What Ad Agencies can learn from AC/DC..

Angus doing what he does best. Picture via T-Klick. Usual rules..

I've been listening to an awful lot of three chord music recently (no, no Status Quo, happily). And it seems to me that there's a parallel there with the swirling, ever changing advertising world.

Namely, that very simple songs can seem infinitely more complicated than they are, and if people over analyse them, it's usually a bit of a mistake. Indeed, one of planning's cardinal sins is to buy into the overcomplication, to not put its foot down when people are taking part in flights of fancy (does any FMCG need bloody twitter, eh?).

And I know that there have never ever been more terms to describe things than there are now. Hell, just take planning. Am I a creative planner, a strategic planner, a comms planner? God knows.

I sometimes wonder, with this increasing vocabulary, whether we try too hard to see things that aren't there; after all, I'm a firm believer that the simpler the communication message, or the more natural the use of technology, the better the results - look at the Sainsbury's with 'Try Something New Today' and Tesco's Clubcard implementation for proof of this.

And it's one of my tenets, which might not be massively fashionable - I think advertising is essentially simple. People don't really change much; we all lust after the same basic things, we all want to be entertained, and advertising is all about working out how products fit into this mix (that's the more complex bit).

I'll leave you with this from Wikipedia, something Angus Young said when he was asked why AC/DC's music was so simplistic:

"It's just rock and roll. A lot of times we get criticised for it. A lot of music papers come out with: 'When are they going to stop playing these three chords?' If you believe you shouldn't play just three chords it's pretty silly on their part. To us, the simpler a song is, the better, 'cause it's more in line with what the person on the street is."

Sound familar?

Growing Up Online...

No, I didn't look like this when I was younger, sadly. I was far fatter.

Yes readers, it's time for my annual (or monthly) blog post about how blogging changes you, and how the theme of your blog changes with you.

This post was sparked by a conversation I had with Mr Punk Planning himself; we had a really interesting discussion about blogging, life, the universe, mid 90's Premiership footballers, setsquares, and everything in between.

I left the conversation thanking God I hadn't started blogging when I was much younger. Any self-regulatory skills I may have now weren't really all there then. My generation is the first one where we have everything documented, tagged, written about and generally publicised. Citizen journalism, it seems to me, leaves you nowhere to hide.

Also, I really don't like the notion of a 'Plannersphere Mafia' either, where if you don't blog you aren't good at your job, or you have nothing to say - some people just value their personal and professional privacy more than others, which is fine. Easy to understand as well, when blogging demolishes the public/private debate - the whole world can peer in if they wish.

And I found that I'm more divided than I thought on the topic of blogging. On the one hand I like the fact that I can write my point of view, meet with incredibly intelligent thinkers either virtually or in real life, and hell, get a job in part due to what I write here (the latter is bloody great, in fact), but, being pessimistic for a moment, it means I have nowhere to run. Thank goodness I work in advertising, where wearing silly Wall St inspired fancy dress is positively encouraged (especially in some modern day agency briefings, it would seem).

I sometimes resent people being able to learn about me and how my thinking has evolved - after all, this is just a storage box for thinking, which in itself is continually changing - there's the worry that someone will read something I've written in mid-2006 and take it as read that I still think the same (I've finally dropped the notion that the world is flat, for example).

Perhaps I should add more of a disclaimer before people enter the site? Heh. No, I'll continue to blog and write about things I enjoy and find interesting.

Going forward from the conversation I had with Charles, I had a rude awakening the other day about how if someone is one of my Facebook friends, they can find out all sorts of things. It happened when someone added me (don't worry, my privacy settings are set appropriately) who I didn't know. Not thinking about it, I accepted their invitation. Happily, it was a name I knew (lost in the mists of time), but it might not have been - it could have been a spammer or someone else.

It got me thinking to be careful who I add and who I don't. The danger is that you get carried away with being super-social and lose sight of your personal security, and personality in general - ie, you become so stretched that you lose sight of your core values.

