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Study Proves: Yes, Money is the Root of all Evil.

Gerald — Mon, 07 May 2012 15:54:55 +0000

Marketing would only be half the fun if people were not as greedy as they are – even though the world would be more fun I guess.

One of the ~~funniest~~ most interesting research pieces in this field was conducted by Dutch primatologist and ethologist Frans de Waal. He and others (like M. Keith Chen and Laurie R. Santos) taught Bonobos and Capuchin Monkeys the value of currency to better understand moral behaviour and sharing. And they behaved quite human-like:

The monkeys learned how to gamble, and showed a human preference for bets with an apparent upside. They tried counterfeiting the money with cucumber slices. They stole coins. And when a riot broke out, one enterprising female found a way to capitalize…

How? That’s simple.

As soon as they learned that coins had value, one of the male capuchins gave a coin to a female in exchange for sex.

So yes: Essentially money is the root of all evil. It turns peaceful primates into criminals with a clear preference for ~~bitches and bling~~ exchanging food for sex.

Oh…and then there is greed. The following clip, which is by Frans de Waal, shows two different monkeys eating two different foods. The first monkey, is given cucumbers and the second monkey is given grapes. After the first monkey sees that the other is getting grapes guess what happens next? Exactly: they essentially turn into members of the board of the Bank of America in less than 5 seconds.

Good news is: we may not be so bad after all. According to de Waal monkeys and apparently even us show some sign of morality and a sense of sharing if they perceive injustice. Read more about his study results here.

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Post tags: biology, Business, Creativity, crime, ethnology, Experimental, Experiments, Funny, Money, monkeys, science, World

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The Jig Is Up: Time to Get Past Facebook and Invent a New Future.

Gerald — Thu, 19 Apr 2012 10:05:26 +0000

From the great article ‘The Jig is Up: Time to Get Past Facebook and Invent a New Future‘ (The Atlantic)

‘It slipped into parody late last year with the hypothetical app, Jotly, which allowed you to “rate everything” from the ice cubes in your drink to the fire hydrant you saw on the street. The fake promo video perfectly nailed everything about the herd mentality among startups. Its creator told me to watch for “the color blue, rounded corners, SoLoMo [SocialLocalMobile], ratings, points, free iPads, ridiculous name (complete with random adverbing via ‘ly’), overpromising, private beta, giant buttons, ‘friction-less’ sign up, no clear purpose, and of course a promo video.”

And then, the hilarious parody ate itself and my tears of laughter turned to sadness when the people behind the joke actually released Jotly as a real, live app.’

Here is the original video. Isn’t it ironic? Revolutions always eat their own children. Did anyone say google Glass?

Jotly, the Ultimate App for Sharing Everything with Everyone (Psych!)

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Post tags: Experimental, Facebook, Future, Ideas, People, Prediction, Social Influence Marketing, Social Networks, Tech, Tools, Trends, Truth, World

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Poll: How Real-Time do Agencies actually work?

Gerald — Mon, 16 Apr 2012 11:40:56 +0000

I will give a presentation next week that will revolve around working real-time in agencies. In order to add a bit of meat to that I would be super happy if all of you (and I mean all) who work for agencies would answer the following couple of questions for me. It is super easy. And would help me an awful lot for my presentation for which your data anonymously would be used. This is a presentation I give personally, there is no client or project by my employer involved.

If anything is unclear or if you have additional comments just leave it underneath this article. Please feel free to pass this poll on to friends.

Create your free online surveys with SurveyMonkey, the world’s leading questionnaire tool.

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Post tags: Adaptation Marketing, Insight, Poll, Real time, Survey

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Turn the Lights Out. It’s Time for a #BlackoutACTA Day.

Gerald — Mon, 02 Apr 2012 19:23:21 +0000

Photo: Used via Creative Commons License. Thanks to Zigazou76.

Update: 03 April:

After discussing the idea of a BlackoutACTA day I realize many Anti Acta Groups are currently actively thinking about calling for such a day of collective action. Please consider my idea to black out May 1 as a suggestion. Possibly there is a better day timing-wise for such an event.

But I am convinced a Blackout Day will be the only chance to get ACTA into mainstream conscience.

Please leave a comment what your thoughts are or discuss on twitter.

//////////////////////////////////////////////////////////////

Original post:

Thanks to a lot of work I haven’t updated this wonderful site as often as I wanted to.which is hopefully going to change now.

I would like to use my first article after freeing myself from a pile of Powerpoint charts to ask for nothing less than a Blackout of the European Internet. Sounds simple, right?

The reason is obvious: ACTA. ‘The Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement’ – a proposed plurilateral agreement for the purpose of establishing international standards on intellectual property rights enforcement.

Please watch this quick summary on ACTA if you need a quick update…

Not just my fear is that – once put into action – it would establish a new international legal framework which is fundamentally undemocratic, and which would endanger both, the internet as well as our basic democratic rights. ACTA might become its “own governing body outside existing international institutions” such as – the World Trade Organization (WTO), the World Intellectual Property Organization (WIPO) or the United Nations.

