Belén Wilson

Cut the rug (cake), Alana Jones-Mann

I’m an email manager. Basically, I load emails into our email software for clients. We accept emails in HTML format only. 

I ask a client for email files in HTML format, and they send over a jpg SCREENSHOT of the email they want to be sent out.

Client: Here’s the HTML for the email!

Me: Hi, sorry – but that isn’t an HTML file. It’s a picture of the email in jpg format. Would it be possible to get it in HTML format to make sure all your formatting is right?

Client: This is HTML! Just copy and paste it in. 

It wasn’t.

Me: Unfortunately, I can’t load this file into our email system. I can’t even paste in the content since it’s an image. To get the content of the email, I’d have to type up the entire email myself. 

Client: Okay, thanks! Can you have this done ASAP and have the email look 100% like the HTML file I sent? We need it to go out today.

Let me die.

The post appeared first on Clients From Hell.

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If you ever feel compelled to read a masterful account of the effects of vicious colonialism, you could do worse than pick up Adam Hochschild's 1999 classic, "King Leopold's Ghost."  

The book tells in savage and horrific detail the despoiling of what was then called the Belgian Congo. The land was stripped of riches. The people were enslaved, brutalized and in many cases tortured and killed if they refused to work for their Belgian overlords.

A crusader realized that something rotten was going on when he noticed ships coming into Belgian ports were heavy and laden with rubber and other riches. The ships sat low in the water and took days to offload.

Ships going back to the Congo, however, were a different story. They went to the Congo virtually empty. Yet they came back full.

I think about this this morning when it appears that in the advertising industry we have reached the realization of "peak greed."

I say this on reporting of "outrageous" pay gaps between holding company overlords and the people who are making them wealthy.

Like the rubber trees and natural resources being stripped of their value in the Congo two centuries ago, today our brains are stripped of their vitality. Our health is compromised. Our families are forced to come in second to our labors. 

Meanwhile, our wages aren't just a tiny fraction of that of our chieftains, in fact, I allege that due to their oligopolistic domination of our industry, they've gone backward--going down, not up.

That's all for now.

I can't afford to get fired.

Houses of the Holy, Dimitar Karanikolov

CHI&Partners has hired Lean Mean Fighting Machine co-founder Dave Bedwood as a creative partner. Bedwood will report directly into joint ECDs Yan Elliott and Micky Tudor and CEO Sarah Golding (all below, Bedwood second right). Bedwood has worked at agencies including Tribal DDB, M&C Saatchi and AnalogFolk, as well as co-founding two of his own: ...

Please don’t @itsPeteski

 

 

I recently saw Donald Trump described as being like a post-turtle.

What’s a post-turtle?

Apparently a post-turtle is a common occurrence in the mid west of America, farming country.

You’re driving along dead straight roads for miles and miles.

All there is on either side of you is endless wooden posts.

Then occasionally, in the middle of all those endless posts, you see one with a turtle on top.

No apparent reason for it, but that is called a post-turtle.

And I saw Donald Trump described as a post-turtle.

When someone asked why, the explanation was as follows.

“He’s like a post-turtle because you know he don’t belong up there.

He don’t know what to do now he’s up there.

He’s been elevated way beyond his ability to function.

And you wonder what dumb son-of-a-bitch thought it was a good idea to put him up there in the first place.”

That’s a powerful put-down.

It went viral because it works well on several levels.

From our point of view, as communicators, it’s worth asking why.

First, it’s funny.

Funny is a way of feeling sympathy for something, an argument an idea.

If we’re laughing, we’re part-way to agreeing.

Second, it’s simple.

Anyone can understand the points being made.

We don’t need a political commentator to break down the statistics.

Third, it’s visual.

Although it’s described entirely in words, the words paint a picture.

To see the picture the audience has to imagine it.

To imagine it they have to, at least temporarily, accept it.

Plus, a picture remains in the memory a lot longer than dry facts.

Fourth, it’s an analogy.

It’s hard to persuade someone by stating the argument head-on.

But if we compare it to something else, we avoid that.

If we can get them to accept our analogy, they’re part-way to accepting our argument.

So that is how to talk to ordinary people.

A simple, memorable, visual joke anyone can understand.

Plus it has another massive benefit.

That’s exactly the ingredients you need to go viral.

Like a good joke.

If it made us laugh, and we can remember it, we can pass it on.

We can do that via face-to-face conversation, over the phone, or twitter, or facebook, whatever.

Just like I’m doing now.

Because that’s what works in going viral.

It has to be interesting and it has to be simple.

It’s no good being interesting if what you’ve got to say is long and boring: TLDR.

It has to be short, and it has to be memorable.

That’s how we stake a claim in the human brain.

And before we can get our message to go viral we have to get it into the human brain.

Because that’s what puts the message into social media.

So the important question isn’t: how does social media go viral?

 

The important question is how do people go viral?

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Physics explained, using a cup of coffee.

This warm cup of enlightenment is brought to you by Charlotte Arene in collaboration with the “Physics Reimagined” and “Interface Liquides” teams from LPS (Université Paris Sud and CNRS). 

27-year old illustrator Leander Assmann comes from Stuttgart in Germany, where he is currently studying communication design at the celebrated Stuttgart State Academy of Art and Design.

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Vending machines have long been the backbone of the snacking society. Found in offices across the nation, they're an enticing box of happiness, where the only thing separating you from your peanut M&M craving is a plastic window and $0.85. 

Smart, east, and convenient. It's already the perfect device, so how could you possibly improve it?

How about by adding some damn champagne? 

Someone did just that.

Image: bryan bedder/getty images

The machine, the first of its kind in the U.S., is currently open to guests at the Mandarin Oriental Hotel in Las Vegas and is stocked with 320 mini bottles of Moet’s Imperial Brut and Imperial Rose champagne, according to an article by Travel & Leisure. However, before you can get a bottle of that sweet, sweet drink, you must first prove you're 21 and buy a special, Moet logo emblazoned $20 gold coin from the front desk.   Read more...

More about Vending Machines, Champagne, Las Vegas, Watercooler, and Watercooler

Famed artist Keith Haring was once just a boy who kept drawing.

Now, 27 years after his death, Haring's work and passion will inspire kids today — all through a new children's book encouraging them to use art to change the world.

Keith Haring: The Boy Who Just Kept Drawing celebrates the lasting impact of the artist's life, art and activism. The 40-page book, created for readers ages 5 to 8, focuses on Haring's public art, charitable acts, and projects with and for children — core parts of Haring's short life that are often overlooked. Read more...

More about Books, Children S Books, Culture, Lgbtq, and Art

Happy Mondays

German artist creates outfits that match public transport seats

For her 2008 project “Bustour,” German artist Menja Stevenson decided to source the fabrics—called moquette—that bus seats are made of to create weird matching getups. Then she wore them and hung out by the seats she matched to see if anybody would notice.

“I couldn’t believe that many people didn’t realise the connection seeing me and the seats together,” Stevenson says. “Did they think that it was sheer coincidence? Some curious people at least talked to me, and a very few laughed, but most passengers would look shyly at me and quickly look the other way again.” 

Moquette is designed to be spill and stain-proof, and can last for more than a decade. Since it can’t be purchased, Stevenson asked German transport companies to send her some.

“Wearing them, you sweat like crazy, they feel like a knight’s armor and it’s hard to act naturally.”

It’s a wonder no one sat on her.

The Naked City, Lindsey Kustusch

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