this week at Plaid:

Here's what happened this week at the world's most magnificent design and branding firm:

Rob finished concepts for a promotion we're doing for David Gilmour, and also for a media buying agency's site.

David launched the first stage of a 2007 site for Iron Horse Bikes, and finished concepts for an entirely new site for K2 bikes. He also nearly launched a beautious website for the bariatrics division of a hospital - which should go live next week.

Matt had a busy week with a photo shoot, a video shoot and loads of design work for a new microsite he's working on. He also did conceptual work for a theater's brochure. He's pictured above at the video shoot, with Brian McAward, Director of Photography.

Justus edited tons of video, and worked on some title movements, for five different video projects that are in-house.

Brian the intern returned to college. Thursday was his last day. Before leaving, he was sure to show the entire agency how he could kick everyone's ass at Guitar Hero. His chops were indeed impressive, but the big surprise was when Giuli rocked the game. Seriously. Guns and Roses may be calling her for their next tour.

Today was Justus' birthday. Since he sooo loves broadway shows, Brian made him a custom Justus version Lion King cake. Justus danced like a little girl in delight. (And he's gonna kick my ass for saying so.)

Off for a sweet, three day weekend. Enjoy.

nike: doing cool branding again.

Some of the latest Nike stuff has been really cool. This "Gone Running" sign was a promo giveaway - but they also had giant versions for window displays in their stores. Nice stuff.

honda sports ads not what you'd expect

This series of ads from Honda rocks. I can imagine they they'd jump out of the publications that they're featured in - which are typically filled with "dude shots" of ATV's and motorcycles getting air. Nice work.

deserted urban space

Another beautiful collection of photography dedicated to abandoned urban structures and cities.

This gallery is my fave - Battleship Island - a completely abandoned island off of Japan that was once the most densely populated space in the world.

more web 2.0 logos than your head can handle

Hope this doesn't give you seizures. Not sure why you'd need to watch this, but I'll file this under "just in case". In the odd event that you ever wanted to watch 5000 web 2.0 logos in 333 seconds, there's a video.

not a good week at burning man

It hasn't been a great week at Burning Man. Earlier in the week, some asshat started the man on fire early. They were able to put it out in time, and the burn will happen this weekend, as scheduled.

And then someone committed suicide. Apparently, he was left hanging for a couple of hours, as people thought it was some sort of art installation. Way to ruin it for everyone else, fella.

Let's hope that everyone on the playa isn't all bummed, and that this weekend ends with a glorious, fun filled fire. This year, you can watch it live on the webcast. Wishing I was there! (photo from TimBExplorer's sweet photo stream)

HP's new campaign - something for everyone.

HP's got a wonderful new campaign that's been making the rounds. The piece features profiles of Jake Burton and hotalicious cute muffin Gwen Stefani. But here's what really got my attention. They also profiled Paula Scher. (Watch her profile, if you don't already know who she is.)

They've provided something really amazing here. Paula has designed several business templates for small businesses. This is the equivalent of Philippe Starck bringing products to Target. Fantabulous design for people that couldn't ordinarily afford great design.

I've met countless small business owners with their business identities that were designed by their cousins, or that utilized a bad template, with perforated business cards from Staples. It's embarrassing. Paula Scher has produced an acceptable option for those that can't afford to hire real graphic designers. Sweet.

Awesome brand building, HP.

how geeks eat cake

Here's a sweet little collection of geek wedding cakes. Ummm. Tasty. Even better than the cake, is the expression of the guy in the photo above. Let's hope that's not her husband. What a spoil sport.

impress your friends while stuck in the conference room

Here's something that you can practice and perfect during that next budget meeting, instead of just pretending to pay attention.

Tim Ferriss has learned (and will show you) how to do geekriffic pen tricks. Master them, and the entire room will watch you in amazement, while the VP of Finance whimpers at the front of the conference room, begging for attention to his PowerPoint slides.

this is not the way to be an ipod killer.

