Monday, August 31, 2009

Vandal Or Art?

I don't know, but to me, this is war of the brands! (great guerrilla move)

Renowned Parisian street artist Zevs was arrested in Hong Kong on Monday, July 13 following the symbolic defacing of a flagship Giorgio Armani boutique.

Zevs and two others were taken into custody after painting a gushing, liquidated Chanel logo across the building's façade. The guerrilla artwork, said to represent the war of brands, has yet again caused heated debate over the fine line between art and vandalism.

In a press release, Zevs said he has pleaded guilty to one count of criminal damage. In response, Armani is claiming HK$6,746,000 in damages ($860,000 in US dollars) to replace part of the building's sandstone exterior.

Zevs assures the dripping icon is far from permanent. The artist says he took special care to use children's washable paint, and that more delicate surfaces in places like Berlin, Paris and New York have come clean without issue.

Droga In Manila!

David Droga, Creative Chairman of Droga5, is finally coming to Manila. Presented by the Creative Guild of the Philippines, Droga speaks to local advertising and marketing practitioners on September 11, 6pm at the AIM Conference Center, Legaspi Village, Makati City.

Droga is about as close as you can get to a rock star in the advertising world.

Hoping to start a career as a ski instructor he got waylaid into the world of advertising. At 22, he was a partner in Omon Sydney, twice winning Australian Agency of the Year. In 1996, David moved to Singapore, leading Saatchi Asia to be named New York's Advertising Age as International Agency of the Year.

In 1998 he moved to Saatchi London. By 2002, Saatchi & Saatchi, London was named Agency of the Year at Cannes Lions and by both AdAge and Adweek. He then became Worldwide Creative director of Publicis.

Finally "tired of growing other people's companies", he founded Droga5 in New York in 2006. The following year, it was named US Agency of the Year by AdAge’s Creativity Magazine. This year, it was the most awarded agency at D&AD winning two Black Pencils.

While in London, he was nominated Best Creative Director in the UK’s Best of the Best Awards and named World’s Best Creative Director by Advertising Age. He was this year's head of the Titanium and Integrated Jury at Cannes Lions and is the head of the Spikes Asia Jury.

If all that hasn’t blown you away, Droga is the most awarded individual creative at Cannes, with over 50 Lions to his name!


(source: Adobo)

Sunday, August 30, 2009

My Dog Named Pepper


I really missed my Pepper! I hate to do it but I have to give him away :( Good thing is that I know the people who took him and got the assurance that they'd take care of him as much as I do.

A Surprise Visit!

Last week, I got a surprise visit from a good friend of mine, Rami Afuni who is now a big time producer with Akon's new artist, Redd Hott, who came down to my place from a gig with Akon in Beirut! We had dinner, few talks and an offer to DJ for Red and 'Kon in New York (?) We're working on a gig in Manila on December at the Hard Rock café (Jesse C! Wassup?!) And a Concert with Pitbull in Lebanon on October (here I come scratching!) Can't wait!

Redd Hott, catching Akon's attention with his reggae-world flave! Hah!

With my homey Rami, still rockin' them beats!

Back To School!


School kicks off tomorrow at the American International School! That means, good days are over! Kids are back to sleeping early and working on those home works and.... getting up early!! Aliyah's pretty excited to see her friends and classmates! I just worry about how the school would act on the swine flu issue which is becoming a huge concern for parents!

Saturday, August 29, 2009

My Baskin Experience


Just a while ago when I was at Baskin-Robbins for a banana split (yum!), I noticed that there was only 16 cylinders of ice cream, I was just wondering why Baskin, whose famous for their 31 flavors (in fact the number also appears in their logo) has only 16 flavors? So I asked the guy and he told me that there was not enough space for the other 15! I mean... What the eff?! It's obvious that the dude has no idea what am talking about! And if the other 15 isn't available, then they should only put 16 in the logo instead of 31.

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Art & Copy

I just can't wait to see this one! Doug Pray did it again, before it was the turntablists, this time it's about the "mAD men"! A must-see for advertising people (like me) ;)



Opening in key cities in the U.S. on August 21, Director Doug Pray’s movie “Art & Copy” reveals the work and wisdom of some of the most influential advertising creatives of the last fifty years—in short, the original “Mad Men”. The Emmy-, Clio- and Cannes Lion-award winner Pray, made a name for himself for the grunge music documentary “Hype” in 1996, and put Seattle on the map outside of rain, coffee and, well, Meg Ryan. “Art & Copy” presents the people who have profoundly shaken everyday culture, yet are virtually unknown outside the advertising industry.


