Following Tara’s fantastic heart shaped chocolate and banana cake last week, this week saw Alice’s turn to cheer everyone up with a Monday cake. Or rather cakes as she turned things on their head and went for a cupcake formation. Interestingly they were banana flavour (I use that term loosely) which was a surprise considering she berated Tara for exactly that  last week. Anyway thanks for the cakes Alice and who knows you might be Come Cake With Me Winner*

*unlikely

As we were having a quick cup of tea the other week, someone (um Luke) came up with the fantastic idea to start a Maxus Monday Cake Club. After all, who likes Mondays and who doesn’t like cake?

In true, Come Dine With Me style, we meet at 11.30 for a quick sampling and are anonymously voting each week based on the two criteria of taste and appearance. Votes go into a sealed envelope and at the end the winner is revealed. Prize is TBC –  but it might involve cake.

Kate Milligan was up first with a fantastic white chocolate and raspberry number, which had only fallen apart slightly. Still it tasted great. This week was Tara’s turn and she outdid herself with a chocolate and banana cake, shaped into a heart! Alice wasn’t too keen on the banana element but hey it’s her turn next week so we’re expecting big non banana-ry things…….we’ll keep you posted!

Yesterday Maxus’ very own David Fineman was highlighted as one of the industry’s prestigious Media Week 30 under 30. In his winning entry David is promoted as the youngest digital lead for a top 20 media agency, helping to secure and transition a number of new accounts into Maxus. I hope you will all join me in congratulating him on this fantastic achievement (and let’s not mention the John Travolta line).
You can catch the full article here
 http://www.mediaweek.co.uk/news/1018388/gallery/8082/page/10/#8082

So 6music has won a reprieve meaning it will no longer be closed, as originally proposed by the Beeb’s senior management team. This is good news for all those who campaigned for its survival- from high profile celebs through to listeners who, like me, filled in the loooong public consultation form (that took me back to my essay writing days!)

However, although plenty of people filled in the official consultation, the campaign for 6s survival was also an excellent example of using social networking to galvanise people’s support. Group after group sprung up on Facebook and every time it cheerily told me a friend had signed up to save 6music I felt that little bit guiltier that I hadn’t got around to tackling the long form yet. On Twitter, alongside becoming a trending topic, I found I could attach a readymade ‘twibbon’ to my picture telling others to ’save 6music.’

I was a little concerned that all this meant people were shouting publicly to save the station but that no-one would actually fill in the all important official consultation and therefore it would amount to nothing. In fact 78% of people submitting the form were arguing to save the station and on top of this, even if many people failed to go through official routes, it seems the sheer voracity of online campaigning may have swayed the officials’ opinions. At last I joined a Facebook group that had an effect rather than ‘if 500 people join this group, I’ll marry my hamster!’

I’ve just come back from a road trip through California and (perhaps a little tragically) I couldn’t help but notice and compare their advertising to that of ours over here in the UK.

One thing that struck me is the sheer amount of TV advertising – ads before the programmes’ introductory titles and then again straight after, before the content has even started, no restrictive minutes per hour for them it seems. Apart from the volume, the content is also very different, lots of prescription drug advertising (not allowed over here) with at least half the commercial dedicated to terrifying side effects. They also have  far more political advertising – NHS bashing seemed to be a key topic in the light of Obama’s proposed reforms!

Magazines didn’t appear to hold that much difference in terms of volume or style but radio ads were far more localised than over here. Personal addresses from small town business’ were not unusual – for instance Jonathon from Pahrump telling us he had lived there all his life and therefore was best to defend us if we happened to get caught DUI was typical.

Perhaps the most innovative use of outdoor media that I haven’t seen over here was a huge ‘wanted’ billboards detailing which murders, rapists etc were on the loose in the local area. Very reassuring…..

Congrats to Andy, Angela, Charlotte, Dan, Kate and Louise who all passed their IPA certificates – a sterling effort by all!

Particular congrats go out to Kate R who passed with a distinction – a level achieved by only 4% of entrants!