Yikes. German company TrekStor named one of its new MP3 players i.beat blaxx. They've since realized their mistake, and changed the name to blaxx. Umm, yeah.

walmart on facebook. beginning of the end?

Walmart has launched a Facebook application (you'll need a Facebook account to see this) that some say has been hijacked.

I think it's great that they're there. And trying. Parts of their promotion made me say "awesome", and other things made me say "ummmm...."

Awesome:
+ For recognizing the value of Facebook, and not attempting to create your own social network.
+ For producing an application that allows (even negative) posting and conversation.
+ For linking specific products that (seem) well targeted to the needs of the audience.
+ For attempting to be there. It's a step. More than you can say for some other uncool brands.

Ummm....:
+ Forgetting that your audience of college kids are smart. And cynical. Why not turn the conversation into the focal point? Talk "green", talk economics of walmart, and ask "what can we do different?"

+ Forgetting that college kids don't generally think of Walmart as being cool. Wrong to ignore this. One commenter says: "BOOO Wal-Mart, you suck! You unethical, wage-sucking scum, you forget that college students are less ignorant than our parents, we don't ignore what you do to this country."

So why not bring the outside conversation in? There are plenty of strong arguments for their side of the fence, too.

If nothing else, it's fun to watch the conversation.

ugly betty outdoor too ugly for viewing

Cute. (In an ugly sort of way.)

half of the places you don't want to work at

Apparently, half of the employers out there block their employees from accessing Facebook while on the job.

Always great to know that your employer trusts you. And that your employer needs to babysit you, to ensure your productivity. If only they could stand over your shoulder all day, everyday just to be sure that you're not wasting a single minute out of your super fun productive day.

Without Facebook, how would you ever meet friends like owen wilson's nose, pictured above?

introducing the world's longest, scrolling, visual website. even much, much longer than this terribly super long headline.

At visuals of the world, you can scroll on forever and enjoy social design goodness in the process. Users can submit their own artwork, and have it added to the bottom of the ever going page.

At first I thought "lame." But with the exception of a couple of tools who have attempted to use this as promotional space, there's some real cool, inspired art here. Enjoy its ever long lasting flavor. From information aesthetics

hiptser olympics rawk.

Finally, a sporting event that I can enjoy. Introducing the hipster olympics. Absolutely hilarious.

well branded 404's rock.

Adland points to Jeep's 404 error page. Nicely done.

pixels go to church

Check out this cool stained glass window, from a church in Germany. Artist Gerhard Richter created the piece, with "pixels" of stained glass. Beautiful work. I wonder if it's symbolic at all to the church's approach in their market.

does your brand extend to your out of office message?

Does your brand extend this far?

Duct Tape Marketing points to a clever away message from a person who clearly gets it. His 'away on vacation' email message ties perfectly to his brand. And entertains recipients in the process.

Every point at which you communicate with anyone is a potential extension of your brand. Including your away message, your voice mail message, and your IM. Does your brand extend that far? It could.

can we all just bring laptops to meetings?

Swissmiss points to an interesting NY Times article, and asks "are you using your laptop in meetings?"

What a conundrum. In every meeting that I attend, I always wish that it were more appropriate to use my laptop for notes. Because our project management system is web-based, it would even be more efficient.

Yet, if it's my meeting, and other people have their laptops open, I feel like they're not focused. Which, is usually a ridiculous thought, in this hyper multi-tasking industry.

What about you?

(photo: Peter Yates for the NY Times)

this week at Plaid:

Here's what happened this week at the world's most awesome design and branding firm:

We discussed physics. No, really. During lunch on Thursday, the conversation turned to physics. Sounds really intelligent, but in reality none of us could figure out the basic laws of gravity. I think we're better suited to discussions on psychics.

Matt finished some work for J. Holiday, which should launch in the next week or so. He also completed some spectacular work for the Westport Country Playhouse, and a hospital. David, Rob and Leigh continued work on new sites for Iron Horse Bikes and K2 Bikes. Justus completed a rough cut for Harris Connect. Rob launched a blog for Spherion, worked on a new web 2.0 tool, and completed conceptual work for another agency's site.

