Remember Apple's 'Hi I'm a Mac' campaign 5 years ago, making fun of PC users?

Seems like the table has really turned.

And that's a good thing.

Because for once Microsoft (or Nokia) is is making ads focusing on the product and consumer insight, with predatory thinking.

Dave Trott would be so proud.

I'm a cynical guy when it comes to advertising. (Surprise!)
If I don't separate my own experience and prejudice, then all media communication are all attempts to get us to spend money on stuff we shouldn't be spending money on. That cute kid they use on the ad? Yea we exploited the parents' dream of having a child star to sell toilet paper to you! SELL! SELL!
If I don't take that sort of skewed cynism out of the equation (I believe film buffs call it the 'suspension of disbelief'), then I could never focus on the technical aspect of the ad itself.

The video above is what they call a 'publicity stunt' to raise awareness of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra. I'm writing about this because 1) I've been to the MSO and I can say the insight of 'hey! I can do that!' is absolutely spot on, and 2) because it's been done by a friend.

And sure, any other day I'd be extremely skeptical and wonder if the public actually did conduct the orchestra or were they professional dressed in plain clothes. Were they actually playing the music we're listening in the video, or is it simply great editing?

But it doesn't matter, because my friend did it.

And that's relevant to me. That's why I'm sharing it.

That's the important thing.

Big agencies, for the longest time, have championed the rational approach, then the disruption method, and then the 'emotional' sell (lovemarks, anyone?), and then now it's all about engagement, social participation, the share and care.
This campaign made me realise the most important thing in communication, is relevance.

If you live in Melbourne, and you love classical music, then this is relevant to you. Most likely, you will find it heart-warming and surreal. (That's where I take my train to work! I recognise the landmark!)

Does it make people pay money to the MSO? Maybe.

But it does make you feel happy to be living in Melbourne.
And not many ads or campaign or facebook pages can do that.

For the last week I've caught up with three friends in advertising who simultaneously declared that I'm out of the industry. One even introduced me as the one who 'escaped, like, in Shawshank Redemption'.

I'm not sure they said that out of pity, or simply relief that I no longer pollute the industry, I definitely did not climb through a tunnel of shit like Tim Robbins.

But it got me thinking, now that I've been banished, perhaps I can talk a lot more freely about my past experiences. And who knows, that may prevent you from making the same mistakes like I did.

Here goes.

One of the most common and consistent peer feedback / review I received was that I did not exert enough enthusiasm. (It probably didn't help that whenever I received said feedback I always roll my eyes.) I do not deny that. My explanation is that I'm Asian and I have a genetic feature evolved from generations of oppression. Granted I'm not a hostile person, but I'm the sort that gets pissed off when 12 steps were taken to finish a job when only 4 were required, which happened almost constantly.

This one time, a suit felt discouraged that the creatives (in that instance, I) never complimented their effort on delivering briefs.

This is something I do not miss in an agency. The finger pointing. The justification. The sensitive souls. I couldn't do my job because the creatives weren't encouraging enough. Really?

I honestly don't remember. Maybe I wasn't enthusiastic because I was busy getting the job started, or I just wanted to get back to the job I was interrupted 10 minutes ago. But the fact that the comment travelled all the way to the managing partner, typed out in a piece of paper and came up in my review, really surprised me.

This is the equivalent of me mounting 10 presentation boards for a pitch, demanded the planner to come and admire how they're all symmetrically pleasing to the eyes, failed, and then lodging an official complaint to HR.

Again, cut to me rolling my eyes in the principal's office with the giant pop art painting. Or pinball machine. Or giant moose head that isn't a real moose. Definitely one of those.

Cut to all of us being lectured to be supportive and be nice to suits. Do not eat breakfast on the table after 10am because that upsets them. Do not belittle their hard work even if it's full of spelling mistakes and information from the client's website.

So lesson 1.

Beware of cry babies. They're easy to spot. They make a lot of noise (I heard rumours that suits in Ogilvy Sydney get pay raises by crying in the conference room, or threatening to quit in a middle of a pitch). The Chinese has a proverb to describe them: Loud thunder; soft drizzle.

Make friends with them. Handle them with care.
Send them chocolates even if they scheduled meetings at 5pm.

End of lesson 1.

This is a retail supermarket ad in the UK:
 
 And this is a retail supermarket ad in Australia:
 
I really hate being the person that always complains shit and not have a solution, but I really can't help it. Why can't Australia be up to that standard?

