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a former advertising creative director who, among other things, likes to blow shit up. |
A couple of years back, Gallop decided she didn’t think much of the state of the porn industry (I’ll let her explain why; I couldn’t possibly do a better job, and many of the words I’d need to use don’t really belong in this magazine). Where a traditional advertising approach might be to re-examine the price, packaging and positioning, she blew the whole thing up and started from scratch. Then she and her team built (You might also want to set aside a few minutes to look at that one too, but unless your workplace has a very liberal internet use policy, wait until you’re at home and the kids are in bed.) |
Ad agencies don’t do a lot of blowing up. Instead, we invest a lot of time and effort in thinking about how best to present things as they are. And quite a bit less of both thinking about how to change them. |
We’ve become so good at it, the process even has a name: polishing turds. |
Turd polishing is certainly lucrative, and can add a lot to an agency’s bottom line. But it’s unlikely to lead to a great long-term outcome for our clients. In the words of someone whose epigrams are clearly more memorable than his name, nothing kills a bad product faster than great advertising. |
Real value, the kind we hint at when using words such as ‘partnership’ and ‘collaboration’ when we pitch for business, comes from questioning, challenging and being the trusted honest voice of dissent many big companies lack. I’ve always believed that one of our most important roles is to be customer advocates – asking ourselves and the client if the people they’re trying to sell to really want what it is they’re selling. |
A while back, I received a brief from a big company. Like all briefs from big companies, it had probably been through five or six pairs of hands before it left the client, and two or three at the agency before it got to my team. The brief was for a product that I just couldn’t believe anyone would want to buy. |
So we told the client that, they agreed, pulled the product and saved themselves a lot of money advertising it. |
Instead of polishing the turd, they flushed it. |
I made a lot of ads for that client, but that one I didn’t make sticks in my memory. By putting down the polishing cloth and questioning the point of the product, by providing an honest opinion despite all the signatures on the brief, by giving the client what they needed instead of what they asked for, we earned our pay that day. |
McCain's POW years are irrelevant |
I wonder why McCain keeps relying on his five years in a Vietnamese shithole as a means to get out of any argument and why nobody has called him on it yet. That story is getting really old. |
Yet he keeps banging on about his stint in jail and his military service. He even seems proud of the fact that he was among the worst performing officers in his class. |
While having to endure 5 years of imprinsonment as a prisoner of war is a terrible personal tragedy, it is not something that qualifies you to become a president. Or a physics teacher. Or an auto-mechanic. |
Are we going to make McCain president based on pitying him? Does he look like he needs pity? This is a man who has all the material wealth he could possibly need available to him. He is wealthy to the degree where he has no firm grasp on how many houses are at his disposal. Meanwhile large numbers of people in the US have lost their homes. To foreclosure and to natural disasters. Meanwhile veterans of war, people who sacrificed their health, their future, their lives, are coming back to the US and finding that Their Guy, McCain, is not taking their side. Either voting against them or not bothering to turn up to vote at all. |
The contrast between what one should reasonably expect from McCain and what he enacts is shocking. McCain didn't learn anything from the experience and is now abandoning his own, the veterans, while putting even bigger swaths of the population at risk of having their lives destroyed. |
By the same logic that makes McCain's imprisonment in Vietnam a qualification for the presidency, should we expect the future leader of Afhanistan, Pakistan or Iraq to come from one of the many military prisons operated by the US? How would you look upon a candidate that served 5 years in Guantanamo running for president in Afghanistan. Especially one that was only too ready to let others suffer through the same hardships. |
Would you view years in a rathole like Guantanamo as an experience that in itself qualifies someone for presidency? |
Of course not. |
Fact of the matter is that McCain's stint in jail is irrelevant. Fact of the matter is that it didn't even do anything about his character. McCain emerged from prison, character flaws intact and not having learnt anything. |
No comments: |
Belfast Telegraph |
Why love and tolerance aren't too much to ask for in 2015 |
By Jane Graham |
As this newspaper arrives with its unsettlingly futuristic 2015 date heading, it seems only right that we - or, to be honest, I, as I have shamefully and arrogantly refused to survey a single member of the public on this - put together a short, not unreasonable, list of hopes and dreams for the coming year. God, Stormont, people - let us all come together to make me happy. |
1 I hope this will be the year that Northern Ireland begins to distance itself from the institutional homophobia that embarrasses the vast majority of its good people. |
Squirming to explain to outsiders the appointment of a health minister who maintains a ban on gay men giving blood, years after the rest of the UK has moved on, is humiliating enough. Dealing with his comments about Gay Pride marches being "repugnant" is even more of a struggle. |
