket pulling power in my opinion. Honestly this will sell like hot cakes. I do love a bit of brilliant advertising around certain times of the year. Well done CP+B.

Wear it 'til the cows come home. I'm off to buy some!

Random Emails

Oh this is brilliant. There's loads of these on there.

From:Jeff Peters
Date: Wednesday 8 April 2009 10.22am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Membership Renewal

Dear David

This is a friendly reminder to let you know your gym membership expired last week. Your membership is important to us and we would like to take this opportunity to show our appreciation by offering you a 20% discount on your membership renewal. We look forward to seeing you again soon.

All the best, Jeff Peters

---

From: David Thorne
Date: Wednesday 8 April 2009 1.37pm
To: Jeff Peters
Subject: Re: Membership Renewal

Dear Jeff,

Thankyou for your friendly reminder and the kind offer to reduce my membership by twenty percent. I own a calculator but I could not work out how to do percentages on it so have estimated that I save around $372.10 off the normal price of $420.00 - Please confirm that this is correct and I will renew my membership immediately.

Also, do I get a Fitness First sports bag with towel and drinking bottle included in the price? I own my own legwarmers and headband.

Regards, David.

---

From: Jeff Peters
Date: Thursday 9 April 2009 10.01am
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Membership Renewal Due

Hello David

How did you come to that amount? Our half year membership fees are actually $460 but with the 20% discount as an existing member your renewing membership fee would be only $368 for the six months saving you almost $100 off the normal price. We are not Fitness First so do not have those bags.

Cheers, Jeff

---

From: David Thorne
Date: Thursday 9 April 2009 10.18am
To: Jeff Peters
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Membership Renewal Due

Dear Jeff

Do I get free shipping with that?

Regards, David.

---

From: Jeff Peters
Date: Thursday 9 April 2009 12.48pm
To: David Thorne
Subject: Re: Re: Re: Re: Membership Renewal Due

Free shipping with what? The $368 covers your membership fees for six months.

Facebook Ads

Blogging galore today. This scared me on Facebook ads.
1. How do they know I wear contacts.

2. I don't like the fact they know I'm 21.

3. Would I really want a new set of eyes for my birthday?

That'll do for now...

The Sunday music charts

Finally the top 40 has been updated to what it should have been years ago. CD singles, airplay and mp3 downloads have always been the way to determine who is number 1 at 6.55 on a Sunday. Well now there is a new system. Big Top 40 use iTunes and iTunes only to determine who is number 1. So for the 4 hours they are on air the Top 40 can change continuously until they have been played.

There could be plenty of issues with this, but lets go with it for a second. At the top of the show, Lady GaGa was at number 22 with Paparazzi, as of typing this, it has moved up to number 9. 2 hours and some loyal fans and the single can fly to the top of the charts. In the last hour the top 10 songs get 'locked down' and from then on can't move for the purpose of this chart. Confusing but clever.

This means that people can't actually influence the chart right up until the last minute (in theory) but pretty close to. It also means a song can be released any day of the week and still have an equal opportunity of hitting number 1. iTunes have cleverly jumped on this venture, hint hint nice money earner there! Oh well, at least they have finally got a system that is actually interesting. 

As you can see Dizzee Rascal has moved up 1 place from 8th to 7th with in 30 minutes. See, it can be interesting. Or boring, because I now know who number 1 is an hour early. Damn.

New Heinz Ketchup Advert

Annoying how simple things are the best.

The first time I saw it, I recognised it was ketchup when the man puts his knife in the jar. 

Hats off to AMV. It's amazing what you can do for a simple product.

Fish Friday

I know it's cruel to mock people's names. But Murray battering Fish (oh the pun) made me laugh earlier. So a quick run round some of the sport websites brought some fishy lines.

Always ask permission, you never know!

The reason we always have to buy stock imagery for our ads.

Article
A couple from the United States got a shock when they learned their family photo was being used, unauthorised, on an advertising poster in Prague. Danielle and Jeff Smith used the photo as their Christmas card, and also posted it on an internet blog.A friend travelling in the Czech capital alerted them when he spotted the Smiths smiling at him, life-size, from a poster in a supermarket. The owner of the shop has promised to remove the image.

It's a life-size picture in a grocery store window in Prague - my Christmas card photo!" said a startled Ms Smith, 36, who lives in a suburb of St Louis. Mario Bertuccio, whose Grazie shop specialises in Italian food imports, said that he thought the image had been computer-generated.He used it to advertise his shop's grocery delivery service.