Tesco is a leading brand; Coles is a leading brand.

Is it the budget?

Is it simply the price?

Is it the client?

Is it the agency?

Is it the consumers?

Is it (lack of) competition?

I think Coles is really going to be a the ultimate textbook example against creativity.

And no one knows why.

Watch the short video above.

Wouldn't it be a great day if I were to tell you that these were Malaysians jumping queue and rushing in to vote for the last election?

Or that they're fed up with the government and are starting a protest against the injustice and corruption in the country?

But alas they are simply trying to get into McDonald's to get their hands on the cute toys. Because in Malaysia, cute overrides democracy by default.

Bear in mind, these are adults. So the 'young and ignorance' plea does not apply here.

If this was a test, the correct answer should've been: fuck you and your toys, I want a fair government. What's the point of having toys when they won't have a future?

But the temptation was too strong, I  mean look at the cute toys! Who can possibly resist them?

At 19 I arrived at the country. I used the public phone to call home.
(With the calling cards. Remember that you gen-y piece of shit?)

Then I tried to sign up for a plan. Telstra looked too cold and expensive.
Vodafone and 3 were still setting up shop, didn't really trust the Dodo bird, so I opted for Optus. (They have more animals, they must be better.)

Then I got stung by unexpected fees.
Sometimes the bills cost more than my Siemens phone.
I got out of the contract as soon as possible. (2 years.)

This is when I fooled around with other brands like Vodafone (because it's foreign it must be better) or 3 (if they can give out free video chat they must be awesome). But slowly I realised it really didn't matter because they all sucked.

When I found out pre-paid is actually the way to go, I was already in the workforce, 5 years later.

That's when I realised normal white suburban Aussie 'mates' use Telstra and they use all that BigPond crap, even when they know it's just a internet device that deadlocks your content with ads. Let me simply put, if you don't care about money, you use Telstra.

And that was roughly the time when Optus started using real animals in their ads, missing the point of having the animals to disconnect consumers from real life situations in the first place. (The marketing board directors shouting: Business is down? It must be the animals. No don't kill them, make them play soccer!)

Vodafone was my choice because I could cap my spending at $29 a month with $300 credit and rubbish 3G connection. ($26 if you recharge from Safeway.) Meanwhile 3 was going 'psssssss' like a deflating balloon. Virgin was like 'I'm just here because my dad wants me to be here'.

So fast forward to 2012 there's a huge restructuring as they called it, no more discounted prepaid plans. I graduated to Telstra, still prepaid, still cared about money, but happy to not have to care about signal losses and what not.

And the funny thing is that Telstra rebranded as a more upbeat, colourful brand. 3 was no more. Not sure of the difference between Vodafone and Virgin since they're both red. Optus was still trapped between animals and a very fast but somehow tangible 4G yellow cube you can hold in your palm but kinda blew your face away.

Until this year.

Sorry for the absolute bollocks of a lead up. I initially planned to just share a YouTube video, but  I guess it's good to provide a bit of context.

I'm sure by now you've seen the big Optus rebrand that has all designers walking around in a wet dream coma state:

You can see the complete suite here.

My feeling is that I can't feel any prouder, to be a Telstra customer.

No seriously, it's actually a compliment to Optus. If I'm still 19 as a university student, or even 23 working as a junior, I'd love this new character to give Telstra the finger. To make me feel all cute, and relevant and cool. Truth is I'm a cynical Asian running a business now. I am not their target market.

They've done a great job polarising the market, and the plan is obvious. Why fight the blue Telstra when you can destroy the red double Vs first? And the timing can't be better, because they've got this case study that the public really likes cute stuff (cue Dumbways to Die). As much as my dreaded cynicism is yelling 'It's telco, no one gives a shit as long as it's cheap and reliable', I really hope it works.

p.s. Yesterday I was watching daytime TV. And they're doing this infomercial with the logo bang smacked at the bottom left hand corner. I guess amidst the big rebranding mock up they didn't think about how the logo or typeface would look with a lot of crappy text on TV.

It actually looks a lot like ... a Dodo ad.

While people are engaged in creating a totally different world, they always form vivid images of the preceding world.

Smart man, Mr. McLuhan.

Hi Parky, hope you like the new/old layout.

Come on, we all know this will only revolutionise the porn industry: two-way sex tape without hands. 

For the first time ever, Americans took an ad idea from Australia.
And didn't improve on it. Not even a single bit.
In fact, kudos on team Australia for not showing the product at all. 

