Words Dept.: category

I’m quite impressed by the borderline heretical grumblings over at FUC51. Not because I hate the Smiths, New Order or Joy Division (they’re actually three of my favourite bands) but because I hate the idea of living and working in a supposedly creative city that’s obsessed with a musical movement that ended twenty years ago.
Yes, [...]

You’ve a video game called Mercenaries 2: World in Flames. You’ve got themes of Venezuelan economic collapse and petrol-as-currency. Mix it all together and you have the classic ingredients for a Sick Marketing Stunt.
[Game publisher] EA decked out the Last Stop garage, which lies between Stroud Green and Finsbury Park, in military camouflage material [...]

I’ve noticed a rash of new touchy-feely advertising slogans in recent days. It seems all products now have to revolve around us, as people (not just consumers), and how we engage with them on a deep and meaningful level. The message is that these advertisers aren’t faceless mega-corporations pushing out garbage to random, grabbing hordes [...]

Since drivers of 4×4s tend to be regarded as braying, selfish, middle class dummies – their penchant for oversized cars that are much too big for the school run barely disguising an inherent bullying streak – I can’t think of a better way for Land Rover to lay this image to rest than by creating [...]

Following the successful launch of the exciting and dynamic television channel Dave, whose rapidly rising audience share is wholly reliant on endless Top Gear repeats, the bosses of UKTV are at it again.
Having signed the incredibly talented Richard and Judy (Alan Partridge and Lynn) to the network, they have decided the change the name of [...]

Coldplay have started dressing like extras from Les Miserables. I saw them on Jonathan Ross last night; they were wearing vaguely military garb and seemed to have bits of flag tied around their arms. At least one of them was wearing a stupid hat.
I suppose it ties in with the artwork for their new album, [...]

Can there be anything more depressing than the new British film Three and Out? I haven’t seen it, of course, because it’s shit. How do I know it’s shit if I haven’t seen it, you ask. Well, just look at the poster (I reply) – in fact, just look at the font used on the [...]

BSkyB discovered a fun way of reporting its “mixed” half-year financial results today. The broadcaster, which announced a £112m net loss because of its pigheaded decision in 2006 to purchase a 17.9% stake in ITV at an hysterically overblown price just to stop Virgin Media doing the same, simply commandeered the business update on [...]

I’ve just bought a CD with one of those annoying stickers on the front obscuring the carefully-designed artwork to tell you how great it is. If it was a little more discreet I wouldn’t complain but this one isn’t just large, its bloody huge. It looks like it’s been positioned in order to attract [...]

Here’s an interesting piece in the New York Observer about the growing trend towards journalists becoming “brands”.
According to the piece, gone is the “journalistic culture in which columnists were the only ones allowed to have a personality, and everyone else’s bylines were practically interchangeable”.

Not too long ago only the giants of the mainstream media world—the [...]