Giuli eliminated the clumsy PC from her life, and went Mac. Our office is now 100% mac, with the exception of a couple of platform testing machines, which we hide in a corner.

You may remember that we completed a re-branding of our agency. One of the last items with the old name is the entrance from our elevator vestibule. Today, Jeremy (pictured above), began installing the new Plaid components. Actually, more than anything, he removed the VIA stuff. And wrapped the elevator doors in Plaid. We'll hopefully complete the install next week.

The entire office has been pooling together and buying Lotto tickets. And with each drawing, we lose. The next drawing is tomorrow night. Today, three of us got tired of feeding money to Lotto. So if the office wins on Saturday, you can expect to see Brian, Matt and myself working hard on Monday. While everyone else is flying first class to a beach somewhere.

David took his first vacation days of the year, and headed to New Hampshire. Justus is enjoying a nice three day weekend camping. Can't imagine Justus fitting into a backpacking tent, but who knows.

Oh yeah - summer finally returned to the northeast, as the rest of the week felt like fall. (yech.) Have a great weekend!

post it notes litter the city. in the name of advertising.

Can't tell how much is real, and how much is CG, but this spot is cool. Thanks Brian!

bat day at the magic kingdom

You've gotta love goth day at the Magic Kingdom. Yes, you do. Photo from LadyPuppy's awesome photo stream.

energy drink that will change the world

A cute spot that explains how drinking an energy drink could lead to world peace.

morgan webb with some facts for your powerpoint

In yesterday's WebbAlert, Morgan summarizes the latest reported trends: people are spending more time on the internet. People are spending less time in front of TV. People with TV have DVRs.....wait for it...all of which means people are watching fewer tv ads.

Yeah, this is old news to you - but isn't nice when Morgan says it's so?

when music had art and package design

Back in the olden days, people bought music on plastic disks, called CDs. And each disk came with artwork dedicated to the collection of music. This was called 'album art' - the word 'album' derived from a previous music format, the record, that was popular back in the 1800's or something.

Anyway, for the handful of album art lovers still left on earth, check out Sleevage. A blog devoted to album art.

One of my all-time favorite album covers (even though I can't stand the band) is pictured above. In all of it's cool creepiness.

fast company and robert scoble explain twitter

Still not Twittering?? Here's a great little primer on Twitter, the magical micro-blogging tool as told by Fast Company and Robert Scoble. Send this to your boss, so she'll know that you're up on stuff. And then, let's talk about how to incorporate this into your brand plan.

if only this were real.

An excellent spot from Make and Do Creative is making the rounds, without the client tag at the end. Leaving people wondering if maybe it were real.

So wish this could happen to every car shouting salesman, furniture shouting salesman, and every other obnoxious tv pitch pro. See the full version of the spot on the agency's site. Cool work.

welcome to camp okutta. grenade throwing lessons at 3pm.

To raise awareness about the hundreds of thousands of kids that are training for, fighting and dying in wars across the globe, War Child Canada created Camp Okutta.

This probono piece immediately puts things into perspective for an audience that might easily be removed from the reality of these horrors. Watch the land mine video and you'll see what I mean.

Really, really nice work. From Adrants.

the traditional marketing funnel is dead.

All hail the new marketing funnel. Wow. In a new Forrester report, Brian Haven points out that the traditional marketing funnel is dead. That reach and frequency are crap, and that the new metric that matters is engagement. Nice.

Put that graphic in your PowerPoint deck, and watch the CEO poop in his pants. Or give you a promotion.

mr. wong is calling for you.

The people over at Mister Wong, a new web 2.0 bookmarking service, tell us that they're having a mascot design contest. They're even paying $6K to the winner - which is a fairly nice design fee.

I just like saying "Mr. Wong." It's fun. Try it. It sounds like a name you might have for a certain favorite body part. "Will you please excuse me? I have a meeting with Mr. Wong."

