Zeusblog

I saw this morning that the Advertising Standards Authority have said that Swiftcover’s TV ad featuring Iggy Pop must not be shown again in its current form as it is misleading - he doesn’t actually have a policy with them and, in any case, they don’t cover musicians. Swiftcover have now started to cover musicians, but I still think the ad should be pulled on the grounds that it is rubbish.

Chalky

We’ve been a bit busy to be blogging recently. Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible, But in the meantime, for your delight and delectation, please enjoy this video of some of the most amazing things I’ve ever seen anybody do on a bicycle…

If you haven’t got time to watch the whole 5:38, don’t miss what he does with the tree at around 3:04…

As a creative, the test of whether an ad is really good is if you wish you’d written it yourself.

Well I wish I’d written this Lynx ad I’ve just seen on the tube…

Chalky

“Pain is our friend”

That’s what is embroidered on the t-shirt of our swim coach, Paul Doyle. Apparently it’s the motto of his masters swim squad (Cally Masters). It made me laugh at 6am this morning. Actually he wasn’t too hard on us - but I still got in 4k before breakfast, which was plenty for me. I’ve now added “pain is my friend” to my list of motivational mantras, which are to be called upon and repeated in your head when working very hard in the pool, on the bike, or when I’m running and the urge to quit seems irresistible.

Others include the obvious, but effective, “I WILL NOT QUIT”, and Lance Armstrong’s “Suck it up” or “Pain is temporary, quitting is forever” or even “Is that all you got?” directed at a competitor or the pain itself (focussed boy Lance is!). And when I really need a kick up the backside, there’s always Winston Churchill to fall back on: “When you are going through hell, keep going”.

Works for me

Chalky

I’ve been listening to Heart FM quite a bit recently. Not through choice, but laziness. As a serious thoughtful type, I tend to listen to Radio 4, but because my son is nine he’d rather listen to Heart FM and retunes the radio every time he’s in the car. When I can’t be bothered to touch the dial I listen to Heart.

So anyway, I’ve come to a conclusion about Heart, which is that they should really be called Lionel Ritchie FM. Honestly that guy could sort out the global economic crisis with his royalty fees from Heart alone. And they should change their tagline, regardless of whether they change their name to Lionel Ritchie FM - ‘More music variety’ - I believe the technical name for that kind of tagline is called ‘the big lie’. The idea is that if you have a big obvious problem, just say the opposite in a confident voice over and over again. Eventually it will sink in and people will believe it. Other examples include ‘This is the age of the train’ when everybody thought British Rail was just, well rubbish really, and ‘I’m Lovin it’ when I’m so not. So if you play the same old music over and over and over and over again you say ‘More music variety’ over and over until people think it’s true. Well I don’t listen to Heart often enough to fall for that one.

I quite like Jamie and Harriet though.