In the last week or so you may or may not have seen a ‘Stay home. Save lives.’ ad with images of the insides of four houses. It was rather swiftly pulled after many, many people pointed out the highly regressive images inside the four houses. One bloke sat on his...
Sexism in advertising
By Deborah Wroe The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) has published a new report – Depictions, Perceptions and Harm – which provides an evidence-based case for stronger regulation of ads that feature stereotypical gender roles or characteristics which might be...
Failure is not an option, or is it?
By Deborah Wroe Given the news overload of late you may have missed the announcement in early June of a new museum in Sweden dedicated to all things failure. The world’s first Museum of Failure is the brainchild of Dr Samuel West, an organisational psychologist. The...
Buy cheap buy twice
By Deborah Wroe We’ve all heard buy cheap buy twice right? But we all still do it. Take Black Friday as an example. It shouldn’t even be a thing here. It’s traditional in the US as the day following Thanksgiving and we don’t (yet) have Thanksgiving here. But Black...
The Jack of all trades building approach to marketing
By Deborah Wroe My dream is to build my own eco house. No, you won’t see me on Grand Designs soon. 1) my design is not that grand and 2) I’m camera shy – no really I am. My job has always been to put others in the spotlight whilst I hover in the background and I’m not...
Postcard from Spain – it’s a sign!
By Deborah Wroe Ah 10 days in Andalucia, the Lecrin Valley to be exact, deep in the Lecrin Valley, in fact right at the end of the valley, Albunuelas, the last stop, the end of the road, the back of beyond. Was it peaceful? Nope, what with the narrow streets and...
Tight arse Tuesdays and other incentives
By Deborah Wroe Special offers, money off vouchers, early bird prices and happy hour are all incentives to get people to take up your services, sometimes to fill quiet periods, or to get new customers in your door. Tight arse Tuesday is an Australian phenomenon and...
Sense of purpose
By Deborah Wroe No, not as in ‘Why are we here?’, or ‘Is there a god?’. BUT more why are you doing what you are doing? What is the purpose? You can spend your marketing budget however you want, but before you start throwing money at a project you do need to ask...
The annoyance factor
By Deborah Wroe In the last month or so, my Facebook feed had a fair few football status updates, vying for attention between the, ‘Long day…need a drink’ and the Facebook Places updates like, ‘I am at the Ivy with David Beckham’ (or I am at B&Q with husband and...