Adam + Dan

Shatterproof pint glasses

noreply@blogger.com (Adam And Dan) — Fri, 12 Feb 2010 07:46:00 +0000

Picture mnapoleon

I really enjoy the thinking of the government and Home Office on this great revolutionary product.

To stop people getting seriously injured when being glassed they have ask a design team to create a safer pint glass, instead of spending time and money tackling thugs who go around actually doing this kind of thing.

These new and improved pint glasses are slightly modified to have a layer of resin that holds the glass together. This means that it does not shatter into small shards of sharp dangerous glass when put in an impact situation.

But does it mean that the glass is always going to be solid? Even after impact? I didn’t learn much from school physic classes but I did remember that when two moving forces make contact i.e. a glass and a head, there is going to be a force of impact so great that one of the objects in question will have to give or break.

Fair enough I agree that getting cut by the glass can leave you in a complete mess and could scare you face and life. But I was thinking that getting hit over the head with these new and improved but harder, less movable object could leave us in intensive care for other reasons.
Something that hard could shatter the skull.

Glasses would now be slightly heavier and more solid making them impossible to break. Maybe the impact could be compared to being attacked with a brick or something even more denser, blunter and dangerous.

I know I wouldn’t want this hitting my head knocking me out and even causing brain damage and also cracking my skull open anyways.

I might be all wrong about my assumptions, but from the video I watched these glasses only scare me more and have become one item I would not want on my bar tab.

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Pop up shops - a new breed?

noreply@blogger.com (Adam And Dan) — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 11:22:00 +0000

A really cool new invention is the Move Box. It's a box that moves, in case you were wondering? Anyway, it's almost like a brand new takeaway invention or pop up shop. Surely something we will be seeing more of very soon!

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A classic ad - Heineken

noreply@blogger.com (Adam And Dan) — Wed, 10 Feb 2010 12:38:00 +0000

There are many classic ads that still remain unseen to many, or just need to be appreciated over and over again! So every so often we'll post a classic ad that makes us laugh, makes us think or even makes us drink.

Here's one of those from Heineken.

For more classic ads, click here.

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Stuck for Valentines? Get creative!

noreply@blogger.com (Adam And Dan) — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 12:05:00 +0000

Some great creative presents for her to show you've put in the effort!

Personalised Rose
Put a message/name/ANYTHING on a rose. It's awesome and it will mean much more than buying a bunch. It even comes in a nice little box.
At only £15, it's a good buy to - Click here

Talking Bear
Get a message, record a message, and shove the speaker in it's stuffing. Now that's romance.
Only £15 too, awesome! - Click here

Double Slanket
Probably created by someone who put a dressing gown on back to front and the got sewn up, the double slanket is a blanket for you and her to cuddle in. Thoughtful.
Pricey at £49, but still cool! - Click here

Wow that was a serious post. Back to proper stuff soon. Promise.

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Go Direct Gov' and get a gay balloon fetish!

noreply@blogger.com (Adam And Dan) — Mon, 08 Feb 2010 10:05:00 +0000

DirectGov recently launched and swiftly de-launched their new Buster's World website Friday.

With it's audience intended for children it didn't help that it shared its name with a Gay Balloon fetish website! Thousands of children had a shock when they Googled the phrase Buster's world, to be greeted by half naked men rubbing up against big balloons.

Although traffic increased to the fetish site, it is unlikely sales did too.

Click here to view main website

Kingfisher goes curry crazy

noreply@blogger.com (Adam And Dan) — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 10:23:00 +0000

Surprisingly enough, this is our first post with anything to do with Curry, but unsurprisingly it won't be our last.

This week saw Kingfisher release a new ad campaign to try and dominate the curry market. It seems Cobra is still the larger that's associated with curry, but they don't seem to market it offline that much. They haven't really progressed openly, with the majority of their cool stuff being left on their curry based website. After their sponsorship for National Curry Week this obviously left a gap in the market.

Kingfisher released these simple yet effective ads and it's probably enough to encourage consumers to choose or at least try Kingfisher with their curry. They've put larger and curry together in one print ad. That's what consumers want. However there is only so much you can do with curry and advertising, so it will be interesting to see what either do to gain the market.

