Je crois que Saatchi Moscow te donne la réponse!

Perso j'adore!

The Blackberry Women and Technology Awards were last night and I wondered how I totally missed this tech event. I didn't even spot a random Tweet about it this morning.

A quick scan of the official site revealed, disappointingly, that perhaps this wasn't the techiest event of the year. The nominees and winners hadn't even been posted 18 hours after the event began (an age in online news terms).

This got me thinking about the benefits of this type of brand association with an event. It's not a bad idea at all. If you caught the Saatchi & Saatchi 'Lady Geek' research last year you'll have seen there's a huge missed opportunity to market technology to women (around £600m worth).

So I did a rudimentary Trendpedia search to see who might be "owning conversations" around women and technology. First off I scanned through a quick Google search to see if there were any stand out brands in this space. There weren't so I just used:

• Blackberry: A product like the Pearl was squarely aimed at women. I also wondered how an event like this was giving them ownership of "women and technology" conversations
• Philips: Last year I was lucky enough to work on their Aurea campaign which, via fashion partnerships with the likes of Lanvin and media spend in Vogue, should've brought them into the female tech consumer conversation
• Saatchi & Saatchi: With their research I wondered if the brand had gained a presence in these types of discussions. I also thought it would provide a realistic contrast against the other two brands.

The search terms I used were [brand] AND women AND technology.

The results:

As expected nothing major came up. Low number of results and of those mainly irrelevant data. (I double-checked on a couple of other tools as well)

Blackberry was sort of ahead of the others. I wonder whether the female Blackberry consumer developed organically (most of the conversations are personal anecdotal mentions) and Blackberry capitalised on it or whether it was something the brand had consciously driven. I'd suspect the former and although awards like the Women And Technology event show they are driving the association, the lack of conversational spike this past week suggests there may be a disconnect between aims and results.

Philips' conversations were much more news driven with direct commentary on their "female approach" and the products aimed towards women.

Saatchi's 'Lady Geek' research still gets intermittent mentions in women and tech conversation. They weren't actually that far behind these two big players in the space when you think about it. I wondered if they wanted an ongoing association with this area or had mainly created the research as a PR activity.

I'd love to do a deep dive with the Attentio tracking tool and find out just who are the leading brands in conversations around women and technology, I bet it would throw up a few surprises and a few obvious opportunities. I'd also love to work with a brand who wants to use word-of-mouth marketing and social media to position their brand towards this neglected, but potentially lucrative, tech consumer.

You an vote at:

http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/showdown/index.php?showpic=135431

video

via: New York times

Are you talking to me? But I don't even have a car.

I might have been on a speeding bus once, but that can't have been in London. Frankly, I think your assumptions are questionable.

Furthermore, the images on your poster suggest that if I get caught speeding, it would be as if a kid were taking footage. Does the court of law recognise such amateurish evidence?

When I took pictures as a primary school kid they were normally of my friends or the TV screen to see if the photo came out like it looked on the TV screen. For the record, it didn't. But I'm digressing.

Can I counter-accuse you of badvertising? It would be a shame to do so. Because M&C Saatchi's TV spot for this campaign is pretty good and it's a serious issue we're talking about.

What do you think? I reckon the earlier poster with the steering wheel worked, but this one's got a bit confused.

I'm sure that the makers of Hot Tub Snacks were hoping for when they brough S&S on board.  Here's what they got:

Is there something sort of funny/compelling about this video?  Sure.  But at the same time it feels wildly insulting on a whole range of levels (calling someone a "retard" is pretty schoolyard) it also does little to make we want to try their snacks

You can see more of these videos at the HotTub site (warning: auto-resizes your browser)

Las ejecuciones son realizadas por Saatchi & Saatchi para esta marca propiedad de Procter & Gamble.

Secuestrado de: Advertka

Listening to Allan Kent from Saatchi and Saatchi give a talk on youth and mobile in the modern internet. Used this vid to illustrate the way that the line between producer/consumer and critic is blurring and how brands are no longer in control of their brands.

The original Cadbury's ad

What happened when  the net got hold of it...

More to follow later

Mutta aah niin ihanan suloista ja raikasta. BBC-tuotanto Royston Vaseyn ystävät saavat tällaisesta mainoksesta pienet oot. Unelmoin jokainen täysikuun yö tällaiseen tuotantoon osallistumisesta. Hyvä Ruotsi! Te teitte sen. Tässä on sitä asennetta jota suomalaisessa mainosmaailmasta uupuu raskaasti.

Kaikkialle kumartava sovinnaisuus on kuolemaksi.

