You're here, there's nothing I fear

The upside to drinking and blogging is some things are so much funnier!

To the tune of...that song from Titanic:

"LOVE SONG FROM THE JIHAD
(as sung by Sheik Osama Bin Laden upon the death of Abu Musab Al Zarqawi)

Every night in my cave
I see you. I feel you.
Cause the hate you inspired will go on!

Far across the distance
And spaces between us
You are slain but jihad must go on.

Near, far, wherever you are
I believe that jihad must go on
Too bad, the dammed infidel's glad,
And that makes me so sad,
But I'm sure that jihad goes on and on"

The whole thing is here.

Dutch Government Fell Yesterday

This is a headline in the Times today:

"Dispute over Muslim MP leads to fall of coalition"

Blink and you'll miss this. What a very gentle way of saying the Dutch government fell yesterday because one cabinet minister screwed up.

"Jan Peter Balkenende, the Prime Minister, announced that he would hand his resignation to Queen Beatrix today after he failed to heal rifts in his coalition over Ms Verdonk’s decision to strip Ayaan Hirsi Ali, a Somali-born MP and world-renowned critic of Islam, of her passport."

Who is Ayaan Hirsi Ali and why is she a danger to the community there?

From "The Caged Virgin":

"born in Mogadishu, Somalia, was raised Muslim and spent HER childhood and young adulthood in Africa and Saudi Arabia. In 1992, she moved to the Netherlands as a refugee...she denounced Islam after the September 11 attacks and now serves as a Dutch parliamentarian, fighting for the rights of Muslim women in Europe, the enlightenment of Islam and security in the West."

By rescinding her passport she no longer was allowed to remain a Dutch MP.

Well, would you want someone in your country who would dare to write a movie treatment that started with this paragraph:

From Submission, Introduction:

"Amina is a dedicated Muslim woman who dutifully adheres to the rules of the Shari'a. She is surrounded by women who are treated cruelly in the name of Allah: they suffer abuse, marital rape, incest and corporal punishment. These acts of cruelty are justified by verses from the Koran....every day she turns to Allah and prays fervently for an improvement in their circumstances, but Allah remains silent and the cruelties continue" p. 142

Or some uppity female writing things like this?

From Genital Mutilation Must Not be Tolerated:

"...genital mutilation falls under the criminal offense of "willful, grievous bodily harm" as well as an "unqualified practice of medicine"...moreover, genital mutilation of girls falls under the definition of child abuse...Muslim reactionaries as well as all other political parties and politically correct politicians who want to preserve genital mutilation argue against a screening programme." p. 123

"An Islamic fundamentalist murdered Theo van Gogh, the Dutch filmmaker who helped me make Submission: Part 1, a film about the relationship between the individual and God...and he threatened to kill me too, a threat that others have also pledged to fulfill." p xii

Isn't it amazing that the government would fall over something so inconsequential?

Isn't the weather beautiful today?

Watching the people get lairy

This blogging planner understands ironic but shameless self promotion.

Here's an everyday story of cheap drinks in London.

When I first started I made a vow, not to drink and blog. Oops.

New York London Paris Munich

From 'Just One Minute':

"I would be thilled to read a Times editorial explaining that, until they intervened, Bush was trampling European privacy laws merely to protect American lives. Until they write that, I still have the Comedy Channel."

The NY Times circulation will be dropping these days. Wonder when we'll find out the true numbers? Who buys a brand they don't feel respect or fondness for? Only the lonely?

Goodbye New York Times, we used to be friends a long time ago.

So Much Owed by So Many

Found this at Drudge:

A German publican, channeling Winston, referring to English football supporters in his country:

"Astonished bar keeper Herrmann Murr said: "Never have I seen so many drink so much in such little time."

HFM Abstains from Supplying Faster Sales Info

New research information on magazine circulation figures in the States is about to become available from the Audit Bureau of Circulations.

One, called ABC Rapid Reports, will supply advertisers with timely information on magazines sales. They can determine within weeks how an issue is performing ie. how the sales compare to past issues and how they compare to other magazines for sale in the same time period.

Today, 28th of June, the ABC website has publication info up to December 2005.

This compares with TV/Nielsen which is available less than 48 hours later and other retail sales, which become available internally within 12 hours. That's how advertisers know whether to spot buy on tv. But I digress....

From ad age:

"...the near-simultaneous arrival of lots of faster, hopefully better metrics should help answer advertisers' cries for more accountability on demand.

...More metrics means more info for print buyers, but not all publishers are adopting the new systems.

Take the ABC Rapid Report being introduced by the Audit Bureau of Circulations for magazines cover-dated July. The voluntary system will allow publishers to report magazine circulation by issue within weeks of an issue's on-sale date -- but so far Meredith Corp. and American Media are the only big publishers to sign up.

That means media buyers will be awash in fresh figures for titles such as Better Homes and Gardens and More from Meredith, but probably won't be able to compare them with, say, House & Garden or Vogue from Conde Nast Publications.

Weeks-old stats will be available for American Media's Star, but not Wenner Media's Us Weekly. "More transparency is better than less," said Jack Griffin, president, Meredith Publishing Group. "Let the chips fall where they fall."

Conde Nast declined to comment; Time Inc., the country's biggest publisher, hasn't decided what to do; and Wenner said it will not join in. Rodale said it intends to adopt Rapid Reports "in the near future."

...Some advertisers are already making Rapid Report participation a requirement in requests for proposals, said David Leckey, exec VP-consumer marketing, American Media. "With Rapid Report we'll have the opportunity to show the world that we have a winner," he said. "We also have the opportunity to show the world that we have a loser."