(...)
Read the rest of Turn the Lights Out. It’s Time for a #BlackoutACTA Day. (534 words)

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Post tags: #BlackoutACTA, ACTA, Boykott, PIPA, Politics, SOPA

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What SEO Does. In One Image.

Gerald — Mon, 05 Mar 2012 09:22:00 +0000

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Post tags: Funny, google, search, seo, visual

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Crazyness. In the Meantime in Amsterdam.

Gerald — Tue, 14 Feb 2012 18:20:32 +0000

I have to admit I did a terrible job in blogging lately. I got 99 problems and pitches were three out of these 99 problems. So here we go with a traditional conflict between my life as a blogger and my life as an employee. But it will be better, I promise.

By the way: Here at Blast Radius Amsterdam we are currently looking for a Freelance Senior Strategist or Strategy Director that is not just strong in digital strategy – as for anyone that we would hire – but has specific skills and experience in (a) optimizing a brand’s eco–system, and (b) digital comms planning. Potentially this might become a full-time position in the future. Contact me for more info.

Oh…and if this isn’t enough. Blast Radius Amsterdam is located in the most beautiful city on Earth. Definitely. Beyond work this is what Amsterdam looked like last weekend. If this isn’t enough incentive…

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The Sad Truth: “I Solemnly Swear…”

Gerald — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 12:22:08 +0000

Via Yimmy’s Yayo

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Hooked. Alex Wipf: A Strategy of Flight.

Gerald — Wed, 01 Feb 2012 18:29:35 +0000

Last year I started to conduct a series of interviews with some of the most interesting Marketing peeps I met so far.

I somehow wanted to take this concept one step further.My new series of interviews is called ‘Hooked’. Hooked is about leading Strategists and their hobby or a side-project. Hooked is about what people can learn for Strategy while they actually love to fly, cook, swim or whatever they do to become the interesting people that most of them are.

The first Person to be part of Hooked is Alexander Wipf – my long-time friend and all-round awesome guy. Alex is Head of Strategy at Leo Burnett, Frankfurt. And besides being one of the few truly digital Marketing Pioneers in Germany, besides being an awesome Photographer, young dad and many other things, he is in possession of a Private Pilot License. In other words: He is a passionate flier.

Irrelevant for his thinking as a Strategy Dude? I don’t think so. Get to know Mister Wipf.

You have a pilot license and you are Head of Strategy at Leo Burnett and started off as a user experience designer. I know you have an interesting theory about flying and UX. Tell me about it.

As machinery and technology get more and more complex, our susceptibility to allow technology or its interfaces to control us increases as well. As Günther Anders already noted in the 1950s (in “The Outdatedness of Human Beings 1. On the Soul in the Era of the Second Industrial Revolution,” 1956) at some point after WWII human technology had reached a tipping point when technologies weren’t just simple tools or extensions of ourselves, but rather complex systems that makes human capacity look outdated and miniscule. Being a thinker during the atomic age, his example for this was the invention of nuclear energy, which has a hazardous waste-product that has a half-life that will last longer than our species will be on this planet.

Trying to wrap your head around this fact is just mind-boggling. Essentially, we have created things that are simply bigger than ourselves and the consequences of which we aren’t really in control of anymore. Of course this is an extreme example, and it’s not a matter of us necessarily wanting to be controlled or hindered by the technology we create, but we implicitly accept it as necessary evil.

So, in order to cope with this, we create more technology that, in turn, controls the other technology we have. And we accept this largely because there is no way back.

As we have moved from the industrial (and atomic) age to the information age, the same forces are at play, only that the context is no longer the industrial and physical realm, but rather the informational and virtual.

Due to digital technologies, we have more information at our fingertips than ever before, and, again, we are unable to deal with it all, so, again, after a few decades of information technologies being created to create, disseminate and store information, we are now inventing technologies to filter this information. The question is, are our interfaces designed with us in mind?

(...)
Read the rest of Hooked. Alex Wipf: A Strategy of Flight. (1,710 words)

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Post tags: Agencies, Alex Wipf, Creativity, Hooked, Ideas, Interview, Leo Burnett, People, Strategy, Truth

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Agreed. Photo of the Day.

Gerald — Thu, 19 Jan 2012 22:02:16 +0000

Thanks to Andrew Dallos for the Photo

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Post tags: photo, PIPA, Politics, SOPA, Truth, World

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Most Likely the Future: Get to know the All-Despising Baby Skull.

Gerald — Sun, 15 Jan 2012 17:46:54 +0000

Seriously? Who would have thought a while ago that we are dealing with shit like SOPA nowadays. Didn’t we all expect a more and more connected future with more personal freedom instead of a Corporate Coup? That’s why I am a bit cautious to talk about the following Cartoon as fiction. Prepare yourself for the All-Despising Baby Skull.

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Post tags: Cartoons, Funny, Politics, Truth

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