Showing posts with label flashmobbing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label flashmobbing. Show all posts

Wednesday 8 March 2023

Microsoft Bing vs ChatGPT














MS has a share in their competitor ChatGPT. If you ask them why, they will deceive you with sophistry as argument.

Monday 27 September 2021

Australia - Rise Like Lions




Sometimes we have to show people the reality, not tell them.

Ten years ago, I was informed Australia and New Zealand were big NWO/Deceptively Authoritarian bolt-holes.

Do you believe in coincidences?

Monday 1 November 2010

T - Mobile Jumps The Shark



It's got Saatchi & Saatchi Lovemarks all over it hasn't it? I know if they asked me for my homecoming riff, I'd have responded that I get homesick as soon as I'm circling Heathrow ready for landing (I love the smell of the M4 in the morning), but then I find the chap brandishing my name on a card ready to drive me elsewhere a bit of an intrusion, so I'm not the best kind of punter to ask in this instance. 

Life is for sharing. I agree. But everything is contextual too, so shouldn't we be prudent what we share. Like venereal disease.


Here's the an earlier post on the subject.

Friday 22 October 2010

Death of a Flashmob (Deeper Darker Darker Deeper Danger)



Love this commercial for E4. So much music is offensively patronising. This says it perfectly for me and ticks off why corporations should really stay away from co-opting spontaneity. It's on the opposite end of what they really stand for. I think this just nailed that coffin lid down a bit further.


Via Rob

Thursday 24 April 2008

China Takes To Flash Mobbing


I think one of the first planning differences of opinion I had with another agency here in China was about an idea I had just presented to a client that the most useful ways a brand can get involved with their customers, particularly if digital channels are available, is to create community online (easy to initiate) and then push it offline (no better way to actualize) - as that's when the magic happens in my experience. I've been evangelizing about this for some time, probably too long now I think about it so sorry about that but new thinking shoots are peeping through.

I subsequently discovered from Sam's
China Internet Word of Mouth that there is a name for this activity in Chinese netizen culture and it's called Fubai FB for short or 腐败 in Chinese. The literal meaning of fubai is "corrupt." It comes from describing the act of corrupt officials freely spending to enjoy life. Within internet auto forums, the term has been appropriated to refer to the netizens spending their own hard-earned money to enjoy life through such "FB" activities as going out for good food and traveling. Often these "offline" FB activities are organized "online" within the forums, as the sense of community is very strong. "Online" friends, who are united by similar interests can quickly become offline friends.

Further evidence that this kind of activity is not restricted to the West comes today in the form of flash mobbing. I came across this possible first event in China last month but it was a Western organised affair judging by the participants. I twittered about it with Mark Earls blogging it later in the day on that occasion.

I then had a really good conversation with one of our planners here called Connie, who is ace and gives me all my China tip offs.
Connie explained to me on that occasion that the internet conversation with the Chinese revolved around 'what is the point?' of flashmobbing. Which is a fair enough cultural perspective on something so new. However I'm pleased to see that today, again through the brilliant Connie, that the Chinese netizens have come up with a constructive form of their own flashmobbing. It manifested itself yesterday at the same time in Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou and Shenzhen. Finally we have a point to flash mobbing, Chinese style.

The participants assembled outside bookshops and froze at a certain time with a book in hand to advocate that reading and literacy is a good thing. This is quintessential Chinese in so much as it takes a marginally subversive activity that could potentially be used for 'Mob Sourcing' ™ (Oh yeah. I like that) and is turned into something constructive with a point, while of course having fun and not unsettling the authorities. Here is another picture from yesterdays event in Beijing that appeared in the newspapers.