Speedy issue-by-issue reporting may even reduce publishers' emphasis on rate base, or lead to the rise of seasonal or floating rate bases, Mr. Leckey added.

Then again, even though Jack Kliger is a rate-base critic and an advocate for better metrics, his Hachette Filipacchi Media U.S. is abstaining from Rapid Reports for the moment. "We're favorably disposed to it," said Mr. Kliger, Hachette's president-CEO. "We're going to make a decision soon. We just want to take a look at it to make sure that's it's not only timely but well-done."

The ABC Rapid Report needs to collect information from each publisher.

It's very sensible of HFM US to abstain from supplying this well respected data gathering outfit with their sales data.

The HFM boycott that started in May will effect sales for some months to come. Best to leave any timely reporting of sales figures to the distant future.

Where Young Readers Go

Cathy's take:

"Is the solution, as Bradlee suggests it might be, just to come up with better stories? Because I don’t think that addresses the stickier problem of younger readers simply abandoning mass media in favor of opinionated niche outlets like blogs or The Daily Show or Fox News. Since transparency is one of journalism’s core values, it’s hard for me to blame those who prefer their media bias served straight up instead of hidden in a piece of cheese, like a dog’s vitamin."

Bleak Sales Figures

Article in ad age:

...increasingly unhealthful image of soda fueled the first domestic volume drop for fizzy drinks last year, and research from Morgan Stanley forecasts future declines will be twice as bad.

...with fewer teens taking up the habit, so goes the notion of turning them into lifelong consumers. Morgan Stanley's poll of 1,550 consumers-including 525 respondents ages 13 to 17-revealed that teens and young adults are drinking less soda and bottled water compared to adults and more juices, sports drinks and energy drinks."

Previously reported bleak sales figures:

"Why does the L.A. Times circulation continue its sickening decline, now, according to the Audit Bureau of Circulation in Editor and Publisher, down to 843,432 daily, about 30% since the...Tribune Co. of Chicago bought the paper in 2000?

Of the 20 top papers in the country (ie USA), 18 lost circulation since last year.....Only the New York Times and the Newark Star-Ledger actually gained circulation. The New York Times was up by half of one percent to 1,126,190."

Note: half of one percent equals 5,631 copies which is easily achieved if your computer forgets to process a few cancellations or supplies a few rogue distributors.

The UK Telegraph has an interesting idea, free fizzy drink with every paper, as reported on by John Griffiths here.

Declining newspaper sales is the bigger story. Fizzy drinks manufacturers can make up sales by promoting non carbonated drinks in their portfolio.

Ex-subscribers won't be back as older readers lose the habit and young people mistrust the contents so much that they don't take up the habit.

Just saying!

Thank You Driver - Next Three Gigs

From Lucy and Cilla:

"Three gigs are coming up...different locations, with different musicians.

This Sunday - July 2nd at Cotton's Caribbean Bar, 70 Exmouth Market, London, EC1, nearest tubes, Farringdon or Angel. This is the indie four-piece gig, playing with Andrew on bass and Simone on drums.

Wednesday - July 5th at Brodie's Bar and Restaurant, 43 Fisherman's Walk, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5HD. This is the pared-down duo gig, in the suits bar.

Thursday - the day after - July 6th at The Fleapit, 49 Columbia Road, London, nearest tube Old Street. We're sharing the bill with Moist! and Moist Pete will be playing the double bass with us. Nearest tube, Old Street. Free in, please make a donation.

http://www.thefleapit.com

http://www.myspace.com/thankyoudriver

Lucy and Cilla"

Broadcast TV Advertising Sales

From ad age:

"...agency executives and analysts forecast the market to wind up anywhere between $8.5 billion and $9 billion. Either way, that represents a correction from last year's $9.1 billion haul, itself down from the $9.3 billion raked in for the 2004-2005 season."

In other words, overall, broadcast tv advertising sales are down.

"...News Corp.'s Fox is set to finish north of $1.8 billion, and sold 80% of its inventory, a $250 million improvement on last year's $1.55 billion."

That's a 16% increase. What could they be doing right?

Blogshares

Russel Davies's blog is worth USD $26,125.85

Go here to see all the details.

Hey, planningblog is worth more than Fallon planning blog. How on earth is that possible? They'll catch me up very soon, I'm sure.

Someone said to me last week "you don't write much about planning, do you?". I do, it's just that my political bias, which peeks out from time to time, causes a disconnect.

"According to Gibson's theory of direct perception, the array of information in our sensory receptors, including the sensory context, is all we need to perceive anything.

...the direct-perception viewpoint does not integrate the processes of intelligence, as usually conceived, with the processes of perception.

...the fundamental unit of symbolic knowledge is the concept - an idea about something that provides a means of understanding the world.

...concepts may be organized into schemas, which are mental frameworks for representing knowledge that encompass an array of interrelated concepts in a meaningful organization. For example, we might have a schema for a kitchen. It tells us the kinds of things one might find in a kitchen and where we might find them (or a planning blog, just saying!).

A problem with schemas is that they can give rise to stereotypes. We might, for example, have a schema for the kind of person we believe was responsible for the destruction of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. This schema can easily generate a stereotype of certain groups of people as likely terrorists."

From Cognitive Psychology, Fourth Edition, by Robert J. Sternberg, bought in the U of M bookstore January 2006.

BBC starts Blog

The BBC is a big brand that supports England's unique heritage and culture.

