Much have been said about the mind boggling gap between the haves and the have nots in South Africa. Leaders (like Tutu, not the kind lining their own pockets) warn repeatedly that not addressing this divide will eventually lead to a total break down in our society. With their own long term viability in mind business is finally starting to talk about social justice. Then there is Condé Nast House & Garden who sees it fit to plug “Green-painted wooden LOGS from R3262.58, The Modern Garden Company (top left corner of the image). Yes that is R3262.58 for a green-painted wooden log. The obvious question – couldn’t they round up the 58c? Can anybody in this country really be so disconnected from society that they would create this product, find a market for it, and then manage top sell it to the editors of a glossy magazine? Nasty!
Garbage bins become urban art
Five Cape Town agencies worked together on urban design project that saw five black garbage bins turned into works of art. Designers were briefed to use the bin as a canvas but to take into consideration the context of its surroundings as well. Am I Collective, Cow, Kronk, The President and Room 13 were the five agencies that got involved.
The bins, (if they’ve not been stolen) can be see at the following addresses: 15A Chamberlain, 29 Chamberlain, 4 Devonshire, 13 Cavendish and 37 Balfour.
Open source Chrome vs. No advertising IE 8
Microsoft has already won the desktop battle, but a new war is looming and in a connected world the ultimate end point is the browser, the most intimate interface that people use to surf the web. Whoever wins this round of what is popularly referred to as the browser wars wins the most valuable real estate of the connected economy. As IE and Chrome do battle it is interesting to see what strategies Microsoft and Google are using to try and take the victor’s crown in the battle of the browsers.
What’s key about Google’s open source offering is that it addresses the consumer need for speed and appears to answer the problem many users have with their browser grinding to a halt at the end of the day, or freezing or failing. A frustration that’s becoming increasingly common place because of the myriad of applications and media that browsers now have to deal with as the web leaves text behind and moves into richer and more varied environments. Google’s offering will have an ability to view web pages as thumbnails and a host of other features built for speed in a multi-media environment.
Microsoft isn’t taking the open-source slap in the face lying down. They know Google’s business model is built on the back of an advertising platform and MS are hitting back with a browser that features the ability to block advertising. Still in beta, Internet Explorer 8’s “InPrivate” feature has the advertising and publishing world in a flurry. Imagine the potential harm an opt-in or opt-out type browser could do to the $21.2 billion-plus interactive ad industry? Microsoft Internet Explorer general manager Dean Hachamovitch says that’s not the point: “The point isn’t to block content or ads. The point is to put users in control of what they’re sharing.”
Early days yet in the browser wars, but the first punches have been thrown and it appears that blood has been drawn. There will be one clear winner though and in my mind that will be browser users who for years have been desperate for a solution that speaks to speed and intrusive advertising.
Posted on Marklives.com by Mandy de Waal. Mandy de Waal is a former broadcast journalist who now writes for a broad range of local media. A columnist for MarkLives, de Waal microblogs at Twitter, vlogs at Zoopy and authors her own blog, Artificial Intelligence.
Moonwalking parents into buying a kids mag
“Moonwalk” is the latest in a series of award winning ads for National Geographic Kids magazine by FoxP2. This ad shows parents their kids can experience the world through NG Kids magazine. Hats off to Andrew Whitehouse and Justin Gomes for another charming winner. (Photographer: Andrew Verster Cohen)
Africanising the Nike Dunk
Mick & Nick, part of the Lowe Bull Group, created this instore promotional campaign for Nike’s Cape Town launch of the Nike Dunk. For a South African fit Mick & Nick asked six graffiti artists each to spray-paint a taxi using the Nike Dunk colours. Nike originally developed the Dunk in 1985 to fit in with the colour schemes of various US universities. From US varsities to African taxis – its been a long track for an iconic shoe…
A kids book for grown ups
Wie is Dit? is a quirky picture book of Bible stories launched earlier this year by Vuvu, an imprint of Electric Book Works. Its PR blurb says the book is being marketed to kids “and inquisitive grown-ups of all religious persuasions.”
Writer/illustrator Louis Barnard is smart, very smart, possibly too smart for the kids. Mark can see how this book can intrigue kids to read up its suggested text and in that sense the concept works very well.
