Who said good creativity should cost an...

Science fiction has always imagined it: that one day we’ll get all our food from the lab, no farms, no cows – just a petri dish and some white coats rustling up our burgers. Well that day seems to have finally come – the first ‘test tube burger’ is going to be grilled up by Heston Blumenthal (who else!) after the meat has been grown in a lab.

I’m sure this will kick the test tube food debate up a notch with arguments raging on all sides: ‘it could mean the end to world hunger’, ‘it will end the suffering of animals’ doing battle with arguments like ‘it’s not natural’, ‘we shouldn’t play god’.

Regardless of your stance there is no denying the weird feeling something like this creates – would we happily eat meat grown in a dish? There is something strange about the concept, I’m sure a psychologist could have a field day on the topic.

Would you order up a lab lunch?

Read more here…

WOW! What a week! We are delighted to welcome 3 new clients onto a our fast growing client list: Abbott UK, Auden Mckenzie and Derma UK!

It’s Wednesday and maybe your week is dragging a bit – so we’re here to dig you out of the doldrums and set you smiling (or possibly scratching your head in disbelief) with some downright strange blogs.

1. Kim Jong-Il doing things
For some reason the internet has developed a bit of an obsession with the late North Korean leader meaning a surplus of funny and bizarre blogs that see Kim Jong-Il popping up all over the place. Our favourite is ‘Kim Jong-Il dropping the bass’ – featuring the ruler laying down some banging beats and mixing it up on the decks…

2. Happy Place
This site has it all – passive agressive notes from roomates, outrageous facebook comments and all-round internet goodness. If you want the rest of your day to be productive avoid at all costs.

3. Fire your agent
The place to enjoy the dodgy PR photos of now superstars featuring a large volume of cringe-worthy shirts and horrific perms – hey, we all start somewhere (and some of us just start in fuschia ruffles) – the internet never forgets.

4. David Cameron pretending to be common
Our notoriously well-to-do PM has struggled to throw off his eton mantle, and with blogs like this he sure isn’t going to be one of the lads anytime soon – watch as Dave tries to mingle with the common folk.

5. Sad keanu
A single photo of actor keanu reeves somehow spawned an entire internet phenomenon that now sees ‘sad keanu’ perched wherever he can find a solitary melancholy spot. Don’t know why it’s funny, it just is.

Happy Wednesday everyone!

1. Britain loves all sorts of weird stuff
The new t-mobile ad turns a mirror to the wackiness that is Britain: we’re weird and wonderful and we love it! Top marks for the soundtrack and hot of the press pop culture references (even fenton makes an appearance!)

2. Why print will never die
A book shop in toronto + lots of incredible books + the patience and beauty of stop motion = one video that will remind you why book shops are just so damn awesome.

3. Just for the voiceover
Rather than going for the easy M&S lilting sounds and food porn take Lurpak went for violent colour and a refreshingly growly voice. They’ve turned a butter ad into bizarre food art that makes us hungry!

4. Ok go…ok go fit a car with pneumatic arms so you can perform a song with it…
An insanely complex music video where Ok Go teams up with Chevrolet, regardless of whether you like the song you have to admire the dedication and attention to detail.

5. We all want a bit of fame really
Winning the award for most feel good ad this week Budweiser couldn’t have aired their ad at a more appropriate place: the superbowl. Watch as a small hockey team play host to some flash fans.

Happy Friday everyone!

Now that really is a smart chimp! So clever, even our code monkeys were impressed! http://t.co/mS0eIeh9

One of the hardest challenges in advertising is to say a lot, with a little amount of copy or simple visual: http://t.co/EtFuSiOH

So a couple of days ago we saw the huge sporting fiesta that is the Superbowl, now i’m not a massive fan of American football…but I am a fan of great advertising, and with a 30 second ad slot costing you a cool $3.5 million the superbowl slot is one that cannot afford not to be great. This years offerings were reasonably unadventurous with the usual mix of celebs, dogs, babies and singing, but I trawled through many of them (including the teasers that help the build up to game day) to pick 3 of my favourites…

1. Chevvy’s Happy Grad
Maybe it’s the acting, or the sheer simplicity of the ad, but there’s just something funny about it!

2. Camry’s reinvention
Clever with the right amount of quirky – everybody wants a blender that plays lionel richie right?

3. Budweiser’s eternal optimism
Taking us on an optimistic tour of American history (with a bud here and there of course)  what a great way to build some national spirit, even if the sound track is a bit dodgy.

Anyone else stay up late to watch the superbowl, what was your favourite ad?

We thought we’d slip on our dancing shoes these week and get all thematic mid-week!. There’s is something about a little hip wiggling that we just cannot resist. So this week we hope you’re ready to bust-a-move with some toe-tapping hand-clapping, feet-stomping virals that twirled, popped and locked their way all over the internet.

1. We’ve all seen it, but it’s still good
T-mobile set the bar high for dance virals with their hugely popular flash mob in liverpool street station which has caused commuter envy ever since. We wish that our late excuse involved being caught in a frantic bout of the twist.

2. 100 years of shaking it
This viral for the shiny new westfield shopping centre showed us 100 years of fashion in 100 seconds, but they also threw us some classic shapes in the meantime

3. The evolution of dance
Once of the best virals ever spawned in the weird wide web. Watch and enjoy as a casual fella in t-shirt and jeans proceeds to share with us our entire dancing history in the space of a few minutes.

4. It’s me, Cathy
Sports relief have always produced some viral gems, and in all honesty, it was a tough call between choosing between Noel Fielding’s flailing Kate Bush and Robert Webb’s wonderful flashdance leotard, and who can forgot Katy Brand’s beyonce and Rufus Hound’s rather terrifying Cheryl! But in the end it was those killer (and unexpected) moves from Mr Webb that won it.

5. Interpretative dance has never been so complex
Meet David Armand, he’s a pretty normal looking chap…with a gift for transforming song lyrics into hilarious dance routines!

Happy wednesday all – get those dancing shoes prepared!

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to b creative or not to b creative? Is that a relevant question for technical and strategic proposals?