Every household with a tv in the UK pays for it. My last 12 month licence cost £131.50.

So when I read that the BBC will be paying journalists to write a "blog", I'm thrilled.

A lot of the current affairs and news programmes are biased and unrepresentative of the attitudes of zillions of BBC licence fee paying British people. A blog that allows, nay, invites comments about what the BBC offers will be exposed in a nanosecond if they delete the comments of those who write in regarding their perceptions of bias and inept editing.

There really isn't a need for another blog about the BBC but an independent and thriving marketplace attracts the BBC new product developers like toddlers to electricity outlets.

Until that blog is launched, here are a few other blogs that write about the BBC and most allow comments:

Biased BBC

BBC Eye

Busting BBC Bias

Blogging the Beeb

Accuracy in Media (includes BBC in their analysis)

Guardian Lies, Who Cares, England is Through

From lgf:

"Guardian Palestinian propagandist Chris McGreal isn’t stupid. He knows the “prisoner’s document” does not recognize Israel’s right to exist, and that it never mentions the phrase “two-state solution.” McGreal is simply lying about it, to make it seem as if Hamas is doing an about-face."

Happy thought for the day -- Wow, David Beckham sure is cute!

The Wind that Shakes the Barley

As a student of Irish history and a big fan of the Irish, I was determined to see this movie the second it was released in London.

Don't read this post if you're intending to see it as I'm going to talk about the detail.

The Cork countryside is bleak but attractive and the camera moved slowly, long stretches of gently rolling hills passing with a few credits which I ignored. The soft Irish music in the background was perfect as the period 1920-1922 wasn't a time of loud poppy, rockey music.

The first scene was, hey ho, baddie black and tans roaring into a farmyard and lining up the boys against the wall, all very cliched.

I'm sure, I'm positive, that the black and tans pounding up the driveway were awful, scary, and disturbing. What I know from history is they were not properly commanded and there was no retribution when they were violent.

So ok, black and tans bad guys. But they were human and within the first five minutes my heart sank at the thought of such unnuanced film writing.

Here's a controversial idea! Do a movie that has a few nice black and tans, there were some, William Hill of bookmaking fame springs to mind.

But this movie is not about being controversial, or stimulating a different attitude towards Irish history. Ken Loach is 70, and stuck on his one note, there's a great quote in the Sunday Times today:

"Is there a couple - outside the ranks of the Socialist Workers Party - whose idea of the perfect Saturday night is to order in a pizza and cuddle up to the films of Ken Loach?"

The Englishman I sat beside looked at his watch a zillion times. Clearly it was not his idea of the perfect date movie.

I loved how true they were to the facts. Some instances shown were fictionalised versions of quite famous incidents. The landlord kidnapped as hostage for the guerrillas about to be executed, the ambush where the guerrillas were ordered to fall in afterwards, the way very young kids delivered important messages, the youthful, gormless faces of so many of the guerrillas and army guys. The British army interrogator who cried out "these soldiers saw their friends slaughtered on the Somme", all in the movie's favour.

I had a big problem with the love interest - Sinead. Every second word directed to her was 'Sinead', it's the same thing that happened in Titanic (Jack! Jack! Jack!) and is something you hear all the time in movies when the character needs to make noise. It doesn't make the characters very true to life, think about the last time you said your chum's name over and over - see? Doesn't ring true. It's just movie sound filler.

By the way, I loved the "real" sound, crunching of boots, whine of an old lorry motor, clomps on wooden floor boards. Lots of quiet space is like lots of white space on the printed page. It's refreshing and I love the realism that evokes.

I've taken a long time before mentioning Michael Collins, haven't I? Yes, he was there, two shots in the newsreel footage, but the single best thing about this movie was that Michael's story was the basis for Teddy's story, down to crying and begging someone he was close to to reconsider. The movie did mention that the elected Irish Parliament had confirmed the treaty so...if the characters believed in democracy they had to accept that outcome. But some didn't believe in democracy (they were socialists after all) and got on their high horse about the oath.

As Tim Pat Coogan says, the Irish Civil war was based on something as stupid as which end of the egg to top - the little end or the big end.

That's where this film fell down. The Civil war was never about partition and never about being "pure". It was fought over the Oath and as I keep reminding everyone, even Dev broke down and swore the Oath. Michael Collins made a remark, something like he'd swear an oath to a pig if it'd get the Brits out. But Michael was bright and quick-witted and had stared the British cabinet leaders in the face. He KNEW.

So when the movie veered off into anachronisms I was sad at the missed opportunity to tell the story truthfully.

The closest this movie got to the truth was - Damien is stalking off and his brother calls after him "don't go and do something stupid".

He WAS about to go do something stupid, join the irregulars, and his brother (who'd been tortured on screen, pliers ripping his fingernails off just so we could all get a good idea of just how horrible actual, painfilled torture is) was trying to get him to wise up.

Didn't happen.

I don't know if Loach meant to, but the casting of Teddy (the gorgeous Padraic Delaney) and Damien (the wet, seemingly slow-witted Cillian Murphy) was inspired. Teddy is the only character I cared about. Damien was a great example of someone who thought he was smart and wasn't. The movie was much less inspiring than I'd expected. So 'Michael Collins' by Neil Jordan is still the best movie about the subject I've seen.

Gallup Poll

Details of a poll conducted by Gallup in the States, fieldwork dates: 31 Dec 1944 to 4 Jan 1945.

Helpful Propaganda from the Observer

Paul Harris has written an article that needs to be read by everyone who is trying to move to the States.