America:


Australia:

This following commercial has offended the Thai transgender group, claiming it as far as 'a violation of human rights'.

I'm not too sure. I love it. I don't think any less of transgenders. In fact, if they're widely accepted in Thailand. It would be a violation to NOT show them in local commercials.

I love this ad. Not because I love lamb, or have Aussie pride. But because:

1) I thought they've exhausted the Sam Kekovich idea. Last year's 'Barbie Girl' idea made me cringe because it was a music video based on a pun;

2) The execution was topical and relevant;

3) Most important of all, it's entertaining. I won't mind watching it again.

Even the national Lambnesia test was fun to play with.

The tagline of this ad is absolutely spot on.

Not because Myki is a good service, but because we're forced to.

Since they stopped selling tickets, Myki is literally our only way to go if we want to pay for public transport.

What a way to stick one into our faces. 

Also, if you pay attention, you can even see a transvestite at the 00:18 mark. 

I know what the ad is saying.
And consumerism + holiday season is always a win strategy. 
But don't you think the ways people cope with 'not having stuff' in the commercial are actually .. quite creative? 
We should encourage people to spend less use their creativity. I think. 

Came across this Air Jordan ad, featuring Chris Paul.
I don't even want to know what that means.



The late Nagi Noda has already gone down this path almost 10 years ago.
Better production, better art direction.


And frankly, I think Coke's idea of cause and effect makes more sense. 
Nike is just trying to skew the cool factor.

It appears that I have a lot more blogs to manage but lesser time to do so.
From now on I will try to wrap each post with a paragraph of text.
Except for this one of course.

First up, Mr. Samsung.
Please, stop making ads of what you would like to happen.
I've never seen a birthday message gone viral with a Victoria Secret model. 
Instead, tell me what WILL happen if I buy that bigger-than-phone-but-smaller-than-tablet device.
You were doing so well with the Apple queue ad.

It must be tough running a cafe. 

For instance, I walked into one today with an art director friend and his writer during lunch break.
Brick walls? Check. Handwritten chalk boards? Check. Cement floor? Check. Warehouse settings? Hanging lightbulbs? ...

Ok I quite liked their red hanging lightbulbs.
I took out my camera and before I could take a 3rd shot this dude with stubbles and blood-shot eyes (possibly the owner) came up to me and said 'who're you with?'

I was like 'what?'

'Who're you with?'

What?

'No I'm serious. What are you doing here? Who are you with?'

Dude. My friend is taking away lunch. I'm not with anyone. I'm admiring your cafe. 

'You want to take photos you talk to me first. Understand?' 

Ok, I'll delete these photos then. 

'Seriously, who are you with?'

This is when I walked away, back to my friends while making a mental note never to step foot in this place again.

It must be tough running a cafe.

I started looking around, and I see Asians making the coffee and sandwiches in the back. Efficient workforce. Their name is 'Espresso' followed by the postcode 3121. Very clever SEO wise. Single origin coffee and petite dessert. Textbook. Old school Coca-Cola glass bottle? Nice. 

I admit it's partly my fault for not asking for permission, but why the the paranoia? 

More importantly, why the attitude? As far as I'm concerned who-are-you-with is a question used on mafias and Chinese triads when a stranger causes trouble in a turf. Is it because of competition? Is it fear of bad reviews? The fear of someone stealing the 'style' that is readily available on other cafe blogs? To the extent that you see a camera you think publicity and espionage, like McDonald's?

This reminded me of an Anthony Bourdain's article that I read recently about activists going to the extreme to ban foir gras. They sent a celebrity chef video clips of his own children playing in his backyard saying 'we're watching' as a threat for him to take the item off his menu.

This is food we're talking about. Not biological warfare.

And it's heart breaking from a marketer's point of view. This guy could've just said 'yea man, cool camera, send me some photos when you're done', and I probably will be writing a completely different post today.

6 years ago I was at a Moby concert and he said, 'If you want to take photos of me, remember to turn off the flash. They turn out better that way.' 

6 years ago.

Are we going backwards with self-promotion?

Are you following Homeland?
It's only like, the 2nd most acclaimed TV series at the moment. (Breaking Bad is well, taking a break.)
Channel 10 has pretty much spoiled it for everyone so far, but I'm issuing a warning here anyway.
Spoilers ahead. Turn back. 

So the whole of season 1 was about how the CIA mistrusted Carrie's judgement on Brody.
Her mentor didn't trust her, her boss was entirely dismissal, and to make things worst, they then discovered she was hiding a psychotic disease.