Featured in the movie are, among others, Dan Wieden and David Kennedy of Wieden+Kennedy behind Nike’s Just Do It, ESPN, Honda, Coca-Cola, Starbucks and George Lois whose covers of Esquire Magazine from 1962 to 1972 eventually crossed to MTV and its generation with the "I Want My MTV" campaign, as well as Tommy Hilfiger, USA Today, ESPN, and CBS. “Art & Copy” also has Lee CLow of TBWAChiatDay, creator of Apple “1984” and iPod and the Energizer Bunny, as well as Rich Silverstein and Jeff Goodby for "Got Milk?”, the Budweiser lizards, HP, Netflix, and The Wall St. Journal.

Pray did not want to make a documentary that would just trash “98% of advertising that so often annoys and disrespects its audience.” In effect, he felt it could be a “more powerful statement to focus the film only on those rare few who actually moved and inspired our culture with their work. And that higher standard made me want to make a film that reflected the same kind of disciplined artistic approach that my subjects used,” he states on the website.

“Art & Copy” is a collection of the individuals whose creativity has transformed social and cultural interaction, and explores the dynamics of art, materialism and human emotion.

Friday, August 21, 2009

My New Macbook


I have been using my macbook pretty much for almost 3 years now, one fine day it decided not to work for me! It died out, send it for repair and found out it was the logic board :( that means it'll take more than a month to come back. I don't have that luxury to wait 'Macless'... That is why I got myself a new one.

Say hello to MacGilbert, my newly bought macbook pro :)

MacOS v. 10.5.7 / Processor 2.8 GHz Intel Core 2 Duo / Memory 4 GB 1067 MHz DDR3 / 2009

My New Toy!


Finally got this one! Thanks Rami! RANE Serato Live! It's pretty cool! So easy to use and freakin' acurate! I am Lovin' it... Big time! Now for some custom-made routines! :)

Tuesday, August 18, 2009

Hues And Me


I'm almost there! Just finished my big-sized paintings, and had them framed. I think I am ready for the exhibit :) with a total of 32 paintings (all works in oil) dated 2005 till present and the show's entitled 'STAGES'.

Monday, August 17, 2009

Cutting Advertising Will Also Cut Sales Growth - by Roger Pe

You wouldn’t want that.

While everyone seems to be cowering in fear because of recession, this chocolate brand defied gravitational pull of business pessimism - prompting Ad Age to headline: “Boost in spending pays off for America’s chocolate favorite.” And they had figures to show: A 4th quarter income and yearly earnings up by 51% to 82 million dollars. According to the paper, the company ended 2008 with a “reasonable momentum attributing this to increased advertising, consumer trading down from premium chocolate and price increases.”

Should one advertise in times of recession? Of course, yes. The more you retreat the more sales will recede. The more you cut back, the more competition will attack. As they say, when the going gets tough, the tough doesn’t skimp on ad budgets but spends them wisely.

From the experts, here are nuggets of wisdom to ponder:

“The first reaction is to cut, cut, cut and advertising is one of the first things to go. As companies slash advertising in a downturn, they leave an empty space in consumers’ minds for more aggressive marketers to make strong inroads.” - Peter Fader, Wharton University Marketing Professor

“A great deal of evidence suggests that it is not good idea to reduce marketing spend during recession in order to hit financial targets. Doing so may leave your brand in a less competitive position when the economy recovers.” - Nigel Hollis, Chief Global Analyst, Millward Brown, one of the world’s leading research agencies.

“If someone tells you that they are cutting back their ad budget because of a recession, ask why they advertise in the first place. Business history books are full of examples of companies that maintained or increased their ad budgets during recessions and found that at recession’s end they had leap-frogged their competitors by wide margins.” - Josh Gordon, author of “Motivating Consumers in the New Economy.”

In the Philippines, a well-known beverage brand maintained its advertising and was relentless. All it takes it to look at its media-spending pattern. Look where it is now.

We now hear fragile signs of economic recovery. It might be a rollercoaster ride, it might be far, it might be near, but certainly, when you’re down, there’s nowhere to go but up. We salute those who didn’t hide.

