the F rant

From Mumbrella: ABC on the PS3.

The Australian Broadcasting Corporation will make content available in the PS3 later this year, through their iView video on demand platform.  While predominant currently, appointment media has such a limited appeal into the future.  The ABC has done a great job in leading the way for all broadcasters to follow.

Nine, Seven and TEN – take note – you’re still VERY behind.  In years to come, we’ll be telling our grandchildren about the olden days, when content was broadcast to a single TV, and you had to set aside a particular time to watch it, or you’d miss it – they wouldn’t broadcast it again until years later (what we quaintly called “repeats”).

FUN: Music, Culture and Entertainment, FUTURE: Digital Media, Marketing, Insights and Trends abc, iview, nine, seven, ten, tv

I was talking to a friend of mine’s little girl, and she said she wanted to be Prime Minister some day.

Both of her parents, who vote Labor, were standing there, so I asked her, “If you were Prime Minister of Australia what would be the first thing you’d do?”

She replied, “I’d give food and houses to all the homeless people.”

“Wow – what a worthy goal.” I told her, “But you don’t have to wait until you’re Prime Minister to do that. You can come over to my house and mow the lawn, pull up the weeds, sweep my patio, and I’ll pay you $50. Then I’ll take you over to Coles where a homeless chap hangs out, and you can give him the $50 to use toward food or a new house.”

She thought that over for a few seconds (because she’s only six) and while her Mum glared at me, the little girl looked me straight in the eye and asked, “Why doesn’t the homeless man come over and do the work, and you can just pay him the $50?”

I replied, “Welcome to the Liberal Party.”

Her parents still aren’t talking to me.

FREEDOM: Economics, Politics and Business homeless, labor, liberal

Thanks to John Kerr, this video rocks!  Applicable to all agencies that don’t get digital – and even more so to agencies that talk digital, but don’t do digital.

FUTURE: Digital Media, Marketing, Insights and Trends digital, downfall, facebook, hitler, social media, twitter

A very alarming article in the Sydney Morning Herald about how the Henry Review into taxation reform is looking at finding ways in which the Government can take your superannuation.

In summary, the Rudd Government wants money to fund their poorly devised, mad plans for Australia.  The easiest way to get it is to mine the pool of trillions of superannuation dollars, currently being freely invested in commercial activities.  Rudd and Swan see this mountain of cash and think – “If only we could get our grubby mitts on it”.

The plan being touted now is that lower income people (with smaller super balances) would “volunteer” their superannuation to Kevin Rudd, who would guarantee an annuity stream once they are retired.  It’s being sold in by the Government as a way to help the poor with a safe, solid investment in Government, rather than the grab for cash that it is.  It’s the thin edge of the wedge – where to from here?  Every Australian sacrifices 1% of their super for “National Infrastructure” or a grandly named “Nation Building Fund”?  Sounds wonderful and noble, but it’s simply theft.

Alarm bells have been ringing long and hard via the good people at The Daily Reckoning / Money Morning, who see it this way:

…the Henry Review of the Australian tax system is in full flight. It’s like feeding time at the zoo. Only the animals are fighting over the dollars in your wallet – or purse.

So why has the media not made a huge issue of this? Why hasn’t the Opposition been getting headlines over the impending theft of superannuation in order to fund Rudd’s grandiose plans for “infrastructure plans” such as RuddTel, RuddBank and other Whitlamesque schemes?  Money Morning explains:

Earlier this year we predicted the government would begin an organized campaign to either ‘encourage’ you or force you to hand over your superannuation balance to them.

Not surprisingly, the mainstream press is still asleep at the wheel on this issue. But again, that’s not surprising seeing as any reporting of the Henry Tax Review will be handled by the ‘Canberra correspondents.’

The correspondents who live or die by their government contacts in Canberra. Is there really any chance they’ll point the finger and say, “Hang on, the government is stealing your money!”?

Fat chance.

I’m reminded of Ronald Reagan’s famous quote about do-gooder Governments – Governments like Rudd’s that want to control you, and sell their actions within the framework of “doing what’s best for you because we know better”.  Said Reagan:

The nine most terrifying words in the English language are: ‘I’m from the government and I’m here to help!”

FREEDOM: Economics, Politics and Business Rudd, superannuation, tax, theft

The Age has a piece about a planet 20 years from Earth – a planet of similarity to Earth in terms of potential to harbour life forms – and the ability for anyone to send a message to that planet from the website, HelloFromEarth.net

Public messages will be collated on the website, and will be sent this Saturday from NASA’s Tidbinbilla space tracking station, outside Canberra.

The only thing is – being 20 light years away, the messages will arrive on that planet in 2029.

I’m thinking of writing a message to the aliens.  The question is, with one go, with one opportunity to speak to the population of that planet, what single message to settle on?

My options so far:

Hopefully by the time this message reaches you, Australia has paid back the horrific $300bn debt Kevin Rudd has racked up in his 18 months as PM of Australia

or

Hip-Hop was never the same after the death of Notorious B.I.G.  Discuss.

or

You have been poked by Con Frantzeskos – Poke Back | Send Message

or

Which do you prefer – Megan Gale or Jennifer Hawkins?

or

Collingwood for Premiership #15!