Please believe him, despite any cynicism you might have about antique media's biased news reporting.

He's absolutely right and this information needs to go wide. It should be printed up and dropped out of planes over Mexico and all of central America. Why is it the media keep quiet about this, it could solve the immigration crisis at a stroke.

"Wake up: the American Dream is over

Even America's richest think they're getting too many tax breaks from a government determined to keep the poor in their place...America has some of the worst urban sprawl in the world...its politics is awash with lobbyist inspired corruption...culturally American TV can plunge depths that are hard to imagine...its media boasts celebrity tabloids including People and the National Enquirer (Note: he forgot to mention Shock magazine)...we should not be too surprised to find some of the biggest gaps between rich and poor in the world. Such a yawning chasm is just the American Way, it would seem...over the past few decades there has been a fundamental shift in the structure of the American economy. The gap between rich and poor has widened and widened. As it does so, the ability to cross that gap gets smaller and smaller. This is far from business as usual but there seems little chance of it stopping, not least because it appears to be government policy. "

By the way, editing is fun!

Thanks Paul, you're a genius.

Hush, hush, voices carry

WMD found in Iraq.

London Times, LA Times, NYTimes, ah, no mention.

A few blogosphere mentions though:

Patterico

Dr. Sanity

Chester

Fox News (via Drudge)

Breitbart

Shrinkwrapped

CNS news

Captain's Quarters

Hot Air

Pajamas Media

Shannon Love

Instapundit

Austin Bay

Powerline

Tigerhawk

The Admirable Marxist

From Pootergeek:

"While I catch up, let me leave you with heartily anti-Communist Jackie’s dinnertime justification for her belief that mild-mannered Professor Norman Geras is dangerous:"

“The trouble with Norm is that he’s such a nice guy. I don’t want people to get the idea that Marxists are like that.”

I didn't know he was a Marxist but perhaps there's a postmodern definition of the word I've yet to learn.

The L Word

I save the heartwarming voice messages I get.

So does Thomas Tucker's family.

From 'It Comes in Pints?'. Click on "absolute moral authority".

Dan Rather's Exit Left

It happened a long, long time ago, September 2004, eight weeks before the last US presidential election. That's why I'm surprised it's still being talked about, let alone in the deferential way Ad Age has chosen to do it today:

"His long goodbye started with a scandal surrounding a report that President Bush was errant in completing his National Guard duty, and documents detailing how."

"A scandal"? September 8th a defaming story went out on a highly regarded broadcast news programme. It was defended by all involved until September 20th (putting the BS in CBS, got that phrase from imao.com) and they still defend what they did today. See below for the new colloquialism "fake but accurate".

"Errant"? Weekly Standard magazine called it "the libelous hit job".

"Documents detailing how"? "Documents" from 1972 typed using Microsoft Word by a known forger and faxed to Dan and his lot at CBS from a Kinko's near his home.

"Within hours of the "60 Minutes" report, a blogger, later identified as Atlanta lawyer Harry MacDougald, questioned the authenticity of the documents."

They were not authentic so good call Harry.

"That set off a firestorm of conservative-blog commentary, all pretty much calling for Rather's head."

Because the "conservative-blogs" appreciated that the biased reporting demonstrated an obvious desire to influence the approaching election.

"The culmination was CBS firing producers involved in the story, and Dan Rather stepping down as evening anchor in March 2005."

Good point. The producers were responsible for allowing him to present unauthenticated documents as if they were the truth. Mary Mapes is still calling the details in the forgeries "facts".

The Dan Rather story was the first time I read the phrase "fake but true". Hugh Hewitt and Dr. Sanity's phrase is "fake but accurate". Do a google blog search, these terms are part of the lexicon now.

This is all relevant to those of us in advertising and market research. Hugh Hewitt, in his book 'Blog' says:

"...there remains incredible opportunity among hundreds of millions who have yet to figure out there is a better way to gain information than watching the tube...people don't trust the old media with anything like the old level of confidence..." page xxi

"Mickey Kaus, an early uber-blogger...observed that the NYTimes and a blog are actually not at all alike: "One obsessively reflects the individual biases, enthusiasms and grudges of a single individual. The other is just an online diary!" p 18

See, Americans do get irony.

Social Marketing University

Nedra has sent me details of a weekend course that sounds really interesting:

Social Marketing University

September 18 - 19, 2006

8:30 a.m. - 4:30 p.m.

UCLA Conference Center, University of California, Los Angeles Westwood, California

Presented by Weinreich Communications

http://www.social-marketing.com/blog/

How do you help people adopt behaviors that will make them healthier and better off?

How can you create positive social change?

At Social Marketing University, you will move beyond the usual educational approach to changing health and social behaviors. Using social marketing, you will learn how to persuade individuals to take action for change by addressing the values, needs and desires that motivate them. It's about understanding and connecting with your audience by applying the same effective marketing tools that companies like Nike and Apple use.

Join Nedra Kline Weinreich for this two-day training on the beautiful UCLA campus in Los Angeles. By the time you leave, you will have an effective social marketing strategy for your own program and the skills to implement it immediately.

Early registration by July 31 includes a $100 discount, and each additional person from the same organization will receive another $50 off of the registration fee. Students also get a huge discount.

For all the details about the training agenda, fees and housing accommodations, check out the Social Marketing University information page:

http://www.squidoo.com/smu

Let me know if you're going.

Is All Advertising Spam?

