John Hegarty on Advertising.
I got passed a leaflet a couple of weeks ago. It was about Chester’s Literary festival. One talk that interested me, was by Sir John Hegarty. He’s internationally renowned, for his work in advertising and I was really keen to hear what he had to say.
What surprised me, was how understated he was (apart from his suit, which was quit “loud”). He talked about his work on the Levi 501 Jeans advert, and the tag-line “Vorsprung durch Technik” he is credited with inventing (I never realised, but it actually means Advancement through technology).
A key point he made was about honesty and that he didn’t consider “proper” advertising to be dishonest.
If you missed the talk, you can buy his book here.
Superb evening, when it finished, Glenn and I popped around to the Lock Keeper (newly opened, previously, the Frog & Nightingale, photographed above, in the middle of renovations) wearing trainers, but otherwise well dressed. They wouldn’t let me in.
Wonder if they’ll still feel that way in late January.
On the pub front, went out last Tuesday to celebrate Mandy’s birthday (a long time regular of the Frog). Many happy returns.
Tim’s Honeymoon.
My Boss Tim approached me recently. He is getting married, and asked my advise regarding the honeymoon. He was already going to Koh Samui, so I recommended Bo Phut, and advised on a few places to see there. He said he wanted to use the trip as a hub, and try and seen some other countries while there.
I recommended Siem Reap in Cambodia (the site of the Angkor Watt) and Saigon in Vietnam (2 of the places I visited on my own honeymoon, when I was previously married). I didn’t recommend Phnom Penh (site of the Killing field and the Tuol Sleng Museum) or Hannoi, as there was limited time, and I believed the 2 destinations to be the best that each country has to offer.
Finally, I made a list of must see sights for both destinations. I was delighted when he sent me this photo, taken from the rooftop bar of the Rex Hotel. Its here, that American officers were billeted during the war. When I visited it in 2005, it was the one and only time I’ve drunk Johnny Walker Blue whiskey.
Also at work, I have been helping Joe, with some development on a facebook presence. I wasn’t able to provide as much assistance as I would have liked, but you can have a look at: http://www.facebook.com/UnitronUK
New Table.
I never stop being amazed by what you can achieve when you substitute money for a bit of initiative.
Someone I work with is emigrating to Australia. She decided to sell this superb table for only £30. Nick from work helped me collect it from Birmingham. After realising it wouldn’t fit through the door, and the legs wouldn’t come off, we got it through the front window “horse-jumping-a-fence” style.
I’ve always wanted a table like that, but could never afford it, even when I could afford it, if you know what I mean. My house has the original pine timber from when originally built, so the table compliments it perfectly. Glenn (who runs a pine import business ) has got hold of some authentic chairs, to complete the look and told me its worth about £500.
Its not for sale.
Julie out of Hospital.
My friend Julie is out of hospital and recovering well. I went to visit her, it was the first time I’ve ever been to a private hospital. Apart from a private room, it didn’t seem much different from the hospital I stayed in in June (although the meals looked like they had been cooked by a celebrity Chef).
Take care Julie and best wishes from everyone at johnsunter.com
More cooking.
I’ve almost finished my list of recipes (I have 3 more to do, then the laminated list on my cupboard doors will be complete)
I was going to buy Jamie Oliver book for Christmas, but I’ve bought his Christmas offering the previous 2 years, and I’ve found it disappointing (30 minute meals – I had to actually buy a food processor to cook anything, and most of them take a lot more than 30 minutes).
I’ve realised that when I cook Jamie Oliver recipes, there almost always from his first 3 books. There’s loads of other recipes in my other books (Ainsley Herriot, Ken Hom, Gordon Ramsay) but I’ve decided to get some fresh meat (pardon the pun). I’ve been watching Lorrain Pascals TV program, and I really like her work. I’ve just bought her book and should be cooking something from it this week.
Ill tell you how it works out.
Steve Jobs.
I was saddened to hear of the death of Steve Jobs. One of the original innovators of technology. He was known for being uncompromising, but the facts speak for themselves.
For 20 years Sony dominated the personal stereo market, today ipod has a 75% market share, which it turned around in just 18 months.
Various companies worked on PDA’s and smart-phones for more than a decide, Apples IPhone and IPod touch, came from nowhere, re-wrote the book, and have shipped 100,000,000 units at least !.
My assistant Dan, constantly criticises Apple (that’s one of the reasons I enjoy working with him, he has a passion for challenging convention and the norm).
On this occasion, I have to say, when people talk about Android and how good it is, would it have reached that level if Apple hadn’t raised the bar with the IPhone.
And after all, its a lot easier to manufacture a shovel, when someone else has already designed it.
I’ve been using a Touchpad recently.
The idiot in charge of HP, said they were thinking of ditching the hardware side of the company (they have the dominant 17% share of the market, compared to Dell, who have %12).
I use HP a lot at work, and have to say that its excellent. I thought it ridiculous, that the customer (me) knows the value of a companies product, more than the CEO !.
I was delighted to read that he’d been fired, but before he went, he decided to discontinue the HP Touchpad. It would be easy to call it an IPad clone, but in reality, its very much its “own man” with an amazingly simple operating system and loads of apps. If you overclock it (as I’ve done) it absolutely flies.
As a result of the discontinuation, they were, at one point being sold for $99 in the US, and obviously £99 in the UK. You can get them now, brand new for £200, which for a quality product is superb value.
Interesting Stuff at work.
Loads of cool stuff going on at work. Were re-building our entire infrastructure based on VM Ware, and doing loads of cool stuff with Sharepoint.
A lot of the time, IT can be dull, when your just fixing things that break, but were pretty lucky, as not many companies are building new infrastructures at the moment.