Fast forward to episode 5 of season 2, the cat got out of the bag.
Carrie was correct, after all. She went through brain zapping, demotion, and a lot of self doubt. But she was right. And redeemed.

If you rewatch the beginning of the episode, you can observe how upper management deal with guilt and remorse: very straight forward.

David and Saul basically just sat there and went: 'Ah crap, what do we do now?'
Oh well, get her back, and get her back on the job.

Because we've been watching the show from Carrie's perspective, it's hard to not feel angry. She deserves more that a pat on the back. She needs maybe a pay rise, for collateral damage, a statue, an apology from the president, even.

Yet, from the CIA's point of view, this is merely one of many fuck ups they have to deal with on a daily basis.

Even when David met Carrie again after the realisation, after he told her just 2 days ago that despite her good work in Beirut she will never be reinstated, he could only say: I don't know what to say.

And Carrie understood.

We want Carrie to be better, because for a whole season she's been the victim. But it's difficult to see things from management's perspective. The agency took a huge risk to ask her to go back to Beirut again, and in turn gave her an opportunity to find the SD card.

Compared to Carrie and Brody's relationship, I find Saul and David's interaction more intriguing.

And that's probably the attitude we should have in a professional working environment.

Nike has terminated their contract with Lance Armstrong.
http://nikeinc.com/press-release/news/nike-statement-on-lance-armstrong

I don't care whether he really doped or not.
After Tiger Woods, I don't think the world trusts athletes anymore.

What interests me, is that whether consumers can sue Nike for promoting a flawed role model for the last 10 years. (Suddenly 'Just do it' sounds very, very wrong paired with drug abuse.) And more importantly, can Nike actually claim damage from Armstrong himself, now that his negative publicity delivered a blow to the brand.


Did you buy the livestrong wrist band? I did. Do you feel cheated and stupid now? I do. 
He's had a pretty sweet 10 years with all the money, achieving stardom (married Sheryl Cole while he's at it) and having a whole cancer foundation based on his success.This gif file on the internet portraying how he is feeling right now is gold:



The title means nothing. Without proper punishment, what we're showing is that you can achieve success and wealth with drugs.
Tremendous success in Armstrong's case.

We just need to be smarter and not get caught .. too soon.

I manage several Facebook business pages, and since the IPO I've noticed some weird action on the stats. 

By doing the usual stuff, that is not spending ANY money on any ads or promotion, there've been a spike on the 'reach'. And when I say 'spike' I mean quadruple the amount of people who 'liked' the pages. For example, my own petty photography page with 200 likes had apparently 'reached' 1300 users in a single week last month. 

And then out of nowhere, the spike crashed and now the stats are back to how it used to be. 

This little anomaly scared the shit out of the business owners. They thought something was wrong with the pages and now are paranoid with numbers, trying to emulate the same posts or notification that caused the 'spike'. 

Now hold on a second, a free 'high', followed by a crash, and then the desperation to get 'high' again. 

Sounds familiar? 

Reach is the new drug on the internet. And guess who is the kingpin?

My theory, is that since Facebook controls how many people see your posts, they can easily adjust the number to cause this 'reach anxiety'. 

Who could stand being a nobody again after enjoying the thrill of being a rockstar?

But the business owners didn't ask the most important question: did the spike in popularity generate any extra sales?

Dave Trott is possibly Bill Bernbach reincarnated. Well I like to imagine that he is, because he is one of the living greats of advertising. His advertising blog is the only one I have on my bookmark even though I'm not officially in the industry anymore. Ok I lied, the other advertising blog I read is his guest blog on campaign UK.

Spend some time on it, and you'd realise he write in short, concise sentences.
Always based on some insight or anecdotes that somehow magically relates to the industry.
People seems to think he's this genius who could pull random strand of wisdom and make the golden nuggets into a blog post, but I'd like to think it's not all genius. Advertising is all about consumer behaviour, and most of the time his thoughts are very simple and relevant. (Plus I'd like to think it's something I can learn instead of thinking that it's something only a 'genius' can do.)

Anyway, I stumbled across this link today, and it was a talk he gave a few years ago. If you have any interest at all in marketing / branding / advertising, this is so simple yet mind blowing it will change your life. I mentioned on the title that designers will hate this, because he is saying that what we're doing in craft is basically generating impact while the most important question was ignored. I feel so angry that young kids nowadays have access to this for free while I had to sit through loads of bullshit lectures in  uni and none was as insightful as this. 



