This Gap commercial directed by Spike Jonze is officially the best public makeover proposal in history:

Still trying to figure out how I could have missed this (even without a television all news regarding shopping issues I care about are usually brought to my attention sharpish). After the litany of problems Gap has faced, this entertaining and genuinely hilarious transparency just goes beyond all expectations.

So it's such a shame that the big redesign it heralds failed to actually materialize, at least on the outside - which is all I've seen cos nothing's changed that would make me or anyone I know, want to actually enter a store!

It's like buying the best knife on the market (love you Spike) to slice rotten tomatoes - brand managers please pay attention to this cautionary tale and follow your sizzle through with some top grade sausage!

No, that's not a typo.

Thanks to my sister Fae for the tip - I really miss UK ads : (

Definition of CREATIVITY: the ability to transcend traditional ideas, rules, patterns, relationships and methods, and to create meaningful new ones with originality, progressiveness and imagination (dictionary.com)

I've been thinking about how few grown-ups are actually creative, unless it's their job to be.

Living in Brooklyn (and only talking to people I find interesting) for over 5 years, I have found a disproportionate number of friends who are. But it still took me a really long time to realize that I myself had stopped writing poems or stories or painting or even practicing my cello more than once a month.

Creativity isn't just for artists and innovators - it's vital for the evolution of society - for the future of everything.

In his manifesto 'How To Be Creative' Hugh Macleod makes the great point that when we're in kindergarten we're expected to be creative and to prove it with crayons and paint and sand, etc. But then we grow up, our crayons are taken away and we're expected to stop being creative and instead find solutions to problems with the other side of our brains.

My friends Raphael and Deeanna host an open Make/Craft night at the NYC Resistor space in downtown Brooklyn every Thursday night. I go every week and pretend to construct collages from the hundreds of shopping bags I've collected during my shopaholic years. Like I said, it's open to anyone who shows up and wants to create something - so feel free to come along, and we'll give you your crayons back.

I see a globe and a certain brush-scripted flair in this pack design.

Skinny can. Big fat ambition.

Thieving bastards.

You've been very patient. Now here's your reward.

Back to norm next week, promise!

O.xxx

[illustration by oylerdp]

As you may have noticed, things have been a bit quiet over here in Blogville, OV.

There'll be no Buzz Check this month (sorry fans) because the idea right now is about figuring out what all the buzz actually means and then doing something with or about it.

Gandhi said that each of us should "Be the change you want to see inthe world." And that's my new mantra.

So today try to go out and be a part of the buzz you usually read about. Let me know what happens...

I took this picture when running out of Penn station at midnight last night, I realized after that instead of cars there were 7 elephants walking along beside me.

Other bystanders looked shell-shocked but seriously, this is New York - people keep tigers, crocodiles and even other people as pets, so why not elephants?

Ha!

Watch it and weep... then hit the bloody gym.

Well done Wieden Kennedy - you've proven once again that a brand I'll never buy can still speak my language and thus inspire me to change my ways. Genius.

So a new Urban Outfitters opened up today in Brooklyn.

Yay to that (whatevs people, those who hate the loudest are the ones who simply buy their stuff online) - but the location, as well as this ghastly print ad, indicates that they may have skipped the homework part of the "let's open a new store" game.

Seriously folks, I could have done better brainstorming with boomers in the mid-west and then hastily bashing their suggestions into a powerpoint doc on the plane ride back. Wait a second...

PRE-BUZZ: THE END OF LENT
Cake and shopping. What on earth posessed me to think that I could give up BOTH of my favorite past-times for 40 days and nights. March 24th really cannot come quickly enough. My sister's coming to visit with a giant chocolate egg in tow - the ultimate incentive to be good and see this thing through to the bitter end.

BUZZ: MONOCHROME
A recent New York magazine article states that "One is the loveliest color." As a hardcore enthusiast of stripes and all manner of bombastic patterns, this simple concept had never even occurred to me. So, while I believe the individuals covered in the article are barmy to limit themselves so permanently, I've decided to throw a big party while my sister's here, where everyone wears just one color from top to toe. It's the overall effect of 50 people monochromed in different colors that I can't wait to see. Will make sure there are plenty of pics.

