A simple but effective car ad

The Audi R8 V10 Plus with its engine exposed getting a stationary workout on the factory rollers.

Second greatest show on turf: The Grand National

It may only be a grade 3 handicap, but the most famous steeplechase in the world truly is a highlight of the sporting calendar. I’ve been watching it since I was a nipper and every early April I always spend an inordinate amount of time sifting through the form in the vain hope of picking the winner. Not an easy task when you consider the race attracts a maximum of 40 horses negotiating 30 fences and 4.5 gruelling miles of track around Aintree.

This year’s race (April 6th) will be screened on Channel 4 instead of the BBC and last night a slick new advert was aired with the slogan: The original extreme sport. Clearly, they’ve shelled out a few quid on it and it’s a cracking bit of TV advertising. Now it’s just over two weeks to wait for the race. Can’t wait. tick-tock…

Make a spectacle of yourself: Google Glass

Google’s much-hyped augmented reality eyewear has technophiles and advertisers equally excited, but serious doubts exist as to whether Glass can achieve mass-market appeal. From a distance, Google Glass looks like any other pair of rimless spectacles. Only an incongruously chunky arm that encroaches over the wearer’s right eye hints at the technology lurking inside.

Earmarked for public release in late 2013, the voice-activated glasses feature a ‘Terminator-style’ heads-up display over the right eye, enabling users to take photos, shoot video and use mapping to find their way about. And presumably track down Sarah Connor. For businesses, the internet-connected eyewear could prove to be a boon when it comes to advertising via augmented reality. But while there will be those who believe the hi-tech specs are a future vision for mobile technologies and advertising, others will label Glass an overpriced, fleeting gimmick, and a fashion faux pas.

For starters, the price tag for a pair, slated to be $1,500, is enough to make a less-than-flush technophile visibly wince. Also, with smartphones already residing within easy reach in pockets and handbags, do we really need the internet on our eyeballs – especially invasive advertising? There are also concerns about privacy, and not just about how much information Google gathers on us. A Glass user could secretly film you and upload the footage to the web without your knowledge or permission. Creepy or harmless, you decide.

Of course, not everyone wants to parade this nerdy-looking face furniture in public, especially if it attracts ridicule from passers-by or piques the interest of hoodlums and kleptomaniacs. Or the glasses could be lost or broken, although at a $1,500 you will probably be handling them with kid gloves. For now it would appear the jury is out on Glass, and wearable computing in general, although the naysayers and sceptics may change their tune once the price plummets to a realistically affordable level.

Sir Patrick Moore: the GamesMaster

As you are probably aware, British astronomer and broadcaster Sir Patrick Moore died at the weekend at 89. But while he is famous for fronting The Sky At Night for over 50 years (a record for a presenter anywhere in the world), for millions of video game fans he will forever be known as the GamesMaster. This show ran from 1992 to 1998 on C4 and was presented by floppy-haired Scot Dominik Diamond while Moore, crudely depicted as the disembodied head of a part-pensioner, part-cyborg, complete with trademark monocle, set the game challenges and helped perplexed players solve clues or complete tricky levels.

Strangely, it was filmed in a smoky church with a raucous congregation of screechy sugar-pumped school kids and mysterious monks in over-sized bathrobes. It also featured ‘celebrities’ like John Fashanu in the first every episode (he lost at some graphically-inept football game) while winners of challenges were presented with a spray-gold souvenir joystick (perhaps Fash threw the match on purpose). GamesMaster, I salute you.

LG frightens lift ‘passengers’ with monitors

Clever ad by LG, covering the floor of a lift with their monitors and watching the passengers’ reactions when the ‘floor’ falls away. Only problem is that they definitely look like actors. Prove me wrong.

RIP BBC Ceefax: 1974-2012

I was going to jot down some thoughts on the iPad Mini launch but when I heard the death rattle of Ceefax I had to pen my own short obituary to this pre-internet analogue fountain of information and entertainment that’s been around for 38 years! You see when I was a kid, when the web was just a trap for catching flies, Ceefax, specifically page 302, was the one-stop-shop for football news headlines, match previews, live scores, results and transfer tittle-tattle.

Many a Wednesday night would be spent with eyes glued to the Ceefax live scores page (316) in anticipation of a goal or a sending off flashing up on the screen. My Dad, however, was frequently studying the shares prices pages or the odds on some nag running at Wolverhampton. bbcnews.com yesterday quoted Adam Shergold via Mail Online who said he always admired the reporters who managed to mention every goal in a 4-4 thriller within the confines of four pixelated paragraphs. So true. Meanwhile, Lee Walker of Eurosport said Ceefax’s demise marked the death of Jeff Stelling’s electronic stepfather.

As Adam alludes to, the writing was sharp, concise and straight to the point, simply because there was precious little room for waffle and superfluous words in the obligatory four paragraphs on Ceefax. There was the story, in a bit-sized chunk with no preamble or babbling sentences. You read it, pressed the next page on the bulky remote control and moved on, usually infuriatingly slowly as the three-number page ticker crept round like the cogs in the brain of a tired old man. Back then, though, it seemed pretty nippy. Here is the article about the plug finally being pulled on Ceefax in Northern Ireland. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-20032882

Lego of the capsule and jump, Felix Baumgartner

As jaw-dropping as Felix Baumgartner’s leap from the edge of space was on Sunday, it’s got nothing on this recreation of the historic skydive using a tiny yellow plastic man. However, the landing looked a tad jarring on the knees. Bravo.

Coca-Cola turns mag into iPhone amplifier

Ever thought about rolling a magazine into a tube, transforming it into an amplifier for your iPhone? No, I haven’t either. Coca-Cola did, though.

Paddy Power ‘chav’ Cheltenham ad

I’ve been writing an article on marketing in the gambling sector (TV is chock-a-block with betting ads during football since it was legalised a few years ago) looking at the different strategies employed to raise brand awareness and poach customers from rivals. Speaking to CMOs and some CEOs, humour is a common theme, especially when it comes to mischief-makers Paddy Power, as Marketing Director Christian Woolfenden told me. Check out their ‘too hot for TV’ internet ad which has racked up over 1.4m views on YouTube. If you want to see other controversial Paddy Power ads then click here:

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/9506027/Paddy-Powers-10-most-controversial-adverts.html

A Mars a day…

 

Love this NASA celebration when their most high-tech rover landed on Mars. Years of work and planning went into this project which all came down to whether the rover could land successfully on the red planet.