From Bob Garfield's blog:

"...Up until today, we imagined this to be a process somehow unique to the Internet, especially since the FTC cracked down on telemarketing. But then, in a seminar given by Wunderman's Simon Silvester and Shawn Burns, the scales were scraped from our eyes.

TV commercials, print ads, outdoor, banners -- in Silvester's view -- are all spam, because they all arrive unsolicited, begging for our attention.

Alas, there are no spam filters for media advertising. Whether it's a 90-second cinema ad or a cigarette-butt trap in a urinal, whatever the message is we're pretty much stuck with.

There are but two filtration mechanisms:

#1 our contempt

#2 the genius of the ad makers to overide #1. "

Read the whole thing here.

Shock Magazine Update

More news of Michael Yon and Hachette Filapacchi here.

Hachette Filapacchi put Michael Yon's photograph on the front cover of their magazine, Shock, without his permission. Allegedly, they refuse to deal with the legalities this raises. Every artist will appreciate the seriousness of this. Pressure is now being applied to HFM, who appear to think they are so big they can get away with using an artist's work without an agreed deal.

7,000 stores in the States have pulled Shock magazine from their shelves. The list of good guys includes; Tower Records, Borders, Krogers, Fry's Electronics, King Scoopers, Brooks, Eckerd's and Rite Aid.

Note: Krogers is doing rather well these days, sales up 7.5% in a market where sales are up 6.2% in the category.

There's a call for a boycott of Car and Driver, published by Hachette Filapacchi, current circulation details:

Monthly circulation for Car and Driver is:
-print subscriptions = 1,224,265
-digital subs = 1,258

Single copy sales = 132,433

Circulation details quote a circulation of between 1,354,146 and 1,357,956.

Car and Driver advertising rates are based on a guaranteed circulation of 1,350,000 per month.

If 10,000 people who normally buy Car and Driver magazine every month don't buy it this month, the boycott will be successful.

Although we won't know for ages whether circulation has been effected by the boycott, the media companies placing advertising will know as soon as the data becomes available, and they will push for a rebate for their clients.

Making an impression with this boycott is do-able - 10,000 less copies? 7,000 shops have pulled Shock magazine already. That's less than 2 copies per shop.

My recommendation?

Buy ANOTHER car magazine for the next few months and buy it in the shops that have pulled Shock magazine from their shelves.

The publishing market is in turmoil and circulation across the board continues to fall.

There's never been a better time to launch a boycott.

Because the bottom line is - artists should be able to control who uses their work.

Thank you JS and L.

Spicey Recipes

Laugh and the world laughs with you?

How about this line from Robert L. Simon:

"Did the (New York) Times' vaunted fact-checkers bother to check or were they too mired in their reactionary world view to investigate."

Go here if you want to find out the answer, although you already know it, right?

Vaunted. Great word.

How about this - "Nailing the lie of the evil Empire" by Lawrence James, in the Sunday Times yesterday. Some edited highlights:

"...places two obscure Victorian viceroys on a par of wickedness with "Stalin and Mao". This is twaddle."

"...does not exonerate acts of brutality, but it should prevent them being portrayed as on the same moral level as the planned, sustained and secret polices of mass extermination that were practised over decades in Stalin's gulags. Even to hint at parity is grotesque."

"...words such as "gulag" and "holocausts" and crass comparisons with the murderous despotisms of the 20th century are deployed to portray the empire as a callous, depraved institution. This travesty is gaining converts."

"...why is such poppycock believed? One answer is the tendency of some writers and documentary makers to poke about behind the wainscot of history in the hope of finding something nasty that can then be sensationalised. The process is selective and distorting.

"An empire that lasted 300 years is judged solely on the misconduct or errors of a handful of its servants. The crimes of one vicious intelligence officer in Kenya obliterate all the patient and benevolent labour of hundreds of district commissioners throughout Africa."

I've got a theory that it's down to the general population's inability to understand numbers. "Math Dyslexia" as my neighbour calls it. One bad guy equals 30,000 bad guys for some people, they have that hard a time distinguishing the difference between the two. And lots of them are journalists and editors. Probably why they can't comprehend the decreasing circulation figures for newspapers. What was it, 15% decrease overall in the UK last year?

I see that as an opportunity - for those of us who do understand numbers. It's just like adding spice. A tiny pinch of spice changes the whole recipe.

A tiny bit of bias changes a news report.

A tiny bit of pointing this out - ie. blogs and their readers - can effect the entire worldwide news business.

So here's my pinch of spice for you all.

Father's Day

This is inspired by an ancient (over a year old! archaic in blog terms!) post of Russell's:

"Things that are better than they used to be - part the first"

Read it here.

Things are better in England than when I first got here:

the toilet paper in pubs
shops open on Sunday
manicure and pedicure bars
decent food in cheap restaurants
dry cleaning!!!
really good wine in pubs
way more tv channels
tables outside in nice weather
no smoking on the tube
no ink streaks from reading the paper
zillions of wonderful shoe shops
lots of fresh food shops
M&S ready meals
Oyster card

My dad once asked me; "what did I ever do to make you move so far away?".

My instantaneous response; "you gave me the self confidence to think I could crack living in London".

It's still wonderful here dad.

And I so miss you.

Are Ipods Overpriced?

I read about it at Enrevanche. Here's a report of a Mail on Sunday article that's not available online:

"Apple's iPods are made by mainly female workers who earn as little as £27 per month, according to a report in the Mail on Sunday yesterday.

The report, 'iPod City', isn't available online. It offers photographs taken from inside the factories that make Apple music players, situated in China and owned by Foxconn.