(Roger Pe is former Executive Creative Director at DDB Philippines and now runs his own Ad and Communications agency)

Tamiflu: More Harm than Good?



The UK government rejected advice from its expert advisers on swine flu, who said there was no need for the widespread use of Tamiflu and suggested that the public should simply be told to take paracetamol. (read the full article)

TWITTER: Not for Teens?!


By Julia Kollewe /Guardian.co.uk /Monday 13 July 2009 11.08 BST

A research note written by a 15-year-old Morgan Stanley intern that described his friends' media habits has generated a flurry of interest from media executives and investors.

The US investment bank's European media analysts asked Matthew Robson, an intern from a London school, to write a report on teenagers' likes and dislikes, which made the Financial Times' front page today.

His report, that dismissed Twitter and described online advertising as pointless, proved to be "one of the clearest and most thought-provoking insights we have seen – so we published it", said Edward Hill-Wood, executive director of Morgan Stanley's European media team.

"We've had dozens and dozens of fund managers, and several CEOs, e-mailing and calling all day." He said the note had generated five or six times more responses than the team's usual research.

His colleague, Julien Rossi, added: "It's an interesting starting point for debate."

The rapid surge of interest in social networking and messaging sites has prompted speculation that sites such as Twitter or Facebook could be taken over. But Robson's report, which was sent to Morgan Stanley's clients as a research note last Friday, suggested that such a move could be folly. He said teenagers were using more and more media, but they were unwilling to pay for it.

"Teenagers do not use Twitter," he wrote. "Most have signed up to the service, but then just leave it as they realise that they are not going to update it (mostly because texting Twitter uses up credit, and they would rather text friends with that credit). They realise that no one is viewing their profile, so their tweets are pointless."

He warned that traditional media – television, radio and newspapers – are losing ground.

No teenager Robson knew reads a newspaper regularly since most "cannot be bothered to read pages and pages of text while they could watch the news summarised on the internet or on TV". The only newspapers that are read are the cheaper tabloids and freesheets.

His peers are also put off by intrusive advertising so they prefer listening to advert-free music on websites such as Last.fm to traditional radio. Teens see adverts on websites - pop ups, banner ads - as "extremely annoying and pointless," Robson said. However, "most teenagers enjoy and support viral marketing, as often it creates humorous and interesting content".

He stressed that his peers were "very reluctant" to pay for music and most had never bought a CD, with a large majority downloading songs illegally from filesharing sites.

Money and time are instead devoted to cinema, concerts and video game consoles. Downloading films off the internet is not popular as the films are usually bad quality and have to be watched on a small computer screen and there is a risk of viruses, Robson said.

Game consoles like Wii, which are now able to connect to the internet and offer free voice chat between users, have emerged as a more popular choice for chatting with friends than the phone.

His report came as media moguls gathered at the Allen & Co conference in Sun Valley, Idaho. This annual event is a chance for the likes of Rupert Murdoch, Steve Jobs and Bill Gates to discuss the latest business and technology issues in a relaxed atmosphere.

When interviewed at the event, Murdoch appeared to rule out making a bid for the micro-blogging site Twitter. Asked if he was considering buying Twitter, Murdoch said, "No." Asked about selling MySpace, he replied, "Hell no."

(Read the FULL copy of Robson's Article HERE)

Saturday, August 15, 2009

Pencil Website


We got rid of our old account along with the web address and changed it into a new one, www.pencil-advertising.com :)

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Murder On The Silver Screen!

Got this one off Adobo, this is one movie any aspiring director/film maker should see!






About the film
“Kinatay” (Butchered) follows the story of a young criminologist in dire need of money to pay for his upcoming wedding. Accepting a job that will earn him $2,000 for a night, he realizes too late, the task involves torturing and killing a young prostitute.


About the director
After a long career as a production designer, Brillante Mendoza directed his first film, "Masahista", in 2005. He has since produced and directed eight films, all of which have been exhibited and lauded in film festivals the world over. In June 2009, his work on the controversial "Kinatay" compelled the prestigious Cannes Film Festival jury to name him Best Director, making him the first Filipino to ever receive the honor.

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

Dancing Divorce?!



How cool can a legal separation could be? This is one heck of a hilarious yet creative way of say, Divorce? LOL