Big news from the Ig Nobel Prize this year as one winner explains why  banana skins are slippery.  Earlier winners have included the  researcher of Homosexual Necrophilia in the Mallard Duck. The originator of this dubious study is Kees Moeliker and he was a guest on a recent episode of Radio 4 show The Museum…

Walking down one of Hampstead’s bijoux roads recently I noticed a woman leaning out of an upstairs window explaining to a man at the door that her “smart” lock had locked her in and asking him to try different ways to open the door.   If MediaCom’s strategy director Mark Cochrane is right we can…

Back in the summer (can you remember the summer ?) Campaign shared some of my holiday reading.   As it happened the weather in Devon was ok and the waves were suitable (not too gnarly, not too tiny).  Therefore I didn’t get to my book about the end of civilisation in the Bronze Age yet,…

I’ve got a packet of “repositional notes” on my desk.  You’d probably recognise them as “post it” notes. I will probably use them in the same way as I would genuine post it notes, just as I will “hoover” my carpet with a Henry and chuck a “flying disc” in the park instead of a…

A knock at the door of a hotel in Amsterdam.  Mick Jagger opens the door and bamm Charlie Watts punches him in the face. Journalist Bill German says during a meeting where the Stones were discussing splitting up Mick Jagger said to Charlie Watts: “None of this should matter to you because you’re only my…

Just the one.  No joke. People love a strategy.  Before a campaign reaches the public it may well have been through the rigour of a creative strategy, a media strategy, a content strategy, a direct response strategy, a digital strategy and a mobile strategy. There is just one strategy and I’d like us all to…

“We often hate each other, but it’s the kind of hatred like flint and steel – the sparks that come out of it make it worth the while”, Penn on his magic partner Teller.   One of the hardest fought categories in the Media Week Awards judging was Large Collaboration.  This was a strong shortlist,…

Ian Katz, editor of gladiatorial Newsnight, wrote recently about an impasse in journalism suggesting a deal to allow politicians to get their point across in traditional media and to be less defensive. As the general election approaches I think that politicians should focus on their direct channel to the public – social media.   Presenter…

In 1946 Bedouin shepherds stumbled on a huge archaeological discovery.  In caves near the Dead Sea they found a series of scrolls housed in jars.  By 1951 a full excavation was under way and in the end nearly a thousand documents were discovered.   The documents were dated to the time of Jesus – around…

Can we stop with the nostalgia for what media used to be about please?   Some say: the art of the media agency used to be to find the perfect spot for a TV ad.  I say : this is targeting the right audience at the right time and in the right place and media…

Nice framing of a human truth  

Comedian Andy Hamilton summed up how most of us feel about the injection of women into the new Cabinet when he said :”it’s nice that Cameron has discovered women so near election time.”   The reshuffle, which means that there are now 5 women in the Cabinet again (back to the level in 2011), seems…