The Mail visited some of these factories and spoke with staff there. It reports that Foxconn's Longhua plant houses 200,000 workers, remarking: "This iPod City has a population bigger than Newcastle's."

The report claims Longhua's workers live in dormitories that house 100 people, and that visitors from the outside world are not permitted. Workers toil for 15-hours a day to make the iconic music player, the report claims. They earn £27 per month. The report reveals that the iPod nano is made in a five-storey factory (E3) that is secured by police officers."

Yesterday, I got an email about the new black 30 GB U2 ipod and I was going to buy it today. It costs £239 pounds. How many months does it take to make them?

L'Onde de Choc

That's French for 'Shock Wave'.

So far, three distributors in the States have gone on record, saying they will not stock Shock magazine.

It's a start!

Good morning JS and thank you.

Come on, it's funny

Going to the gym, then going for a drink, heaven on earth.

Reading this, times that by ten:

"Making a whistling sound with a descending pitch in my presence was funny the first time. We all had a good laugh. It is hereby forbidden."

Propaganda is the Theme of the Day

From Ad Age:

"Something's rotten with the state of media. Nearly half -- 48.9% -- of senior marketing executives admit to paying for editorial or broadcast brand placement, according to an industrywide survey just released by PRWeek and PR agency Manning Selvage & Lee.

Lax journalism standards may be harming the image of the media, said Mark Hass of Manning Selvage & Lee."

Here's another quote from the article that cracked me up:

"Media experts found the survey's findings appalling. "I think there is a very short life span for publishers with no standards," said Alex Jones, director of Harvard's Shorenstein Center on the Press, Politics and Public Policy."

What rubbish. Publishers have been printing propaganda for ages. The UK Guardian and the NYT are two examples of long running publications that are run by trusts and have survived for ages. Time magazine is another one. When Time magazine's misreporting of Haditha is finally exposed in full on the internet, do you think the publication will fold? Not bloody likely.

Propaganda

From cynopsis.com:

"The Tribune Company is currently 12.2% owned by the Chandler Trusts, controlled by the Chandler family. The Chandler family also has three seats on the Tribune board. So when Tribune management suggests a strategy, the Chandlers have a say in how things should happen.

Not too long ago, Tribune management suggested a $2 billion stock buyback. The Chandlers took exception to that idea, suggesting it would not fix what ails Tribune, and in a letter to the SEC yesterday, the family said "[the buyback] offers little to spur revenue growth and invigorate the newspaper franchises." The Chandler family also says Tribune is not properly investing in growth and new business ventures.

The letter goes on to suggest that if Tribune cannot separate its television and newspaper business by year's end - an onerous task given the family trusts involved - that the company be sold as a whole.

Tribune responded to the Chandler letter by issuing its own statement which in part quotes William A. Osborn, Tribune's lead independent director who said, "The actions suggested by the Chandler Trusts in today’s letter were considered by the board prior to its approval of the tender offer. After receiving recommendations from management and the board’s outside financial and legal advisors, all the directors except those representing the Chandler Trusts approved the tender offer as being in the best interest of all shareholders.”


Fancy wanting to separate the newspaper business, which includes the LA Times, from the television business!

The more you look into media ownership, the more you realise there's no independence of thought allowed, no reportage objectivity desired and no business pressure when circulation drops in the face of transparent agenda driven editing.

ALL newspapers are propaganda sheets. Let's be honest with ourselves about this.

Means they're just like blogs!

Michael Yon vs. Jim Kelly

I can't remember who directed me to the "people ranker" at this site but I've had fun typing in names and seeing the charts appear.

I typed: Michael Yon, Jim Kelly, Hachette Filipacchi, and Vince Vaughn - just to see what would happen.

A Question of Accreditation

A new business idea from the springwise newsletter - put a button on your blog and it becomes available to buy.

Check out the details on "Scoopt Words" here.

There's a sting in the tale:

"Scoopt takes a 50% cut for the first sale and 25% for subsequent sales, and bloggers are paid through PayPal. Publications don't necessarily credit the blogger, and are free to edit their articles without the blogger's explicit permission."

If you're uncredited, you can't really build a business. But if you're badly edited, you might not want the byline!

These days I'm glad to fly below the radar but it's an interesting idea.

Shock Magazine is a "Magazine for Illiterates"

I don't know who Shock magazine is targeted at.

If I were to venture a guess I'd say it's the same as the one for soft porn magazines on the top shelf of newsagents although that's a bit unfair to those guys.

Gawker has a great way to refer to Shock, the "magazine for illiterates".

"Hachette Filapacchi’s new offering for the recently lobotomized"

There are copies of Shock magazine in newsagents at Victoria station and by the World's End council estate in Chelsea but I'm glad to say none of the CTNs in this neck of Kensington have stocked it.

It's being supplied in London by Comag. A label on the magazine says www.magazinecafe.co.uk. I'll follow up on those suppliers in a moment.

My biggest problem is twofold - the content and the advertisers. The content is hold-your-stomach excretable. The advertisers are the same kind you'd find in the back of porn mags, ie. non mainstream video games and badly designed advertisements for ring tones.

Those advertisers are the kind you can't really influence with a boycott as they clearly don't care about the company they're keeping.

One way to play a role in the failure of Shock magazine is to raise awareness of it's awfulness in order to ensure that media companies don't recommend it to their clients.

The big media companies in the States and the UK are; OMD, Mediaedge:cia, Initiative, Omnicom Media Group, Mindshare, Starcom, ZenithOptimedia and a few others who'll be written about at ad age and media week.