Even if you're not in the industry, you're bound to learn something new. 

I've been going to Bikram Hot Yoga once a week for 3 months now.
Before this surprises you, let me assure you that no one is more surprised than myself.


People do yoga to get in touch with their soul, to unwind, to meditate etc. I do hot yoga simply because I want to eat junk food. See, to justify eating like a pig, I need to exercise. And hot yoga is the most passive exercise I've ever encountered in my whole life.
You attempt some impossible positions in a small, bright room of 38 - 40 degree Celsius with a 60% humidity level (I assume hot yoga is simply referred to as 'yoga' in India) along side 50+ people for 90 minutes. Even if you don't participate and lie down on your back, you're still sweating. It's the perfect 'sport' for me.


The first time was terrible. It felt like long distance running and I had to take a cab home.
The second time around, I was yawning in class. Not because it was too easy; my brain was lacking oxygen and I passed out on the floor 10 minutes later.
Now I have the energy to walk out of the room and straight to Grill'd  to destroy a burger. I still can't perform 50% of the poses. I can't even lock my knees. But I'm maintaining my weight without giving a crap about what I eat.


There is definite physical improvement in terms of lung capacity and flexibility (just like how getting smashed repeatedly by a chair would improve reflexes and durability). After 3 months my knuckles are touching the floor, and I noticed that arguments with the girlfriend has gone longer than before. I also sleep really well after each session (maybe not because of yoga but more from the arguments). I guess in the end, we all need something we can own and build upon. Even if that 'something' involves inhaling sweat germs from strangers. 


One common misconception is that yoga is for hot girls. Well, the reality is that for every hot girl in the class you get 3 chubby ones, 3 who are so skinny that the spine is poking out like a fossil, and 3 hairy men in speedo trunks. Tip: if you ever need to bet on who're the experts, always go for the chubby ones. Maybe this is why I kept going back, to piss off the beautiful people by doing the back bend while they sit down in defeat. (Ok that last part is not very in tune with the Bikram teachings, but fuck the beautiful people right?)


In short, Bikram Hot Yoga is simply simulated torture. Sure they try to sugar coat it with inspirational quotes and 'mind over body' bullshit, but it is not any different from signing up to a gym. (They got me hooked on this Staminade drink and want to charge me $100 for having my own matt. It's still about the money.) It's not mysterious; it's just another activity, like training for marathon or golf. And with every activity comes a bunch of douche bags trying to make it bigger than it is (oh you need to try to Nike Yoga wear, it's uh-mazing). 


You just need to find your own poison. 

First of all let me say this: Twenty and Six espresso is a nice place. I've been there a few times with different people and I get it. Besides looking like a place with hipster-theme halloween party going on everyday, they serve good coffees. They have the Josef M Brockmann book on Grid Systems on their table for viewing so they're definitely in my good books.

And what I'm about to discuss isn't happening only at Twenty and Six; it is merely the first example I can think of.

With that out of the bag, here goes:

The dish above is the Tokyo Sumo Salad. I think it costs around $20 and it is essentially a salad dish made of soba noodles, grilled chicken, coriander tossed in sesame oil dressing with Japanese pink ginger garnish.

There is something wrong with the dish.

It is the big pile of pink ginger.

Pink ginger, (or Gari as the Japanese call it) is usually served with raw sashimi.
The function is to cleanse our palette in between the different sashimi's and some say the antiseptic acidity in the Gari can prevent salmonela.
Natural pickled ginger is yellow in colour, so the pink ones we see from our local Chinese sushi chef is made from our good friend, Mr. Artificial Colour E124. It is ok to take them in tiny moderation (say one thin slice with each sashimi / sushi); not in the size of a tennis ball as seen on the beautiful picture above.

So my point is this: The dish above doesn't make sense.
There is no raw fish in it. It's a chicken salad.
I'm sure the Gari was simply there to look good and make the sell as a healthy salad. It is not.
Melbourne (can I say Australia?) is so ignorant about Asian food that'd we pay twice as much for style over substance. It is the equivalent of eating an 'Aussie' dish in Singapore that is smothered with Keen's mustard.
I may sound like a food snob, but if you're charging $20 for a salad, at least keep it real.

This week I was back freelancing for a couple of days in an agency. This post has nothing to do with that experience, just that it reminded me that I haven't been writing about advertising for quite some time. So here goes:


Television commercial is dead.


