The power of a sense of humour..

Once again I've managed to stumble across an internet gem!

Recently, a poster by the name of Richard made a comment on Bodyform's Facebook wall, complaining that their adverts were misleading.

After reading this, presumably some genius in their marketing team decided to make a video replying to his little rant.

I think this proves that a bit of humour goes a long way, and I think 2.7 million views in 5 days (as of now!) speaks for itself.

Despite it being childish, I feel the fart was the icing on the cake!

Behind the scenes at Google

This one don't need a lot of explaining - Google have revealed what their data centres look like. It's awesome.

LOOK HOW AWESOME GOOGLE ARE!

Stoptober!

There has been a recent campaign circulating from the NHS called 'Stoptober'. It is encouraging people to stop smoking for 28 days starting 1st October, as if you can stop for 4 weeks, you're 5 times more likely to quit according to their research.

As an unhappy smoker myself, I've decided to sign up and start. There are a few reasons I want to stop, such as money and I know my parents don't like it, but the main reason for me is my health. I've been smoking on and off since about 17, but it's the past year that I have been at my worst, peaking at as many as 30 a day. Up until recently I was on just under 20 a day.

I think it's a very unusual topic, because I know non smokers who are so disapproving and say "If you want to stop then just stop!", but I honestly don't believe it's that easy. Of course it's fair to say it affects everyone differently, but for me being at university I feel it has made the challenge even greater, because smoking is a very social thing. I wouldn't say that a lot of my friends I see on a day to day basis are smokers, in fact very few are, but I find smoking a really good way of taking a step back and just having a breather in parts of the day (excuse the irony).

I received the pack free from the NHS, which includes a few leaflets and a stress ball. Overall I don't think the pack is the greatest motivator, but what I do like is that I've signed up to receive daily 'motivational' texts. Although these are of course pretty corny, it's nice to be reminded each day that you're achieving something and in a weird way I think it'll help in keeping me going.

Anyway, long story short, I have 1 cigarette left in my packet, and don't plan on buying any more. I'm hoping I'm not going to turn into a massive arsehole in the process, but more importantly I hope this time I can make it stick, and stop smoking for good.

Drugs & Art

While checking my usual "I should be doing something productive but I can't be bothered" website, boredpanda, I came across a really interesting post about artist Bryan Lewis Saunders.

He decided in 1995 to create a self portrait everyday for the rest of his life, a mammoth task in itself. He then decided he wanted to create his portraits under the influence of different drugs, and see what affect it would have on the portrait.

I found this post a very brave and interesting task for someone to undertake. Also, it is clear to see from some of the images how drastic an affect the drug can have on a person.

I'll post the link below and highly recommend taking a look at the images.

Enjoy!

The Bacon Number

Just a quick post to highlight one of the best things on the internet - Google's 'Bacon Number'.

If you type 'Bacon Number' and then an actor's name, it'll tell you how many degrees away that actor is from Kevin Bacon. It sounds stupid, but believe me it's addictive. Seriously, try it. I apologise for wasting the next hour of your life.

'Don't Cook, Just Eat'

As of Saturday, online company 'Just Eat' are launching a new campaign to promote their business. For those that don't know, Just Eat is an online company where customers can go online and pick from an array of takeaway businesses and subsequently order.

Their campaign is promoting the idea that people come home and waste time and effort making a meal, when they could easily just order one in. They are also trying to break the stereotype of 'trashy' takeaways and have the public view them as a legitimate alternative to home cooking.

Now I have some experience first hand of the company Just Eat. My Dad owns his own small sandwich bar, and was approached by them to sign up. They would take the orders and they would be sent through to his sandwich bar, and he'd be responsible for making and delivering them. Of course Just Eat will take a portion of the profits in order to sustain their company and in payment for bringing in the custom.

In the case of my Dad's business, he sat down and asked the family what we thought of this idea. We all agreed that for his type of customers it wasn't a good idea. He has limited opening hours and having worked in an office myself, his main demographic along with builders, I cannot imagine getting to lunch time and placing an online order, expecting it to arrive in time and eat it all within the short window of a lunch break. Also, I think many people would be sceptical to try this, because fact is if it didn't turn up, just once, I think it'd ruin your belief in the idea and it'd be hard to convince someone to order again.

However, when it comes to takeaways and evening meals, I think it's an interesting idea. Being a student, I fit the stereotype of being quite lazy when it comes to cooking. A lot of the time I wont start cooking until I'm hungry so I'll want something fast, which is either a crappy meal or if I'm lucky enough to have the money, a takeaway. Also, I have used online ordering, specifically with Dominos Pizza. So I think there is the potential for Just Eat to appeal to a student market, especially if, like me, when you get 10 takeaway menus through the door a day they go straight in the bin!