I don't mind people knowing what I'm doing, but sometimes it's nice to make mistakes in private. And I'm sure I'll make one or two (or a hatful) as I continue to grow up, both personally and professionally. Over-use of Twitter seems to be one at the moment - it's the social equivalent of comfort eating for me.

You see, my blog isn't quite a warts and all expose of what I did on a Sunday, nor a highly polished, professional manifesto or online CV. It attempted to be the latter in the beginning, but I realised that it's just not human, or honest.

Additionally, I'm not a planning director, nor am I attempting to solve the industry's problems with this blog. I'm just projecting a series of ever changing thoughts and ideas, throwing stuff at the wall and seeing what sticks. Some things re-emerge over time, but by and large, it's what I've just thought, off the top of my head (it's also why it's not that well written, to be honest).

All this bloggery/self promotion/communication is what it is. And it's nice to show on the blog/facebook/twitter that I am a 'real' person away from the day job, even if I might talk too much sometimes.

Indeed, it'll be fascinating to imagine what business is general will be like in the next twenty years, with the rise of these people who've gone through a similar process to me. Personally, I think those who are willing to self publish will help push the boundaries of what's out there, and those who don't will be a little bit more reluctant to early-adopt newer things. Neither is bad, it must be stressed again. Interestingly, all the bloggers that I've met, without question, are keen to use technology to improve the world, and use every form of communication to help widen their knowledge.

Charles nails it here when he says that "there really is no better social research than socialising." And I've got to agree. It's helped me grow up a lot in the last year and a bit.

Shh....it's a secret...

An arty shh, courtesy of Novembre85.

A recent report on the BBC has been jumped upon by many bloggers as evidence that there is in fact a 'class divide' between different social networking sites.

Well, considering there was another piece of research telling us that your average social networking person is a member of about four social networking sites, you could easily doubt the validity of the former. As I've stated before, I think the former is wrong-headed; it's not class based, it's design/intention based. And as for the other piece of research, it doesn't surprise me.

Simply put, people don't appear to have a great deal of loyalty.

But I would like to take issue with the conclusion of the latter. I'm a member of...oooh, quite a few social networking sites. But Facebook is the one I turn to most often (read: 90% of the time). And, given the recent widget explosion, it seems I'll be there for a while longer.

Though lots of people are very concerned that the widget explosion could lead to a mass commercialisation of the site, turning the clean and pleasant design into an ad riddled MySpace. Which, frankly, I don't think anyone wants to see (unless it's for something I actually want).

And these things lead me to think about another potential problem, highlighted by Mike Butcher, one of the speakers at the PSFK Conference I went to (yes, I will write the rest up, prompted by my reclaimed Moleskine).

Namely, what happens when some of these social networks become more closed circles, as he predicts they will?

I mean, will we have a Skull and Bones social network? Doubt it, to be honest (the fear it'd be hacked would put paid to that).

People will begin to get fed up with having so many friends, with their worlds converging (personally, I have 249 friends on Facebook at the moment, and I'm purposefully not putting my blog's URL up there - I'm trying to keep my home friends and my ad friends separate for at least a little while longer), and will begin to break away. I'm not sure whether I will...probably not, but who knows?

Don't get me wrong, I'm not advocating lots of mini networks, where each one serves a purpose. No, I think that's equally as short sighted. But I am interested to note just where Facebook goes from here. I mean, it has countless widgets, unlimited groups and so forth. Yes, there are privacy settings, but the amount of people not using them is unbelievable. Most people, in my limited experience, don't self-regulate to that extent - and most of the time, it's unbelievably refreshing to see.

The title of the post references secrets - and with good reason; I do worry a bit, personally, about things I've said online (don't we all?), especially considering that they can be stored for all eternity - and I do wish there was a more secretive way of social networking (not blogging per se, but Facebook - do I really want potential employers to see me after a few beverages/in dubious fancy dress?). Of course, this matters less in a career like advertising, where a bit of character is encouraged. But imagine what it must be like for someone's political career/law career say.