At least, that's what the industry has been debating about since the first agency pitched this low price, high reach thing called the banner ads and proclaimed themselves as 'digital agencies'. And whenever a new smart phone is introduced (yup it's really dead now) or the new iPad is released (last nail on the coffin, that is), the same argument keeps popping up.


Do these industry experts watch TV? I do. And this is the general trend of TVCs in Australia:


1. A person breaks the fourth wall and talks to the viewer.
2. The person describes a deal, a product, a benefit. (ok, multiple deals, multiple products, multiple benefits.)
3. The person provides you the call to action.
Don't believe me? Try these:





Who are these people? Why do I need to listen to them? What makes the brands(or agencies) think these promoters are convincing enough to represent the brand?


You know what they remind me of? Radio commercials. Perhaps these people don't matter after all.
In radio ads we have voice overs; now on TV we have voice overs with a face. 


TVCs aren't dead. They've just been reduced to walking, talking version of brochures and junk mails. 
What's really in the coffin is the theatrical and entertainment value of the commercials. 

I'm doing this thing recommended by Austin Kleon's book to map out a 'creative' family tree.

Basically it's to find out who or what inspired the artist who inspired you, so in the end you end up with a big tree that's inter-related and you have your very own 'school of influence'.

I blogged about the manga about wine a few weeks ago and last Friday I stumbled across another manga about food: Oishinbo.

In order to compile the 'ultimate recipe book' the main character Shiro with his female side kick Yuko has to explore all around Japan to reveal the secret of Japanese cuisine. The villain? Shiro's elitist father, Yuzan, who's an artist, actor, food critic, and founder of the 'Gourmet Club'. He trained Shiro since young but later had a fall out when the wife died out of exhaustion and they've been crossing into each other's path since then.



It is no doubt that Drops of God refers to Oishinbo every way in terms of plot and characters (The kind and poor aiding people in need against the tide of rich evil tyrants). The main difference, is perhaps the style between the manga artists. Oishinbo was published since 1983 (7th longest running mango to date) and it had a heavy Tezuka-influence while DoG is more prone to the modern 'early Takehiko - Shojo' style we see in the early 00's.

Once again I'm humbled by the educational value of Oishinbo. The manga teaches us not only about wine like DoG, but also the preparation of Japanese, Chinese, French cuisine, the ingredients, the state of the agricultural industry, and the history behind the food. So far, I've learned how to spot a good sushi chef from an average one, how to tell if a tomato is good enough without cutting the flesh open, and how to cook a double-sided egg without flipping the egg, why certain plates or dishes are used during kaiseki, and why you should leave the restaurant if you know the chef smokes.



I guess the more I venture into genre-based manga, the more I respect the research and dedication that went behind creating a manga series. Sure any hipster with money to spend can travel to France and blog about their experience with mediocre writing skills. But to be able to tell a story based on the culinary experience AND illustrate it AND captivate an audience AND be educational, I don't think any other artists around the world can do that. (Pixar comes to mind, but they spend millions of dollars on research; a manga team consists of 2-4 people.)

Viz Media picked the 'best of the best' among the 104 books of the original series and compiled them into a 'easy for white people to understand' 7 book series, titled Oishinbo: Ala Carte. Each book has a theme of 'ramen', 'sake' or 'miso' but the stories won't make any sense chronologically, so think of it as watching a sitcom re-run.

Old school HK movies played a major part in my childhood.


To talk about old school HK movies, I need to start from God of Gamblers. For the Chinese it was pretty much the biggest cinematic influence during the 80s. 


It also shows how addicted the Chinese were(are) to gambling, to be able to make a movie based on that. I don't think I'm exaggarating when I say his character was the equivalent to the Chinese Superman. The character, Ko, didn't really show any pragmatic gambling skills in the movie. To be the best gambler in the world, you have to be also good at guns, martial arts, looking stylish, and perform magic. In actual fact, the title should be 'God of Scammers'.

Looking back the movie was shot under terrible budget, lighting ... terrible everything. What saved it (or the whole industry back then) was merely Chow Yun Fat's star power.
Although seeing Andy Lau as the young idiotic sidekick is always refreshing.

Everything aside, the opening was still powerful to me because it was so unorthodox. I'm not sure if it was intentional, old movies tend to open with the title and credits, but with GoG there's a prologue: an obscure casino in San Francisco realized Ko was winning a lot money. The manager went down and put a cap on his chips and we see Ko leaving the casino, setting an introduction to be the 'God of Gamblers'. 