Tässä on Ugli Ber Zvagoa ja Syvää jokea.
[via]

Brand Repulic, who did a mini Eulogy and invited those who knew him to make comment. Some touching and great comments from those who knew him. See it here (note you may need to be logged in to view the article).

Unu. Ce mai e şi prostia asta, topul celor mai bun artişti ai secolului XX? Stabilit de cine? Oameni cu acces la internet? Mă aşteptam la mai mult de la Saatchi şi sunt dezamăgit că au picat în această veche capcană a votului popular. Din această cauză şi consider că dacă Saatchi ar fi vrut cu adevarat să fie kosher, ar fi numit acest top altfel. De exemplu „Topul celor mai populari artişti ai secolul XX”, sau „Topul lui Pablo Picasso” Aşa mai merge. Pentru că devine deja plictisitor acest Picasso, o fi fost el bun – ceea ce nu neg – dar am impresia că e cam singurul artist de care multă lume a auzit. În afară de gotici şi emo, care probabil l-au votat pe Dali – pentru că e mai profund. Slavă cerului cu Brancuşi, care opune rezistenţă. Asta mă aduce la a doua nedumerire.

Doi. De când sunt românii aşa mari amatori de artă? Noi avem una şi bună cu Eminescu şi ocazional cineva îşi mai aduce aminte că a trăit un anume Enescu. Asta în perioada Festivalului. Nici pe vremea lui însuşi Brâncuşi lucrurile nu stăteau mai bine, motiv pentru care s-a şi cărat în Franţa şi a creat acolo (cam ca Ionesco, alt fiu adoptiv al folclorului nostru patriotic). Dar se ştie că geniile sunt apreciate abia după ce sucombă, aşa că nu trebuie să ne mire cum de l-am redescoperit pe Brâncuşi acum. Pe lângă patriotismul artistic, românii mai au un avantaj: sunt dependeţi de Yahoo! Messenger. Acest program generează aproximativ 1 miliard de accesări lunar, ceea ce la 7 milioane de români cu internet, e ceva. Ceva mare. Suntem una din cele mai logoreice naţii din Europa. Cel puţin când vine vorba despre e-life. Continuând. Folosind forţa secolului XXI pentru a stabili învingătorul secolului XX; românii au adus spam-ul pe noi culmi. O campanie electronică barbară l-a ridicat într-o singură zi pe Brâncuşi de pe un respectabil loc 30 (or something) pe locul 1. Instinctul patriotic s-a trezit subit şi românaşii noştrii electronici au lăsat meciurile de Counter-Strike şi 4chan-ul câteva secunde pentru a aduce un omagiu tipului care a ridicat stâlpul ăla în Târgu-Jiu, de apare în manualul de a 10-a. Super.

Cred că problema poate fi rezumată simplu. S-a votat pe capete de la noi din ţară de l-am adus pe locul 1. Celelalte ţări nu au făcut aşa, pentru că, probabil, ei se simt mai siguri pe ei şi nu au nevoie să-şi sufle singuri trompeta la fiecare paradă. Sunt siguri că alţii le vor recunoaşte meritele. Noi, în schimb, suntem de părere că Dumnezeu îi ajută pe cei care se ajută singuri. Şi iaca cum, din exces de zel, rămânem şi bătuţi şi cu voturile luate. M-am luptat mult cu mine însumi ca să nu fiu vulgar.

It's also provides opportunities to network around the world with artists working in all possible mediums. It is a massive resource of photography, painting, sculpture, videos, inspirational and informative.

The last time I looked at the site it claimed over 63 million hits in the last 24 hour period!

BRANCUSI era pe locul 2 (doi) la 300 (trei sute) de voturi distanta de Picasso.

Acum e #15.

Voteaza si TU. Arata ca iti pasa de artisti si mai ales de artistii romani.

Click aici pentru a vota! http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/artvote/

Until she became famous, Tracey Emin slept with Billy Childish, Roberto Navikas, Carl Freedman, Frank Berbee, Marta Tanton, Tracy Horn, Lucey Baxter and many others.

"Some I'd had a shag with in bed or against a wall. Some I had just slept with, like my grandma".

She then pasted the names of them all (and her two aborted children) on the inside walls of a tent and called her work Everyone I Slept With 1963-1995.

And the day it was first exhibited was the same day Britain was introduced to its most controversial contemporary artist.

So, love Emin or hate her, it’s impossible to ignore her, for Emin challenges the assumptions of the world of arts and of public appearances. And Emin’s artistic capabilities, which are provocatively intimate and raw, reflect this.

From rags to riches

Emin and her twin brother were born in 1963, the love children of a British girl from the East End and a married Turkish-Cypriot man.

She had a rough life and in her teens, Emin was raped in her hometown of Margate. This incident, coupled with her very promiscuous lifestyle, heavily influenced her work as an artist.