The one saving grace is that the whole world is learning this, and growing up at the same time. People are beginning to realise that being an online presence, as it is, isn't all its cracked up to be, and you have to self-moderate. That said, if the worst it's doing is teaching a bit of common sense, it can't be that bad.

Again, I return to the darker element (and I wish I could have gone to this) of the internet. If this rise in social media leads to more private social sets online, what's to stop people destroying, say, other people's lives/careers with a well-placed lie? After all, if we believe James G Watt, "A lie can run around the world before the truth can get its boots on".

Say, in this hypothetical situation, that a lie is told. The person who the allegation is about is say, on holiday. Days pass. People begin to wonder/believe what's been told, and the time away helps them decide. Simply put, people have to become their own PR entities, which shouldn't be the way it is.

So perhaps it is a good thing that we live in such social networked, open times. I'd rather have a single forum where I 'am' online, in addition to my blog. It'd probably save a helluva lot of problems in the long run, regardless of my worlds overlapping.

NB: Before you ask, yes, I have been looking at Orwell and Huxley's pages on Wikipedia, hence the Orwellian thinking in this post.

6 Blogs that make me think...

Yours truly, astounded by all the thought in the room. Thanks to Sammy.

I've been tagged by Daniel at Adstructure, so I thought I'd write some wibblings about 6 blogs which make me think (no, not 5 - I felt like 6). You should definitely read his blog, if you don't already - a real alternate point of view to the majority of British/American plannery ad blogs out there. Special mentions must go to the Paul Feldwick post. Fascinating stuff.

I'm not going to choose the usual suspects, but instead will focus on those blogs I wasn't aware of until fairly recently:

1) Little Green Dot, written by Freya. Well written, interesting...and it makes you think about the future. That's what good writing and thinking should do, in my view. Especially about green issues.

2) Nicola Davies, written by (shock!) Nicola. One of the few examples of an account handler writing in the blog world today. She's ex VCCP Digital, and is just about to begin work at iCameleon.. she has a passion for all things digital - and writes very well.

3) Punk Planning, written by Charlie 'Allegedly bright' Frith. He's the first linked person I know very well in real life (yes, I do sometimes leave my computer). Having more experience of agency madness, and being ex-HHCL should be reason enough to read his blog - that and he's quite possibly the most inquisitive planner I know - and someone who isn't afraid to debate something if he disagrees with it - a trait we could all use.

4) Plan B, written by Peter Kwong. Another 'real life' friend, Peter works at VCCP, and is a lovely chap. His blog has only just begun, so I'm looking forward to reading what he has to say about all and sundry - his blog post about the PSFK Conference is worth a read.

5) Evidence of a Struggle, written by A Writer. Not much is known this elusive chap, save he (I think) used to be a copywriter. He writes beautifully - I found his blog via Adliterate.

6) Adlads, written by Sam Ismail and Anton. I know both of these gentlemen in real life, and they are both great guys. Sam's recent Saatchi exploits have to be worthy of a mention, and Anton's 'no bullshit' approach gets right to the heart of brands and thinking. Like me, they are 'branding the dream' by documenting their adventures in adland.

So aye. You all get this jpg to pass on to 5 (or 6 if you are obtuse like me) blogs you like:

Turn and face the strain..ch-ch-changes...

Arnie never had to worry about changing. Not in his acting career.

Having posted countless times about this blog's rapidly changing purpose (from online cv, to conversation, to random musings interspliced with conversation), I thought - in a moment of introspection - it'd be a good idea to ponder just what I'd like to change.

Not just in blogging, but in the wider world as well.

A sort of resolution, if you will. And I'd like to ask you (the lurker/reader/blogger/person who just stumbled across the site looking for photos of Herbie) to have a think, and write about your resolutions, or plans for the future (without getting too personal).

It occurs to me that this is like Paul's Let's See What Happens, but sod it - I feel like making some resolutions:

1) Get a job. Rather obvious this one, and fairly self explanatory. Means I can do the things below. All being well, it'll be sorted sooner rather than later.

