Viva Obama!

Have already posted and made comments previously on some of the more interesting ways the US election is being marketed to the people whilst wondering whether the same things will be replicated in the UK (( partly for my own amusement and partly because i think they might be a way of getting Brits interested in politics again)

I wonder whether we will see one of our own ethnic communities turn to song to encourage a vote for their favoured candidate???

Interesting Article from F&B

Just back from a month of weddings and a trip to southern india (more of which i'll talk about in a later post) and i was thinking about the great Swedish agency F&B who've been making consistently good creative digital work for some time with brands such as Volvo and IKEA ( where the quality of work and production predates AKQA'a Halo by quite a distance...IMHO)

Anyway whilst i was toying with the idea of putting some links up to there creative here (mainly for my own benefit) - i found this article on their site

Instead of ploughing away with flash video type microsites - much to my surprise and increasing my admiration for them - they are focusing on homepages/ INTERFACES

"The talk at the agency has centered a lot on home pages in the last year. Why are they so often the weakest link in communication when they should be the ultimate expression of the brand? And isn’t that the biggest creative challenge right now - to try to make smarter, better and people-friendlier home pages?"

Funnily enough - I've been tackling this problem with a client for the past few days - perhaps that's why i found what they had to say quite interesting?

Great book

This just arrived today - after i'd read an article on we make money not art

full of interesting ideas - this is a great book that shows graphic art moving into 3D as well as making a pleasant change from computer generated stuff...

I'm Asking You for a Favor

207,982 views for someone just saying there piece and getting people to vote....

One wonders whether the same thing will happen over here at the next election - the cynic in me says no. While we always joke about the shallowness and absurdities of the states - They are also not afraid to speak their minds even if others will disagree. The brits i feel are too paranoid about what people think to actually make a stance on anything.

I can only use the example of art in the 90's where i spent time in both countries - over here everyone was trying to be ironic or shocking - whilst across the pond (not everybody) but there was much more political work that addressed social and political issues too.

what do you think?

Modern Toss

don't know if anyones been watching the new tv series on Channel 4? I've been a fan of this since it came out as a comic.. what i love about the show is that really it's a binch of sketches that could really just be clips for youtube and indeed you can watch most of the shows there.. My particular favourite is SWING NEWS... but also watch out for Monsieur Tourette - Master Signwriter and illegal alphabet...

another fave is space argument

and theres more...

Taken from the documentary "young at heart" about a conducter with a choir of people from an elderly housing project in Northampton MA. The documentary shows them tackling modern songs from Cold Play's - Fix You to Sonic Youths "Schizophrenia"

> Read about them here

,,, i dare you not to feel anything!!!

This type of film is very powerful and yet on the web with video taking up more and space we seem to be stuck with humour and slick product porn

The only thing that kind've went close that ive seen recently is the Halo 3 site made by AKQA but as great as it looks the interaction interupted the power of the work and veered it into product porn territory - whereas the ad remains powerful and emotive

Continuing the brass band theme

the high school brass band version of queens "we are the champions" in the wexley post reminded me of this amazing version of damian marleys "welcome to jamrock" ... God bless america - over this side of the pond we simply learn to play "london's burning" on the recorder.

On a serious note there is something quite powerful seeing a mass of musicians performing like this - again i ask myself when will i get something like this into one of my briefs?

It also reminds me of Jeremty Deller's Acid Brass project with a former colliery band - remember seeing them at the barbican years ago

> you can read all about them here