Displaying 145 - 180 of 521 results
Tomorrow is Valentine's Day. Depending on your point of view, this is the point in the year when you make a special effort to show your affection and appreciation for the significant person in your life; or a cynical exercise in consumerism, carried...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Yesterday was 'Internet Safety Day'. Which pretty much proves the pointlessness of things having days dedicated to them. Unless the internet was substantially and provably safer for the entirety of 11th February 2014, or yesterday marked the point...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
UK cancer statistics are frightful and frightening. For every three people who read this article, one will acquire some sort of cancer in their lifetime. The disease doesn't discriminate, striking the very young and the very old, the rich, the poor...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Most days, I take time to read the work of other writers online - and today was no exception. Prompted by a link on Twitter, I visited an article which several users were recommending. They were right - in terms of subject matter and content, it was...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Years ago, I wrote a piece for Creativepool suggesting the confused.com logo was a prime example of branding designed by a client. Looking for all the world like the worst clip-art available from the briefest Google image search, it featured a stick...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
In 1999 a website called Napster appeared on the internet. With little in the way of its own content, and certainly no means nor intention of producing or releasing music, it set a ball rolling that in 2013 tumbled most of HMV’s high street...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
'The Creative Industries' - it's a phrase we hear all the time, isn't it? But what exactly does it mean? Well, if you're a government statistician, it refers to : public relations and communication activities; advertising agencies ; and media...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
I've always loved advertising headlines. Long before I embarked on a copywriting career, I'd amuse myself by creating new versions of lines I saw in magazines or tube trains. Even as a kid, my mum (an English teacher) would point out headlines she...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
The post-Christmas advertising landscape is a rum old scene. The big retailers have withdrawn - some to lick their wounds, others to bathe in glory and ass's milk. This leaves the field pretty clear for other, less seasonal outfits, to pitch their...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
As the Christmas schedule proved, telly in 2013 was a very hit and miss affair. On the one hand, we had the hilarious glory of 'Gogglebox'; on the other, the clunky scripts of Matt Smith's last days in 'Doctor Who'. Still, we're a week into a new...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
If there's one thing HM Coalition Government don't like, it's spending money on public services. Yes, they're really very adamant that nothing more than the absolute minimum needed to keep us slaving away and stumping up our taxes, is available....
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
For all its trials, hardships, wars and woes, 2013 still managed to inject some wonderful stuff into our busy, pressured lives. So, with 2014 snapping at our heels, this would be an appropriate moment to celebrate the things which enhanced the human...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Christmas is rather a competitive activity, isn't it? From those rather ghastly households attempting to out-decorate their neighbours by festooning their brickwork with flashing reindeer, to the restaurants fighting to see who can charge the most...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Understandably there's been quite some fuss about the John Lewis 'Hare and Bear' Yuletide spot. Not only is it high profile and eye-catching, but the cartoon alone cost somewhere in the region of £7m. With that sort of investment, you 'd hope it...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
In the early days of television, a journalist asked the British Prime Minister whether he had anything he wanted to say to the nation. Eden paused for a moment, then said - "No." This exchange has passed into history as an example of a considerably...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
So, you think you know your social media? What's the biggest social network in the world, then? Right, Facebook. Even my Auntie Janet knows it's Facebook - and I don't have an Auntie Janet. Okay, which social network is the second biggest? Twitter,...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
I've written before on the clumsiness and general lack of bite of the ASA (Advertising Standards Authority) and this week sees them back in action, in hot pursuit of Spotify. It seems the music streaming site recently threw out an email to selected...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Like most people in the creative industry, I know a fair few people who operate websites. Some of those sites are superbly designed and executed, others are a bit dull, and a minority are a right royal mess. It's also notable how few make real...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
I'm no statistician, but I can be fairly sure fewer people are watching movies at the cinema with every passing month. Netflix, Sky Movies, Film 4, downloads and DVDs are all conspiring to keep film buffs glued to the sofa and away from the big...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
As a kid, I was very fond of the word 'wacky' - largely because it featured in the title of my favourite TV shows 'Wacky Races' (if you're too young to remember it - find it on the web, you'll be glad you did). As an adult, I'm less keen. It has some...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
I'm always impressed by people who plan their career. Or rather people who plan their career and realise those plans. Planning stuff is easy, making it happen is something else - particularly in this business. Let's say, on your first day in the ad...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
In the laptop market, competition is fierce. So many brands, designs and features - manufacturers are constantly looking for innovative ways to make their kit more attractive. Interestingly, none of them has ever released a machine emitting the...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
I'm sorry for implanting a most unwelcome picture in your head, but I was taking a bath the other evening. The radio was on, I was leafing idly through a magazine and that's when I saw it - the least effective print ad of all time. In fact, it was so...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
I tried Corsodyl once. My mum had a bottle in her bathroom cabinet and, as it said it was a mouthwash, I took a liberal swig. It was very much like rinsing with floor polish and Polo mints. But it is a 'medicine' and the worse a medicine tastes, the...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
In my late teens, a video was doing the rounds. It was called 'Faces Of Death' and I don't think it was an official release - more a much-copied bootleg. Essentially it was a compilation of clips showing people meeting their deaths in accidents. A...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Whether you consider it a good idea or not, thanks to the coalition government, it seems the increased involvement of private companies in the NHS is a racing certainty. And what could possibly go wrong? Just look how affordable and reliable the...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Do you own a website? More to the point, do you own a bespoke domain name? I only ask because the City of London Police's brand new 'Intellectual Property Crime Unit' is hoping to get off to a flying start by attempting seize control of domains they...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
If you read my column earlier this week, you'll know I'm in America. If you didn't, I'm in America. In fact, I'm now in America's oldest town, St. Augustine - on Florida's Atlantic coast. And despite the temperature being in the low eighties (which...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
I'm in the USA - in a beautiful city called Charlestown on the Atlantic coast of South Carolina. But I'm travelling, so last night I was in Cherokee which, although it sounds romantic, is actually a rather tacky casino town 300 miles north. The...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
Last week, I wrote about the key differences between copywriting and 'writing'. And while I attempted to make the challenges inherent in copywriting clear, I wouldn't say the profession is in crisis. Unlike the art of writing comedy. Quite when the...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
I was never keen on the National Lottery. On the night it launched, I nipped to the shop for cigarettes and was confronted with a queue which reached out of the door and off down the street. I was concerned the people had been hypnotized and summoned...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
The most successful film in UK cinemas this week is 'Insidious 2'. Having seen the first 'Insidious' instalment just a couple of weeks ago, I don't think I'll bother with chapter two. The best horror movies are akin to long road trips through foreign...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
When people ask what I do for a living, I tend to get in a terrible flap. This is largely because I do a variety of things. I pen pieces about music, I blog about advertising and the creative industry (obviously), I present podcasts and radio...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
As a technologically advanced species, we've achieved a great deal. After all, you don't see hamsters riding micro-scooters, or otters designing iPhone apps. But we do have a tendency to overcomplicate things. Recent months have seen new versions of...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
I used to live at the Elephant & Castle in south London. Surprisingly, given its rather 'gritty' character, this made people somewhat envious. Not because of the bright pink shopping centre, but because my flat was just a street away from the...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw
The World Wide Web, it's a wonderful thing to be sure. You've got your social media for endless moaning and pictures of your holidays. You've got your YouTube for Little Mix videos and footage of other people's pets. And you've got your online...
Posted by: Magnus Shaw