Hiroshima. A Panoramic View from August 1945.

August 10th, 2011 • Experimental, Politics
Tags: history, Panorama, photo, Politics, sad, visual, War, World

August 6, 1945 was a turning point for mankind. At 8.15am the mushroom cloud of the world’s first Atomic Bomb rose over the City of Hiroshima, killing hundreds of thousands and pushing mankind into a future threatened by constant mutual destruction. Hiroshima and Nagasaki influenced my life even five decades later. As a kid growing up in Germany of the 1980s Cold War era I knew everything about the bomb. Years later the fear of it made me study Politics and specialize in security Politics (writing my thesis about Nuclear Proliferation in North Korea).

Last week the world mourned the end of Hiroshima and Nagasaki for the 66th time. I just stumbled upon this breathtaking 360 panoramic view of the city of Hiroshima, taken in August 1945. As there were really few pictures of the actual bombing this is one of the most shocking views I have ever seen. What you see below used to be a buzzing city of 330,000 inhabitants.

The Panorama consists of 5 pieces taken by U.S. and Japanes photographers. I have integrated Piece 1 and Piece 3. Find all the other pieces here.

Hiroshima after the Atomic Bomb (1 of 5) by Shigeo Hayashi in Japan

The following Panorama was shot from a different position by the American photographer Harbert F Austin Jr.

Read more »

My Blog of the Week: The Art of the Menu.

August 9th, 2011 • Blogs
Tags: Blogs, Cool, Creativity, Design, visual

It was always an underrated communicative discipline: The Art of the Menu Art has now become a topic for a blog run by Under Consideration. The guys usually chronicle corporate and brand identity work. But I guess the Art of the Menu is very related. Check out the site here…

Exit Deutschland. Trojan Shirts for Nazis.

August 9th, 2011 • 2 comments Ideas, Politics
Tags: Cool, Creativity, Exit, Experimental, Funny, Germany, Ideas, People, Politics, visual, We like

It is sad enough that it is 2011 and we still need organisations such as Exit Deutschland. Even though Fascists only play an inferior role in Germany’s political system, they are very present in some parts of Eastern Germany. And that’s where organisations such as Exit play a pivotal role in offering alternatives for people who know nothing but their hateful community.

Exit Deutschland is an organisation that tries to help members of the fascist scene to leave their (quite often very violent) peer group. In order to get their message across they just designed a very smart ‘Trojan Shirt’.

For the 9th time Germany’s right wing NPD party was allowed to stage a festival called ‘Rock fuer Deutschland’. Members of Exit Deutschland dressed up as Nazis and passed 250 of their shirts to Festival visitors. The idea: The shirt actually looks like stuff any Fascist likes (‘Hardcore Rebels. Nationalistic and free’ + skull). But once the guys came home after the Festival and washed their shirts the shirt revealed a different message: ‘What your T-shirt can do, so can you – we’ll help you break with right-wing extremism’ + a contact number for Exit Deutschland.

24 hours after the Festival NPD watchdogs sent out SMS warnings to the festival guests. 250 out of 600 guests got a T-Shirt.

Well done Exit. At last one ‘Trojan marketing concept’ with a Political attitude. Learn more on their site and like them on Facebook. (via Happyschnitzel)

German Angst. Der Spiegel explains the Web.

Juli 3rd, 2011 • 24 comments Allgemein, Media
Tags: Der Spiegel, Germany, Politics, Print, Truth, visual, World

So if you want to get a sense of how media in Germany explains their readers the web go and check out tomorrow’s cover of ‘Der Spiegel’. This time it’s about the ‘Digital Underworld. The secret web of Internet Criminals.’

This is how ‘Der Spiegel’ explained Facebook a couple of months ago: ‘The insatiables’. Of course well promoted on Der Spiegel’s Facebook Page.

In 2009 Der Spiegel introduced its readers to the lawless failed state that the Internet actually is in ‘Web without Law’.

Read more »

Sweet. Sagres sculptures a Chocolate Website.

Juni 15th, 2011 • Experimental, We like
Tags: Beer, Brands, Cool, Creativity, Design, Funny, Ideas, Interface, Sagres, visual, We like, Website

I am not entirely sure how I should feel about a chocolate-flavored stout. But at least it’s a novelty – both as a product as well as an interactive experience. Portugese brewer Sagres has just launched a website made of real chocolate to promote its new “Sagres preta chocolate”. To make the interactive experience become as choco as possible the whole website was designed and sculptured by chocolatier Victor Nunes before it was photographed to become components for the online venue. (via adweek)

Here is the making of

Here is the beautiful result.

Copycats. Intel and Deutsche Post celebrate Me, Me, Me.

Juni 1st, 2011 • 4 comments Brands, Ideas, Social, Trends
Tags: Bouygues Telecom, Brands, Campaign, Copycats, Creativity, DHL, Documentation, Facebook, Ideas, Intel, Life, People, Social Networking, Tools, Trends, visual, World

Sometimes you see a good digital marketing idea and you can bet your ass off that dozens of copycats will pop up a couple of months later. In November 2010 the (then) team around my friend (and new colleague) Branislav launched a (then) new idea for Bouygues Telecom in France: an app that turned your Facebook profile into a real book. 1,000 personalized books were gone within an hour of the promotion’s launch even though the campaign never really became as viral as Old Spice or Shoot the Bear.