It seems a classic example of utitlizing all media instead of focusing mainly online which is what Cobra seem to be doing. They need to get out there and publicize it more offline aswell. More so, integrate everything. When will we see some wacky PR from these brands and get some free curry! However from just looking at the two brands, they seem a bit similar at the moment. Although more forced from Cobra as shown below, you have to think, who came up with the idea first?

Kingfisher haven't gone the full hog yet with the curry theme on their website but if they play their cards right, this could be the start of an interesting market battle.

But for us, aslong as there is curry, we're happy.

Click here to view main website

Kindness Cards

noreply@blogger.com (Adam And Dan) — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:49:00 +0000

2010 is the year of Random Acts of Kindness, so say hello to Boom Boom cards. The intentional acts of kindness kit!

It's a wonderful invention of tracking how your kindness is spread around the world.

You pick a card, any card. The card may say something like "buy a stranger a cup of coffee" Once you have done this act of kindness, you can then give the card to someone else to complete too, in the hope they replicate the act. When they do, they register their experience on the Boom Boom website.

Each card is given a unique tracking code so you can see how far the kindness you initiated has been spread across the world.

It's a catchy idea that will help spread kindness worldwide. However it's still effort. Not to do the act, but to register, log in and so on. This would work so much better as an iPhone app, with a different act of kindness everyday. Users should then be able to pass along the act registering their completion with technology such as FourSquare to track the locations they've just completed it in.

It will be nice to see how it's developed, or if another company comes up with something better. But it's only a trend. If they want to capture a wider audience, they need to go where there market is. And at the moment, that's on the move. So iPhone apps, are vital.

Click here to view main website

Facebook and Twitter can alter employment

noreply@blogger.com (Adam And Dan) — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 11:30:00 +0000

When it comes to jobs, people often forget with social networking sites, they will be checked. A recent survey showed 70 per cent of employers admitted to rejecting a candidate due to their online behaviour.

It's easy enough to put on a professional image to prospective employers to appear hardworking and sensible. But if your social networking profile displays drunken brawls, crude images and comments, then it could put your next position in jeopardy.

An online reputation seems to be having more of an effect as it's a place people feel they can be themselves and relax, especially if they don't have the necessary privacy settings. It has also been found that 28% of employers had fired people due to their comments on social networking.

Just look at what happened to a girl named Lindsay when she displayed her anger for her job on her Facebook site. (click the image to view it bigger)

Even if she hadn't got her boss added, privacy settings play a big part. If you allow 'Friends of your Friends' to view your profile you leave yourself open to so many people seeing your status, comments or pictures.

The average Facebook user has 130 friends on the site. So if you do allow friends of your friends to view your profile, that's on average 16,900 people that can view your profile, 15,600 you don't actually know. Scary huh?

However it's also been found that a strong professional online presence can help you get that dream job. So don't be scared about using networking sites, just be careful how you use them.

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Facebook for all!

noreply@blogger.com (Adam And Dan) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 13:35:00 +0000

More and more people are now using Facebook and Social Networking sites to communicate with each other. However there will still be a small few who don't have access to the internet, or don't understand Facebook enough to keep in touch with their loved ones.

That's why a company in America has set up a Facebook printable newsletter app so you can send all your news to those who don't use networking sites.

It's the perfect idea for those who will miss out on those family photos, status updates and conversations.

We're not sure how big the market will be for this as the amount of elderly people now accessing the internet is quickly growing, but it's certainly a nice idea. Maybe they could do a Twitter one with trends too?

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Walk for energy!

noreply@blogger.com (Adam And Dan) — Fri, 29 Jan 2010 11:15:00 +0000

Pavegen slabs are soon to be installed into pavements around the UK to create and convert kinetic energy.

Each slab, lowers by 5mm when it is walked over. That movement coverts kinetic energy and stores it in the slab. It also lights up when you step on it to show your energy has been captured by it.

They were recently tested in East London and are now looking for investors to take their idea further across the city. If this can be created by walking on however, why not take this further into sections of roads and create energy from cars?

