special life

World Cup Legacy

This circular discussion occurs every 4 years, so no big surprise that we're discussing world cup legacy again as we see the build up to RIO 2014.

Danny Jordan, organiser for SouthAfrica 2010 is now in Rio advising officials there & days people expect too much from a football tournament.

Instead of expecting infrastructure regeneration, says Mr Jordan, South Africans should look more for a general repositioning of the African continent from "Afro pessimism" to "Afro positivism."

Events : top marketer teaches Nestlé commonsense

Following a sharp rebuff of Nestlé by the undisputed top female blogger in Spain Fatima Lopez @fmlopez48 , there's been an opportunity to rethink how we all need to be thinking (and talking) about our Mothers.

The controversy issued from email, twitter, and YouTube advertising campaigns in the run up to the Spanish Mother's Day Event celebrations this coming weekend urging people to tell their mothers something. It includes personalised emails sent to prospects, including Ms Lopez. She therefore objected to Nestlé's lack of research which resulted in what many perceive as insensitive marketing.

This is a flawed and sort sighted strategy at best. This event is a difficult time of remembrance for all people who have lost (or simply lost contact with) their mothers. 

This campaign also represents for many a commoditization of the most fundamental of human relationships. Not only are our lives basically designed for production, for proforma, to enhance others' wealth, including giant multinationals such as Nestlé, but now we're being instructed about how to behave towards our own mothers? 

This could be perceived by many as further evidence of advertisers' attempts to socially condition us to foster particular values and demonstrate "love" in a particularly contrived way. 

Effectively, there's an attempt to imbue the festival with clear, marketable and sensory cues for consumers to buy into purchasing symbols and behaviours. 

It can't possibly be that they've harnessed our spending habits and now they want our feelings, can it? 

When Nestlé finally withdraw this ridiculous twitter campaign using the misguided hashtag "#MamaQuieroDecirte" (literally "Mamma I want to say to you.") it'll be a victory for commonsense and they'll have realised that some people simply cannot anymore tell their mothers such deep sentiments. 

As Fatima Lopez urges that before launching such misguided email, twitter and YouTube campaigns, Nestlé employ "social media Intelligence" to better research their customer to find out if their mothers are dead or not. Rightfully, the call is for common sense, because as Ms Lopez suggests, many are left with hole in their heart at this time of year. 

I think Fatima Lopez isn't the only person who's tired of cynically and insensitively being told what to think, how to feel and how to behave in the name of big business profits. She just says it better than all the consumers her point of view represents.

Check out the Spanish blogpost by Fatima Lopez :
Spanish Mother's Day controversy due to marketing campaign by #nestle -  questioned here by top blogger @fmlopez48 http://t.co/W6ddsbZDJ4

What do you think about this?

Hybrid events

This might be useful - RSA House launches hybrid events offering for 2013 http://t.co/wdxdcxp7uA via @sethkirby
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Book Review: 'Eventful Cities’ by James Kennell

James Kennell shared the following:

A new blog post on a book review I've just had published....

http://jameskennell.com/2012/11/16/book-review-eventful-cities/

I've just had a review of the book 'Eventful Cities' published in the journal Cultural Trends. This new book looks at the role that events play in the economies and cultural live...
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Adoption Parties

A recent, rather horrific new type of "event" to the UK is the "Adoption Party."

These are parties featuring kids who are up for adoption to which potential adopter families are invited in order to find a match. Families are given a "profile" booklet on arrival to better inform their choices.

Clearly the controversy remains about whether such events are too stressful for the children concerned.

Consequently, there's a lot of spin about these from the relevant adoption/fostering agencies. This is possibly to counter controversy related to accusations that it's a cattle market for children.

Apparently, they were all the rage in the 1970s, but then declined in the UK, probably due to controversy about their affect on the children concerned.

The government agency concerned claims there's twice as effective at placing older children than any other method.

What are your thoughts?
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Culinary Olympics - the Australian Perspective

This is a seven-minute video about the culinary Olympics from an Australian view. It was sent to me by @itshoosierdaddy. Thanks Bill.

Click to see the video: http://t.co/3v5p1x8d
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