Archive for March, 2005
Think twice before complaining
Posted on 31. Mar, 2005 by Cassandra.
Reading the South African Advertising standards authority’s website can be entertaining.
Basically, this is the industry body which regulates advertising in South Africa. If you find an ad offensive or misleading, they are there to rule on your complaint and have the ad taken away and killed if needed.
One of the compliants which caught the eye was one by Deon Breyston against Elizabeth Arden’s Provocative Perfume TV ad.
The commercial features men melting into a puddle of water at the sight of a woman, presumably wearing the advertised product.
The commercial shows a beautiful woman walking through the streets of Rome. As she passes, some of the men who see her melt into puddles of water. The name of the perfume is “Provocative Woman”. The commercial is illustrating the concept of a “provocative woman” through the use of the visual interpretation of a person melting.
COMPLAINT
The complainant is, inter alia, of the opinion that the commercial is:
- Offensive
- Sexist and demeaning
- Implies that all men are powerless to, and slaves of, sexual provocation.
- Promotes the idea that it is okay for women to use sex or sexual innuendo to gain favour, control or acceptance, which is demeaning to women and insulting to men.
Now Cherryflava has not had the privilage of seeing the ad, but really Mr Breyston….men are powerless and slaves of woman’s sexual provacation…..why is that all of a sudden a shock to you.
The ASA felt the same as us and dismissed the complaint….and Mr Breyston looks silly.
Jamie Oliver 1 – Tony Blair 0
Posted on 31. Mar, 2005 by Cassandra.
With a handful of basil and a good lug of olive oil Jamie Oliver took on the British government and won.
Britain super celeb chef…yesterday won an extra £280million for healthy school meals – and hailed the Mirror for backing his Feed Me Better campaign.
Jamie, 29, provoked a huge debate over school meals after his Channel 4 show Jamie’s School Dinners highlighted rubbish food produced on a scandalously low budget.
But what are Jamie and the PM munching on here? Big doughy bun thingies, tea and….oh yes…there’s a bit of fruit. It must be rather difficult scoffing a big butter bun and tanking down a cuppa while chating to Tony. Anyhow…good on Jamie.
He’s even got a blog site which goes into more detail about the campaign.
Street entertainment stolen
Posted on 30. Mar, 2005 by Cassandra.
Cherryflava’s not really sure why they are so suprised, but the NYPD (New York Police Department) are warning gizmo junkies to hide their toys while on the streets of New York….to the shock of iPod and PSP owners.
Thefts of the music-playing gizmos, game-playing cell phones and other popular electronic devices are the new trend in subway crime – and are partly responsible for an underground crime surge this year, police said yesterday.
Here’s the best bit though, the article lists a couple of steal tips:
iPods are just the latest trendy items to be targeted by thieves above and below ground. Other prized possessions taken by brazen robbers have included:
- High-priced leather jackets, including the 8-ball-style coats
- Pricey sneakers, including Nike Air Diamonds and Air Jordans
- Gold chains
- Boom-box radios
Boom-box radios…..damb brother…just like in those ol’ Jackson videos from the 80′s. If this is a trend over there, then you’d better be careful about wandering around Manenburg with your iPod flashing all over the place…or ‘boom-box radio’ on your shoulder, as well.
But you all knew that already right? Gothamist have got their take on the whole thing here.
Rap for Mac
Posted on 30. Mar, 2005 by Cassandra.
MacDonald’s has made an offer to big American rap stars.
‘Include a line about the Big Mac in your next hit song and we’ll pay you the top dollar.’
MTV reports: The goal is to have a handful of songs flogging Big Macs on the air by summer, and Maven — which has reportedly had discussions with a number of artists, labels and producers — has already received an unidentified number of songs that are candidates for the promotion.
How much dollar will the sellout rapper earn?….the artists do not receive a lump sum but will earn anywhere from $1 to $5 each time their song is played on a regular or satellite radio.
There are serious rumours that Steve Hofmeyer will now be releasing an album completely dedicated to the benefits of the Spur burger.