However, when it comes to families, especially those with children, I think it'd be hard to break the idea that a takeaway could ever replace a home cooked meal. It's safe to assume parents are protective of their children and want to know what is going in their food, and the easiest way to know is to cook it yourself.

Finally, in regards to the execution of the campaign, I'm not a big fan of the advert itself. I understand the idea behind it, and I think it may appeal to some people, however it didn't convince me that, as they say, the cooking should be left to the professionals. In my opinion, a cheap quick meal at home that probably isn't great for me is still a better option than a more expensive takeaway that I'm pretty certain isn't good for me either.

Here's a link to The Drum's article which also includes a video of their advert.
The Drum article

Uni round 2.

It's clear to see from the dates of my posts that I haven't updated, or even looked at this page for a long time. Upon reflection, I think that was a stupid decision. As it's clear to see my course at university is Advertising & Brand Management, and it's something that I'm lucky enough to not only study at uni, but genuinely be interested in.

So, I thought now I'm back I'd restart this and try and keep it going. Unlike my previous posts, this one is just general rubbish about what I want to do and what has happened recently.

So, first things first, I've moved into my new house! Wheyyy! Pretty big step, although I suppose with it being at uni it's not quite the real world, but the closest I've got so far. I've been here 10 days now, about a week of which has been on my own after some friends visited. Having been quite independent even before I came to university, and then of course living in halls for my first year, I thought I'd have nothing to worry about. Man was I wrong!

Moving in day was nice, we had 6 dead rats in our "garden" (I use " because it's about 10 paving slabs leading to a gate). Even better, the pest control woman from the council has said that she can almost guarantee they've been thrown over by next door. Nice start, eh?

The next hurdle to tackle was an obvious one, just moving in. So my absolute legend of a dad goes to work at about 5:30am, works until around 10:30am, helps me put my stuff in the car, makes the 5 & a half hour journey up here and then continues to help me lug all of my crap into the house. After that we're both pretty famished so we go for some food, but that's boring because we had a really good time, got on great and I'm a pessimist and expert moaner so it'd ruin my rant. We get back and I offer my dad my bed as he's done all this for me and crash in another room. The next morning I wake up to find he's downstairs cleaning, apparently only getting about 4 hours sleep because my mattress is horrific. (Which I can vouch for after sleeping on it since, my posture has been reduced to that of a ninety year old!) So he has got up and started clearing out the kitchen, cleaning and just generally being awesome. But he did discover the kitchen was completely full of old stuff, which I can't work out if that's a nice gesture from the landlord or the previous tenants left it and the landlord was too lazy to clear it. Anyway, all their stuff is sitting in boxes in the kitchen and I have since put my stuff in, but it's pretty annoying.

So Dad leaves in the morning and then over the next 2 days some friends visit. We got for a drink down the pub and come back and carry on drinking. As would be expected with university students reuniting after 4 months apart, one of my friends takes it too far and is chunder dragoning my toilet. Eventually she pretty much passes out so I carry her up the stairs and put her into bed. It's only about 1am and this point and I get a random phone call from my mum, so I'm sitting on my window sill talking to her for about 5 minutes when a fella below starts calling to me. I tell him I'll come down to the door so we don't make noise shouting at each other, and then this is where it all goes pretty wrong. Apparently we woke up his son, which I can believe as the walls are paper thin here (god help me). I apologise and tell him that we're going to bed anyway so there wont be any noise, but he just keeps going on and on, getting himself more and more wound up and starts screaming the street down. Long story short it would appear I've made myself a big enemy, but he did mention having problems with students in the past, which made me think to myself, why live slap bang in the middle of 2 university campuses then? I like to think I'm a pretty reasonable person, I don't go out my way to piss anyone off but fact is I am at uni, so I am gonna go out, and I am gonna get drunk, and I am probably gonna make noise. I understand it must suck when you're trying to get your kid to sleep but hey, like I said, I don't think you can tell a whole university of students "you can't live next door to me and make noise". Pretty unreasonable, and fact is I'm probably gonna be skint for most of the year so it wont be often.

Anyway, we'll have to see how that one pans out throughout the year.

Judging by the essay I have written it is pretty obvious that I'm the only one back in the house, and have been now for 10 days. It feels a bit like rehab, but instead of being 10 days clean, I'm 10 days alone. That also sounds really sad, but I do feel like Kim Jong Il in Team America... so very ronery!

Anyway, that was a pretty good rant and it's out my system, so hopefully I can keep this blog going and show anything that interests me or just again say what's going on in me head, although I'm pretty confident it's only me reading this.

Well, until my next boring post, BYE!