To coincide with the launch of Blue Dragon’s new Japanese range we’ve given their website a lighter, feng shui inspired look.

 

  The new range allows you to recreate some of your favourite Japanese dishes at home. You can also register with the website to receive 50p off their delicious new Katsu curry meal kit. 

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Back in the 1970s the world of squash - that's the game, not the drink - was dominated by players who hailed from a small part of Pakistan. If my memory serves me correctly they may even have all been from the same village. And many of them were related.

In the 1980s and 1990s in advertising, production men, were much the same. Except it wasn't Pakistan that they all hailed from.

For a very long time every production man in London seemed to have come from a small 'tahn' somewhere in Essex. Or they were East End boys. East End boys who put the graft in, enjoyed the occasional sherbert with the stream of print, typo and photographers reps who paid homage at their desks, and who all seemed to own the back end of a greyhound that was running next week at Walthamstow Dog Track.

What the production man did in an agency was make sure that the stuff that had to actually physically get made, got made. And for a price that ensured the agency could carry on affording those fancy chairs in reception.

What the production man wanted at all costs to avoid was 'being done up like a kipper'. And the way to steer clear of this sorry, piscatorial, state was, whenever a quote for some work came in from a supplier, to ring up said supplier and enquire whether he was 'aving a larf?'

There then followed a period of negotiations. And these negotiations would often reveal that yes, indeed a 'larf' was being had. So prices would go down, eyebrows would go up, prices would go down a bit more, and eventually a deal would be struck and everyone would be happy.

However, the precise details of the negotiations would always remain a secret more closely guarded than the initiation ceremonies of the Freemasons. And therein lay the power of the production man.

If there was an equivalent position in civilian life it would have been that of the print unions in  Fleet Street. They were that powerful. Yes, it was a power that had to be wielded cautiously, but it was real none the less.

Given this power it should come as no surprise that very few production men ended up short of a bob or two. Indeed, while they may have all come from the same 'tahn' in Essex, they tended to end up on the outskirts of that 'tahn', in a very large gaff, with a very long drive, and a very big Range Rover to drive up it in.

And why not?

Because computers were on their way, and they would change everything.

The thing I could never figure out was whether it was a legal requirement that they had to be called Larry, Barry or Gary. I mean, I once knew one called Steve, but he had no chance of making it.

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I visited my parents this weekend. They live in a village in Warwickshire in the same house that I grew up in. With all our children and pets, we don't get out much so I hadn't been for a couple of years. Watching my kids play in the house where I grew up was rather nostalgic. It really struck me what had changed.

In summary:

I had.......... 3 TV channels to choose from with very little worth watching for kids, a box of toys ( subuteo being the big one ), a few books ( that I never looked at ), a garden, some fields with a football pitch and a wood...and everything was closed at the weekend.

They have....... 1000 TV channels and rising, dvd, sky +, home cinema, the internet, laptops, computer games, real books, digital books, more toys than you can count; things that bleep, flash, jump,fly...... the garden, the football pitch, a playground straight out of Startrek, a local farm that has now turned into a kind of rural Disneyland, an electric garage door, a jacuzzi bath plus lots of Grandma's strange ornaments to demolish.

 

 

 

What is interesting is that kids now have to develop a new skill that I didn't need ; the skill of deciding what to do from an ever expanding list of options. While I had to find stuff to do, they have the opposite problem...too much stuff and not enough time.

And that applies to all our lives. Technology, globalisation and a culture of choice means we all have to deal with the same problem..too much stuff and not enough time. And that is in essence why business and marketing have changed. We don't have to put up with things anymore, we don't have to make do. If we don't like a programme on TV we flick, if we don't like ads we can fast forward them, if we don't like shops we go to the internet or our kids school or the local hospital or anything else you care to choose from.If it doesn't do it for us we exercise our right to choice.

So brands need to wake up to this. To be accepted in people's busy, over-supplied lives we need to give people a good reason to be part of it. It's not good enough to just shout the same tired old sales messages from the roof-tops.

And don't believe that the solution is always the latest technology. In a short experiment this weekend (based on my kids) - demolishing Grandma's strange ornaments won, hands-down.

 

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The search engine tie-up between Microsoft and Yahoo is being supported by the four big agency groups - they have signed a letter to that effect which has gone to the Department of Justice in the US.  Nobody has mentioned Google but obviously the big agency groups don't like its dominance. Read more
 
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On Monday  HMV's (one of our clients) Christmas countdown was kick started by their annual conference.  After a day talking business with all the labels and suppliers HMV work alongside, it was time to dim the lights  and let HMV stage a live show that displayed why the company’s recent expansion into live events can only mean great things for the industry.

First on was the compare of the evening, comic Stephen Kamos, who did a great job of warming up the crowd before the electric Friendly Fires (first of the music acts) took to the stage.   Their techno/rock tunes made them the ideal band to quite literally get the party started.   Following the Friendly Fires the audience was treated to more comedy from Manchester’s Jason Manford whilst the stage was prepped for the next live act The Cribs.  The evening was brought to an end by Kasabian who as always played a thrilling live set.  All in all a superb evening with great music, comedy and atmosphere!

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