FRANKthoughts

Well, it finally happened. MTV is joining the next generation by putting all it’s music videos ONLINE. No more silly time spent trying to find your favorite music video on youtube but a simple, friendly site that will bring back all these great memories. (usually dancing with girls that were way taller than me).

More memory lane material include me bartending and VJing at the “Cats” bar in Tel-Aviv with VHS tapes recorded from MTV and shown via a projector on a big screen. This is how we did it back then: I used to watch MTV at home for hours trying to catch the right spot when songs start and recording them into a VHS tape. After having about 3 hours of music videos on tape, I used to write (on paper) a “song menu” with the name of the song, the artist, a comment about it and the exact time on the tape this song starts. Then, when I came to work at around 7pm, I would spend an hour building my “set” by fast forwarding and rewinding until the video I wanted was in place, ready to be shown later to our pundits.

Ok, back to MTV. A quick look at the most viewed all time will reveal pearls like the first video I’ve seen on MTV: Dire Straits “Money For Nothing”, My most anticipated video: Guns N’ Roses “November Rain” and my all time favorite: Take On Me By a-ha. Now, there are so many brilliant finds there but I’ll leave it to you. More good news? every video is embeddable, commentable and rateable. Here’s one of my favorite videos, bit of a summer opener. Welcome MTV, I missed you. (thanks to Lau Ardelean from threeminds).

DJ Jazzy Jeff & the Fresh Prince |MTV Music

 We, the consumer, are having to pay artificially high prices for a range of products at the moment. Possibly the worst oligopoly-offenders, in these ‘turmoilic’ times, are the oil companies and supermarkets. The challenge for consumers is to create critical mass in order to effect change. One such opportunity is Aussie Farmers Direct (AFD). I’ve long held the belief that the potential power of communities can be the catalyst for change and here’s a great opportunity. All AFD’s products are 100% Australian owned and made and delivered to your door in esky bags. They go beyond milk to juices, eggs, cheese, cream, bread, bacon, butter, coffee, water plus seasonal fruit and veggies. You can sign up here.

Part of their service includes “Mealopedia.” This help you create your weekly menu & a shopping list that only contains the required amounts of ingredients you’ll need.

As i wandered around the busy aisles of Safeway yesterday having injected a dollar into the trolley, queued to pay, pushed said trolley to car, loaded the car, returned the trolley, driven home and unloaded car i wondered about how much i value my budget and my time…not enough me thinks.

I’ve signed up to AFD. It’s a small step but its the accumulative effect of small steps from communities that will effect change for the better.

This week I was stunned to learn that international agencies working for global brands don’t always share their creative ideas, even if they are extremely effective.   Weird.  I know it’s an ego thing and realise that not all executions transcend cultural borders but, big heads aside, if it’s a good idea just roll with it. Being the patriotic Canadian that I am, I thought I’d take a moment to check out some ad campaigns that are currently running in Toronto to see if they may have been influenced by anything I’ve seen here.  No luck.  What I did find was a fantastic McDonald’s billboard advertising their use of ‘freshly cracked eggs’. 

 I also found an American McDonald’s egg sign that proves anything is possible when it comes to outdoor.  The best part is-the egg only ‘cracks’ open from 6.30-10am when eggs are served.  Brilliant!

 If I were an outdoor provider I’d be preparing a quote for McDonalds Australia as we speak. 

Getting back to blogging after a months break is kinda like getting back to the gym.

You need to start with something easy.

Thanks to the talented Randall Munroe from Webcomic. (xkcd.com)

This week saw the launch of Movember for 2008 which was held on Wednesday 15th Oct at the Forum theatre in Melbourne and across several other locations around the nation

Held during November each year, Australian men and women register nationally for Movember.  With a clean-shaven face from November 1st, participating Mo Bros spend the month growing and grooming their mo’.  Along the way, Mo Bros and their mo’ supporters, including Mo Sista’s, raise as much money and awareness for male health:

• Prostate cancer – every year in Australia 2,900 men die of prostate cancer – more than the number of women who die from breast cancer
• Male depression – One in six men are affected by depression.  Most don’t seek help. Depression can have serious effects on physical and mental health

In 2007, over 96,000 enthusiastic Mo Bros & Sista’s raised over  $15 million for Movember, supporting the Prostate Cancer Foundation of Australia and Beyondblue

So get united and register!

The brainchild of three young guys in Iceland, www.iftheworldcouldvote.com is an independent website that allows people from all over the globe to ‘vote’ for Barack Obama or John McCain. The poll was created out of sheer curiosity and so far Obama is leading by a landslide in almost all countries including the US. The only countries that McCain reigns in are Macedonia, 90% of 389 votes, and West African country, Burkina Faso with 100% of 2 votes.

So far approximately 250,000 people have had their say, perhaps you should have yours.  Click on the link above to vote.

Does anyone remember what it was like to search back in 2001?

Check out http://www.google.com/search2001.html

In 2001, “Myspace” was “making home improvements better”, “Facebook” was not as we know it today, and what’s “YouTube”?

Also interesting how the leading sites have evolved over the years.

MySpace has launched a new ad platform targeted at SMEs called myAds.  At first glance, it appears to be a similar approach to Facebook Ads where it allows any business purchase a small banner on a CPC campaign.

Have heard of minor bugs such as it doesn’t work on Google’s Chrome browser and requires the latest Flash version to work.

Apologies for the blog inactivity… it has been a busy week for FRANk with the move, pitch, projects, etc.

So a tiny post today to keep things interesting!

Diesel is celebrating their 30th aniversary with a big XXX party running parallel across 17 countries (not Australia unfortunately!).  It will be featuring stars such as Soulwax, N.E.R.D., Pete Doherty, Ed Bangers, etc.  Check it out Diesel XXX.

To promote the event, check out this viral video inspired by Safe for Work Porno work!  Diesel has taken images from 70s porno films, replacing “private” parts with well-thought out designs: