Mexx love me some Dunglish also

"Black is more than a Colour."

But less than a number?


(from the Mexx website. No such thing as bad publicity, right guys?).

Okay, maybe it's a little mean to pick on poor Mexx, but it is a subsidiary of Liz Claiborne, and you'd think either they or their ad agency would have thought twice about this slogan.

Or worse, maybe they did think about it.

Apologies for the poor photo quality. Taken at night in front of the Rijksmuseum. MORE

Philips - Compact Discs

(Photo taken by me at the Philips Technology Campus in Eindhoven: it shows the inside of a CD player, blown up to much larger-than-life size as an educational tool).
So, the Compact Disc turns 25 this month. For people of a certain age it seems like only yesterday. I was 10 years old, and there was a whole new range of products I never knew could exist but suddenly wanted and couldn't afford.



10 years later I remember the bitter pain I felt when someone stole several of my favorite CDs during a party my little sister threw at our house while I was gone, including my "Jackson 5 Greatest Hits" album, and CD 2 of my "JB (James Brown) and the Horny Horns" featuring Maceo Parker. That one was unreplaceable.

Now I have like 300 CDs and never listen to them; too much work to find the ones I want; and "ripping" them all to Mp3 would be more than a week of work (I calculated it).



But I digress.



As it happens, I recently had cause to check out Philips' corporate museum in Eindhoven, and I can recommend it to anybody who basically is interested in old technology, antique radios & microphones, that kind of stuff. I think it's a little bit like the Smithsonian used to be.

Despite the rather hard-to-fine entrance, and unpromising location near a construction pit, it was full of things like original neon lights that still work, funky old art deco advertisements, televisions ensconced in cabinets made of tropical rain forest wood (in the 1950's when that was not politically incorrect), those weird static bulbs that do something with electricity. Edison records. You get the idea. A mad scientist's laboratory. I have a lot more pictures, I guess I'll add them to my Flickr feed eventually. Oh by the way, as far as the Dutch are concerned, Edison didn't really invent the lightbulb: Philips did. I saw something similar recently about how Alexander Gram Bell didn't invent the telephone. Maybe I should look into this, it could be hot news I suppose. MORE

Halal-Mart

An interesting group of Dutch artists called "Mediamatic" said last week they wanted to create an art project whereby they would do a mockup of "Hema," _ the Dutch equivalent of Macy's _ in Arabic style.
So, in typical corporate fashion, especially Dutch corporate fashion, Hema first freaked out, then started threatening lawsuits, drew a lot of attention to the project, and then (predictably) backed down.

"It is unmistakable that Mediamatic is unjustly trying to hook into the concepts developed by the Hema. This can confuse the public, and is completely unacceptable"
-Hema

I have a dream, and it's that someday, press relations 'professionals' will be forced to attend a class where they will be drilled on such damage control concepts as:

• 'Threatening Lawsuits Will Draw Attention You May Not Want'
• 'When Issuing A Press Release, Include A Contact Person and Phone Number'
• 'Make Sure The Contact Person Is Available Shortly After Your Release is Issued'
• 'Make Sure Your Spokesperson Has Been Prepped on the Topic of the Day'
• 'A Press Relations Officer's Primary Function Is To Communicate With, Not Hinder, The Press'
• 'When a Crisis Strikes, Hiding And Being Unavailable Doesn't Improve The Situation'
• Lying Is Not A Good Option'
  
oh yeah and

• 'Worst Out First'

Not that the above applies to Hema, but their reversal on this was highly predictable. The subtext of their initial panic was a desire to prevent their company being brought into connection with Islam in any way. Not out of prejudice, mind you, just out of mindless corporate fear of anything controversial.

After about three seconds of consideration, Hema might have realized that artists making an exhibit of what a store would look like after being Islamicized clearly falls under freedom of speech rules. If nothing else, it could be considered satire.

But in this case it seems like good old fashioned social criticism...

Another way Hema could have looked at the situation: FREE, HARMLESS PUBLICITY.

Another: Endorsing the project, and engaging in the public dialogue over integration and cultural exchange between different parts of the Dutch populace would not only be the right thing to do, but it might actually enhance the store's reputation.

Mediamatic has some more on the situation here. Their English is a little funky but they do great work...
MORE

Burning Indonesian forests for biofuel

This story isn't really worth reading, but feel free.

What was interesting was, that, in my estimation, all players mean well. The NGO is trying to call attention to a problem, the company is trying to make a profit from an environmentally friendly product _ and responds to criticism _ and the Dutch government is trying to make sure this market works the way it was intended. MORE