It wasn’t until Emin met artist and musician Billy Childish in the eighties that she discovered her artistic talents.

Her post-Childish life was lived on the edge of “emotional suicide,” as she called it. An abortion she went through in this period tore her apart and Emin destroyed all her early work.

In 1994, though, she was invited to exhibit at the White Cube Gallery in St James. She may well have thought it was her first and last exhibition and called it My Major Retrospective.

But the grotesque curiosities displayed – among which there was a packet of cigarettes her uncle had been holding when decapitated in a car crash – ensured that she stayed in the artistic spotlight.

Mad route to fame

Everyone I Slept With 1963-1995 set the tone of Emin’s art and paved her path to fame.

It was followed by You forgot to kiss my soul, My cunt is wet with fear and I need art like I need God.

In 1999 she came up with My Bed - a real bed personalised to reflect Emin’s character: blood-spotted underwear, vodka bottles and remnants of cigarettes.

And the irreverence paid off. My Bed was bought by the art collector Charles Saatchi and exhibited at the Tate Gallery.

Emin was now at the forefront of the BritArt Movement. And as a tribute to Emin the artist and the Emin the queen of controversy, David Bowie sang “William Blake as a woman”, while critic Philip Hensher said there was “no hope for Tracey Emin”.

But Emin, meanwhile, was busy painting a self-portrait which depicted her with a bundle of bank notes up her crotch.

It was called I Have Got It All.

Andro Wekua, immagini tolte dal tempo. Via anche dalla geografia. Storie sospese, scomposte e ricomposte, memoria che gira a vuoto. Un po' più a ovest di Paradjanov. Si ringrazia e riverisce: http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/. Prima o poi continua.

Congratulations to the readers of 'Cotidianul' Re Brancusi votes.

by blogadmin

Votes for Brancusi in our Top 500 Artists of the 20th Century list moved him from 30th place to the top spot with 42,000 plus votes, compared to Picasso at No.2 with 15,000 plus votes, following a leading Romanian newspaper story about the site, encouraging readers to vote for the Romanian master Brancusi.

Congratulations to our Romanian voters and to Cotidianul, but following a number of protests from artists on the site who feel that this has distorted the list as an accurate reflection of their favourites, we have moved Brancusi back to the 20th spot to create a more balanced and fairer listing.

sursa> http://www.saatchi-gallery.co.uk/blogon/drupal/?q=node/26069

Most recently I started a triptich and am very excited about it - titled, "Sky /Earth/Water", it is a calligraphic of these three words in Sinhalese, Arabic, and Hebrew - stay tuned!

Upcoming show in May 2008 

I think, as with a lot of things, the Young British Artists, as they were known, are easy to look at and assess from a perspective that is not barraged by so much hype. I think at the time so much of the talk about the pieces was coloured by people reacting against the publicity machine surrounding the people whose work came under that umbrella. Half the time it didn't seem that their problem was with the work, more that they wanted to prove something to these young upstarts about what art really was. The thing is they would always come at them with such outmoded concepts -- things buried by the likes of Duchamp and the Dadaists, that they were the ones that seemed faintly ridiculous.

Damien Hirst was the biggest star so consequently got hit by the largest amount of flak. When you step back from all that bullshit that was flung at his work what emerges? An intelligent and coherent aesthetic is what becomes evident  to me. I will admit I did not see the totality of the vision until I purchased I Want to Spend the Rest of My Life Everywhere, with Everyone, One to One, Always, Forever, Now and I could sit there and study the ouevre of a man who has been written for practices that were established by old masters -- having apprentices help with the actual manufacture of the pieces. Think of Warhol -- would anyone argue that the mass produced items the factory turned out were his? Hirst is hands on but is also an idea man. Is an architect any less of an artist because he doesn't construct his building?

It seemed people were almost unwilling to engage some pieces that Hirst produced as actual works of art. You study your Gombrich, you go to a few galleries and get the apparent low-down from a few talking heads on what art means and then you go and pull some bullshit like the guy from Good Will Hunting. Or you are an established art critic and the new art requires you to think around a subject in a new way -- you are lazy, so what do you do? Attack its credibility as art. If it isn't art you don't have to critique it, do you?

I think, from the animals in formaldehyde to the current work with the crystal skulls, Hirst is always trying to say something -- to poke at the human condition. If someone comes at something from an angle that I am unused to and it make me uncomfortable perhaps I am odd in that it makes me want to explore the idea. If something can rock your universe then it must be saying something  worthwhile, if not profound. If it makes you take a step back does it not at least deserve the courtesy of a second look?