For more information you can visit their website! www.pavegensystems.com

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Cheating Billboards

noreply@blogger.com (Adam And Dan) — Thu, 28 Jan 2010 13:29:00 +0000

Recently, an increasingly amount of people are using advertising to shame and accuse. It was revealed yesterday a cheating lover has been named and shamed in the streets of Southampton by his angry partner.

150 posters were displayed on lamp posts throughout the city to embarrass the 'heartless letch' who apparently preys on single women before cheating on them. He also apparently breaks their hearts. As you can all read.

It's not the only campaign that's ever been used to embarrass a loved one. Believe me, there are better ones. Plus funnier ones. It's ok to, excuse the pun, slag someone off. But if you're going to do it, you need to do it properly. This is a much better way how to do it; what you want is a bit of creativity. A bit of humour, and a good end line. Here are a few of our favourites.

Much much better.

A couple of lessons here. If you cheat, don't. If you get cheated on, get revenge properly.

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Our David Cameron poster

noreply@blogger.com (Adam And Dan) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 16:37:00 +0000

Here's our attempt at a David Cameron poster we created at http://www.andybarefoot.com/politics/cameron.php

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Ever wanted an excuse to leave work early?

noreply@blogger.com (Adam And Dan) — Thu, 21 Jan 2010 09:15:00 +0000

Companies lose up to 2 billion pounds a year due to employee absenteeism because of child welfare problems. Does it annoy you that people get to leave work early or have the day off to look after their ill child?

Problem solved. For roughly ten English pounds. You can buy a kid. Woah! Madonna wannabees, this isn't what you think.

This is The Office Kid! A little case complete with a picture in a frame and a drawing of your happy family.

All you have to do is name you child, display all the pictures around your office and then you'll never miss happy hour again. It's the perfect excuse!

Awesome. Visit www.theofficekid.com if you want to buy one. I would, but I've gotta get off to pick up my little boy Mick from school.

That's a joke by the way. Call it sarcasm.

Like I'd call a child Mick?

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Our 3 Favourite Virals. Ever.

noreply@blogger.com (Adam And Dan) — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 10:29:00 +0000

After recently researching some virals for a project we're doing, we stumbled across some greats and thought we'd share them with you. These are our favourite three virals ever to be made. Ever.

1) Hydro - Train
Engineering is boring. Boring topics made interesting is exciting! Watch this clip and see an unexpected ending.

2) Samsung - How we met
Illustrations animated by photos. Awesome. Just a pain to keep rubbing it off for the next shot.

3) Trojan Games
Absolute classic combining contraception with something completely different that you wouldn't expect. It's still popular today and viewed by many around the world. Maybe we'll see a comeback for 2012?

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More damage than good? iPhone Surgeon.

noreply@blogger.com (Adam And Dan) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 17:00:00 +0000

We are all for iPhone apps, they are definitely part of an integrated future. However, here is one that we think could do more harm than good.

The iPhone Surgeon allows the user to perform 'surgery' on patients which include breast enhancements, nose jobs, facial reconstruction and body adjustments. Not only this, but the app also allows the user to take a picture of themselves or others and change parts of the photo, enhancing them, smoothing parts out or reducing them in size.

Yes, you can argue that it's possible to do this in Photoshop but an app is very cheap to buy. This will make it all the more accessible for people, especially teens who are unhappy with their body. We are already seeing an increasing number of younger people having plastic surgery without knowing the really risks and this will only worsen the situation.

Saying that, making your friend face look like a distorted cat sounds pretty funny.

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WW3 - Asda vs Tesco

noreply@blogger.com (Adam And Dan) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 10:08:00 +0000

Asda and Tesco, two large companies with a fierce world presence at the moment, both venturing into every sector they possibly can.

They are currently playing the price battle but we've admired how Asda do it for sometime now.

I'm sure you'll recognise the image featuring two moving arrows displaying the number of lower prices each have. It's played to the theme of the pretty funky Dad's Army opening tune.

The ad might not look like much, but there is so much thinking and strategy behind it, which is why we love it. The fact that they use the Dad's Army theme tune will remind us of the opening credits where two arrows battle it out. One representing Great Britain, the other representing Hitler and Germany.