Mr. Wong rocks. Now that I've put horrible pictures in your head, let's create a mascot.

japanese nerd cars

What started as a comic nerd trend is beginning to cross over to more mainstream audiences in Japan. Or at least to the cooler geeks. Otaku (aka "geeks") are rollin' with stickered cars and custom comic inspired interiors. The cars are called "itasha", supposedly chosen because the word sounds similar to "italian."

Got a mini-van? Customize it with Sailor Moon stickers. That would rock. Don't even ask your wife. Just do it.

how to compete with the iphone

Saw this on BoingBoing yesterday, and thought it was a smart strategy. Don't get me wrong - I still believe in the power and magic of the almighty iPhone - I just think that a lot of competitors lost their vision for marketing when the iPhone arrived. Rather than play on their own product/service strengths, they tried to attack with half-hearted truths.

HP is being smart, with their iPaq. They've realized that the iPhone (for now) doesn't record audio. (or video.) And they've sponsored an audio blog post on one of the most famous blogs in all of the land. That's an excellent way to demo your product's unique features, AND get a product endorsement. Nice marketing.

diet coke is 99% water. "that's our campaign."

Steven Levitt writes a good piece on the social dynamics that have brought us to a place where advertising Diet Coke as 99% water is an acceptable ad strategy.

Now, if we could prove that gummy bears are made of 99% fruit, I'd be all set.

i am not the bionic woman

To promote the upcoming premier of Bionic Woman (yes!), NBC just launched a Bionic Assessment Test, where you can test your bionic skills. If you score high enough, you'll unlock "exclusive content."

The test results pictured above prove that I am indeed only 27% bionic. I am not the bionic woman. Which I'm pretty stoked about, since I'm a man. But I would like to know how I can put my 27% bionics to better use. I'm thinking Badminton.

web video is the new 30-second spot

Outstanding article in AdAge about how web video is the new 30 second spot. Sooo wish that I wrote this. So spot on. So what comes out of my mouth every day. And so important for Brand Managers to read.

And now, because AdAge says so, everyone can believe it. Cut your TV budget by 75%, and go spend some money with that brilliant interactive team. I'm just sayin'.

sharpie marker tattoos rock

Not ready for the real thing? How about a Sharpie Marker tattoo? What a cool promotional event idea. Have artists give sweet marker tattoos at your trade show booth.

I wonder if Sharpie had anything to do with organizing this Flickr photo set. Or, if they're embracing it and using it to their advantage?

This is a MASSIVE opportunity for the brand, if they're not already on it. Fun with markers could sell a lot of product.

the fuel for life is apparently made of denim

Diesel's new campaign is here. I can't quite figure it out yet - but it looks entirely...Diesel. The clip above was the first release, and they just released a second more depressing clip. Both clips promote the mysterious Society Against Legalization. Beautiful work. Even if it leaves me feeling lonely, depressed and confused. Maybe a new pair of jeans would help.

beautiful japanese...sewers.

Wow. Feels like they're right out of a film. Or a first person shooter game. Beautiful photos of wonderful architecture of...sewers.

this week at Plaid:

Here's what happened this week at the world's greatest design and branding firm:

This is the week dedicated to the toilet. Specifically, the Plaid FlushMaster 4000. Our plumber says "that toilet will flush anything." We say "our office will be a test of that statement." It's got so much power the room vibrates on flush. And it's Plaid. See Brian's special install here. I've had the gnomes moved, because I swear they're staring at my private parts.

Lots of almosts this week. Almost launched a site for the bariatrics division of a hospital. Almost completed something for J Holiday. Almost completed concepts for a print ad campaign. Almost launched a couple of blogs. So next week - that should bring a bunch of closure to our week of "almost".

We're also working on two really fun 'skunkworks' projects. Things we'd like to tell you about, but people would have us killed.

The Intern Brian installed a webcam in one of our brainstorm areas. Now you can keep an eye on us. I'm pretty sure some funky stuff happens on that couch.

Have a plaid-tastic weekend!

animoto promises the end of slide shows

This is AWESOME. A tool that lets you create your very own videos. You upload your pics, choose some music, and Animoto does the rest. This is really impressive. And fun.

