End of the decADe
I thought about doing a post on advertising since Upside Downturn started. And as the length of time between the last post and this one spiralled out beyond my expectations (and my control) the more the idea of managing to squeeze a post in before the end of the decade played on my mind.
I had fragments of posts written about various ads but they were little more than rants and I like to have something vaguely positive to say in my posts here. What tied it all together in the end was one of those pointless commercial TV countdown shows. The ‘50 Best Racist Sitcoms’ sort of thing. This one billed itself as the 20 greatest ads of the decade. I guessed I could bear to sit through it because of two things.
1. The ability of the ITVplayer to fast forward and
2. The thought of seeing any of the Sony Bravia ads again.
Firstly, apologies for the lack of posts recently. Things have, ironically, been very busy and any spare time is taken up with other projects. I wanted to point you towards the results of 
It’s frustrating enough when small things don’t do what they’re supposed to. Ben Elton called said that there must be a Ministry of Crap somewhere responsible for them. He cited motorway service station teapots (the ones with a spout that makes the tea dribble down the front of them – rather than pouring neatly – and with handles too small to get more than one or two fingers inside). I remember mainly that were made of a heat-conducting metal that made picking them up a like plunging your hand into the sun as an example of soemthing created by the Ministry. Also, Izal toilet paper (the greaseproof stuff you used to get at school with all the absorbency of Teflon). Later examples would be CD jewel cases (Does it hold a CD? Barely. Does it open and shut? Not really. Sometimes, maybe. If you’re lucky) and stove-top kettles (Looks homely sat on your Aga but no good unless you’ve got a spare couple of days to wait for it to boil).
It seems like a new gadget comes up on the web every five minutes. The latest must-do thing to join up to. And as a complete gadgetphobe I initially sneer at them all. That, combined with the fact that I hate the phrase ‘web 2.0′ even more than ‘brand building’ or ‘multi-media’ or even the use of ‘old school’ to describe any hip hop more recent than 1990 and you can see I don’t make a natural Social Networker. However, this post is all about what can be done when you make use of the right tools at the right time to plug your business.
Comedy series Flight of the Conchords pretty much passes me by to be honest. Could just be my dislike of comedy in songwriting. Sometimes though, it throws up a gem, and 
With all the fuss recently about MP’s expenses it’s easy to forget that there’s an angle here for us lot tightening our belts in the recession – don’t forget to claim for yourself!
I have spent so much time deslugging the garden lately. Wondering round in the rain or in the half-light with a bucket, gloves and salt picking up slugs and snails in the bucket and then salting them before they can escape up the sides. Then the next day the whole salty, slimy mess gets poured down the drain in the street and I start again.
I went to lunch at the new River Cottage cafe in town. I have to say that the food was faultless. That and the values he runs the place by make it a winner but there was a one, quite big problem: the cost.
My company is planning regular ‘work for free days’ throughout the spring and summer. Working for free is a sticky one. Why would you do anything that wasn’t going to make you money? For one thing, we’re in a recession. But just because money is tight doesn’t mean we shouldn’t explore the opportunities to get our name, and our work, out there that won’t come any other way.
Paolo - glorious leader of 
Andy - runs a 