Rain, rain go away.   The last couple of weeks of July felt like a very British summer, especially Friday 24th when an Ark would have been appropriate as a way of navigating Soho. Adlanders could have boarded two by two!   The unseasonable, or perhaps merely typically unpredictable, weather reminded of a story that…

“Right”, said Mark Earls, “Everyone in the second row and the fourth row come up to the stage, we’re going to play a game that illustrates what happens when humans copy each other.” Fearful of being made to participate in a conga, or maybe mass karaoke, the nervous participants shuffle up to the front. They…

Nature Valley is creating a YouTube stir with its film asking 3 generations what they did as kids to amuse themselves. The older generations speak of “growing watermelons and plantains”.  Younger adults talk of building forts and outdoor games.  Kids today? Take a wild guess: Tablets and gaming. Of course our take out is to…

The average British southerner moves no more than 6 miles from their birthplace.  (I’ve currently managed 6.4). The average northerner no more than 3 (they’re firmly attached to their roots in the North). Of course that doesn’t stop you being a global citizen and in our trade we all work with global media these days. …

Boy George was amazing at MediaCom’s Cannes event.  Talking profoundly to Steve Allan he talked what goes around, comes around. “I say to my niece, we had selfies in my day.  It’s just that you had to get dressed up, get on the bus (in fear of being beaten up if you were dressed like…

“Are you lonely?  Tired of working on your own? Do you hate making decisions? Hold a meeting!  You can see people, show charts, feel important, point with a stick, eat donuts, impress your colleagues.  All on company time.  Meetings: the practical alternative to work”. So runs the cartoon recently emerging on my social media feeds. …

Google Firestarters this June invited a selection of 7 planners to come and talk about the most useful thing that they’d learned in their careers. It was a stellar line up (details at Neil Perkin’s Only Dead Fish page) and included two planners who combine their planning genius with immaculate comedy timing, so if you…

Hey, money makers, leave the kids alone. This is the thrust of George Monbiot’s recent rant in the Guardian about City Firms seducing grads into a doomed life of making money and ruining their lives.  He argues that at this vulnerable point when they’ve got their lives in front of them they should get some…

Zombies invade Cannes this year courtesy of MediaCom’s partnership with AMC.  The session as Cannes opens reveals what the cultural conditions were that allowed The Walking Dead to become such a worldwide hit, and how in fact different nations would respond to a real life Zombie attack. How much has the world wide web changed…

Always’ “#LikeAGirl” has just won the most pencils at D&AD 2015 awards. The ad, which is designed to help to address the drop off in body confidence in teenage girls, received its well-deserved accolade in the same week as this letter hit social media. The letter, which is anonymous, and on pink paper (nice touch)…

You must have heard this more than once.  As the summer milk round kicks off the requests from graduates will begin to escalate.  Dave Trott, years ago, wrote a definitive guide “How to get a job in advertising” which includes the memorable advice :”99% of people trying to get a job believe they are whiz…

“I want to bring our country together, our United Kingdom together…to reclaim a mantle that we should never have lost – the mantle of One Nation, One United Kingdom.”.  So said David Cameron on the day of the elections results.   Well in one way we are definitely already two nations.   If you flick…