Steve Jobs unveiled the new iPad yesterday, and I got out my pencil to take notes.
“The best way to experience the web, email, photos and video. Hands down…with just the touch of a finger.” I can manhandle this pencil to do some pretty cool things, too. Write poems, letters, even calculate complex math problems. With the flick of my wrist, I can draw caricatures.
“It’s hard to believe we could fit so many great ideas into something so thin.” That’s what she said.
My wife hates the name. “Change it to reflect the tablet design. …iPill, perhaps.” She’s so clever.
“140,000 apps at your finger tips, from day one.” My pencil can come up with all kinds of characters on the fly. English letters. Chinese characters if I Google “Chinese characters.” OK. This comparison is lame. The iPad is awesome, and I’ll buy one as soon as Canada says I can.
I should compare Canada’s delayed technology availability to my pencil. Pencil. Hands down.
Chatter about this DDB Brazil print ad for WWF has me thinking.
The print ad concept uses 9/11 to make its point about global responsibility. It has the blogosphere talking and WWF denying it ever happened. Michelle Malkin questions WWF’s claim of oblivion. Ad Freak expresses the tasteless connection made between 9/11 and the 2004 tsunami. Tweets make patriotic catcalls to convey the absurdity of it all. What’s this all about? See for yourself.
Click the ad for a larger image . . .
Here’s what I think about it . . .
Airplanes flying into Manhattan have nothing to do with preserving wildlife. It doesn’t even provoke respect for our powerful world. If these planes were replaced by flying people with outstretched arms, I might reason that lives are in our hands. But planes and undertows? How can this poor level of concepting win a merit award (recognition no longer appears on The One Show site)?
This print ad does one thing. It makes me think. That’s good . . . right?
Biodegradable in advertising . . .
Since when did we start selling something by how well it turns back into dust?
Copy boasts that it’s fairtrade or made from recycled plastics. I get it. We’re selling the positive feeling of doing good.
But biodegradable shoes? We’ve taken it one step too far with this product in our eagerness to kick it with Earth Day.
“Want to reduce your carbon footprint? Try on these biodegradable shoes.”
What about biodegradable ads?
There’s a comeuppance happening to one persistent Craig’s List job post.
For five years, furniture e-tailer Cymax Stores has consistently searched for a copywriter and/or blogger. They’ve done this so often that Vancouver writers now flag their posts as spam. The question is, “Why does this company spend years banging headboards against a brick wall?”
I care, because I applied repeatedly during that first year. This was as a young, eager and somewhat foolish copywriter. $24,000 per annum somehow appealed to me. Cover letters. Resumés. Many unanswered emails later, I dropped it, thinking I just wasn’t the man for their love seat one-liners.
I’ve moved on with blogs, articles, ad concepts and marketing campaigns for other companies. Occasionally, just for kicks, I scan Craig’s List to find that same ad with its high promise, low pay and all-important “Great opportunity!” I wonder, “Can anyone fluff their pillows with copy?”
That’s a question we Vancouver writers are willing to leave unanswered.
It’s over . . .
I deactivated my Facebook profile. It went down like a bad breakup.
Why dump the one that put social back in media? It isn't her flirty nature with 200 million others. It isn't her coy market research. It's this . . .
Facebook rejected my recent video post, claiming it infringed on record company rights. It included a recognizable tune in the background.
Why is this unfair? My friends and I choose to connect in a semi-private virtual space. I'm not sharing this video for profit. I'm sharing a story from my life, set to music that I've purchased.
I see this "unlawful act" as equal to popping in a CD and telling a story. Facebook doesn't view it that way with a my house, my rules policy.
I respect this fuzzy Facebook term in cases where one benefits monetarily. I can't see how it applies here or here or even here.
Since I don't want to play by their rules, I'll take my videos elsewhere.
Hello, Click to Buy.