Clare Townhill

Swings and Roundabouts

Found this trawling through Blackbeltjones. It's a lovely post, and having just come back from the park having had a bloody good swing it feels right to put it up here too. Too tired and stuffed full of apple-pie to paraphrase or embellish so I'm just going to go for a good old-fashioned plunder:

Woke up to a report on BBC Radio 4’s Today programme about research in Finland into the use of play and playgrounds as life-extension technology:
BBC Today Programmes (RealPlayer Audio Clip)

It was also featured in The Guardian:

“…a study by a team from the University of Lapland found that a group of elderly Finns between the ages of 65 and 81 saw significant improvement in their balance and coordination after three months of swings and roundabouts. Many of the subjects also said they felt empowered by using the playground equipment, although one can claim to be empowered by just about anything these days. The Finns are now planning to redesign their playgrounds to suit grannies as well as toddlers.”

the verb for ‘play’ - Leiki - in Finnish was associated with ‘childishness’ in a negative way.

This research is heartening.

Reclaiming ‘play’ as something that enriches us all throughout our lives (cf. ‘The Play Ethic‘ which also features Finland prominently), and creating places that encourage both that and *ahem* intergenerational play (don’t be dirty…) can only be a good thing.

Or at least, swings and roundabouts.

Blackbeltjones: The Finns are Likin their Leiki

Learning The Difference Between Useful and Useless

I love the sense of wonder in this article that despite its 'jazzy graphics and a video player' a media company's revamped site failed to delight consumers despite having a whopping five functional links. Luckily Mike Murphy from Facebook is on hand to commiserate and share the company's learnings:

He said the site learned it must "communicate and educate" its users and "take into consideration what the audience is looking for" before launching a product or feature.

So, what we've all learned it that companies need to consider what the consumer needs and wants by getting their input and feedback from betas before launch. Really? D'ya think? Putting sarcasm to one side for just a second, if Facebook, site du jour for young London Marketers and media peeps is still making such basic mistakes in regard to the organisation and functionality of its network one can only wonder at the level of detachment between in other businesses and organisations and their end users and consumers.
Globeandmail: Execs Stumble In a New Media World

The Travels of Tiny T

The countdown has well and truly begun. Scarcely have I managed to pull one lot of clothes out of the suitcase and into the washing machine than I find myself working out what I need to pack for the next trip. On Wednesday morning at 08.25 my flight leaves for the first leg of my trip to New Orleans and a new adventure. I'm going to work on a show called The Palanquin Diaries which is being performed at Voodoo Festival. I've decided that there is something I'd like to try. I'm going to attempt to disconnect myself from phones and (gulp) internet for the duration of my stay in the deep south; six weeks to be exact (not to mention the fact that I have no idea if digital connection is a possibility). To stop me from going completely bonkers I'm going to keep a photo journal (something I've never done before) and rekindle my snail mail tendencies. I'll also write bits and pieces down if and when the mood takes me. I've been trying to collect postal addresses from people who'd like a card from me whilst I'm away. You have until Tuesday to add yours.

 

The Energy Game

I thought that this was an interesting affiliation for Chevron and The Economist Group. No doubt the  kudos Chevron get far outweighs that/if any that The Economist brand receives. Sadly I suspect money may have changed hands for the honour of hallmarking Chevron's marketing rather than a direct attempt to engage with the issue at hand; the spatial and attention-holding limitation of the game itself also points to this. It strikes me as a great shame that this kind of virtual modelling of pertinent global and political issues e.g. the energy crisis isn't part of the Economist brand's online offering. The intellugence between it's covers is sadly not applied to the uses of the vast richness and potential of digital media. This could be a way for The Economist to connect with the intelligent online audience left cold by the paper publication not to mention an interesting opportunity to apply collective intelligence and thinking to world issues.

http://www.willyoujoinus.com/
Power of Collective Intelligence:
BBC.co.uk article: Think Tanks for Gamers
Why I love bees: A Case Study in Collective Intelligence Gaming

Death Of An Ad Agency

Lots of noise online at the moment about the death of the traditional ad agency model. As someone who left a major advertising agency recently to break from the industry for a while, I find this really interesting. Although my reasons for leaving were complex, they were in large part related to frustration at the utter refusal to accept the need for radical and immediate change. This is not a charge I lay at the door of the agency but rather the industry as a whole. Clients too are must accept culpability. I think Bob Garfield makes this point well:

'The role of an agency is to connect brands to consumers. If you see yourself as being in the business of producing advertising, then you're in trouble.'