Big media companies with any sense will look at the latest publicity for the magazine, for instance here and here. Then they'll take their advertising money elsewhere.

There is research evidence that indicates that "early adopters" and "opinion formers" are the bulk of the readership of blogs these days, which means you're in good company.

Let's see what "An Army of Davids" can do.

Thanks JS, you're ahead of the curve, as usual.

Update:

I don't believe there's any money to be made from a gross out magazine like Shock.

I'll bet you the pitch was "Grazia for the Weekly World News and National Enquirer buyer" but the reality is a glossy magazine that makes you want to throw up.

The fact that they got so few, and such poor quality ads in the launch issue means they couldn't convince any media buyers they had discovered a gap in the market.

I'm not a fan of conspiracy theories but the contretemps with Michael Yon makes me rather suspicious.

Just saying.

Viewser

From cynopsis.com:

"MTV has launched Viewser Labs, a new experiment partnering the network, sponsor clients and advertising agencies, with the long-term goal to go beyond the standard :30 spot and the banner ad.

MTV creatives will partner with key clients and agencies to develop a new viewing experience that takes into account the viewer's usage habits, culture and technology, with eventual utilization of pods to programming and promo spots to product integration across all MTV outlets.

What the heck is a "viewser"? According to Lost Remote online site, it's defined as a TV viewer who also dabbles online."

When I watch tv these days, which is, like, never, I watch a dvd or a music video channel.

DVDs get my full attention, 'box' is like the radio, I'll look up if to watch if I like the song.

I tend to play podcasts when I'm just messing on the computer in the evening.

What would that be called, a "podster"?

Haditha

"Deja vu just isn't what it used to be."
Angelus, Buffy the Vampire Slayer,
Season Two, Passion

At Justoneminute the commenters are really intelligent people and good writers.

If they're finding something a bit fishy with the antique media and Time magazine reports of what went on in Haditha - that makes me think.

I wouldn't even be writing about this if Campaign magazine, the UK advertising industry's trade paper, hadn't lauded the Time magazine report in its latest issue.

Thanks Liz. You're right, they're a scary, daunting bunch.

Home Made TV Commercial - make that plural

This youtube video was turned around quickly, edited in time to the music, didn't use expensive cgi yet is compelling, hilarious...and provides an example of how the media world is changing. (From DrSanity.) 8:45 am

Update:

Wow, this youtube video is a little rougher around the edges and not G rated, but has also been inspired by recent events. (from PajamasMedia)

Further update:

Blur and the heavy metal guys Dope are responsible for the music. The first video is 4 minutes long, the second just one powerful, headbanging minute.

Campaign Magazine on 9th of June

This week under "things we like", Campaign magazine has listed:

"Time Magazine's Iraq coverage. The magazine's cover story on the Iraq town of Haditha has really thrown the spotlight on the activities of US troops in Iraq. Its reporting exposed a US army cover-up and has forced a Pentagon investigation into events."

Unfortunately for Time magazine and for Campaign magazine, it looks like this is another media misstep, as noted here, here, here, here, here, here, here and here - just for starters.

If talking about political matters is ok in my industry's trade magazine then it's also ok as an account planning blogger to talk about political matters - or have I got that wrong, John? Thanks for the champagne.

Alan Rusbridger

Went to Oxford last night to hear Alan Rusbridger of the Guardian give a talk entitled "Is it all over for bloggers?".

He quickly explained the title was ironic and that there was a need for an 'ironic' typeface - first good joke of the evening.

He smoothly touched on a number of trends like the rise of Craigslist, Warren Buffett's negative predictions, young people reading news on-line and boldly said "Craig Newmark is legendary and he'll wipe us out."

The two photos he showed, one of the Craiglist "headquarters" and one of the NYTimes skyscraper underscored the economic difference between those two mediums.

"Craig is responsible for breaking the connection between advertiser and editor."

"Combined losses for UK newspapers last year was 75 to 100 million pounds."

He was a good speaker. Some of his more telling comments:

"Young readers are less passive receivers of news from on high."

"The mainstream media is seen as tired and it's untrusted."

"You trust people you know who are like you."

"Nowadays readers can assess the original source material we use."

"Weblogs are compensating for what isn't available domestically."

He then said he shared the reservations of others about the quality and tone of blogs, which included; "hate speech, anti semitism and misogyny".

He didn't mention ex Guardian journalist Dilpazier Aslam, who wrote an offensive article for the Guardian right after the July 7 bombings in London. Dippy's membership of Hizb ut-tahrir, an organisation that disseminates hate speech, anti semitism, and misogyny is well know to the blogosphere.

He talked about the anonymity that bloggers hid behind.

It's disingenuous to wonder why some bloggers wish to remain anonymous. Stating your political views in this world of political correctness is both brave and foolish. If I had it to do again, I would have blogged anonymously.

I'm not exactly sure why it's ok to be respectful and tolerant of beheaders and mass murderers but not ok to be respectful towards those who would try to stop such cruel behaviour but that is the reality of London and New York and Los Angeles today. Whatever.

"The issue is trust."

"Younger readers especially are questioning how much they can trust the media."

"The elite read the Guardian."

He went on to knock the BBC website, saying journalists there didn't have time to do basic research before writing their articles. Unfortunately for him, I was with a BBC on-line journalist who said after the talk that he was wrong about not being given time to do research. My own experience of BBC on-line journalism is positive. The reporting of the April Milblog Conference, which was attended by two BBC journalists, was excellent.

"It is beginning to look as if the business model of 200 years is changing rather quickly."