Mark also suspects its real fans will be grown ups gaping at Noah the (rather camp) sailor and giggling at Eve holding an apple pie (remember American Pie?). Kids books for grown ups with Christmas just around the corner – it would be interesting to see if the publisher pursues this market actively or simply allow it to discover Wie is Dit? for themselves.
“Do no evil” Google fails own mantra
Google’s famous company mantra “Do No Evil” is being called into question in a complaint filed at the Competition Commission by a South African digital marketing agency called Entelligence.
In short Entelligence alleges that Google has abused its market dominance in an attempt to drive a wedge between Entelligence and one of its major clients – The Yellow Pages SA. The aim, according to Entelligence, is so that Google can pick up the client as its own.
First Google manipulated campaign costings on its Adwords platform that negatively affected the campaigns performance by pushing up the cost per click through from 60c to R2 without informing Entelligence, the group alleges. Later it informed Entelligence that it was no longer willing to renew its accounts with Google (Entelligence claims it is spending $100 000 on Google every 90 days so this isn’t a small change outfit). This while Google SA pitched directly for the client in question.
“Entelligence and many other search engine marketing agencies have represented Google for years in South Africa,” says Sean Riley Managing Director of Entelligence. “Google South Africa is now cherry-picking customers with high expenditure at the expense of companies that have historically supported and grown Google’s client base within South Africa.”
Google cannot afford to undermine the two key pillars of its success affected by this story. It cannot afford to make enemies from its friends through corporate strong arm tactics (a very expensive lesson Microsoft learnt the hard way), and it cannot do away with the public goodwill it has built up, or people will start rooting for alternatives. If it has any sense it would resolve the complaint and put in place transparent procedures to ensure a repeat of these allegations don’t occur.
Galleries of SA vanity plates
Wired ran a cool little story on a gallery of nerdy vanity plates. The gallery was put together by Royal Pingdom and ranged from OPN SRC (Open Source) to GEEK AFK (Geek Away From Keyboard). A quick Google found several SA sites tracking South African vanity plates. Check them out at Aquila Online, VanityplateSA and Ostendo. Plates range from South Africanisms like Ebenz (on a Merc) to the obvious IH82W8 (I hate to wait) on a GP registered BMW. Then there is SORRY 4U2 (also a BMW), BY BY COP GP (again, a BMW, starting to see a trend here) and 18 SNVL on a Polo Playa. A couple of marketers have gotten into the act as well and the blogs feature vanity plates for Motorola (MYMOTO 5), Weber (1GRILL) and Just Letting (ITS LET).
* Image fromVanityplateSA
The Beijing anti-brand logos
With the Beijing Olympics at an end I thought it would be interesting to look at some of the anti-logos floating around cyberspace. Mostly they commented on the repressive nature of China’s government. These images were found using Google Images. Because they appear all over the Internet it is difficult to attribute copyright.
The quest for real: Anti-Restaurants
‘Anti-restaurants’ or ‘pirate restaurants,’ as explored by The New York Times (registration required), are underground communal food experiences that is popping up all over the United Sates and the world in a backlash against the desocialisation of eating (and everything else). Run by an assortment of people from diverse backgrounds (chefs, cookbook editors, ad execs and cross country travellers apartment hopping as they go) people pay up to help make the food (one group had to help slaughter a boar) and eat it at a communal table in unlicensed spaces like basement apartments.
“The passionate enthusiasts who have opened dozens of unlicensed restaurants in apartments and other private spaces in recent years do not generally aspire to become traditional restaurateurs, with overhead and investors and the health department — a k a The Man — telling them what to do,” writes the NY Times. “They are not in it for the money or for Buddha Bar-size crowds; instead, they say, they are in it for the community and the creative freedom.”
The movement springs from the desire for shared experiences that has meaning and authenticity, according to the owner of The Ghetto Gourmet, a website dedicated to tracking underground restaurants, which has sprung up as far as Paris and Tasmania.
Wine companies are seeing a gap, with some reportedly interested in helping sponsor these events, and interest is growing from food lovers, which means the movement might end up becoming a victim of its own success, all while having to dodge authorities who close down unlicensed eateries. This is unlikely though, even if some gets more mainstream, new underdogs are bound to pop up around the corner. The movement is another important indicator of people’s need to reconnect with other people. Why sit alone in a restaurant when you can have a great meal and conversation in the company of a bunch of interesting people!