I made the video above in about 60 seconds, using the Flickr photo set of Brian's art project. Animoto did the rest. Sweet mother of Plaid.

gummy bear price increase. creative industry to collapse.

To hell with the mortgage crisis. Prices of gummy bears may be going through the roof. Now I'm concerned.

What does this have to do with design and branding? Gummy bears are proven creative fuel. I know this for a fact. I've done research.

how to hire an agency

Fantastic article in BusinessWeek about how to hire an agency. Here's a really good one, if you're looking. One item they forgot to mention: Ask if they have a bitchin' van.

uniqlo black is the new black

My favorite place in the world to spend money has yet another beautiful promotional site. Uniqlo has consistently created beautiful, stunning and engaging promotional sites. Uniqlo fans spend time with these sites like midwestern housewives spend with the Lands End catalog. (Not that there's anything wrong with that.) And they're falling in love with apparel in the process. Fantastic marketing.

...and the sky rained coffee.

This is from the dream of a few Plaid employees, I'm sure. Wake up, and it's raining coffee. Coffees of Hawaii just "airdropped" a bunch of coffee with parachutes to busy neighborhoods and tourist spots, to promote their new coffee home delivery service.

Sweet idea. But where's the video? When Microsoft did this a year ago, they issued a video "documenting" the effort. I still like the concept, as a great way to create buzz within a local community.

And, if they needed to REALLY drop these from a plane, they could have called on Rob and Ryan from our agency. Rob and Ryan have experience with this sort of thing. Although I'm pretty sure their instructors wouldn't have allowed for a load of coffee and parachutes on board. But it never hurts to ask.

a sprint-load of online goodness

First, Casey tells us about SprintSweets. Awesome e-card generator. I could use this over and over again, like a monkey, and still be entertained. I think this has been out for a while, but who cares.

And then Adfreak reports on JunGroup's latest "time saving" spots for Sprint, one of which is featured above. All meant to promote Sprint's new site Waitless.org.

Geez. There's a lot of Sprint going on.

people really like the internet.

Here's a factoid for your sweet little PowerPoint presentation:

US advertising revenue at 4 big online media companies--Google (GOOG), Yahoo (YHOO), AOL (TWX), and MSN (MSFT)--grew by $1.3 billion in Q2, or 42%.

US advertising revenue at 15 big television, newspaper, magazine, radio, and outdoor companies (Time Warner, Viacom, CBS, etc.) shrank by $280 million in Q2, or 3%.

And some great analysis on where the advertising dollars are going. Not that you should be surprised. ;)

what diamond dave can teach you about marketing

A great post by Brian Clark on what David Lee Roth could teach you about marketing. My favorite item: "Be True to Yourself" (or your brand). A nice post that will have me thinking "what would David do?"

media: we're tired of second life. let's move on to facebook.

Prepare for the media frenzy. Now that mainstream media is done reporting on SecondLife (without actually ever experiencing it), it seems they're ready to jump on to the next bandwagon.

Get ready for a host of stories about Facebook, from reporters who don't use it, or don't get it. MakeTheLogoBigger points to the Valleywag post on the BusinessWeek article, where they made a few booboos in Facebook etiquette, showing their inexperience with the tool.

We're recommending Facebook for many clients. But it's not for everyone. So before the media spin gets out of control, before you throw great money into the latest trend, ask "Why am I doing this? What do I expect in return? What benefit does this provide to the Facebook audience?"

And then spend katrillions of dollars with agencies like ours. ;-)

cool idea for a promo giveaway

iphone give-aways already blend in like wallpaper. But what about lime green iPhones? Or iPhones themed to your brand's color scheme? Cool idea for your upcoming trade show. From Macenstein.

shatter and shoot.