SATURATION POINT: THE "GRISLY ADAMS" LOOK
Or specifically the widespread adoption of full-face beards by scrawny, dandily-coiffed hipster boys. Yeah I know it keeps your face warm but so do balaclavas and there's a reason why it's frowned upon to wear those to work. They're scary. And frankly, allowing whiskers to grow from every follicle on your face is scarier, especially when your barnet looks like an expensively teased oeuvre de Tony & Guy. All I'm asking for is some consistency boys. So prune the facial bush, or move to Montana.

OVER-HYPED: CHOCOLATE
Good for your heart, yes. Good for your brain, absolutely. Good for your face... really? Chocolate has a lot of milkfat so I can't imagine wanting to coat my face the way I love to coat my tongue with it. And what are you supposed to do with it after the magic has happened. Wash it off? Down the drain? Sacrilege!

BACKLASH: SNOW
We've skidded, we've sledded, we've balled and we've bawled. Now make it stop. Please.

BACKLASH TO THE BACKLASH: CLEVELAND
Ha ha, chocolate makes its third appearance in this month's Buzz rundown. I overdosed and rendered myself allergic to Family Guy after spending an entire Summer on a couch in Greenpoint with a poor choice of male companion. But now that the cartoon's only black character Cleveland Brown is getting his own spin-off show, miraculously I can watch again. Hurrah!

Could "world in harmony " be brought to life any better way?

[photo by Wild About Music Inc.]

For those who have wondered, here's the story behind my hair.

How often do you see this written on consumer goods these days?

*Rant Alert!*

After trudging to the Apple Store with yet another 4 year old Mac model dying in the arms of a distraught friend, I realize that I'm one of the few people my age who still expects the non-disposable items I buy to be just that - non-throw-awayable. And if quality control should somehow fail, I also grew up with the term "repair or replace" as a standard benefit in ye olde United Kingdom.

But nowadays across the globe, despite the deafening call for increased sustainability and making things the right way to minimize waste in the first place - I've noticed that huge seemingly do-gooder companies like Apple don't even bother to stock spare parts for software models aged 5 years or older - and that just doesn't seem right.

Yes, they take old models back in, disassemble them and use what they can in newer models - but the consumer is left to shell out the full amount for a brand new machine (warranties are only available for up to 3 years) - and as a brand developer, this is what I have the most trouble with.

Branding these days is quite openly an art of seduction, the ultimate goal being a long-term monogamous relationship with your target consumer. As human beings we are taught to be prepared to concede and compromise in order to make the relationships that matter most to us, work out - so why don't brands who want the same, do the same?

Apple clearly expects its customers to start all over again and pay full whack after 5 years because they've just gotten used to the mac experience. But would it be so painful to reward consumer commitment with a gift from the heart to show that the feeling is mutual?

I'm starting with software as my current frame of reference but this kind of money-grabbing short-sightedness is rife across many categories if you look around you. I dream of and intend to work towards building a retail economy where the idea of sustainable relationships with brands, supported by sustainable production and distribution procedures - is a given.

Is my head too far up in the clouds - or is this common sense?

Here's a ray of Winter sunshine in my frozen midtown malaise!

Back in 2005 we developed a concept for Pepsi International for an all-natural sub-brand, stripped of all artificial ingredients so that it's basically "in the raw". At the time PI's R&D team said it would take at least 5 years to figure out a completely natural formula that could be bottled safely and sit on shelves for more than a week.

But apparently they underestimated themselves. So here's a product concept I delivered 2 years ago, brought to life down to our recommendations for packaging, visual branding, the formula and most pleasingly, the name.

It's received positive reviews so far and even better, it's been launched in my homeland so my friends and family are already on the hunt for bottles so that I can have a tasting party to celebrate. (Naturally) sweet!

Good friend Tamara (wife of master tech geek JP) runs her own graphic design studio and is currently turning heads at the School of Visual Arts here in New York.

She created this awesome motion graphics piece below almost a year ago, in response to a coursework brief "to create a music video using just type and typographic elements in black and white."

The song is one of my all-time favorites by Nina Simone - and this video brings it to life so beautifully, that now when I hear it I see the words dancing:

Unsurprisingly it's already won her acclaim in the industry (before she's even graduated) - and was shown as a best practice case study in Sweden earlier this year. I can't wait to see more - Tammy, you rock!

With Lent as an annual excuse to detox my lifestyle, this year beginning with my finances - I cut up both my credit cards on Wednesday, only to have a brand new replacement for the one with the highest balance, arrive in the mail yesterday!

