A market research session I’m attending tonight has requested that I pull together two examples of brand/marketing comms that have impressed me in recent times. I’ve singled out a selection of TVCs here, there’s many more that come to mind that are certainly brilliant, however the product that they are advertising doesn’t appeal to me (viz. Pure Blonde beer and Carlton Draught’s “Big Ad“).

Snooze have recently rebranded from Cap’n Snooze. Losing the “Sale! Sale! Sale!” approach of years gone by, they’ve changed tack and pursued the viewer from an emotive angle. Sleep is something we all need, and whilst we are sleeping, we’re both completely oblivious and defenceless to the world around us. An apt choice of music with “Mad World” by Tears for Fear, sung by Gary Jules – however, the use becomes perhaps unintentionally interesting due the association with the cult-film Donnie Darko.

Tourism Victoria have it nailed. I continually love the campaigns that are produced. Their almost Bohemian approach to enticing people to their wonderful state is displayed through their chic, yet esoteric television commercials. Run Rabbit Run was an ad you either loved or hated. The backing soundtrack to this piece was a quirky piece of 1930s fun (incidentally, the song was popular during World War II when the lyrics were changed to Run Adolf!) orginally poking with a butler who has a somewhat creepy or cheeky disposition – depending on your point of view. The second, The Labyrinth (losely based on the Greek story of Ariadne and Theseus) isn’t as in your face as the first, but it takes a walk through the streets and alleys of Melbourne – however it’s the music – Joanna Newsom’s “Sprout and the Bean” that once again brings this ad to life.

Run Rabbit Run

The Labyrinth

Nice execution!

There’s some problems currently with the last.fm weekly charts – so no fresh music right now.

That said, here’s a great new mix from Dave Choe and Matt Aubusson of Glitch in Sydney. Had it in the car for a few days now and loving it. Tasty goodness from the likes of 2000 and 1 and Magda. They do promise a tracklisting shortly.

Some great action around town coming up as we swing into the summer season.

The Minimal Fuss crew are throwing their first birthday bash on Friday, November 2nd with Ewan Pearson (Kompakt) and Dixon (Get Physical, Sonar Kollektiv & Innervisions) on the lineup! Joining them on the lineup will be Declan Lee, Dave Choe, Ben Korbel and Matt Aubusson as well as maybe one more surprise international at Oxford Art Factory! Check the Youtube video invite below.

…and then there’s the Mad Racket 9th birthday featuring Chris Duckenfield on Saturday, October 27th. Check out the Mad Racket site for further info.

No, it’s not inside a club or at a festival. It’s the Town Hall steps on a Friday afternoon!

This morning I was getting emails from colleagues who were all hung up on the notion of a flashmob. Comments such as – “What is it?”, “Huh? I don’t geddit.”, and “Bizarre!” were just some of the email floating around today. People who would have no idea about websites such as inthemix were all buzzing with the notion of the flashmob.

I arrived at Town Hall steps at 5:40pm, taking up a prime position to be able to watch the event unfold. People started to arrive, but I couldn’t discern between what was a normal number of people congregating at this location, an iconic city meeting place, and what were numbers in excess of this.

Then it became quite evident. More and more people with headphones on began to arrive.

With a loudhailer in hand, Jay Hemsworth from inthemix announced to all that it was 6:11pm. It was time to dance. And for ten minutes, people did. There was hollering and whooping but still no music to be heard.

A few hundred people dancing to the sound of their own MP3 player. The phenomenon, a twist on the flashmob, this was the ‘flashrave’.

View the full photoset on Flickr. Further coverage on news.com.au – I’m up the back on the left in the green shirt (if you squint hard enough!).

Great tune from Lupe Fiasco – “Kick Push”, a real breath of fresh air. Clean sounding break with some smooth strings and a nice flow from Lupe rapping about skateboarding. No bitches, no hoes, no bling, no $1000 bills – motifs that are all too common with the more commercial end of hip-hop from the US.

Check it out.

Throwback to 1990!

These kids could teach a few people a thing or two. I love how the kid on the right even adjusts the high range on one of the scratch sequences to get a bit more tonal range.

Question: Recent polls have shown a fifth of Americans can’t locate the US on a world map. Why do you think this is?

Answer:

Now in case, you uh.. didn’t get that:

I personally believe — that — US American’s are unable to do so — because a — someah — people out there in a our nation don’t have maps, and I believe that our education, like such as in South Africa and The Iraq, everywhere like such as, and — I believe that they should — ah — our education over here in the U.S. should help the U.S., or — ah — should help South Africa and should help The Iraq and the Asian countries, so we will be able to build up our future for our (children).

20 years on, the amorphous space-age food of the future can’t be found on the supermarket shelf in this incarnation. It’s probably had the sugar replaced within NutraSweet and been converted into a Weight Watchers pudding or something similar. Love the music as well!!?