Saatchi & Saatchi London
Friday’s Fresh Meat VII
It’s coming to the end of a busy week here at the agency. A few interesting things to share with you before a (hopefully) relaxing weekend! Speaking of relaxing, some of our planners have a strange fixation with cats, this is for them..
In the early hours of January the 23rd Tropicana and art collective Greyworld installed an artificial sun, made of over 60,000 lightbulbs, in Trafalgar Square. Lighting up the morning hours before sunrise, the stunt was part of Tropicana’s “Brighter Mornings” campaign.
On a different note, or perhaps to bring “light” to some people.. Alain de Botton has revealed plans to build a 1mil pound “temple to atheism” (don’t quite understand why it is called a temple, unless it’s ironic..) in London.
Many people’s lovemark, Lego is all over the news this week.. Using home-stitched parachute and equipment found on Craigslist, two 17-year-old Canadians sent Lego-naut 80,000ft into the air.. Lego also release “ReBrick” a social media platform for people who love Lego and want to share Lego related content.. On top of this Lego has teamed up with Moleskine to release new notebooks with a Lego theme..
Lots of cool pieces from the art world this week.. If you haven’t had a chance to go and see the new Hockney exhibit at the Royal Academy yet (it opened last weekend..) make sure to book tickets now as it is only open til early April.
Something slightly different from Japan.. “The 3D printing craze has spread to the art world, with Riusuke Fukahori‘s amazing goldfish “sculptures”, created by hand using acrylic and clear resin. The Japanese artist builds up the image of each fish by adding layer upon layer of paint. This is a similar method to how a 3D printer creates an object.”
“Surfing has long been associated with 1960s and 70s counterculture, as a post-war generation emerged, refusing to conform to societal norms. Photographer, Romain Laurent reignites that free spirit in his new series, L’Horizon; but, instead of hitting the beach, the surreal images reveal a tanned surfer smack dab in the middle of New York City.” What more appropriate in a time of huge social conflict and controversy!
A South African company has created an eco-friendly bag that slow cooks food after it’s been bought to boil. Designed to help communities in developing countries reduce costs through conserving energy, water usage, and ensuring that food is not burnt and wasted.
Schweppes “Unexpected Future” app analyses your Facebook data to come up with predictions on what will happen to you in 2012 in a variety of categories wealth, career, adventure, romance and fame.. Also, the front figure looks like she’s from X-men!
The good people behind the, now slightly too populist, “Secret Cinema” are launching a new concept “The Other Cinema“, a global network of pop-up cinemas, to try and once again become the new cool thing and engage with us cool Londoners that have ventured away from Secret Cinema.. The Other Cinema launches on Valentine’s Day with screenings of David Lean’s classic impossible love story “Brief Encounter” at The Troxy in London, and simultaneously in Edinburgh, Leeds, Birmingham and Norwich. I’m definitely getting tickets!
With films on my mind.. And the 2012 Oscar nominees being announced this week.. I checked out “Iron Lady” last weekend and planning on finally seeing “The Artist” this weekend.. Would recommend!
Have a lovely weekend!
The Time of Your Life
The new (Can we still call it new!? I will as I have refused to adopt it yet..) Facebook timeline processes all the information in your profile to try and produce a cohesive timeline of your life so far. But if you are like my friend Sam and haven’t filled in the gaps, Facebook might state that you were born in 1985 but didn’t actually do anything meaningful or noteworthy until 2005. Sad? Undoubtedly untrue as well.
It seems like a lot of people are keen to piece their pasts together, form a connection with a time gone past, even sharing it with other people. The good people at Time magazine chose Dear Photograph as one of their favourite websites in 2011. Dear Photograph encourages people to take a photo of an old photograph in it’s original setting, with the photo blending in with the background, something like this..
It’s an interesting notion to take something from the past, a captured moment in your life, and visually mix it in with the present. It almost feels like re-living a time that has already passed you by. I have to say I love the sentimentality of it.
