One of my favourite viral videos

The video shows two global 'institutions' that one wouldn't necessarily associate with each other. Both at the top of their games performing something quite remarkable. Arguably Volvo trucks are riding on the resurgence of Van Damme (particularly in the UK) after a succession of very popular TV ads, most notably with Coors lager. Everything about the video fits extremely well, the opening scene and ambiguous voice over at the beginning. The music, Only Time by Enya, when the camera pans away. The jaw-droppingly unbelievable nature of the splits, especially when one can see that the trucks are in fact reversing.

Watch video on YouTube

The video received 8 million views after two days and to date has received over 60 million. Not quite sure if the video will have a massive affect on the sale of this type of truck but it will certainly get people talking about the trucks and their dynamic steering. So it will undoubtedly raise the profile of Volvo trucks.

Free the slaves

Slaves working in a mine

On a recent trip to Spain I downloaded some videos to watch on my journey. As I browsed through the usual iplayer and itunes nonsense I thought I’d try TED. For those of you that don’t know TED, it is a website, app, conference that is devoted to ideas worth spreading. Their mission is to spread ideas that will change attitudes, lives and ultimately the world. TED challenges the world most fascinating thinkers and doers to give the talk of their life in 18 minutes or less. On the TED ipad app there is a feature called ‘Inspire me’ and I happened to click on the video entitled LisaKristine: Photos that bear witness to modern slavery. 

Lisa is an already well-established photographer, writer and documentary maker documented modern day slavery. She works with, Free the slaves an NGO dedicated to the abolishing of slavery. She touches on some jaw-dropping facts, such as there are an estimated 27 million slaves in the world, which is double the amount taken during the trans-Atlantic slave trade. The average cost of a slave during the slave trade was about three times that of the average American worker $50,000 in today’s money. However, today an entire generation of a family can be enslaved for a debt of as little of $18. 

Such stats are a sobering reality to those of us that thought much of physical slavery had been resigned to the history books. Free the slaves works with slaves to break them out of their vicious cycle and gives them the tools to survive once they are free. I highly recommend you watch the video if you have a spare 18 minutes. The video doesn’t make easy viewing, but is well-worth educating yourself on how our fellow human beings are being treated. If you’d like to support the abolishment of slavery, Free the salves.    

Taking it easy on a Spanish beach or a supermarkets captive audience?



Holiday - Nerja - Spain

Relaxing on a beach on the southern coast of Spain – you may think you were free from most marketing messages especially those of the large supermarkets. I mean what could they possibly do to impair my relaxation on the beach, in the sun, looking out to sea?

They could fly a plane along the coastline with a banner trailing behind it inviting all beach goers to visit Lidl. Lidl know that on a hot day the beaches will be packed with holiday makers so where better to communicate with them? They have a captive audience of beach goers that couldn’t get away from Lidl’s message even if they tried. This may do one of two things, remind the beach goer of something they need to pick up for this evenings dinner, or to stock up on sun cream at Lidl or infuriate the beach goer to such an extent that they will actively shun Lidl in the future as punishment for infringing on their otherwise peaceful day.

I think Lidl overstep the mark here, as consumers we expect their messages on bus shelters and other outdoor spaces however we don’t expect to see it flying above us as we relax on a beach. It feels more like an intrusion than a gentle reminder.

London 2012 guerrilla construction marketing

Image shows similar signage

As I was walking around the Olympic park I happened to notice two construction companies take advantage of their site positions in the vicinity of the park for a bit of shameless self-promotion. One can hardly blame them especially with LOGOCs (London Organising Committee of the Olympic Games) stringent rules with regards to publicising involvement with the Olympics, which heavily regulates contractors communicating involvement in Olympic construction projects. I noticed this one by Ardmore and one by Barratts on a nearby site. 

Any company or sub-contractor that has supplied the Olympic Games with products or services has to agree not to publicise any part of their involvement until the end of 2012. This obviously gives the official sponsors (that have paid millions for the privilege) to capitalise on their involvement. I think a more lax approach would have been beneficial particularly to the construction industry. What have McDonalds or Panasonic got to lose if a major contractor publicises their involvement in construction the athlete’s village on time and on budget? For the construction companies however, having such a prestigious and well-known project under their belts may have helped them in securing work in the immediate aftermath. So who can blame Barratts and Ardmore for jumping on the tailcoats of Olympic the Olympic park?