Then cut to Tokyo, Ko's wife was blogging with her voice recorder about their life while he sips tea. (The recorder was a major prop for later story development and even modern HK movies aren't that well thought out.) The assistant came in and simply said 'we're ready.'


Intense zoom into Ko's face. Cue dramatic music, and suddenly we see this camcorder quality video of Ko and his wife getting through a rampage of Japanese reporters to establish that this guy is not any big shot, but THE big shot. The fact that the director didn't give a shit and ran the credits on top of the scene just gave more impact to the scene. 


(The assistant preventing the reporters to take photos was also a nice touch. It resonates with the prologue which the casino manager said 'he hates taking pictures'. I know, details.)


So the first scene establishes the mystery, second scene validates his identity, then straight into battling a Yakuza boss. 


I may be thinking about it too much. But take a look. Even if you disagree, take it as an absurd journey into HK classic film cinema. It's still better than modern HK cinema.

Maybe we can't attend the awesome lessons at the School of Life in London, but they've got their own books published now. I bought How to Stay Sane and How to Worry Less about Money and have finished the latter.




John Armstrong wrote a lot about 'flourishing' instead of 'happiness', as sometimes it is not necessarily a pleasant experience even though you're flourishing as a person. Money is essential to help us flourish.

Also, money worries is different from money trouble. It is easy to use the lack of money as an easy excuse for our worries. (We think our children will be unhappy without wealth, but what we're really worried about is their ability to take responsibility.)



Speaking about money, I'm also reading Peter Schiff's new book - The Real Crash: America's Coming Bankruptcy. Pretty scary stuff as I can see no way how the US of A can avoid a depression. Somehow they'll find an excuse to start a nuclear war I'm pretty sure.



Biggest news on design front has to be the rebrand (or the un-brand) of University of the Arts. Best design firm in the world + best client in the world = safest design ever is the common sensus. I personally think it's a typical case of 'death by client'.



Watched Mondovino last week. It is the wine version of Food Inc. (to be fair Food Inc came out much later). The documentary explores how Mondavi, the American wine empire is trying to unify and commercialised wine. On one hand they have the wine consultant Michel Rolland, who insists that great wine can be made anywhere simply by micro-oxygenating the barrels (disregarding the authority of the terrier), and on the other Robert Parker, the wine critic who breaks and makes a wine brand by his nose (which is insured by several millions). So Mondavi buys vineyards around the world, hires Rolland to brew the wine in a certain way which Parker endorses, and there you have the evil wine trifecta.


Stay tuned.

It's what sophisticated customers say to the chef when they sit in front of the sushi bar: an invitation to present what he thinks are the best ingredients of the day(and also to show off his skills).

Sounds like a crazy Japanese manga plot? Absolutely.

At first glance, I am absolutely amazed by how knowledgeable(and loaded) the artists are, to be able to construct a plot simply around wine tasting. We follow the protagonist (wine beginner but gifted sense of smell due to his father's training since young) as he learns the basics through adventures such as reuniting long lost couples, settling a bet with his Italian-wine fanatic boss, helping a French chef deciding on the right Chablis to go with his oysters, and (my favourite so far)tracking an unknown wine for a woman to help her recover from amnesia. 

I dig Pinterest.
Pinterest is the digital visual diary.
If you've ever done a design course, you know what I'm talking about. 
Especially if you're a designer/art director arranging a shoot for pre-production, Pinterest is a lifesaver. 


I know everyone's concern about privacy and what not. 
But here's my recent stance: Just like organic food, we don't really care about privacy; we just want to seem knowledgable. 
(We constantly give out our credit card details to shop online, come on.)


But the real reason I like Pinterest, is how they ripped off ffffound. 
Just like Apple and Facebook, it isn't original. 
Again, if you're a designer, you must have, at some point, heard of ffffound.
You know, that Japanese/white elitist 'image bookmarking' site purely for designers that requires invitation from other cool Japanese/white elitist designers to join?
(If my bitterness made you suspect that I once requested an invitation from ffffound and got rejected, you're absolutely spot on.)


Pinterest works exactly like ffffound. 
And ffffound was around since 2007. 
Why didn't it take off just like Pinterest?
Because designers are too cool. 
They kept it 'designers only', so you get struggling artists and delusional designers bookmarking their own wad of masturbation onto each other's wall. (Sometimes literally.)
Pinterest opened it up to the public and in my opinion gave fffound the middle finger. 
And that is why cool designers can't be entrepreneurs. 