Instagram is another hugely popular idea that captures some of the same emotion, but instead through it’s distinctive vintage look it makes current moments feel like past ones. The Instagram app recently reached 500 million uploaded photos, and is clearly heading for the big billion. Obama is using it, as is every other celebrity and cool Londoner.
Now that Facebook is becoming like a visual “Dear Diary” for your life, people are scanning old photographs to be able to upload them and therefore document their life moments (some important others less so..) that took place B.FB., Before Facebook. Endless old class photos are shared, while embarrassing fashion and hair disasters from early puberty are revealed. Eventually I will have to join in and start my own timeline, and make sure I fill in the gaps with lifechanging moments.. I find it fascinating to see what people find worthy of mention!
Friday’s Fresh Meat VI on Monday
Happy Monday everyone!
In case you missed the launch of our Saatchi&Saatchi Summer Scholarship 2012 Brief 1 and launch stunt #runawaybanker last Thursday.. Here is a little taste! Runaway banker quit his boring job in banking for a new fun life in advertising; he literally drove his desk out of Canary Wharf through London to Saatchis. His bold and life-changing journey couldn’t have come at a better time right after Goldman Sachs announced their bonuses, substantially smaller this year.. Runaway banker was also featured in Thursday’s Evening Standard!
Still on the 2012 trend wagon.. Viralblog’s 5 Mobile trends for 2012.
Cadbury “Thanks a Million”; Cadbury celebrated 1mil Facebook fans by creating a giant “Like” thumbs up made out of chocolate buttons.. Yummy!
General Motors Interactive car windows project; visions of future..
McDonald’s successful Twitter account saw a turn into the negative last week after customers where encouraged to share their McDonald’s experiences using #McDStories – most stories were increasingly negative.. and disgusting!
Quidditch is getting popular and is keen to seek official sport status at Oxford.. JK Rowling would be proud..
Best London Festivals in 2012 outlined by Timeout! Keen on the MIME festival!?
The Great Skills Mismatch of today’s economy infographic underlines the declining values of manufacturing in the current job market..
PressPausePlay
Nice kick-start to a cold Monday morning to watch PressPausePlay with breakfast. Interesting views and insights on the digital revolution and the huge growth of maker culture – anyone anywhere can now make anything.
Everyone is an artist, a musician, a writer, a filmmaker, an entrepreneur, a visionaire, an advertiser..?!
Friday’s Fresh Meat V
Yihaa and happy Friday the 13th! Hope you’ve stayed out of trouble..
Here is 2012′s first Friday’s Fresh Meat to bring you some light, as well as endless predictions on 2012 (everyone seems to have picked a different number of trends with JWT leading the table with 100 things to watch for 2012). Just wait – Saatchis always digs deeper.. Continue Reading →
Friday’s Fresh Meat IV
Only one more week til Christmas!
Very appropriately Time Magazine named “The Protester” the person of the year 2011; “In 2011, protesters didn’t just voice their complaints; they changed the world.” Continue Reading →
Friday’s Fresh Meat III
Here are a few interesting bits from last week.. As we prepare for our Saatchi&Saatchi outlook on 2012, we are very much looking ahead in the spirit of our nation.. Continue Reading →
I wish…
Esprit’s overly cheerful and super sweet Christmas campaign “Make Your Wish” has recently taken over tube stations and buses. From cute kids holding signs written in crooked childish writing; honest “I wish for sweets” or more serious “I wish for no pollution”, to adults wishing for health and environmental changes, Esprit is trying to tap into that Christmas spirit and love. I am not that cynical and do have a heart, I did love the now infamous John Lewis’ Christmas advert and do wish for happy things for Christmas, but somehow parading all the loveliness like this feels very American.. Continue Reading →
Friday’s Fresh Meat II
To kick off the advent calendar season, here’s a beautiful Lego Christmas tree from King’s Cross/St Pancras..
Some interesting things this week.. Continue Reading →