That's exactly what Asda are showing here. Tesco are the baddy, the rival and the enemy, leaving Asda the victorious winner. It's more a message to Tesco to show that they won't be beaten, even if they are bigger, Asda will win the supermarket war.

It's a simple concept executed really well. It shows that advertising doesn't have to be complicated to carry a strong message or be effective. We just sometimes don't immediately see the strategy until we think about it. And that's the clever bit here.

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Battle of the Blogs - Voting has begun

noreply@blogger.com (Adam And Dan) — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 09:06:00 +0000

A competition that will make our Google Analytics feel like they're on steroids. Battle of the blogs is well and truly battling away.

It's gonna be fun, but hard work. If you like what we do and love what we say, vote for us by clicking the picture below and vote Adam + Dan.

Alternatively the website link to vote is http://www.thebattleoftheblogs.com/ So please help us win!

Thankyou everyone!!

Adam + Dan.

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For all you cricket fans - Daryl Harper

noreply@blogger.com (Adam And Dan) — Sun, 17 Jan 2010 12:08:00 +0000

Just a little mock up we did based on the controversy in the cricket with the referral system. It's just a bit of fun.

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Where have all the family films gone?

noreply@blogger.com (Adam And Dan) — Sat, 16 Jan 2010 10:04:00 +0000

Photo - Creative Commons user - Far0_RC1

This post is a bit of a rant. So we apologise. But seriously, where have all the family films gone?

Christmas television this year was one of the worst on record, in our opinion. Gone are the days of The Railway Children, Hook, Home Alone 1 + 2, Toy Story, Mrs Doubtfire and Back to the future.

They are classics! And family favourites. And if you look at them, some are pretty scary. Home Alone 1 + 2 has some pretty scary parts in for children, but we still watched it. You ask anyone which film they have to watch to feel Christmasy and most will say Home Alone. Only 1+2 though. Not the dreadful 3rd or 4th sequel. What happened with them? It stopped being a family film and started being immature acting with forced comedy that nobody found funny. They were more in the style of Jake and Josh, another poor American comedy that could make anybody beg for their lives.

Over the Christmas break I watched Mrs Doubtfire. It was hillarious. You don't realise, but there are so many crude, rude and double en-tandras in it, it made it great viewing for me as an adult. Wow, reality check, I'm 21, and an adult.

But the fact that I could still find it funny about 15 years on, made it a true family film. Children would find it funny, but innocently not understand some of the deeper jokes and adults can secretly enjoy it amongst themselves.

So where have all the family films gone? Why have people stopped making them now? It seems because of political correctness, films can't be too scary or touch on rudeness at all. They should. If wrote correctly, they should involve all the family.

We don't want next Christmas to be full of scare free kiddy films. Christmas is a family time. Make some films like that.

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Twitter and it's waffle free effect on advertising

noreply@blogger.com (Adam And Dan) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 15:33:00 +0000

It was seen in the news last week that Twitter can make comedians wittier. 140 characters is a challenge to many comics to write shorter, wittier jokes, similar to our favourite comedian Jimmy Carr.

So how can this relate to advertising? Established twitterers will know that the more successful tweets are the catchy, to the point, witty bullets of information. Just get to the point and share it.

Shouldn't that be how advertising is? To the point, waffle free information. (Btw, how tasty does that waffle look?)

People don't want to read loads of copy to be sold a product. They want the main points summed in a 'sight-sized' glance. Too much text looks daunting to anyone. Since joining Twitter ourselves, we've had to condense our usual blubber into 140 characters or less. 'Wivout da need of shortnin' to txt spk' - That's just lazy.

On the other hand, it also allows people to show their appreciation of advertising by sharing content that they like with others. It's probably easier for something to become viral now more than ever since the introduction of Twitter.

The times sumed Twitter up perfectly by calling it a 'endlessly inventive rolling humour feed'. It is! And humour, we think is a huge part of making an ad. If you can make someone laugh, just once a day, then they'll remember you for it.

No doubt Twitter won't be around forever, but it will be here for some time. And whilst it is, it will continue to be a learning playground.

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Battle of the Blogs

noreply@blogger.com (Adam And Dan) — Thu, 14 Jan 2010 08:42:00 +0000

It's been made apparent to us, via an email and also a tweet from our very friendly opponent @Wheres_My_Owl, that we will be next weeks 'Battle of the Blogs' - Voting will run from 18th - 24th January, which after studying our calendar, happens to be next week. Crikey.

