Creative Wave – May 19
Happy Friday everyone. Hope you’ve survived a decidedly wet week in one piece. My feet and bike seat are still soaked, but my spirits are not! This week we look at Apple’s new office, fight cancer with a computer game, celebrate British Sandwich Week and relive our youth with garage anthems, plus all the usual other stuff you’ve come to love and/or tolerate.
TUNE FOR THE WEEKEND-
An old rave classic that got stuck in my head this week. Burial’s Inner City Life remix reminded me of it actually. This is Satin Storm with the always-classic Let’s Get Together–
OBSCURE HERO OF THE WEEK-
This week I’ve gone for Norman Rockwell. He was a painter and illustrator who was at the vanguard of the Americana movement in the early-to-mid 20th century. His style is essentially what came to define those graphics we see in early 50s and 60s advertising – the Mad Men era – as well the look of the Boy Scouts. I’ve chosen him because I think what’s so unique about him was his ability to make his subjects look like both cartoonish caricature and incredibly real people at the same time. He was a real gem. If you were to create a storybook of modern America, it would have to be in his style. I think ‘The Gossips’ is my favourite piece of his. You can see a chunk of it at the top of this post.
* This ad from Lynx is the best I’ve seen for a long time. So simple, but so right. They ask “Is it ok for guys to…?” –
* Interesting read here about how Cary Grant apparently turned his life around late in his career, and found inner-peace through much LSD experimentation-
* In what i’m sure is a PR stunt, Dove released a range of new bottles in all shapes and sizes in a move meant to embody their ‘real beauty’ positioning-
* Increasingly regularly, the subject of gay footballers comes up. This week FA Chairman Greg Clarke suggested that he’s tried his best but those pesky gays just won’t speak to him-
* After a run of positive reactions, McDonalds undid all of their good recent work with an ad that seemed to emotionally leverage childhood bereavement. Watch it here-
* Go behind the scenes of the new Apple office that’s been dubbed ‘the mothership.’ It’s pretty astonishing. They even worked out how to keep pizza crust crispy-
* I’m a big fan of Skittles’ advertising, but this Mother’s Day spot was perhaps a bit too odd even for me. Nice to see Charlie’s mum from Always Sunny getting more work though!
* Date for your diary: Donald Trump will be giving a speech on Islam in Saudi Arabia in the very near future. Can’t see that going wrong-
* This week David Squires swapped football for politics as he unveiled his first general election cartoon strip for The Guardian-
* Love this print ad from Asics. It allows runners to take a look at their foot shape and gait by simply stepping barefoot on the thermochromic ink–
* This is a fantastic idea. A video game where you can actually fight cancer. It comes from Poland, allows you to link with real cancer patients, and earn money by completing levels-
* Check out Nike’s LED running track that, not only looks cool, but also allows runners to race against a ghost of themselves and an overall pace-setter. Great idea-
* Really interesting read here about the links between Sky Sports News and Sky Bet, which very starkly came to a head this week in relation to James Rodriguez’s transfer saga-
* Coming soon later this year is a film of the iconic Battle of the Sexes which saw Billie Jean King play male chauvinist Bobby Riggs. It stars Emma Stone and Steve Carrell-
* New single from the excellent Public Service Broadcasting. It’s released early to raise money for bowel cancer research-
* Interesting article here where son-of-Ridley Luke Scott discusses the supporting content creation that helped build buzz for this year’s Alien: Covenant–
* Out of nowhere, Darren Aronofsky announced a new film called Mother. Not much is known about it other than the cast and this bizarre (yet brilliant) piece of poster art-
* Can’t believe I missed this! Excellent april fools campaign by cheapflights.com where they launched Hipster Air. Name’s a bit on the nose, but some of the content is fun-
* Check out Channel 4’s new personalised banner ads which can address you directly by name. In space, no one can hear you say ‘how did you know my name?’
* Ahead of the premiere this Sunday night, Flying Lotus remixed the Twin Peaks theme tune and put it out for free download-
* Talking of which, check out the BBC’s parody of Twin peaks, starring Ed Balls as the terrifying backwards-speaking dancing man in the red room–
*Instagram has been rated as ‘the worst social media platform for mental health’ for young people, with issues around anxiety, depression, loneliness, bullying and body image-
* Enjoy three hours of the best garage music ever made thanks to a few friends of mine. This is surely one of the mixes of the year, if not the century-
* A bracelet was found this week that’s been dated to be 40,000 years old. It’s attributed to the Denisovan people, of whom we know very little-
* This is a hilariously weird story. In 2001, a patent was granted in Australia for ‘the wheel.’ Yes, John Keogh claimed he invented the wheel. But in 2014 it was quietly revoked-
* Check out the nominations for the Premier League 2016/17 Goal of the Season here-
* To celebrate British Sandwich Week, one of the BBC’s business editors decided to ‘hack’ his lunch by making it himself every day. What a revolutionary idea!
* Check out this brilliant 8-bit _Super Mario Bros _parody of the upcoming general election, complete with Jeremy Corbyn as (I think) Bowser-
* One of Picasso’s most famous paintings, Seated Woman in Blue Dress, which was seized by the Nazis during WW2, was sold at auction this week for a cool £35million-
* Meanwhile, never one to be outdone, a Basquiat has broken the world record for an art sale again! This one went for $110.5million. Wowzers-
* Anyone at Dublin airport soon, keep your eyes peeled for a unique Guinness tasting experience in duty-free-
* Have a look at Google’s Expedition. New AR technology which aims to bring 3D objects to life for a whole classroom using their smartphones-