Bad Spelling and Grammar

This morning I received the following comment on a post:

Hi Adam,I am an avid reader of your blog and love everything you write on branding. However, in virtually all your posts you mix up 'to' and 'too' which detracts from the quality of your writing. 1) should be 'too' big 2) should be 'too' quickly. I know it's a silly/minor thing, but I always notice it and feel that a consumer psychologist making complex observations should have mastered simple grammar.I hope you see this as helpful and not narky, as I genuinely enjoy your blog.

To the person who wrote this - thank you. I agree with you. My terrible spelling and grammar detracts from everything I write on this blog. Unfortunately, I never listened much at school and many of the learned skills in grammar / spelling passed me by as I was staring out the window. Further Blogger only has basic word processing tasks.

I will make more of an effort but unfortunately cannot guarantee it wont happen again (and again and again). I did read a study once that said that neither of these acquired skills are correlated with intelligence - and I hold onto that thought tightly!

Now can I ask of you that in future you don't post anonymously - it's not you is it Mike?

Why Bogans Kyle and Jackie O Should Be Off The Air

Everyone has a right to freedom of speech. However, society would be nicer if those who had the loudest voices did not represent everything base, banal, pathetic and sad about humanity. Kyle and Jackie O are harmful. Kyle is a misogynist and Jackie O has such a high need for approval she'll go along with everything the bully does with a pathetic 'Oh Kyle you can't do that. Te hee'.

Why do I care? I care because having people like this on the air is condoning the dysfunctional opinions they spit out every day. They make our society unpleasant / ugly / harmful. To catch up on their latest 'antics' go here.

What they both did to the 14 year old was disgraceful, putting her (and her exploited mother) in that position in the first place was damaging. However, Kyle's response that he just 'panicked' was equally sad. Pushing someone to the edge of a cliff and then panicking when they nearly fall is a little.... convenient. Further, the words he chose to say when the girl disclosed she had been raped were 'is that the only experience you've had' indicate that Kyle condones rape and sees it as just another form of sexual activity. His explanation today that it was a 'weird' experience was equally telling. it was weird as Kyle was perhaps confronted with his own dysfunctional thoughts. For a man who apparently lacks any insight - this would have been very confronting indeed.

Kyle and Jackie O have a right to say what they like - I urge people not to listen. Better yet, I urge Kyle and Jackie O to have a look at their own behaviour and politely remove themselves from the airwaves.

A Drink with Chuck Porter

In the world of advertising there are unfortunately, not a lot of people to admire. I don't like most of the advertising I'm exposed to (does anyone?). However some of the stuff Crispin Porter + Bogusky have done is the exception. Their work for Microsoft, Burger King and others has been interesting, playful, cool, and most importantly... effective.

We had drinks with Chuck Porter tonight and here are a few things shared:

1. Fruit hampers can be to big: The one delivered to Chuck's hotel was to big so he gave us a pineapple (picture above)

2. Crispin Porter has 1000+ people

3. Everyday he gets across all of the work the agency is doing. He believes the work is as good now as it ever was. Therefore he's happy with how the agency is going.

4. Crispin Porter does not have a table tennis table or pinball machine. They believe in hard work.

5. The world now moves to quickly to have a long term strategic plan.

He didn't disappoint. Chuck was impressive, intelligent and a nice guy to have a beer with.

How Advertisers Treat Women

This is the funniest / saddest commentary I've seen on advertising for quite a while. It was sent to me this morning. The clip speaks volumes.

How to Spot a Fake Psychologist

There was an article in The Age this morning about a guy pretending to be a psychologist. He is now facing 357 charges. Within the world of marketing there are a number of people who refer to themselves as psychologists who are not actually registered. If seeing a psychologist find out if a) they are registered, and b) if in Australia if they are a member of The Australian Psychological Society (APS).

Why Good Advertising Must Begin To Embrace The Dark Side

There has been a new study released that shows that ads depicting positive emotion are no more effective than those depicting negative emotions (I could only find the release). That is. please question why you keep showing smiley, happy, cheesy Prozac propped housewives serving up dinner (or KFC) to the family of four in your ads. Advertising agencies (and marketers) need to better understand what really works - and why. People are well and truly over the fake happy world of advertising. The world has moved on.

The research goes on to say that it is the level of interest in the communications that often plays a significant role in advertising effectiveness. If interested in the communications exploring 'negative' emotions such as bittersweet nostalgia, guilt, and anxiety. Sadvertising has also been explored here.

Tapping into the dark side of human emotion, empathising with how people really feel, and normalising some of these negative feelings can have a much stronger impact on brand building communications than the shiny, happy people parroting the happy scripts we see so often. I have written previously about it here, here, and here,

As an aside, reading about scientifically validated principles of consumer behaviour, with their predictive validity, is a nice alternative to reading after-the-fact-it's-all-positive case studies.