Now - the expiration date was 03/09 (all hardened online shopaholics have such details burnished onto their frontal lobes) so I wasn't due for a new one anytime soon. And the thought that the touch of a scissor blade on the magnetic strip could have somehow activated an electronic 'send replacement' command in the system - frankly scares me more than the possibility of a technical glitch.

In any case there was no better way to help me to realize that my 10-year shopahol addiction has been just that - a compulsive, habit-forming state of enslavement. So the new card just hit the bottom of the bin in pieces too. And we shall see what happens in another 3 days...

Now here's an ad that makes me proud to be a nerd. And a strategist:

I love everything about Honda - what they stand for, how they talk about what they stand for as shown above - and most importantly, how they engage consumers by the way they talk about it. Or the clever ones anyway.

Thanks Amelia for the tip!

OMG people - a long-held fantasy, often dreamed aloud during happy hour, has actually come true - IKEA does houses now!

The homes, known as Bo Klok (Swedish for "smart living", pronounced "boo-klook"), were designed in Stockholm and Malmo in the 1990s.

Currently these flat-pack houses are being used to stem the British housing crisis, with the first development in Gateshead open only to families with household incomes of less than 35K - but I think that the real market in the long-term will be up and coming young professionals, like ME.

Many cultural trends point to this being a much bigger opportunity - among them:

Necessary debt - a shabby reality, familiar to anyone who currently earns their daily bread in dollars. Transumerism - young people would rather spend their money on traveling the world than settling down in fancy bricks and mortar. And Eco-chic - these settlements are a Scandinavian minimalist design haven and bound to be greener than traditional digs.

So please bring it on IKEA - get thee to Brooklyn by 2015 and I'll be first in line!

PRE-BUZZ: PANCAKES
Tomorrow I'm breaking out the eggs, milk, flour, lard and frying pan, for tis SHROVE! Fellow ex-pats and anglophiles know what I'm talking about - and now so do around 50 of my closest friends, who are coming over for savory and sweet delights lovingly skilleted by mine own fair hand. The fam back in London sheds a tear on this day every year...yeah, I'm that good!

BUZZ: MICRO-HOO
So Bill's rolled out the mega-wad to the tune of around 50Big ones, trying to bag Yahoo in an attempt to stem Googletide. People sound worried but I'm not. Google is relentlessly innovative - and Google is cool - and Google is already on Mars. So Microsoft can buy as many dangly bits as it can clip on but in my eyes, Google will always be shinier.

SATURATION POINT: BABY BUMPS
Maybe my broody cruise through the late 20's is on slo-mo, but there appears to be just way too many pregnant people in the media - and therefore inadvertently in the less glitzy world of impressionable youth. I wouldn't mind half as much if the tabloids weren't so hypocritically forgiving of almost any sin (drink/drug-driving, bitchery, anorexia, bad perms - all pointing to a clear inability to take care of yourself, let alone a defenceless tot) the second starlets get knocked up. Then all of a sudden they become a glowing, happy, role models of fecund virtue and no-one's allowed to say anything mean about them, even if it's still true. Ugh, seriously - pregnancy is like the new death.

OVER-HYPED: BABIES
Because they're the kind of cute accessory that unfortunately grows bigger, grows more expensive and then grows to hate you for not thinking parenthood through enough beforehand. Or something.

BACKLASH: DISPO-TECH
A major bee in my bonnet right now, which is about to receive its own semi-lengthy post. Several (thousand) people I know own MacBooks. And when those MacBooks are about 4 years old, my friends will have to throw them away and pay a few hundred more dollars, if not full whack, for a temporary (as in another 4 years or so) upgrade. And strangely, they are all OK with this until I point out the fact that Apple doesn't even bother to stock the parts they know will become faulty, 5 years after any new model has been launched - so their business plan appears to rely on the continued disposal of hardware they've created + the short-sighted cool-hunger of trendies. Now, I know that computer parts wear down - and computer capablilities improve rapidly. But whatever happened to the phrases "Lifetime guarantee" and "Repair or replace, at no extra cost"? They just don't seem to exist anymore - anywhere.

BACKLASH TO THE BACKLASH: AVOCADOES
Used to hate 'em. Now I LOVE 'em. Simple as that. Growing up rocks!