The website to vote will be http://www.thebattleoftheblogs.com/ but not until next Monday. So please help us win!

Check out both blogs. They're full of interesting shizzle.

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Google street view advertising

noreply@blogger.com (Adam And Dan) — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 09:17:00 +0000

Yesterday Google announced that, after a new patent was awarded on the 7th January this year, they will start to advertise on Street View.

But not just any advertising.

This new technology will identify any posters, billboards and buildings from it's current images and give advertisers the chance to replace these images with more up-to-date adverts.

The example they gave was a theatre. If a theatre had advertising outside their venue, they could pay to update it with an advertisement about their latest show. The advert could also contain a hot link from the image to a website or microsite containing more information.

Some companies that would benefit would be TFL, hotels, LastMinute.Com and restaurants. With the development of street view looking to expand in the future, we wonder how long it will be before they link with FourSquare, the next big thing.

You never know, you might see us advertising ourselves outside advertising agencies in London! Although realistically, you probably won't.

What's interesting, is that any unclaimed space will be auctioned off to the highest bidder, which could become interesting if rivals brands and companies choose to occupy the vacant space. Yet again, this is another new form of advertising, especially online. As traditional media seems to fade away and technology clings to us like a shadow, is the future well and truly digital?

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Facebook flavoured water and ours

noreply@blogger.com (Adam And Dan) — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 09:30:00 +0000

Coca-Cola has announced they've added a ‘Facebook' flavour to its Vitamin water range in America. The new drink concoction is called Connect. It was created after a competition from the brands social networking site encouraging users to suggest their own flavours.

We're normally against brands getting consumers to suggest their own flavours. After all they should know their audience enough to know what they want. It almost seems a desperate attempt to replicate the big Walkers flavour idea.

But it is interesting that Facebook was the chosen flavour. Apart from tasting of lies, deceit, drunkeness and awkward friend requests which hastily hang on your profile until you deny them, it shows how prevalent social media is becoming in our daily lives. So much so that it is now appearing in our drinks.

We imagined what Twitter would taste like as a drink. We thought it would be a shot of something. Whether it be alcohol or espresso, it would be a short burst of goodness and vitality. Try getting 140 characters into a drink and you've got a pretty juicy drink. If the ingredients are right that is.

This bought us thinking to a piece of work we did last year for a D&AD workshop along with Elmwood design. The brief was to brand water and make it more appealing to the modern day audience. We chose our market as women, who craved unhealthy foods, but were too stubborn to indulge. We wanted to show that you are able to enjoy those unhealthy flavours while piling your body with goodness and hydration.

Here's what we came up with. The brand was called Infuzion and provided craving flavours without the calories. The bottle design would be in a clean design using a variety or subtle colours to distinguish against the clear glass bottle.
The tagline 'tickle your cravings' we felt worked well, as it's the aim we wanted the water to accomplish. To fulfill your cravings enough, you won't feel like eating unhealthy food.

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Renault - Drive The Change

noreply@blogger.com (Adam And Dan) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:27:00 +0000

Saw this new vision for Renault on TV yesterday and it's good to see a brand pushing forward publicly. Take a look, it's a nicely thought out little film.

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A couple of nice awareness ads

noreply@blogger.com (Adam And Dan) — Fri, 08 Jan 2010 09:01:00 +0000

Awareness is one of the hardest subjects to tackle as you don't want to scare monger the audience, but you do want to get a strong message across.

This ad from the NHS for quit smoking is a nice example of exploring a different route and approach. The music makes it here. It's a catchy song and one adults with children will know and love. I was even singing it all day after I first saw the ad. I don't smoke, but it still reminded me of the message!

What a powerful message though? Your kids will do anything for you, so why not give up smoking for them? If you can't do it for yourself, do it for your children to give them a healthier lifestyle and have you around for longer.

Another one which caught our eye was this. Merely because we were unsure what it was for at first and we love the risque element. Take a look, it's another new unique approach.

It's certainly not what you first think. Great bit of directing there!

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