Blog
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 …
"To enjoy good ...
"To enjoy good health, to bring true happiness to one's family, to bring peace to all, one must first discipline and control one's own mind. If a man can control his mind he can find the way to Enlightenment, and all wisdom and virtue will naturally come to him." Buddha
Question 'reality'
To have my two children I went through three rounds of IVF and 10 attempts at re-implanting frozen embryos. I did the final round in a controversial London clinic which had a reputation for the ferocious intensity of the treatment. For over a month I had daily blood tests and ultrasound which the clinicians used to prescribe specific amounts of hormones to be injected - usually two or three different injections a day in the stomach and bottom.
I remember one day, half way through the treatment m…
I remember one day, half way through the treatment m…
The Sirens’ call
In Homer’s Odyssey, the Sirens sing in the sweetest, most beguiling voices to lure sailors to their death.
Everyday there are thousands of beguiling voices using ever cleverer ways to attract us eg. with humor, drama, friends, protest, shock, envy. Attention determines what we will be conscious of at any given moment. What we are conscious of is our experience of reality. Our attention is therefore the basis of our experience of life.
Do we really want to allow our existence to be at the mercy of…
Everyday there are thousands of beguiling voices using ever cleverer ways to attract us eg. with humor, drama, friends, protest, shock, envy. Attention determines what we will be conscious of at any given moment. What we are conscious of is our experience of reality. Our attention is therefore the basis of our experience of life.
Do we really want to allow our existence to be at the mercy of…
Protest
Advertising and communication can have a hypnotic effect. They create bright, attractive, aspirational worlds that we most often encounter when we relax into the suspended reality of a magazine, film or tv programme.
If we are not careful we can float into unconscious acceptance of everything that the ad is projecting.
When we look back at archived ads we can see how racist, sexist, insulting and degrading many of them are. The cultural acceptance of disrespect to certain groups was so strong that…
If we are not careful we can float into unconscious acceptance of everything that the ad is projecting.
When we look back at archived ads we can see how racist, sexist, insulting and degrading many of them are. The cultural acceptance of disrespect to certain groups was so strong that…