When told that it showed a real family, he took steps to remove it."We'll be happy to write an e-mail with our apology," said Mr Bertuccio, adding that if the family had lived locally, he would have offered them a bottle of wine.The Smiths and the photographer who took the picture, Gina Kelly, say that no permission was sought or given for the photograph to be used. They said they would add a watermark to any family photos they post in the future.
Pssst. They'll never know!

Shed at M+C Saatchi for sale on Ebay

Up for auction is one weeks rent of a studio space for a student team (STUDENT IDENTIFICATION AND PORTFOLIO MUST BE PROVEN) within the walls of M+C Saatchi's London office. The Shed boasts 2 desks, carpeting, a window, live briefs and the opportunity to have your work critiqued by professional creatives. Happy bidding.

Amended: ALL PROCEEDS GO TO NABs

Bid here

Students, how desperate are you for this great opportunity? It's a great idea, but that really could be slave labour. Although I have an alternative plan; take your book to Fink, blow him away with your ideas and let him offer you a placement where he'll pay you instead.

Also, I'd live in that for as week, does M+C Saatchi have a shower and a kitchen that I could use?

Don't mess with the Treadmill

THis made me laugh, but only because people do this in the gym but because the bear is funny. Cheap humour. Perfect for your full pizza belly in the afternoon

Channel 4 is trying to take over the world

Campaign says:

'Channel 4 is to become the first UK broadcaster to put its entire back-catalogue online completely free of charge

From July, its 4oD catch-up service will contain more than 4,000 hours of archive content, featuring programmes such as Brass Eye, Teachers and Vic Reeves Big Night Out

The move is a statement of intent from the channel, which is looking to further invest in its online video content, and puts pressure on the BBC's iPlayer, which only archives footage for seven (it's now a month) days.'

Wow, that is incredible! I wonder if The BBC could do that, with Dave and the rest of the UKTV network rerunning old shows, is that possible? If not then Channel 4 is onto a winner. I'm sure there will be a few legal issues, films, sport etc. But surely that means every Film4 production and documentary will be there...

The Royal Mail

They must love me... they deliver things to me even when I give them the wrong address. I wonder how far I could push it...
Outer Mongolia?

Has the Metro turned into Private Eye?

Now and again I'm a bit impartial to a good old political satire. So I make a grab for Private Eye, normally on a long journey. Instead this time I seemed to have picked up the Scottish Metro and discovered a whole new sarcastic world... I've never seen this kind of thing in the English Metro...

Off on another shoot

Dare I say we're on another TV shoot tomorrow. For STV we're covering the creative team that we're meant to be going, but are on another shoot elsewhere, so asked us to fill in for them. I must say, even though it is not our idea, to be given complete control on our own is pretty cool, especially when they could have asked anyone else in the agency. No CDs looking over our shoulders, real world stuff now. It's in Glasgow so a nice early trip across Scotland is called for. Champion.

These days are good.

National Smile Month

Move over Fanuary and Movember, now it's National Smile Month!

Less of the :) and more of the :D

The weird thing about this it that the url is www.nationalsmileweek.org not www.nationalsmilemonth.org, clearly they changed their minds after they bought the website! :s

Oasis Tickets Cardiff

I'm selling my 2 standing Oasis standing tickets for next Friday in Cardiff. Supported by Kasabian and the Enemy... It's worth going for just those 2 alone!

Seen as I'm working in Edinburgh its difficult to get there so reluctantly they are on ebay.

Starting at a knock down BOGOF price, feel free to take a look HERE

Saturday Night TV

Saturday Night tv is advertisers dream, especially when the Britain's Got Talent final peaked with 19.2m viewers on ITV1.
An average of 15m viewers and a 69.1% share of the 6.45-8.30pm audience tuned in to ITV1 while the results show was watched by an average of 17.3m and a 67.4% share of the 9.30-10pm audience.

Apparently analysts predict that ITV raked in more than £30m in advertising revenue.

While ITV1's coverage of Chelsea's 2-1 win against Everton in the FA Cup final at Wembley attracted 3.6m viewers and a 39.2% share of the 1-5.30pm audience.

Madness. One simple show with an even simpler format, Simon, this is why we love to hate you.

Your'e special

Guus isn't special, your'e.

Oh dear, I bet they spent ages painting that sign. I spotted it on the news, hence the live pause picture.

Apologies for the irritating constant spelling error.