Clare Townhill

Perplexed by Perplexcity

Over the next two weeks I'm going to do my damnedest to get into the twisty and turny world of Perplexcity. Right now, looking at the four cards I bought from Amazon Marketplace, I have no idea where, or even how to begin. Oh well, everyone's got to start somewhere.

Clever Crows

Year Zero: 3 Weeks To Go...

On Friday the Year Zero campaign featured in the Contagious Newsletter. Despite the wrong URL for the fan forum (.org not .com) which irked me a bit, I thought that the Trent Reznor quotes were really interesting:

'The term 'marketing' sure is a frustrating one for me at the moment. What you are now starting to experience IS Year Zero. It's not some kind of gimmick to get you to buy the record - it IS the art form, and we're just getting started. We hope you enjoy the ride.'

The white space left by the official narrative is the space that gets people interested; the space of the unknown becomes populated by speculation, hypotheses and creativity. The fan forum is a testiment to this, not least the forum thread entitled, Year Zero fanmade remixes/videos/snuff/origami/themes. To see the album as an element of the campaign rather than its final and finite pay-off is a much more interesting and accurate representation of the experience of those who have become immersed in it. The maddening baggyness of the Nine Inch Nails' campaign, its loose ends, are the very thing that have made it so interesting. Fans don't stop talking or creating just because official activity ends; the sign of a good campaign are the echoes and conversations that it leaves in its wake.

4 Weeks To Go
5 Weeks To Go 
17/4/07

Zap the Bunny

Nothing like a good bit of macabre interactive fun.
www.10mg.nl

Time Sickness

Whenever my work life balance gets totally fucked (I classed managing to buy a Mother's Day card 4 days late and getting it in the post this morning to be a major achievement) as part of my road back to sanity I re-read In Praise of Slow by Carl Honore:

What is the very first thing you do when you wake in the morning? Draw the curtains? Roll over to snuggle up with your partner or a pillow? Spring out of bed and do ten push-ups to get the blood pumping? No, the first thing you do is check the time.

What I love so much about this book is its ability to quantify the modern malaise of speed and acceleration. It lays out in no uncertain terms the true cost of the one minute bedtime story and other supposed time savers that actually do nothing more than snatch life away from us as it all gets lost in the blur. I am trying very hard to live in the now, to savour things and escape that feeling of overvaulting speed that makes me feel late for everything. I left the house 15 mins later than I normally do to give me time for a cup of tea and a chat with my housemates but then blew it halfway up the escalator on the underground this morning. I felt an almost incandescant rage sweep through me when someone dared to come to a halt in front of me adding literally fractions of a second to my journey time. Nobody's perfect.

Got Milk but no F***ing Glass

Having warbled on but hours ago on the joys of Goodby's latest work for the longrunning 'Got Milk' campaign, I find myself angrily typing this follow up post. Just chatted to Alistair who played the whole bloody game last night, cracked the safe code, wasted 16 mins of his scant free time only to find that you can only get the bloody glass if you're a US resident. Thanks for nothing guys.

Happily Stumbling About

I love the service Stumble Upon. My ability to gently roam about the web in pursuit of nothing in particular is pretty much zero at the moment. There's nothing like a few hits of the Stumble button to slough off the weight of unloved tedious corporate sites and restore contact and faith with the web community's wit and creativity. Here are a few of today's gems:

Calvin and Hobbes: The Underappreciated Art of the Snowman

Why Can't I Own a Canadian?

Wikipedia: Flying Spaghetti Monster

Memorability

The process of getting most of the ATL comms industry to realise that consumers just won't be bludgeoned into purchase anymore has been achingly slow. The old style of thinking seems to rear its ugly head most prominently in the way that ATL ads are researched. I've never really understood what on earth awareness and memorability have to do with propensity to buy. In a focus group I moderated recently I had to ask respondents about a recent TV ad done for a major breakdown service. The track, 'You've got a friend' is butchered by 100 warbling men in yellow plastic coats. One member of the group said he thought the track helped make the ad memorable. The man sitting next to him turned and said, 'Yeah mate, and if someone came and sat next to you on the tube, and stabbed you repeatedly in the head with a pencil, you'd remember them too.' Priceless.

Got Milk?

In a word, yes. Beautiful new work from Goodby's for the Californian Milk Processor Board. Playful, tactile, rich, fun. Everything good digital work should be. It is just lovely.

www.gettheglass.com

Something cheery for the weekend

Just enter in your basic details, plus bodymass index and whether you're a smoker or not, and let the clock do the rest. A date for the diary.
DeathClock