Fast Forward 6 months. Deutsche Post DHL launches Social Memories, an application that turns your Facebook Profile into a (surprise, surprise) book. This is how it goes…

The app is here.

Read more »

BMW. The Revenge of the Lonely Copywriter.

Mai 27th, 2011 • Allgemein, Brands, Experimental
Tags: Automotive, Banner, bmw, Cool, Copy, Copywriting, Creativity, Experimental, Funny, Ideas, visual

I don’t know how to call these ads/banners/posters that you see sometime when a copywriter is supposed to write a really long text for once. You know…when you get surprised by a format which is copy, copy, copy and it goes on and on.

It’s one of the saddest ad formats. The copywriter knows nobody is going to read it. He knows his copy is cursed to serve as long typography here. And that is why he is holding an inner monologue in this type of ad format where he consistently speaks to the reader as a copywriter – not necessary as a brand – thanking the reader that he fights his way through his copy. What makes it even sadder: Most often it is indeed great copy.

Check out this banner ad for BMW. It was done by the Canadian agency Cundari and it starts as a 300-by-250-pixel box. And then it expands and expands and expands. When moused over it turns into a 18,000 pixels high monster—that’s 20 feet—with more than 5,500 words of copy going on and on (and on and on).

As usual. The copywriter wrote a great text. But I always feel a certain sadness when I see letters mutating into typo. Great banner idea. But I think after years of working as a copywriter I know what this poor guy went through who wrote that. (via Bannerblog)

.

I love it. Russia’s History told by the worker of a Tetris Factory.

Mai 14th, 2011 • Politics, We like
Tags: Cool, Creativity, Funny, Games, Gaming, history, Ideas, Lifestyle, Music, Politics, Russia, Tetris, visual, We like

I guess the following film tells one of the smartest stories in a music videos that I have seen so far. It was created by the ‘world’s best neo-post-post-music hall anti-folk band’ Pig with the Face of a Boy and it stages the story of Russia from the perspective of a worker…well…who is responsible to spin the Tetris blocks that fall down from the sky. A great metaphor to describe life in Russia since the 1870s and a very nice, clever song. Well done guys. I hope you become really, really successful. Check out the band here…

White Bull Army. Everything that was ever wrong with Ad Awards in just one Video.

Mai 8th, 2011 • 14 comments Brands, Experimental
Tags: Ads, Africa, Agencies, Alcohol, Awards, Beer, Brands, Future Lions, Ideas, Politics, Strategy, Sudan, Viral, visual

A little update to this article: After bashing the video below as “either an extremly sarcastic subtle protest against ignorance in advertising. Or the saddest thing in the industry” I was now contacted by a couple of people who commented that anyone (except me) found it extremely obvious that it is not the saddest things but a very subtle protest. But what is it that this video wants to achieve?

Is it taking the piss out of award videos? Pink Pony does that without touching the Sudanese civil war. Is it supposed to remind us of South Sudan? Not really. So in fact whatever it was that this video wanted to be ironical about – it crossed the line from irony to cynicism.

To make my point I. I don’t give a damn if this is an official award video. I just think it’s extremely tasteless and stands for a very acultural cynicism typical for too many people in this industry. Generate buzz no matter through which method. That’s pathetic.

Follow the rest of the conversation on adland.tv

——————————

Actually everything that was ever wrong with ad awards can be studied in the video below. It is a submission to the Future Lions, a sub-award of the well known Cannes Lions. And it is given to anyone (you can be a private person) who comes up with a hypothetical idea for an existing brand that wasn’t technically possible five years ago.

So the following video showcases a hypothetical idea on how to promote a beer in the soon to be independent state Southern Sudan. Key elements of the story are true. White Bull Lager is in fact the first major locally produced beer in Southern Sudan. But the hypothetical campaign described in the film gave me Inner Mouth Vomit.

It does not just show a deep lack of historical and political understanding – it’s just cynical (even worse than Jung von Matt’s great guerilla stunt that took the piss out of German anti Nuclear protestors…2 months before Fukushima).

Stuff like this is the end result when ignorance meets fake caring. Seriously? This is either an extremly sarcastic subtle protest against ignorance in advertising. Or it is one of the saddest things I have ever seen coming out of the industry. Two million people died in Sudan and some hipster presents beer logos on T-72 tanks to win an award. Oh…the best part: In the end they even dare to dedicate this to the people of South Sudan. Makes me want to kill myself.

Dirt Devil. The Exorcist Revisited.

Mai 4th, 2011 • Ads, Brands
Tags: Brands, Creativity, Dirt Devil, Funny, Germany, Ideas, TV, visual, We like

One of Germany’s best film and media schools is located close to Stuttgart in Ludwigsburg – Filmakademie Baden-Wuerttemberg. The school regularly makes students work on actual projects for actual brands and the following Exorcist spoof commercial for Dirt Devil is just one of them.

I found it pretty funny and a very good, simple TV idea. Well done.

(thx to The Laughing Squid)