Some photographers are great at shooting people. Some are great at shooting cars. Martin Klimas is great at shooting things as they explode. Using a technique pioneered by MIT’s Doc Edgerton, these shots capture a millisecond in time, yet are filled with deep action, emotion, and story. Or they're just cool stuff being blown to bits. But they'd look cool in an ad campaign.

what you need to get more money

from your boss, to put into the interactive campaign that you hire an agency (like us) for. Here's proof (worthy of putting into that PowerPoint deck that you're working on) that interactive really, really works. This internet thing is going to be huge.

Remember the ShaveEverywhere campaign? Well, the results are in. Advergirl (and the NY Times) reports that 60% of Bodygroom buyers say they learned about the product via ShaveEverywhere.com. 60%.

EVEN BETTER: Before this campaign, the idea of a product specifically made for below-the-neck shaving barely existed. Today, the Bodygroom is one of at least four products in what’s seen as a distinct and fast-growing category; nearly 250,000 body-hair trimmers have been bought in the United States in the last year. A CATEGORY HAS BEEN CREATED.

Looking for even more goodness for your PowerPoint pleasure?? Check out this post by Joseph Jaffe, who offers up some sweet charts showing the power of word of mouth, interactive, and a conversation. WORD OF MOUTH, baby. And then, websites. Not banner ads. Not TV - but websites.

Put all that in your PowerPoint deck. And light the conference room on fire.

little planets, cool concept.

Writer/ photographer Kathy Li has created the most wonderous little planets, using several panoramic photos stitched together.

What a sweet idea for an ad campaign. Something where you want to show several different locations across the campaign, but want striking images that illustrate how tight our neighborhoods are in reality. Beautiful.

billboard that blends

Nice billboard in Daejeon, Korea. Not sure if it's street art, a green promo, or something entirely different - but it captures your attention while blending with the landscape, at the same time. Art to promote less. Outdoors.

funny ads for irn bru soda that you can't have.

I so want a six pack of Irn Bru right now. But we're not getting it in the US, because it's got some ingredients that haven't been approved for our taste. You know, because our other sodas are so healthy-like, and we're only allowed to imbibe the most health-a-licious drinks here in the fat ole USA.

Anyway, someone's collected a bunch of their other hilarious ads in the campaign here.

sketchbooks to make you jealous

Sooo sad that I missed this show at the NY Art Director's Club. An inside look into designers Moleskine notebooks. The clip above is what Paula Scher doodled on a flight to vacation. Because she's brilliant like that, and enjoys showing you her spectacularness, so that you can feel less talented about yourself. Or inspired. You choose.

And - if you happen to be inspired, and want a funky new Moleskine to sketch in, check our House of Plaid site later this week. We're adding a limited edition Plaid sketchbook. It rawks.

unfortunate zombie placement

I love zombie movies. Can't get enough of them. But when I'm reading a story on human remains being found at the Minneapolis bridge collapse, zombie ads seem gross.

light gets sexy and mysterious

Check out this really cool 'waste your productive time away while you stare at your screen piece' produced for Philips, to promote their new flat screens. (That is, check it out after you wait for the ridiculous load time.) And I think I'm in love with that woman's voice. Thanks Kip!

what not to do in social media

Some really good notes about what to include (or what NOT to include) in that new social network that you're creating for your brand.

superbad promo is super kinda funny

Now I want to go see this movie a little more. Here's a great example of how to use the YouTuberie for online promotion. An interview gone haywire with the actors from the new film Superbad. (May not be safe for your cubicle, if your boss is uptight about the F word. But funny enough to say F it, and play it anyway.)

Side note: the interviewer in this clip is none other than Shaun of the Dead director Edgar Wright. (Eliza, go watch that movie now.)

this week at Plaid:

Here's what happened this week at the world's greatest design and branding firm:

It's the first week we're all back in the office together, following the tour. So much fun. That's me above, getting totally stoked that we had almost made it to Dallas. (Right before losing a shoe in 3 inches of mud, and remembering that Texas has rattlesnakes.)

Ryan is digitizing and editing hours and hours of tour footage, and we should have clips documenting all of the fun people we met live by next week.