2) Start doing some creative writing (not just blogging). As an ex English student, I'd dearly dearly love to be published. It's part of the reason why I get so excited about advertising - being able to see something I've contributed to, but hey - I love to write. So why haven't I done it before? Well, simply because I have a tiny, weeny creative ego. So small in fact, that whenever I write something creatively, I dismiss it a few hours later. Well, this must change. I'll get up earlier if I have to. It'll be slow at first, but I'm sure I'll get into it.

3) Play some more organised sport (particularly 5-a-side). Self explanatory this one. I go to the gym a fair bit now, so the next step is to chase after a ball like a headless chicken again, and prove that I can do more than just juggle a football for a little while. Finding a golf course near my flat may also prove to be a bit difficult, but I'll have a scout out.. I was a 17 handicap before getting frustrated with the game.

4) Learn the guitar/piano. No, I haven't decided which one (probably guitar, but there's something cool about being able to sit down and tinkle the ivories).

5) Get better at listening. Bloody difficult, this one. Especially considering that I love to talk far too much (it's the sound of my own voice, honestly). It's not that I don't like listening, it's more that I love to contribute. Can be a bad thing, and easily misconstrued if I'm not careful. So that's going to be improved. NP is my role model. A great listener.

6) Read more random books (and more classics). This is definitely one for when I have more wonga, but it's following Richard's advice. I'm sure this will help me in my profession, and improve my lateral thinking.

7) Do more cultural things (not just the Tate Modern and gigging). Self explanatory. Need cash for this as well, but it's really about not getting into a routine, or closing your mind to other things - and God knows, we can all be closed minded.

8) Keep up my repositionings of brands. Buying a moleskine really helped me do this, as did working alongside Richard.. but I must keep it up, to have a strategy in my pocket for any random question I may be asked. It also keeps me sharp.

9) Take more photos. It's getting better (and I have stacks of pictures not on my Flickr yet), but I must continue doing what I'm doing.

10) Reconnect with some old friends. In this hurly burly of moving to London, I've not been as good as I should have been with some good mates of mine. This must be rectified.

There are others, but they revolve around buying things - a better sound system/Wii/as many CDs as my bank balance allows - and not really about furthering myself or actually improving my life - well, they might...

We'll see how many of these I manage to do in a few months time. Hopefully the first happens soon.

Thoughts, readers? Do you have any resolutions of your own?

Monkey Island taught me everything I know..

Monkey Island 1 - A legendary game.

Anyway, in an forlorn attempt to move away from my traditional, Godin esque posts about marketing and advertising, I thought I'd spoil you, dear reader, with a nostalgic saunter down memory lane.

It concerns point and click adventure games - chiefly the Monkey Island series - and how they help you and get you thinking (I bet you're wondering how I'll work advertising into this...) in strange and different ways.

Well, for the uninitated (and any planner aged between 18-40 who hasn't played these games should immediately down tools and go and play them now - you heard me), they are what's described as a 'point and click adventure game', where you click on objects/use them/talk to various people.

In the first game, you play Guybrush Threepwood, a young wannabe pirate who seeks to earn his spurs in the fast paced world of pirating. As the games progressed, you went on all forms of random quests (including insult sword fighting, monkey kombat and all sorts of peculiar things).

For more information on the series, check out the Wiki page on it.

Anyway, it probably sounds fairly dry stuff. But, trust me, it was glorious. Bloody funny (and it's very rarely any sort of writing makes me laugh, let alone a computer game - which are historically bloody po faced) and just very very random and peculiar. Check it out below:

Pirates of ill-repute from Monkey 2 - animated for your pleasure.

But the most important thing it teaches is lateral thinking. Yes, so do games like Civ 4, and a case could be made that as those are less linear than the MI series, they are better. But I disagree.

Your average Monkey Island puzzle (or for that matter - Grim Fandango, DOTT or Sam & Max), though only having one solution, required you to use items in very strange ways - look at the second Monkey Island for examples of that - banana on a metronome anyone?

Yet they were all rooted in some degree of common sense, unlike some other adventure games, which just involved you clicking on random objects until they worked together.