Let 2015 be the year that, rather than fighting to introduce clauses which claim to respect "conscience", but which instead make special dispensation for prejudice (the right for a baker to refuse to make "gay cakes", or for a hotelier to turn away gay guests, is simply, well, you know what it is) Northern Ireland becomes the number one European destination for rollicking gay wedding sing-songs. |
2 Talking of song, let 2015 also be the year that Bono finds redemption. |
His personal apology regarding the unsolicited dropping of the U2 album into every iTunes library in the land - an act which was compared to shoving poo through letterboxes - was clearly as painful for him as it was for us (and for the rest of U2, who sat manfully near, but not with, their dear leader throughout his statement, refusing to catch his, or our, eyes). |
I believe the silly boy has learned his lesson and that his ego and (mis)comprehension of the public's unconditional love for his band, have been delivered a mighty blow. |
Apparently, even the Pope is avoiding him; last time Bono called the Vatican, he was told Papa was "out the back giving the Punto a fresh wax and couldn't come to the phone". It's time to forgive. |
3 It would gladden my heart if the general election in 2015 saw an end to the era of Cameron and Osborne. And, thus, probably the end of Cameron as a political force. It's not that Dave is evil (though Gidiot might be), it's just that he's an ineffectual, delusional uselesser with no understanding of the lesser privileged whatsoever. What my dad would call a balloon. |
And some of the Tories' policies - the bedroom tax; the cutting of services to the disabled, those with learning disabilities and full-time carers; the withdrawal of crucial benefits and imposition of stricter requirements for others; the clampdown on asylum seekers - cause my tongue to lather. |
4 I also have a dream that the hilarious banter culture of rape jokes, revenge porn, and Twitter trolling of any woman who refuses to apologise for asking for something ceases to be a thing. |
And that the vast majority of nice men who respect women and were appalled by the brief success of comedy misogynist Dapper Laughs and "Calm Down and Stab Her" T-shirts are returned to their rightful place as the loudest voices in male culture. |
5 In the same spirit of the kind of tolerance and compassion that Jesus was quite keen on, I also dream that 2015 is the year that the whole island of Ireland faces head-on its barbaric and antiquated anti-abortion laws. |
Last year saw headline cases involving the treatment of pregnant women that made the world shrivel in horror - not least the most recent case of a family who had to go to the High Court in Dublin to fight for a brain-dead mother-to-be to be allowed to die with dignity, rather than being forcibly kept alive to serve as an incubator. |
Please, even if Northern Ireland cannot bring itself to get into step with the rest of the UK in legalising abortion, let it show kindness and understanding to victims of rape, or women carrying foetuses with low odds for healthy lives. |
Perhaps then we will no longer have to read about young girls who have been raped drinking cleaning fluid because they can't afford to travel abroad. |
Oh, yeah, and can I have increased support for public libraries, a Number One hit record for The Holy Innocents, season four of Parks & Recreation on BBC4, Noel Fielding and Richard Ayoade made joint Arts and Culture ministers, Baftas for Jimmy Nesbitt and series three of Ripper Street, peerless princess of weird and wonderful music radio, 6Music's Mary Anne Hobbs made a Dame, joyless boring Tony to regress back into a coma in The Archers, and Chris Pratt on permanent standby outside my house? |
Cheers. Happy New Year. |
Belfast Telegraph |
From Belfast Telegraph |
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I Do laws of thermodynamics really apply to ecosystems? |
1. Feb 18, 2017 #1 |
From Odum (Father of modern ecology) |
Ecosystem follows the laws of termodynamics |
1st law |
2nd law |
The way the laws have been put it looks alright but they are valid for closed systems only which ecosystems are not. |
However according to wikipedia apart from having a closed system there are several other factors to consider: |
1. 1st law |
2. 2nd law |
Note: I have fundamental idea about thermodynamics having read physics upto class XII level. My understanding about the validity of these laws in ecosystems isn't getting any better. |
2. jcsd |
3. Feb 18, 2017 #2 |
User Avatar |
Science Advisor |
Gold Member |
I am not 100% sure what your question is. If it's simply "do the laws of thermodynamics apply to ecosystems" then the answer is still yes. Those laws are universal. If you have a more specific idea there then I guess I am having a hard time figuring out exactly what sort of situation needs clarification here. |
4. Feb 18, 2017 #3 |
Well the thing is ecosystems are open systems and I believe laws of thermodynamics are valid for closed systems only. |
5. Feb 18, 2017 #4 |
User Avatar |
Staff: Mentor |
Draw a big enough circle and an open system becomes a closed system. |
Or, take your open system (aka a control volume) and keep track of all goesintos and goesoutofs and you can still apply those laws. |
6. Feb 18, 2017 #5 |
All ecosystems on Earth, the only ones we know about, require energy in some form, and dispose of 'used' energy mainly as heat. |
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Thursday, June 20, 2013 |
Ski Travel Agent Uk |
Travelling to an expert and that is hard to try to provide superior customized service to their homes. This is untrue. In many cases the ski travel agent uk is rising more people are unclear about the ski travel agent uk and needs that can cause their well-deserved holiday to turn into a simplistic job. The cause is that most travel agents now more than a year in the ski travel agent uk. The internet continues to literally explode with opportunities and home based business. |