Any other ideas?

FUN: Music, Culture and Entertainment, FUTURE: Digital Media, Marketing, Insights and Trends aliens, nasa, social media

Life moves pretty fast.  If you don’t stop and look around once in a while, you could miss it.

…So wrote John Hughes, creator, writer and director of some of the greatest comedy films ever made, who died this morning of a heart attack while walking through NYC.  He was 59.

While Hughes’ body of work includes films that were comedic brilliance, I particularly loved his work because it spoke accurately of the human condition, not unlike a modern day Shakespeare – and like Shakespeare, his best work satirised the rollercoaster of human emotion and reaction.

He was best able to demonstrate this drama of the human condition through teenagers – brutally honest, earnest, funny, nasty, misguided, anti-authoritarian and always hopeful.

While these themes were ever present in his films, other themes of equal importance (but lesser profile) were also a constant.

1. Respectful of the middle class

John Hughes began his career as an advertising copywriter in Chicago – so had a strong commercial background.  The characters in his films often had jobs, and their parents (usually both fathers AND mothers had jobs).  Few of the parents from his films were filthy rich, most were industrious, hard working middle class parents that provided for their families.

While their own children often rebelled, their anti-authoritarian ideals weren’t based on ideology, but on the notions of individual freedom, thus:

2.  Strong liberal / libertarian ideals

I did have a test today. That wasn’t bullshit. It’s on European socialism. I mean, really, what’s the point? I’m not European, I don’t plan on being European, so who gives a crap if they’re socialist? They could be fascist anarchists – that still wouldn’t change the fact that I don’t own a car. Not that I condone fascism, or any ism for that matter. Isms in my opinion are not good. A person should not believe in an ism – he should believe in himself.

3.  Fight the power

Whether embodied as Chet, the older brother from Weird Science, who said:

I’m gonna tell Mom and Dad everything. I’m even considering makin’ up some shit!

or Principal Richard Vernon from the Breakfast Club:

That’s the last time, Bender. That the last time you ever make me look bad in front of those kids, you hear me? I make $31,000 a year and I have a home and I’m not about to throw it all away on some punk like you. But someday when you’re outta here and you’ve forgotten all about this place and they’ve forgotten all about you, and you’re wrapped up in your own pathetic life, I’m gonna be there. That’s right. And I’m gonna kick the living shit out of you. I’m gonna knock your dick in the dirt.

…adults and authority was seen as restrictive, dull and unproductive.

4. All adults are very boring – even if they were once cool (possibly why there was never going to be a Ferris Bueller sequel).

Principal Richard Vernon (Breakfast Club):

You think he’s funny? You think this is cute? You think he’s “bitchin,” is that it? Let me tell you something. Look at him – he’s a bum. You want to see something funny? You go visit John Bender in five years. You’ll see how goddamned funny he is.

Others?

PS: Great blog post about a pen pal relationship with John Hughes here.

FUN: Music, Culture and Entertainment ferris bueller, john hughes, movies

Seth Godin said it here: You’re boring.  I really love this post, but have been trying to put it into context.

Almost every day, I speak to a different client who will want me to engage with people on their behalf, under the assumption that their story is very interesting, if not remarkable.  In fact, most of the time, there is nothing remarkable about the story, but they think that because they’re engaging via digital / social media, or creating video content, it will automatically become interesting – that the channel will make content interesting, that the video will go “viral”, etc.

While organisations can make dull content more interesting, it’s very hard to be remarkable, to stand out, to be very memorable.  It’s not about shocking people, but it’s about getting a reaction.

Flickr:scion02b

When I was in the music business, I was lucky enough to work with, and learn from some very smart people.  One of them, Tim Smith, was the brains behind many and varied artists (Britney, Mutt Lange, et al) as Head of Creative Services at Zomba Music.  During one of our first meetings, I sat in his Queens Park offices, and he espoused one of his major tenets; that no creative output was worth a pinch of poo unless it provoked a reaction.  For example: turning up the music in your car, asking a friend what “that song is”, getting up and dancing to the song in a club, stopping a conversation and listening to the song – and the most important reaction of all – buying the music.

So, what is remarkable – remarkable enough to provoke a reaction, to be worthy of further investigation, further conversation, memory, purchase?  How does your activity compare?  How do you, as a communicator, as a creator, provoke a reaction, when compared to the great creative outputs in the world?  How’s this for a test in terms of provoking a reaction – is it more interesting, less boring, or more memorable than this site [WARNING, WILL OFFEND]: http://ratemypoo.com/?

FUN: Music, Culture and Entertainment, FUTURE: Digital Media, Marketing, Insights and Trends boring, creative, interesting, memorable, music, reaction

If you’ve got the predictive search feature enabled (such as in Safari 4), when you type “Twitter is” into Google, a list of suggestions come up, based on similar searches by other people.

Here’s the latest list – funny!

FUTURE: Digital Media, Marketing, Insights and Trends google, search, twitter