And it's this skill, this ability to think laterally whilst having your eyes set on the overall goal which I feel the communications industry has never required more of (aha, got a cheeky reference in there).

So.. why are you reading this? Go and buy them all (1+2 are hard-ish to find.. but look around). Be prepared to lose many days of sleep wondering how to get across chasms with only a rubber chicken to help you.

Traipsing around the Tate..(Pt 1)

Juan Usle - Bilingual. NB: This was before I realised the Tate doesn't allow photos. Oops.

Had a very interesting day last week; met up with Lauren (sheseered)at the Tate Modern. A good time was had by all - I recommend the cafe at the Tate Modern, even if it IS a mite pricey and chock full of 'art' food; it was tasty, and just enough for a light lunch.

Anyway, I had a few observations about the Tate Modern, seeing as it was my first time round the place, and how they tie into communications. Lots of these are highly tenuous, but hey....just bear with me.

Now, bear in mind that before going round the Tate, I was someone who regarded much modern art as...well.... not really art, to be honest. Happily, that's changed - some of the pieces really struck me. Usle, Bacon and Giacometti in particular.

It is such that the thing which really, really struck me (and why I'm happy I was able to take that photo of Juan Usle's 'Bilingual') was the need to be intuitive and to be true to yourself.

Usle's painting is all about the balance between two differing languages, expressed visually. It's the thing which unites the two. Everyone, regardless of language, can judge it - and have an inkling into how Usle thinks.

Creatives (and increasingly planners and account handlers), are being called upon to 'know what's right'; what constitutes good creative work. It has never been more important in this age of information in tap, where everyone's opinion can be just as valid as the other. No more top down messages. It's far more circular now.

As Cynical Rob rightly points out in his APSOTW assignment, there is no wrong answer; just different ways of doing things.

Yet you try quantifying intuition. Can't be done.. but the best account men/planners/creatives have always been able to sell magic. There's some truism that suggests magic should just be shown, and not sold. Bollocks. Selling is the name of the game, and selling brilliance can be just as hard as mediocrity, if not moreso; you have to get people to understand someone's intuition, which (frequently) has never been seen before.

Claude Monet - Waterlillies. The last naughty pic.

Consider Monet's painting. It's now considered a stone cold classic by all. But in its day, it was radical. How has this shift occurred? Well, history moves on, and people react to the paintings in different ways, and things get reappraised. This has happened because Monet had the balls to continue ploughing his furrow. Though he may never have directly sold his work, he knew that what he was doing was right.

Quoting that Wiki entry:

"The critical response was mixed, with Monet and Cézanne bearing the harshest attacks. Critic and humorist Louis Leroy wrote a scathing review in the Le Charivari newspaper in which, making wordplay with the title of Claude Monet's Impression, Sunrise (Impression, soleil levant), he gave the artists the name by which they would become known. Derisively titling his article The Exhibition of the Impressionists, Leroy declared that Monet's painting was at most, a sketch, and could hardly be termed a finished work."

God knows what would have happened if ol' Claude had just listened to the critics.

These artistic pioneers helped to reawaken the debate about high and low culture in my mind. Who says what's brilliant, and what's crap?

Personally, I think it's down to individual intuition.

Take David Patton being appointed as Chief Exec of Grey, for example - he's clearly someone who has a great deal of intuition, given his commission of award winning Playstation and Bravia spots. He just 'gets it'. That can't be taught, but knowing a brand inside out certainly helps. Knowing what's art and what'll sell x number of televisions is clearly immeasurably important in this business.

Indeed, it poses the question: Before you slag off that ad you've seen in Campaign, who is to say whether you fully understand it? Have you lived the brand in the same way?

Yet, even to that, there is a counter argument... if you are too attached to a brand, it can often lead to people not being able to see the wood for the trees. Sometimes thin-slicery DOES work very well, and is just so.

It's what I think Jon Steel was driving at in his talk about chucking your Blackberry away. Taking time away from the daily grind of living the brand clears your head, and gets you thinking away from the conventional.

There is a very palpable lesson to be learned from the Tate Modern's art. Keep your objectivity and subjectivity (so often Yin and Yang to each other) balanced. It's crucially important.