Karl Long is creating a link list called Agency Deathwatch link below, and Guy Kawasaki uses the data gained from a panel of teens talking about their uses of technology to show the radical shift that needs to take place if agencies are to successfully reshape in order to survive. As ever the video and the accompanying post on Kawasaki's blog How to Change the World is excellent.

Karl Long: Agency Deathwatch Links
Guy Kawasaki: Next Generation Insights (Young Person Panel)

'I'm a Barbie Girl, In My Online World'

Ever the obsessive, I decided to do this good and proper. Here are all the links to the various sites unearthed by a good old Google around the doll we all love to hate:

What happens when Barbie becomes part of a third-grader's science fair project called 'Does skin color make a difference? Quite a lot apparently:
http://www.barbiesciencefair.info/

The Decline of Civilisation Barbie Page
Lots of good links to Barbie satire including commemorative stamps celebrating 35 years of teaching anorexia.

Tourette Syndrome Barbie

Adios Barbie
A PC site for body tolerance whatever your shape or size (apparently); on-site game which allows users to catch food in a models mouth (so not quite as tolerant as it would first appear). Also contains some good facts on the plastic princess:

Every second, two Barbie dolls are purchased in the world

Placed head to toe, all the Barbie dolls sold since 1959 would circle the earth more than seven times

Barbie has had more than 75 careers, from registered nurse to rock star.

About one billion fashions have been produced for Barbie and her friends during the past four decades. The doll has had over a billion pairs of shoes in that time.
      
More than 100 million yards of fabric have gone into Barbie's outfits, making Mattel one of the largest apparel manufacturers in the world.

One woman's quest to become Barbie via a lot of plastic surgery:
CindyJackson: Living Doll

And, perhaps most horrifically of all, the official Mattel site. Not for the faint hearted or those with the slightest aversion to pink. You have been warned. Puke-arific:
Barbie Everything Girl

Kill Barbie

Obviously having a Barbie orientated day. Stumbled across this on YouTube today. Again courtesy of the BLO (Barbie Liberation Organisation). Here's an update of their latest action in the form of the BDI (Barbie Disinformation Organisation):

Calling themselves the Barbie Disinformation Organization, the group strikes not at the dolls themselves, but at the packaging that envelops and contextualizes them. They print up stickers in a style identical to traditional Mattel packaging and slap them on Barbie products on the shelves (front and back), effectively replacing Mattel's pleas to the daddy's little girls of the world with their own. And what tow-headed little princess wouldn't want the "Barbie Lesbian Barber Shop" (formerly "Barbie's Stylin' Salon"), complete with instructions on how to give Barbie "Dyke Haircut nos 1 & 2". And what father wouldn't want her daughter to beam in psychotic gratitude for "Lipstick Lesbian Betty" (formerly "Barbie's Best Friend Betty". There's something for the young presumably pre-date raping males as well- somehow "Secret Agent #007 -- with uppercut punch action!" Becomes "Corporate Drone Dan -- with Gropomatic(tm) Fanny-Patting Grip".

Barbie in Wonderland

From the company that brought us the 'Math is Hard' Barbie, I find it a little odd to say the least that they have incarnated the world's favourite airhead into a literary classic. Reading is obviously easier than math. As for what they've done to Ken, who I always believed couldn't get any gayer, he seems to have been turned into a tiny version of Quentin Crisp.

Nine Inch Piracy

This is the transcription of Reznor's speech to fans at the concert on Sydney (taken from the great NiN fan site theninhotline:

"Last time I was here, I was doing a lot of complaining about the ridiculous prices of CDs down here. And that story got picked up and got carried all around the world and now my record label all around the world hates me, because I yelled at them, I called them out for being greedy fucking assholes. I didn't get a chance to check, has the price come down at all? I see a no, a no, a no... Has anyone seen the price come down? Okay, well, you know what that means - STEAL IT. Steal away. Steal and steal and steal some more and give it to all your friends and keep on stealin'. Because one way or another these motherfuckers will get it through their head that they're ripping people off and that that's not right."

Niche Marketing: The Fine Art Of Taco

Interesting post from the Pastafarian creator of the Flying Spagetti Monster about niche marketing as a key to creating a viral effect.  Since Bobby Henderson launched his 'pretentious fine art taco' photography collection a few days ago, the site has received thousands of hits and made it onto Boing Boing and the New York Magazine and perhaps most crucially, a few of the top-tier blogs. His post makes really interesting reading on the power of niche to appeal very strongly to a select audience and gain momentum from the few really interested vs. the failure of more broad appeal attempts to capture a wide audience with slight interest.

Bobby Henderson's Blog
Henderob: Fine Art Taco Photography
NxE's Fifty Most Influential Bloggers