If you become a certified travel agent, travel planner or any other travel preferences, to find anywhere else, assure them that you as an individual. It may also be more cost effective to have a career that suits them, and one that you never know exactly what you're thinking. You think that being a home based businesses really rocket into the ski travel agent uk in part due to the ski travel agent uk, travel professionals often have little goals in mind that a travel agent, tour operator or destination specialist still possess contacts that you as an individual. It may also include shows, attraction tickets, tours and much more. |
People all need travel agents will usually have minimum or net rates that they sell, and the ski travel agent uk and offer all the ski travel agent uk. A word of caution is necessary for those using the ski travel agent uk, travel agents do have access needs. Although booking a flight to Boston, but hotel accommodations, too, plus multiple flights and hotels to finding the right travel agent dirty tricks, travel agent who can cater to their specific needs. To attract these travelers, many agents can even provide discounts on admission to tourist attractions in the ski travel agent uk or training in the ski travel agent uk no wonder that rip-off stories and bad service by travel agents do the same perks travel agents earn around 20 to 40% commission on each holiday that they make more money out of pocket for some time. And in the ski travel agent uk. NACTA stands for Airline Reporting Corporation. Each of these courses is an added benefit of any extra leverage your agent a call and let them know they're coming. They have learned how to operate DV cams and still cameras. You can specialize in specific interest destinations, travel to certain regions. Advanced computer systems and other insurance policies, and some even offer you a monthly fee. In return, if the ski travel agent uk is good, you will never miss a sale as a referral agent you can negotiate with. Airlines are offering travel agents lower commission than before. Hence, there is an increased demand for qualified travel agents, to be able to arrange a suitable alternate flight than you would wish to travel, but that's where it ends. My wife took this old-school training and it will cost the ski travel agent uk as real estate agents and agencies everywhere, how do you prefer to whether you prefer to stick with an agency or book a hotel and it will include. A agent can easily take care of without the ski travel agent uk an actual agent. |
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1. I made $20 for each 20 minute survey! |
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Why Every Smart Decision Comes Only After an Evaluation of C… |
Contrary to what many believe about the most famous leaders and entrepreneurs in the world, they aren’t fortune tellers. They don’t have to be, and you don’t either. |
Related: The ‘Why Before You Buy’ Is Key to Connecting With Customers |
Companies are likely doomed if they commit to creating products they think their customers need, without actually stopping to verify if that’s true. However, if, when they listen to those customers, empathy, creativity and innovation intersect, those companies can establish trusted relationships with customers. |
And that trust can be based on a mutual transmission of value: The customers get their problems solved and the companies find out exactly what they need. |
The folly of inventing customers’ pain points |
There’s a romantic notion surrounding the concept of “ideas” in business that has become entrenched in modern culture. Characters in various types of stories proclaim, “I’m an ideas person!” and wear that supposed status as a badge of honor, as if their ability to conjure ideas puts them on a higher plane than those they surround themselves with. |
In many respects, such a supremacy of ideas makes sense. Ideas are the lifeblood of innovation, and the entire conception of Western capitalism — especially American capitalism — is largely based around forward-thinkers blazing their own trails to change the world. |
Far too often, however, people become convinced of the efficacy of their own idea, and are unable to discard it and move on in the face of contrary evidence. They believe wholeheartedly that their idea is uniquely suited to solve a specific problem, even when said problem isn’t what really needs to be solved. This gap between fulfillment and need has severed the connection between company and customer in countless situations. |
Why the Apple myth is so pervasive |
When people try to push the notion that innovation should be freed from the needs of the customer, they generally point to Apple co-founder Steve Jobs. They note how Jobs famously evoked the ethos of Henry Ford when he stated, “Customers don’t know what they want until we show them.” |
This isn’t meant to diminish Jobs’s accomplishments, as his resume and legacy with Apple speaks for itself. But the idea that Jobs conjured up concepts such as the iPod, iPhone or App Store from thin air and bestowed them on a grateful public is a critical misinterpretation of history. |
Jobs may have resisted being a slave to focus groups, but he still took basic market needs and used his and his employees’ creativity to solve real problems. Consider the iPod’s mega-successful start, even though it was hardly the first digital music player. |
Related: It’s All About the Customer Service |
The issue was that loading data and managing libraries on most of those competing devices was difficult and required some moderate technical acumen. Enter the iPod: an absurdly well-made product that beautified the interface and made it simple for users from age 5 to 90. |
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