Things of note for the week ending Friday June 3rd, 2016.
1. THE PIPE
So, this is awesome.
I met my friend Angus (pictured left, below – I don’t know who the man on the right is) on the Marketing Academy almost six years ago exactly.
He’s a smart chap and, thanks to a fortuitous turn of events, now works as a Creative at Ogilvy. Hurrah!
Anyway, I had coffee with Angus a couple of days ago and it turns out he’s one of the brains behind a new Ogilvy Group UK effort to get different thinkers / creatives / creators / etc – an ‘in’ in the advertising world. The name of the scheme?
What is The Pipe? Well…
The thing that I really genuinely love about this project is its ambition. In short: the [advertising] industry has too many white middle class men. It does.
All trained at the same universities, all studied the same theory, all run through the same training.
David Ogilvy once said ‘Talent, I believe, is most likely to be found among nonconformists, dissenters, and rebels.’ – and with ‘The Pipe’, the aim is to break the cycle above and bring in new and DIFFERENT talent.
Specifically creative talent.
If you can answer ‘Yes’ to the question ‘Are you creative?’ (or if you know someone that can) then it’d be really quite effing awesome if you would consider either applying or sharing it with someone who could.
It doesn’t matter whether you’ve trained in advertising or not – Ogilvy wants to hear from you.
There are NO education requirements, NO age limits (not strictly true: you have to be over 18, but still), and crucially – NO previous experience is necessary.
What can you do?
FIRST: please consider sharing http://ogilvypipe.co.uk within (and beyond) your networks of friends, family, schoolmates, college/uni buddies, work colleagues… anywhere where we might reach outside of the normal circles.
SECOND: if this sounds like you – why not apply?
Applications close later this month – so you don’t have long!
You never know, you could help someone with the career change of a lifetime.
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2. THE BIG GAMBLE
My dad taught me never to bet on anything you’re not certain you’re going to win. As a result, I reckon I can count on one hand the amount of times I’ve stepped inside a betting shop.
Really not my thing.
At all.
This next thing has been floating around the internet this week – and rightly so. The latest Guardian Long Read is a doozy…
This is the best long read I’ve had all week. This piece is well-researched, expertly-written, and above all demonstrates an incredible insight into the world of betting shops and the dangers that await therein.
It’s a fantastic read. Grim. But fantastic.
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3. FULL DAY OF MUSIC, VOL 4
Use Spotify?
Here’s a brand new EIGHT HOUR playlist specifically for your ears.
If you’re interested, volumes 1, 2, and 3 linked to near the end of available this post.
Enjoy!
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4. VR SHOULD BE BANNED
Here’s a super provocative read from a military flight simulation expert (as discovered on Quora in answer to the question ‘How big an issue is nausea for VR products?’) that basically that states, with evidence, that the long-term effects of being in VR could prevent you from operating heavy machinery safely.
REALLY really interesting reading. Even more so for those of us that either a) have a VR unit already or b) have one on pre-order.
Definitely one to keep an eye on.
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5. OSCAR DANCES
File this one under ‘pretty much guaranteed to make you laugh no matter what’ – so a decent thing to end this week’s edition on, I’d say.
First though, have you seen Ex_Machina?
If you have you’re going to LOVE this.
If you haven’t – then please fix that asap. It was definitely one of the best films of 2015 and you’re 100% missing out by NOT seeing it.
OK, back to the cool kids. ‘Oscar Dances’ is AN ENTIRE TWITTER ACCOUNT dedicated to remixing that dance scene with different music…
Everything from Mmmbop to Heart of Glass.
GO AND WATCH THIS AND LAUGH AND LAUGH AND LAUGH – it’s too perfect.
Lol-tastic 🙂
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Bonus items this week are as follows:
- Dr Heimlich performed the Heimlich Manoeuvre for the first time (at 96)
- Facebook caught out defaulting people back into behavioral advertising (great read)
- If you’re reading this through the cracked screen of an iOS device of some kind (really, how long as that thing been like that now?) you might be pleased to hear that ‘MendMyI‘ have lowered their prices AND they’re offering 20% off with the code ‘junemend20’ – so y’know, now’s the time to fix it!
- Iceland is sponsoring Iceland. Amazing.
- Pagefair’s 2016 mobile adblocking report is worth a look (as is the Mary Meeker Internet trends report – but you’ve definitely heard of that one by now)
And finally…
I’m currently listening to the podcast of Elon Musk’s interview at Recode (it’s less than 24hrs old and you can watch it right now on YouTube) and he just said the following:
…
