The Shock Doctrine

The Shock Doctrine by Naomi Klein is one of the most thought provoking books I have read for a while that quite frankly scares the crap out of me! It is a bit of a beast to lug around in your backpack but it´s a must for anyone travelling in Central and South America.

Shedding some light on why amazing countries like Nicaragua are some of the poorest in the western hemisphere it also explains why there is so much 'I hate Bush' graffiti in most towns and cities I have been to.

Brand America part two

After posting this last week about a small observation relating to 'Brand America', I've just come across this article on Business Week, in which teams from Tribal DDB and Draft/FCB entered a competition to re-brand the U.S of A. I wasn't at Ad Week but I can't help feeling disappointed by the description of the responses? Here's an extract on the winning idea.

"Tribal DDB's, which won the competition, based its pitch around using "Americans as media." Posters would feature photographs of diverse Americans emblazoned with the phrase "Fat Ugly American," or "Stupid American." Tribal would get American celebrities to wear t-shirts that said "Ignorant American," with a number to send a text message to underneath. That number would then give information about charitable cause that celebrity was supporting that helps people abroad. Other Americans, naturally, could then get involved and support the charities themselves in small ways that connected them directly with those benefiting (and get their own t-shirts too)".

Stereotypes + celebrities + charities abroad doesn't really excite me that much and it certainly doesn't do anything to address the fact that rightly or wrongly the rest of the world see the US in a similar light to North Korea and Iran. It doesn't go nearly deeper enough.

A Soviet poster a day...

Yep just what you always wanted I know, a blog about Russian posters.

I personally love posters. They are arguably the simplest form of communications but often the most interesting creatively and in this case politically. This blog doesn't just flag up various posters from over the years it gives you the full history behind each one.

Here's my favourite...

If we don't end war, war will end us

Plotting the Plannersphere

I've been meaning to have a go at this Political Compass Test since Charles posted it a while ago. As you can see, The Communications Room is only slightly more authoritarian and left than Punk Planning.


Go on, have a go and politically plot the Plannersphere

Book Review - Unspeak

I think words are one of the most powerful weapons a planner can use and this is an excellent book that really gets you thinking about how to use them in a different way. It's jam packed full of euphemisms, metaphors and hidden meanings.

Journalist Steven Poole analyses how governments, 'terrorist groups', religious leaders and corporations manipulate words in order to influence behaviour, thoughts and the opinions of the 'herd'. So if you like words and political debate Unspeak this is well worth reading.

Stop War

Via Worstweatherever

I love this kind of stuff. Very Banksy.

Politicians are out of touch

Prior to the recent local elections this letter was put through my door telling me why I should vote Liberal Democrats. A compelling read that sparked me to get off my backside and vote it certainly wasn't.



It is the most boring thing I've read of late and pretty much sums up why only 30% of people vote in local elections - the worst levels of participation in Western Europe. It is completely lacking in any substance or opinion whatsoever and stinks of the kind of petty rhetoric that politicians get so engrossed in. Unfortunately they missed an opportunity to tell me anything remotely interesting and failed to either try and understand voters. Really, why should I bother reacting to this? They haven't told me why the Lib Dems are better, only that Debbie Tomes is nice and they are the only party that will get the Conservatives out.

Common folks, you could at least tell me what you are doing about the little oiks that have smashed my wing mirror off tiwce in the last couple of months!

Save our Sauce

I have to admit it, there's nothing better on a Sunday morning than a bacon sandwich with some HP sauce to cure a hangover. Proper British, as they say. Or at least they used to.



HP's new TV ad aired last week and I noticed they had dropped the 'Sauce of Great Britain' line in favour of the 'Sauce of Weekend Pleasure.' The former was much better, why have they dropped it I thought? Well all became clear when reading the papers on Sunday. HP is moving the production of HP sauce from the UK to Holland.



As a result the country is up in arms. This isn't just a dissapointment economically, it is another example of a less than impressive British branding at work. You can sign a petition to save the jobs of British workers here. Tommy sauce it is this weekend!