I’ve just finished chairing the media category for this years WPP awards celebrating creating excellence, the WPPed Creams (can you see what we did there?).
In the five years since their inception the number of entries into the media category has grown four fold and the number of different types of agencies has doubled. Every type of agency wants to be seen as media leaders, it is after all where the action is. Read more »
Grayson Perry in less 'formal' dress
Grayson Perry’s examination of British taste and class concludes tonight with…The Upper Classes
I don’t imagine C4 are expecting it to rival the football (and its programmes like this that 4OD was made for) but alongside 56 Up, this is turning into a vintage year for bold documentary television.
Neil Hughes from 56 Up
This week saw the latest instalment of The Up Series. Originally commissioned by Granada television in 1965, Up is a documentary series that has followed the lives of 14 people from the age of 7, returning to each of them every seven years to see how they and their lives have changed (or not).
“That’s part of your problem: you haven’t seen enough movies. All of life’s riddles are answered in the movies.” Davis (Steve Martin, Grand Canyon, 1991)
Moneyball – a movie about data
Inspired by Sue Unerman’s cinematic references in her last blog I’ve another movie for your attention.
I’m not Brad Pitt, but neither am I Jonah Hill, at least I’m not as smart as he is in the baseball-based movie Moneyball. It tells the story of Oakland Athletics’ 2002 season. A season where they changed the rules of baseball forever. It’s one of those movies about sport that isn’t about sport. It’s a movie about conviction, destiny, redemption, resistance and duty. It’s also a movie about data. Read more »
You don't need to be Freud to see the symbolism
He’s back! And this time with added ads.
After what seems like an eternity for fans , will only be a few weeks for him. The ‘Double D’ that is Mr Donald Draper is back on our screens (at least to those screens with access to Sky Atlantic).
The clothes, the women, the drinking, the smoking: all will be present and correct. And we know it will not end well , the opening credits of a man falling from grace, through excess, have made that clear from the start.
But the thrill of watching how this man, who is so good at creating facades for products because the best façade he’s ever created is himself, acts and reacts as the quiet tick of the counter-culture clock shifts to a tolling bell is precisely what makes the show so captivating. Read more »
With the thought of mince pies and cake rapidly being replaced with the opportunities and commitments of the new year, I thought I’d share this piece by Strategist Charlie Wright on why the annual planning cycle or, to give it a seasonal edge, annual new year resolutions aren’t the best way of achieving objectives.
In keeping with the on-going cultural domination that is Scandinavia (Steig Larsson, The Killing, Wallander, Nordic Golden Square etc) a Swedish café called Nyborg has recently opened in North London’s Muswell Hill. Weekend day rye bread open sandwiches, cinnamon buns, Saturday morning bacon rolls and a good line in coffee are all present and, understatedly, stylishly, correct.
Where Nyborg differs is the breadth of its Sunday Lunch menu . This consists of: roast chicken for two with potatoes and a tomato salad.
And that’s it. A menu of just one dish. This is a certain kind of genius. Read more »
Why, Cooking With Gas? Well the ambition for my posts here is to champion great media thinking and bring you interesting ideas, innovations, some borrowed wisdom from the past and anecdotes from the world of media, marketing advertising and…cooking. Well when I say cooking I mainly mean restaurants.
I’m not the first to say it, but there are big similarities between the cooking and the comms trade. It’s not just the competitiveness, but the heat, expensive kit and mix of sociable people working unsociable hours. Both can also sometimes (when they get right) perform a kind of alchemy, taking base ingredients and turning them into something magical and transformative. Read more »
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