I think everyone involved in communications would benefit (if they haven't already) from a jaunt around the Tate Modern. It certainly led to me reappraising my thoughts about a lot of modern art.

Green or Gone?

Photo belongs to Dianna. Usual rules apply.

Couple of posts by other people have got me thinking.

Thinking? Me? I know, I know. Hard to imagine. But suspend that disbelief. I've been thinking about green issues and how they tie into responsibility.

I recycle, and am aware of the need to reduce my carbon footprint. But, I must confess, it becomes a little bit more blurry when we factor in big businesses. Considering this blog is dedicated (partially) to thinking about advertising and communications in general, it's worth noting that we as an industry have become ever more aware of our responsibility to the public.

Yet, our responsibility is to sell things to people. Directly in opposition to the green issues, or so it would seem at first glance.

But what happens when companies unite to sort out problems in society? Childhood obesity, for example?

Well, as Innocent may find out, it could be damaging or wonderful, depending on your choice of partner and the consumer's point of view.

Do we now put up a barrier between those companies which are mindful of ethical and green issues and those which don't appear to be (and McDonalds in this instance are taking steps), or do we acknowledge that these companies do exist to make money, and all the good will in the world won't change that (yes, it's an ultra-cynical view)?

The world is never that black and white, as this debate on Amelia Torode's blog shows. I've put my two pen'north in, and you should too, if you haven't already. Class, emotive responses, green thinking, uncomfortable bedfellows and snobbery all feature.

The thing which struck me on the Innocent site was the depth of emotion in some of the responses; some of these people could seriously fuck the brand, if not managed carefully. I'm still of the view that it is a good thing (albeit something which has to be handled with the utmost attention), but it's a divisive issue.

And indeed, it brings us to the bigger issue, which I sort of touched on above - as consumers, where do we fall? All companies will have to get greener, but will there be a capitalist backlash (not now) against anyone that besmirches the environment? I doubt it, but the pendulum seems to be swinging a little more in that direction.

There is definitely (at the moment) still room for two fingers, fuck it, we are going to produce this luxury item for people who can afford it thinking. But whether that'll last remains to be seen.

And oh, I've stumbled along a brilliant (green) blog. Check out Little Green Dot. And if you haven't already, read John Grant's new blog, Greenormal. He's done some proper thinking into the subject.

Thin slicing my way through life/How Angels get their haloes..

Thanks to HeatherShade - usual rules apply,

One of the reasons I like blogging so much is that it completely bypasses that potentially awful thing - that of false first impressions.

There's trend (and it's perfectly natural) of meeting someone during some situation - where they are stressed, tired, hungover or whatever...and getting a completely inaccurate impression of them and what they are like.

Personally, I tend to find that I communicate much better in the written form - I talk too much when I'm in a pressure situation, or just generally.. I find it so much easier to organise my thoughts in written form (and you lose all of those strange little body language things which can be misread).

And it's curious (and another one of my bug bears with a lot of agency grad schemes) that there can be those who really perform on the day, get a mild halo effect, but turn out to be damned incompetant/bloody useless.

And yet, this pre judging will never quite stop. We can't stop thinking instantly. We think 'oh, that person is incompetent' because they're a little bit scruffy or mal-coordinated. You can't turn off your mind.

We all character assassinate (and some have a great deal of fun doing it - who doesn't enjoy making back stories for people whilst they are looking out of the window?), and so..though blogging goes some way to helping, first impressions will continue to dominate, but hell - just be aware of them.

At least, I hope this blog provides a bit of a window into how I think. Comments made in real life whilst under the influence of alcohol aren't quite so useful. Nor those when I'm trying too hard to impress.

Quotes on this I happen to agree with - 'The problem with first impressions is that you only get to make one'.. and a Brendan Benson quote (whose song you can listen to below): 'I've always been this way. Never known any other way to feel':



And if you've never met me before - I'm the overly talkative one who should learn to listen better. But give me time...I do listen (most of the time).