We enjoyed the vancam so much on tour that we're going to install it at our office. So that you can keep an eye on us. Especially David. We're pretty sure he's up to no good.

We've started loads of new projects, which we love. Web 2.0 applications, an e-card site, a mapping sweepstakes, several product catalog sites, and some other stuff that I can't remember at the moment. In talks with a few new clients that we've met on tour. THAT'S EXCITING. Proof it worked.

Our office bathroom is getting a new toilet. We've already named it the Flushmaster 4000. Supposedly, it will flush anything. (Our office will be a real test.) Brian is working on having the toilet seat wrapped in Plaid. Because that's what interns do best.

I'm really glad to be sitting at a desk, but part of me also thinks we should be leaving right now, to drive somewhere new.

Have a Plaidlicious weekend!

why people join social communities

Some great insight and discussion into why people participate in social communities, from the people who are participating, over at the New York Times. From Steve Rubel, via Twitter.

what's in your bag?

This is something that we've talked about doing forever, at BrandFlakes. Get Marketing and Brand Managers to show what's inside their bags.

We're ready to start the series...anyone interested in showing?

(The dude's bag above is WAY too neat, btw. If everyone else's bag looks like this, then I'm a total slob.)

ashton kutcher, creative director.

I want a movie deal. Or a TV show. I think that's only fair, since Ashton gets to be a creative director.

hello, lloyd.

Soooo wish that I was on this project. Or invited to this party.

Stella's agency recreated the bar scene from the Shining, complete with Lloyd, pictured above. They invited people into the bar, in conjunction with Stella Screen's airing of the film. The promotion is meant to tie to Stella's global brand strategy "fanatical about film".

Lucky attendees also got a key code to enter Stella's Gold Room. Nice.

artcar fest coming in september

Another reason to go to California...

The annual ArtCar Fest. The largest collection of art cars outside of Burning Man.

banksy vs warhol

Another reason to go to London...

The Hospital gallery and club in Covent Garden is hosting a show featuring work from legendary street artist Banksy up next to legendary pop artist Andy Warhol.

Duncan Cargill, the show's Creative Director, says "Implicitly, Warhol is defending his title, but Banksy makes for a formidable challenger as he has received maximum exposure since 2000."

Two of my all time favorite artists. Let's hope this show makes it to NYC.

plaid van gets stripped

. Awesome and sad at the same time. Note the nice fall on my ass, after one or two too many Lone Star beers. (I don't recommend van stripping without Lone Star.)

Many more videos to come, as we comb through hours of footage of our journey, and edit out the boring parts.

phonebooks = garbage.

The other day, Brian our intern was cleaning some bookshelves (because that's the kind of challenging work that interns do on some days) and we realized how many phone books we had accumulated. And we joked about how they've pretty much become useless weights of paper. As we're tossing them away.

And then, as I was leaving our building's lobby yesterday, I noticed the phone company had delivered a bunch of phone books. And they just threw them in a heaping pile, like the garbage they are. Way to create perceived value. "Here's some new phone books. We've conveniently piled them like garbage, so that you know what they are."

Trees are dying. Someone call Al Gore.

mmm. chocolate art.

SwissMiss points to a pretty cool exhibition in Tokyo where 30 designers created pieces using chocolate. Sounds delicious. I'm getting angst just thinking about a show of yummy chocolate that I have to look at, but can't touch. Or sample.

ad age takes over top 150. brandflakes makes the list. world leaders to meet.

Completely forgot to mention that ToddAnd's list of the Top 150 ad blogs has been picked up by Advertising Age. We're on the list (in the 120's range), and totally stoked. We imagine that AdAge paid about 2 kabillion dollars for this intelligence and that Todd is sitting on a beach somewhere. But then again, this is AdAge - not Google. So in reality, Todd's probably taking a second job and wishing he sold to Google.

Anyway, now you can tell your friends that "I read one of Advertising Age's top 150 blogs" and be all smug. I'm going to wear a badge on my jacket. Or get a bumper sticker for my mom's car that reads "my son's blog is in Advertising Age's top 150."