I don't hate facebook, but I'm not a fan either.
Does this sound familiar to you?
Don't worry. I'm not going to talk about IPO.
I'll be the first to admit that I have no idea how IPO works, but apparently everyone's an expert now.


I do, however, follow the facebook design group.
Similar to hackers, the designers in facebook HQ have complete freedom to take charge and solve any problems they see fit (At least, according to their videos).
This is an employee certificate to commemorate facebook's IPO. 
I've heard about facebook's mantra 'Move fast and break things', but this is the first time I've seen a second: 'Done is better than perfect'. 
And when you put the two mantras together, facebook's IPO (or everything they've done so far) makes sense.
They are just moving forward by taking the next step.
Sure timeline sucks, but they are trying to change something.
Sure the share price is lower now, but they now have more money to expand. 


I am constantly amused by how middle-class economists criticise billionaires on their billion dollar deals.
For some reason we think we can relate to them. They should stand down to our level and listen to our rationale and live their lives as we see fit.
Can you imagine an African kid writing about your decisions in life, criticising about your extravagant lifestyle and how you should spend more money to end famine and poverty? 


Right. So why should facebook care about our opinions again? 

Recently I've caught up with a lot of friends, acquaintances, and clients who wants to 'do something' with their lives.
It is a mixture of being bored, wanting to be more creative and wanting to make an impact.
(Some wants to 'make it', but I have absolutely no idea what that means.)
And then they started saying how everything's been done, and they will never be as good or as successful as (insert personal heroes here) and I see them trapped in this loop. 
The 'bored as shit to angry and frustrated to fear of risk to acceptance and repeat' loop.


If you can relate to the description above, I think this book is a good starting point. 
'Steal like an Artist' is based on a talk Austin Kleon gave, which he turned into a blog post, which is now a book. 
To be honest, I don't know anything about him;  the book was sitting on my Amazon recommended list and I was simply attracted to his handwriting (like the love child of Matt Groenig and David Shrigley).
This book will take you 20 minutes to finish. And it will inspire you to be creative. If you're already a creative person, it will re-inspire you. 
If you're too stingy to invest $20 on a book (not a good start to show commitment to change your life), please at least check out his blog post. The click will do more than I can explain here.
From now on, this will be my birthday present to everyone. 

Came across this post about the completion of Kengo Kuma's tourist information in Asakusa.

I blogged about it 2 years ago when his company won the pitch. 
Two things worth mentioning: 
1) I am surprised that it only took 2 years to build it. 
2) The real thing is not as sexy as the mock up image they proposed. 


Just saying.

It's become my habit to buy a book every time I visit Sydney.
(Ok not true, I buy books everywhere I go.)
My most recent purchase was David Chang's cookbook, Momofuku.
I know, a cookbook isn't a real book, but the genius behind Chang's marketing gimmick was to make the book half recipes, half memoir.
Peter Meehan, the then New York Times food writer wrote from Chang's perspective, from being an English teacher in Japan aspiring to be a ramen cook, to being kicked around the New York dining scene, then starting his tiny struggling dirty noodle shop, and ended up at where he is now, award winning gourmet super star.
What bugged me though, was the evolution of a small noodle bar into a 5 star, online booking, sold out, $200 per head, fine dining empire.
What I got out of this book, is that growing into greatness wasn't his choice.
When he started Momofuku, he had difficulty hiring an extra staff. He put an ad on the internet and only one person applied. Someone who was as hungry and as frustrated as he was.
But the place was still struggling. Somehow, his old friends from previous big restaurants came to help. Presumably because his shop was so tiny and primitive, that they had the freedom to improve on the food. (Like a start up compared to multinational agencies.)
Eventually, regulation forced him to include dessert on his menu. And that's when he consulted his friend Christina Tosi, who was this pastry chef in another fine dining restaurant, and eventually became his full time staff aka head pastry chef at Milk Bar.
His staff was feeling tired of cooking mediocre meals, so he started KO, a 12 seat fine dining restaurant that focuses on the skill and craft of cooking.
Chang understood his staff,  it forced him to provide an environment where angry talented chefs can experiment and do whatever they want.
He was still an asshole, getting everyone Blackberrys so he could ask them to brainstorm on the go.
But he had the connection, and he knew how to spot and hire passionate chefs that are better than him, and he knew how to back off from a good idea.


Sounds like a great creative director to me.


image via