Know your speedtraps
Posted on 29. Mar, 2005 by Cassandra.
Here’s a handy site for all BMW and Opel Astra drivers. It’s called Speedtraps.co.za and it lists the location of almost every permanent speed camera in the country.
The basic idea behind the site is that if you know where a pesky permanent speed trap has be placed, you email this information to the site and it gets listed.
This poor Uno turbo driver obviously wanted to erase any evidence of his wrongful speed infringment by reversing into a camera. It seemed to have worked, but alas seriously altered his vehicle’s sleek Italian lines
Check out the traps in your area and keep your hard earned cash for those new racing mags you so badly want to put on the ol’ beemer…or maybe that stick-on flame decal which would just finish the beast off so nicely….or……
Light Saturday morning running
Posted on 29. Mar, 2005 by Cassandra.
Cherryflava decided that it would be rude not to take part in this year’s Old Mutual Two Oceans half marathon.
So Easter Saturday saw us, along with 7000 other runners, take on the tough 21.1km route from Newlands main road, through Plumstead, Constantia, Southern Cross drive, Kirstenbosch and finally to the end at UCT.
Even if you’re not a seasoned runner, there is just something special about running along carless city streets at 06H30 with thousands of other people. The spectators were brilliant, there were DJ’s on-route, dancing girls, armies of green clad whistle blowers and more than enough refreshment stations to make every kilometre worthwhile.
So…in the end we worked the course over in exactly 2 hours. It really was over just a bit too quickly.
Even if you’ve never thought of running before, put in some training and do the race next year. Along with the Argus, it’s a Cape Town institution and well worth the effort to take part.
Next in line for this year is the Knysna forest half marathon…and entries open 1 April. Try it….you’ll probably love it.
World’s top 100 skylines
Posted on 24. Mar, 2005 by Cassandra.
Check this….recently the world’s skylines were ranked according to a formula where Each building is assigned points based on its floor count. The point total for each city is calculated automatically and displayed.
Top five cities are:
1. Hong Kong
2. New York
3. Seoul
4. Chicago
5. Singapore
Apon further study of the complete list, Cherryflava was rather entertained to learn that Beijing, number 30 on the list and host city for the next Olympic games, covers and area of nearly 17000 square kilometres.
Johannesburg, with 131 buildings, comes in at number 69 (nice one Joburg) and Durban, just piped by Jersey City (nasty) and Nagoya (?), is at 94.
Cape Town is nowhere. [Via]
Secret lives
Posted on 24. Mar, 2005 by Cassandra.
Everyone has secrets…..you know, like when you were a kid and you stole sweets from those big bins in Pick ‘n Pay (whatever happened to those things?) or that time you set fire to the veld in your neighbourhood and everybody came out to see the Jone’s house being saved by the fire brigade.
Now an American art student has started a project called Postsecret. The site was started by this
American guy as an art project. He asked people to send in anonymous
postcards (via snail mail) disclosing big secrets in their lives.
Thanks to Redsaid for forwarding this rather eery secret postcard. Is it true? Who knows, but it clearly adds fuel the the whole 9/11 conspiracy theory.
Cape Town blog awards: Pictures
Posted on 20. Mar, 2005 by Cassandra.
Last word on this year’s blog awards.
Here are the pictures from the Cape Town event.
Cape Town blog awards
Posted on 20. Mar, 2005 by Jonathan Cherry.
Finally, the pics from the Cape Town leg of the first ever South African blog awards.
Held at Obz cafe , it was a fitting end to this year’s awards, highlighting South Africa’s own pioneering online publishing talent. Once again, congrats to all of those blogs that were nominated and to all the winners.
Dalton awarding the next winner.
The 2oceansvibe lifestyle team; Sammy, Seth and Mark.
Dalton and Susan enjoying the limelight.
Simon from Ideafarm.
Paul with the Trautman brothers; Ian and Greame
Talking shop it’s Dave, Hilton and Seth.
Seth accepting the awards for best lifestyle and overall SA blog.