I'd recommend buying the book as a doorway in. Doorways are thrown up in odd places. I really started to click with Warhol when I heard Songs For Drella by Lou Reed and John Cale -- they really hipped me to some of the possible thought processes behind Andy's work. Hirst's book did the same for me with his work and I am so glad I forked out what might have been considered an exorbitant amount for it at the time.

1. Volkswagen Polo, DDB. Prima oara am incercat din rasputeri sa ma conving ca nu imi place reclama. Ca e usor sa pui un animalut dragut si sa topesti inimile tuturor. Imi aduce aminte de vechile 'for men who will always be boys', la volan suntem cocosi si cand ne dam jos se schimba fisa.

2. Tipping Pot, AKQA . Pot Noodle! Daca nu v-ati saturat de obiecte care se rastoarna ca un joc de domino cum a facut Guinness, tin sa va anunta ca a venit parodia pentru Pot Noodle, the slag of all snacks intr-o atmosfera de South London. Nu-mi place momentan pentru ca nu stiu exact ce vrea Pot Noodle sa zica cu tot spotul dar astept continuarea. Ieftin am inteles, betivi, vanturi, cuptoare cu microunde, pipi in lift, e foarte autentic, dar nu stiu ce vrea de la mine. Cum ar zice o prietena cu sarcasm, "If this doesn't make you go out and buy some Pot Noodle..."

3. Kotex (tampoane), nu stiu cine de prin Australia. Dumnezeule. Se dau rateuri si aici.

4. Transport for London, Saatchi. Not bad. Nu aratam accidentul ceea ce e ok.

5. Mars, AMV. House of Pain - Jump Around? Hmm...

Agency: Saatchi & Saatchi, Bucharest
Creative Director: Nick Hine
Art Director: Arturo Vittorioso
Copywriter: Jorg Riommi
Illustrator: Mirco Brizi

I think, to a degree, being part of an exhibition called Sensation damaged this painting and limited its impact. I really wish that I had got to see at the gallery -- that long walk that they had designed towards that iconic image: a child killer recreated from children's hands. A lot of the Young British Artists included in that exhibition like the Chapman Brothers, Tracey Emin and Damien Hirst, have all been accused of using gimmicks, of being a patented case of the Emperor's new clothes. This was something of the problem that assailed this painting -- what was actually quite a profound idea (the children's hands) came across as the same kind of shock tactic and gimmick, and I don't think it was.

The other problem, which is a problem for all art no matter what medium, is that it was not focused on for it's artistry and what it was trying to say -- rather it was attacked for what it was trying to talk about. You are not allowed to talk about something like Myra Hindley unless you are one of those serious talking head types on some BBC panel. Perhaps it was that people already had a visceral reaction to Hindley and this painting, very visceral itself, represented something of an overload. Marcus Harvey must have been pleased that something he had created had such a powerful effect on people; I think it is just a shame that the piece wasn't recognised for the brilliance that it represented. It may be one of those pieces that is rediscovered later and undergoes a renaissance -- it may not. It is still true that people react differently to female killers -- that unlike the fascination which follows male killers such as Jack the Ripper, Bundy and the Zodiac, women killers are a source of repulsion. A strange place for double standards to be in effect perhaps, but there they are. Double standards plagued this piece of art -- it deserves better. It is genius.

----------------
Now playing: Gus Gus - Remembrance
via FoxyTunes

Thank you Manic Street Preachers for introducing me to the work of Jenny Saville. Saville's work adorned the cover of the Manic's masterpiece -- The Holy Bible and it was the perfect compliment to the music that was contained within that cover -- visceral and obsessed in so many ways by the human body. Saville is grouped in with the Young British Artists but is perceived to differ from them in that she has concentrated on figurative oil paintings. She is someone that I try to check in on every once in a while -- ready to be stunned again by some powerful piece that seems to use the architecture of the body to express something that most would bury deep inside -- these pieces all seem to emotionally charged that it almost leaps off the canvas at you. Her painting has something of stillness about it when you consider the subjects themselves but then you look at the brushstrokes and the whole enterprise is leant a sense of barely contained energy.

The pieces are beautiful -- some may say not in the traditional sense, but they are being blinded by the subject matter and missing the artistry. Do the pieces have a dark heart? Maybe, but they have a deep soul too.

jenny saville at the gagosian gallery

----------------
Now playing: Elliot Smith - The Biggest Lie
via FoxyTunes

To enter, new directors (less than two years’ experience) should submit a DVD showreel including (any or all) commercials, short films, music videos, animation, titles or new filmic tequniques. All reels should be labelled ‘New Directors Showcase 2008’ and sent to Mike O’Sullivan at Saatchi Auckland. For the detail in the entry procedure, prospects should first contact him at mike.osullivan@saatchi.co.nz