Russell Davies

massive or cool

something occured to me today, while I was chatting with Dylan. It's simple but, I think, interesting.

UK marketing people (possibly European marketing people) assume that something can be either massive or cool. US marketing people assume that brands can be massive and cool. Or maybe that's just the difference between Nike and everyone else.

what a waste

just read a terrible book - Mao in the Boardroom: Marketing Genius from the Mind of the Master Guerrilla
by Gabriel Stricker. Disappointing really, because I was looking forward to it. And it's not a bad idea. Obviously it's in a fairly predictable vein but it could have been good - a playful, lateral take on marketing/guerilla marketing, but instead it's just dire. It obviously took about two days to write. The Mao quotes could have been gleaned from an average quotation dictionary in about an hour. The stories/examples are all the most usual, most predictable companies and campaigns. Swatch. And1. Target. Virgin. blah blah blah. I've heard every story before somewhere. And the attempts at cartoony Mao-based human are completely feeble and unfunny. And every now and then he just gets stuff plain wrong. Not a good book. Avoid.