Blog
Actor or director?
When I worked in PR and marketing I used to see what I did in terms of ‘me’ and ‘them’ where ‘them’ could be the client or the public or the media. I was a character in the world interacting with other characters and depending on the effectiveness of my communications I either caused a reaction or not. I had no more influence than that.
But how about if I completely change the perspective from which I view my reality and my role. If I truly see myself as the creator of my reality then I change fr…
But how about if I completely change the perspective from which I view my reality and my role. If I truly see myself as the creator of my reality then I change fr…
Who are you?
Jo, a facilitator was working with a group of people on a team-training day. The individuals had worked together for over a year so they knew each other fairly well. To start off the day, Jo asked each person to write down three words to describe each of the other people in the room. She gave them 30 minutes to do this and sat and watched them as they scribbled notes. When the time was up she invited each individual to take turns standing at the front of the room while their colleagues read out …
Reclaim your body
Just north of Copenhagen I cycle past a plastic surgery, in the windows are ‘before’ and ‘after’ pictures of noses, breasts and thighs. There is even a full length mirror in the window, presumably so that you can look in it and think of all the changes that you should be making to your appearance. I look at all the people, children, teenagers who are walking past this clinic... what is the message they are taking from this? And while I am wondering about this, a bus goes past with an enormous pi…
Why didn’t Luke say hello?
One day when I picked up my then four year old daughter from school, she shouted ‘There’s Luke!’ and ran off in his direction. He was a slightly older boy who used to be in her pre-school class and who had recently gone up to the next year. He was talking to some friends, she tapped him on the back beaming. He carried on talking. She kept tapping, saying ‘Luke’. He turned around. She smiled and said ‘hello!’, he shrugged and turned back to his friend. I wondered how she would handle this, expect…
The ultimate freedom - cut loose from the ‘Self’
There is an old Japanese story about a tea ceremony master who unintentionally insulted a samurai swordsman and was immediately challenged to a duel the next day. The tea master was terrified. ‘I am going to die’ he thought. His wife persuaded him to find someone who could help. He sought the help of an expert swordsman to teach him. All through the night the expert tried to instruct his pupil in the art of swordsmanship but the tea master couldn’t get any of the motions right. As dawn was break…
What is freedom?
What freedom we have these days! Our shops are full to the ceilings with billions of alluring products waiting our selection. We can treat our bodies how we want – even if that means eating ourselves into an early grave or spending thousands of pounds under a scalpel for self ‘improvement’ through surgery. Anything we want to buy that we can’t afford we can put on credit or take out a loan from the many quick money companies springing up. We can say what we want to whomever we want without respo…
21st Century battle
“Hello! Do you have all the material goods you need to show how successful you are? No oh well keep working. Work harder. Oh now you’re all tired and miserable. You deserve a treat! Have it your way. Eat this and this, go on you’re lovin’ it. Oh no you look nothing like how you should look do you? Here buy this DVD, join this gym, apply this cream, it doesn’t work? OK buy this instead. No? buy this, and this. Cut that off, stretch that out, whiten these a little bit. Buy this watch, this car…
Signal failure
One of the most fascinating business trips I ever did was to Las Vegas. I remember one night I went out without my watch and as I walked through the casino in the Venetian hotel where we were staying I wondered how late it was. I looked around to find out the time and it struck me then how the hotel had managed to eliminate all signs of day or night. There were no clocks or windows. All around the edges of the casino were restaurants and all of them had signs advertising breakfast, brunch, lunch…
Innovation, comparison and aspiration
One of the main ways ads have an effect is through the portrayal of someone the target audience aspires to be. Enormous thought, effort and investment is put into choosing exactly the right actors for the ad, making sure they are someone the target audience admires and that they are wearing exactly the right clothes and depicted in exactly the right environment.
Some advertisers defend the constant pressure to acquire more, look more 'perfect' and spend more money. They say it encourages progress…
Some advertisers defend the constant pressure to acquire more, look more 'perfect' and spend more money. They say it encourages progress…
What has been deleted?
We were talking about creativity the other day and my mother said “I don’t have a creative bone in my whole body”. This is a woman who brought up two children, one seriously ill, who managed a household through her husband’s battle with cancer and developed a very successful career as a single parent. She found ways to be in two different hospitals, in the office and looking after a child simultaneously. She has written 15 books. She found ways to manage school pick ups and holidays. She would …