A glass of wine or two is surely in order tonight!

The country appears to have gone April Fool’s Joke mad today.  I can understand companies trying to cheer us up in these recession ridden times but whilst some of them do just this, others are just not that funny.

I am enjoying Google’s new launch CADIE which is a new ‘Cognitive Autoheuristic Distributed-Intelligence Entity’ who appears to currently be a panda obsessed with other pandas. They have carried on the joke on a large scale with CADIE the panda appearing on their streetview (instead of the normal person) with a ‘panda mapplet for humans’ and hosting a You Tube page – currently populated solely with panda videos.

You Tube itself appears to have thought less about being clever as they have simply flipped a number of their videos upside down – how is this an April Fool’s joke?

The Guardian’s annual hoax is slightly more funny but altogether too immediately unbelievable with the headline being that they are moving from print to Twitter as ‘every story can be told in 160 characters.’ Amusing but the sign of a truly great AFD joke is one that you need to check out is actually a joke.

The most bizarre one I have seen so far though came into my inbox courtesy of laptops direct who are offering ‘free funerals.’ This links through to a page where they are offering to save on the average £5k cost of a funeral by sponsoring it. Not really funny or clever just slightly odd…..

Are there any other good/bad ones out there you’ve seen?

Google
http://www.google.com/intl/en/landing/cadie/index.html

You Tube
http://www.youtube.com/

Guardian
http://www.guardian.co.uk/media/2009/apr/01/guardian-twitter-media-technology

Laptops Direct
http://www.laptopsdirect.co.uk/

As I write this a group of my colleagues are huddled around a computer laughing out loud – but for once instead of watching someone fall flat on their face they are enjoying the new T-Mobile ad. On what is apparently the most depressing day of the year (http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/uk/7836941.stm) the sight of hundreds of people getting down at Liverpool St station on a dull Thursday January morning is enough to cheer anyone up.

 For those who haven’t seen the ad it involves Liverpool St Station, hidden cameras, a booming musical montage (from hip hop to ballroom) and people who originally appear to be ordinary commuters gradually joining in to form one big gyrating dance troupe.

This stands out from other ‘live’ ads such as Honda’s Sky Dive as this time it doesn’t simply appear to be about showing off technique but actually engages audiences – both at the time and when shown on TV. Real commuters are fascinated and many start to join in with the dancing, or film on their cameras which, at the end of the day, is the whole point of the ‘life’s for sharing’ message.

Yes I know the flashmob thing has been done before before I think this brings a fresh take to the idea – and if nothing else it cheers up the most official most miserable day of the year. Check it out below and let me know what you think.

 http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=mUZrrbgCdYc

A new BBC commissioned report has suggested that since the 60’s Britain has slowly been segregating geographically in terms of wealth, politics and demographics with an ever more defined North/South divide. One particluar area the report highlighted is ‘Social Fragmentation,’ suggesting that the traditional neigbourhood barely exists anymore as we become more and more polarised. 

Apparently people in Edinburgh and London feel the least ‘belonging,’ whereas those in Stoke are feeling the love of their neighbours more.  So what do you think, do you have any sense of community in your area? Do you wave to your neighbours or hide when you see them? Or do you think perhaps think communities are being redefined in other less geographic ways?

Today the press has been full of talk about the new Honda ad airing tonight on C4 during Come Dine with Me. Following on from their headline grabbing ads, Cog and Grrr, Honda have gone one step further and are now throwing people out of planes in the name of promoting the brand!

Based on the widsom of Honda’s founder who is purported to have stated ‘difficult is worth doing’ (now the tagline used in the ads), the new ad features 19 skydivers attempting to form the word Honda in the air. The stunt will be shown ‘live’ and in ‘real time.’ Unless it rains. In which case a rehearsal jump filmed yesterday will be shown.

Of course this is all very innovative, publicity grabbing – and no doubt award winning- but do the car buying public really care that much? Do they appreciate the fact that the stunt is live? And is the reported £500k cost really worth it? I suppose the question should be - is difficult really worth doing?