Funnily enough, thin slicery (and it's just occurred to me I've just summarised part of 'Blink'.. heh) is what people have been doing to McDonalds and Innocent. So beware that you don't do it too much.

And oh, on the topic of someone else who sometimes thin slices - check out Charles Frith's new blog. Long time commenter, first time blogger. Welcome on board Charles.

Good Customer Service? Yes.

I've recently got wireless. Despite the occasional hiccup, it's proving to be great - got to love being on t'internet at home.

Anyway, I got wireless with BT.

Good price and all that, and the deal was sweetened when I found out my bank had a deal going on with them (£50 off with my bank account - woo hoo).

Anyway, that was the good bit. The bad bit came when the phone line wouldn't find broadband. After much head scratchery, I called them. No problems on the waiting front; I was very quickly speaking to a nice lady called Cheryl.

She couldn't solve the problem, but could I speak to another colleague?

'Course. I wanted me t'internet.

That colleague (who's name escapes me) confirmed the line was buggered, and an engineer would be out the following day.

He was, ringing me twice and sorting out the problem.

Great stuff.

I followed the cd's instructions, and after a bit of a kerfuffle with the USB wireless stick I had to buy, I was sorted - and £50 to the good, as the voucher is now being processed.

Tip top BT - and for what it's worth, I think the new B2B strategy is a winner.

Product Recalls and Bans.. (Yes, it's a bit work related)

So yes; I've probably been posting about tat for a while (or random metaphors/analogies), so have a question I've been asked. It's a little bit short (because I have been working on it whilst doing the day job), but fuck it. Here you go.

"Over the past few years, companies have been forced to issue many more product recalls. This trend is driven partly by changes in legislation and the manufacturing process, partly by changes in consumer behaviour. What should we do to address this?"

As the question notes, product recalls are driven by a variety of factors; from changes in customer preconception, to societal pressures, to basic defects.

If I were to assess the notion of recalls, I would first have to frame the problem. A DTI study in 2000 (found here), found that (as, I imagine, most would suspect) the biggest problem is due to actual product defects – things being physically wrong with the product. Electrical fault accounted for 46% of the recalls.

And, as the study goes on to outline, the recalls occur more frequently with price perceptions (items under £10 have under a 10% recall rate). Get past £10, and defect recalls occur far more frequently.

These two pieces of information create the principal insight. If your product is liable to cost over £10, then clearly the manufacturing process and testing is of paramount importance. Additionally, if your product utilises electricity or could be choked on by little people, care must be taken to pre-test ahead of all else.

However, if I was to try and address the problem over every market and attempt to apply a ‘one size fits all’ solution to the problem, I would research a number of case studies, ranging across a variety of industries. From FMCG problems, white good manufacturers, the auto industry, the pharmeuticals and more besides.

These case studies would provide part of a factual base in order to learn how to address the problem, as well as helping to pre-empt any problems contained within certain types of organisations.

Given the need for those who produce programmes for the computer to beta test, surely it should apply to other industries? One virus or glitch can fuck you in the eyes of the consumer. And you don't want to do that to a consumer that has more power to broadcast just how much you fucked with them. No more slow moving, silent monoliths.

Of course, to be entirely honest, there is a certain sense of chaos surrounding the legislative procedure, as well as no way of knowing which way public opinion will swing about a certain product or service (take Bernard Matthews ‘Turkey Twizzlers’ as a prime example of this).

But certainly, I believe doing this research and avidly pre-testing, testing, testing after launch and not rushing products through R&D is crucial if one is not to end up with mass recalls and a huge dent in company reputation.

If I was a consultancy, that's what I'd suggest. Do your homework, test thoroughly and above all else, hire a a good PR department that is quick on the draw; because no-one can legislate for changing demands and thinking.

Additionally (and Shel Israel would agree), get a company blog; you can instantly get involved with a direct dialogue with your consumer and head recalls off at the pass. If you are a big multinational, a PR company is a must though; you run the risk of your corporate blog getting swamped (especially if it is a mass recall).

That's what I'd do. How about you, faithful readers?