The business model for the Guardian is to run at a loss, depending on other profit making companies within the group to shore up those losses. The Guardian will survive as long as the Scott Trust wants to fund its agenda driven editorial. Alan must be worried about Craigslist hurting the profitability of the Guardian Media Group's cash cow, Auto Trader.

Thanks for inviting me Zenab (by the way, the Oxford Dictionary defines 'Christian name' as 'given name', so that guy wasn't being rude just a little archaic) and hi to Flora.

Cool

Al-Zarqawi is dead and I hope the informer gets zillions. Nice birthday present.

Robert F. Kennedy Funeral this day in 1968

While browsing The History Channel website I noticed this information:

Robert F. Kennedy was shot three times in LA by a Palestinian named Sirhan Sirhan on the 5th of June. He died on the 6th. His funeral was in NYC, then his body was taken to DC and buried at Arlington National Cemetery.

Thank You Driver Gigs in July

Thank You Driver will be playing:

2 Jul 2006 20:00 at Cotton's Caribbean Bar

70 Exmouth Market. , London, EC1Cost:
Nearest tubes, Farringdon or Angel


5 Jul 2006 20:00 at Brodie's Bar and Restaurant

43 Fisherman's Walk, Canary Wharf, London, E14 5HD

Listen to their newest songs here.

Cilla asked me to sing backing vocals for them last Monday. I'll post a link to those songs the minute they become available.

Fake News

From Cynopsis.com:

A full-page print ad for Comedy Central's The Daily Show with Jon Stewart appearing in the June 5 edition of Hollywood Reporter reads: "We had fake news years before CBS hired Katie Couric."

Consumer Revenge

A guy bought a laptop on ebay that didn't work. However, that guy knew how to check out the hard drive and is posting the hilarious contents, a bit at a time, until the rip off artist pays.

Jeremy, Big Thank You!

Exit Polling 101

To continue with my marketing theme today, here are edited highlights from Mystery Pollster's post pointing out the numerous errors in an article in Rolling Stone magazine about exit polling:

"...At the center of the exit poll debate is a basic concept about polls that deserves a lot more attention: Statistical sampling error -- the random variation that comes from drawing a sample of voters rather than interviewing the whole population -- is just one source of potential error in a survey. There are others including bias from selected respondents who decline to participate (response error), from voters missed altogether (coverage error), from questions that do not accurately measure the attitude of interest (measurement error) or from a failure to choose exiting voters at random using the correct sampling interval."

Quote from the Rolling Stone article:

But that same month, when exit polls revealed disturbing disparities in the U.S. election, the six media organizations that had commissioned the survey treated its very existence as an embarrassment.

More from Mystery Pollster:

"There is reason for a sense of embarrassment and it involves one of the most blatant omissions from the Kennedy article: U.S. exit polls have been wrong before. In fact, according to the Edison-Mitofsky report, they have shown a consistent discrepancy favoring the Democrats in every presidential election since 1988."

The whole post's very interesting. Read it here.

Carnival of Marketing

A little later than advertised...

CARNIVAL OF MARKETING

These aren't in any particular order:

1. First up, a review of a book that is relevant to all of us who had problems with Blogger this past week. Marketing, Website Design and Trust from 'Kicking Over My Traces'.

"That would be Digital Marketing Strategy: Text and Cases by Glen L. Urban. (See previous post.)"

2. At 'Social-marketing', here are five points to consider if you want to make fear based advertising campaigns work.

3. Toni at Bearcreekledger has a post on how the media researches news stories.

4. Noah Kagan at www.okdork.com started this Carnival of Marketing and he hasn't emailed me to complain about the late posting. (The new "cheque's in the post" - "blogger wasn't working"???) He's got a great post about how to drive traffic, "start a rivalry".

Account Planners are a chatty, marketing savvy bunch. Here's a handful of great posts by and about planners:

5. A podcast with Henry Lambert at Eric Mattson's MarketingMonger:

"Despite the office burning the midnight oil in the background, Henry and I chatted about the role of account planning in a successful agency, Rapier's approach, trends in account planning, mash-ups and the dark art of trend spotting in general."

6. Kevin at 'Kevinrothermel.com' has graduated. Here's an interesting post about 'The problem with proprietary branding tools".

7. Michelle Lee blogs at 'diablogue.typepad.com and has started a wiki about 'Inspired Research'.

"I'm hoping that it will become a useful resource for planners who are looking to unearth relevant and original insights via nontraditional research methods. As such I've started to collect a few case studies, articles, links, etc that demonstrate ways for planners to engage with consumers beyond the traditional focus group."

Read more here.

This is the wiki.

Contact Michelle if you want the password so you can contribute.

8. Russell Davies, who won the 'Battle of the Ad blogs 2006' and is running the stupendously entertaining and innovative 'Account Planning School of the Web' has a reminder about Assignment 7, due 'end of June'.

Being the kind, generous guy that he is, on the right hand side of his blog are links to people who are looking to be planners, titled 'Hire These People'. You have to scroll down a bit.

And finally...

Shock Magazine's launch has provided some great posts that teach a product 'How not to market yourself':

9. From Jack Yan's blog - The Persuader:

Shock-ing

10. From Michael Yon:

Dishonor

That's it for now, cheers.

Blogging Again

Back from Cocomo Bar where Cilla and Lucy played without any pa system and sounded great.

I decided to log in and see if Blogger was working.

All my tests have been published! Yay!

I can do the Carnival of Marketing now, will post those entries tomorrow. Good night.