Simon Blackburn

RTs are not endorsements.

[Simon Blackburn @sjb92]

@Enterprise #OnEveryCorner #Sweepstakes

[Simon Blackburn @sjb92]

@Enterprise #OnEveryCorner #Sweepstakes

[Alex Edmans @aedmans]

There is no correlation between workforce diversity and firm performance, regardless of whether (a) diversity is measured using gender, ethnic, or age diversity; (b) performance is measured using return on equity, gross profit, or labor productivity. https://t.co/zEKnlT6Zt9

[Duncan Robinson @duncanrobinson]

Fascinating nugget

[NO CONTEXT HUMANS @HumansNoContext]

This is the best trend of the year

[World Athletics @WorldAthletics]

8 frames, 1 iconic 100m final 🖼️

#Paris2024

[Simon Blackburn @sjb92]

.@BBCSport please add a #Phryge to the studio sofa every day but have the presenters make no reference to the gradual increase at any point

[NatCen @NatCen]

🚨It’s #ElectionDay 🚨

Explore our rich constituency-by-constituency insights, to have at hand for those that plan to stay up and watch the results as they start to trickle in. Get a quick snapshot of any English and Welsh constituency – average age, education levels, poverty rates, crime levels and more 🧵https://t.co/Xf1QOKercI

[Sam Freedman @Samfr]

Love the election morning traditional of intensely politically engaged people telling each other to vote on social media.

[Damian Lyons Lowe @DamianSurvation]

We now have a widget on the site where you can see MRP estimates by seat, but also displays the probability of each party winning (after simulating the election 800 times). It also has a seat finder. Check it out: https://t.co/J6egPoJDkD

[Nick Asbury @asburyandasbury]

Please do not write alt text like these ads by MullenLowe for RNIB and Cannes.

I wrote about this in more detail earlier this year, when an ad campaign described images like the 9/11 falling man and the Tiananmen Square protestor, using flowery language of the kind you should always avoid when writing alt text. But these ads outside the Palais at Cannes are arguably worse.

Fearless Girl – Alt text is not meant to be a cryptic ‘guess the ad’ clue. If the statue is standing in front of a bull, say it’s a bull, the Wall Street f-ing bull, not a ‘huge, muscular, horned beast’. This is not a poetry class or an ad for Roget’s Thesaurus.

KFC – it’s a copy-only ad with FCK written on the bucket. Reproduce the copy, don’t describe it like some Radio 4 gameshow where you’re not allowed to name the brand.

Kaepernick – as above. And don’t editorialise in such an uninformed way – the ad came out before George Floyd and wasn’t ‘mimicking’ anything.

Burger King – it shouldn’t take five times longer to read the alt text than it does to look at the ad. You’re meant to be doing a service to the reader, not burnishing your writing portfolio.

I can only think RNIB agreed to this for the free media and some sense of ‘raising awareness’, knowing full well that it’s a guide to exactly what NOT to do when it comes to writing alt text.

And let's not even get into Cannes continuing to celebrate 18 x Grand Prix winner Fearless Girl, created on behalf of asset management firm State Street, who at the time were making a $5m out-of-court settlement to their female and black employees for claims of historic underpayment, and to this day remain in litigation with the female sculptor for restricting her creative freedom. Only a few years earlier, they were at the centre of the Occupy Wall Street protests, until the reputation-washing job was complete and they went from pariahs to purposeful heroes. OK, I got into it.

[Simon Blackburn @sjb92]

The @FA solving fixture congestion by drawing three teams together in the @EmiratesFACup ...

[Cookie Monster @MeCookieMonster]

Me here to talk it out whenever you want. Me will also supply cookies. 💙🍪 #EmotionalWellBeing

[cricket.com.au @cricketcomau]

Every angle, every call – how the broadcasters celebrated Shamar Joseph and the West Indies' historic Gabba win #AUSvWI

[Simon Blackburn @sjb92]

I've entered the prize draw for my chance to win £200. You can play the #JLChristmasChallenge and enter too at @JohnLewisRetail https://t.co/RmaigMR0P5

[Great British Getty Images @shitbritishpics]

Bouillon cubes- stock photo (year unknown)

[Nick Asbury @asburyandasbury]

So here is the full Jungian reading of the John Lewis ad that you know you need.

The Venus flytrap is consumer capitalism. By the end, it is vomiting out presents to an acquisitive family who were queasy about allowing it into the house, and now feel guilty about shoving it out into the cold (but not sufficiently guilty to bring it back in again).

The family is the 2023 ad industry, awkwardly re-embracing the commercial purpose it has neglected for so long, while keeping it at a safe distance from the warm, cosy mental comfort zone of social purpose.

The gift of the Venus flytrap comes from the boy (Gen Z) looking beyond his parental generation (including the absent father, who represents the lost creative force) and appealing instead to his Gran, who is Bill Bernbach. The result is a re-embracing of advertising’s role in driving growth that appears scary and ugly on the surface, but also gives us many things we want, including Lego Minecraft.

Meanwhile, there is a visual echo between the John Lewis flytrap and the Morrisons oven glove, which is no coincidence as both emerge from the collective unconscious of our times.

The Morrisons oven glove represents the lower middle class’s functional relationship with consumption. The glove is protective and utilitarian, the music is cheerful, the faces and superficial identities of the cast are largely hidden and unimportant, the message is one of solidarity as the cat (representing individualism) paws at the window.

The John Lewis flytrap represents the upper middle class’s dysfunctional relationship with consumerism, wanting its rewards but afraid it is a monster that will ultimately consume them (or their dog, who represents familial bonds). The music is both highbrow and anxiously frenetic.

Finally, the John Lewis and Marks & Spencer ads are built on a similar ‘insight’ involving a strained combination of respecting tradition but also you-do-you. We are stuck between an uneasy relationship with our past, and uncertainty about the future. Morrisons has the answer: We can build this dream together, standing strong forever, nothing’s gonna stop us now.

We are entering the pre-post-purpose age and the ad industry is dreaming fitfully about its future. Things may eventually improve, but will also continue to be weird.

[Waitrose & Partners @waitrose]

Our Christmas ad is full of the most delicious food and fizz to make every party sparkle. Graham Norton makes a star appearance when he arrives with our delightfully decadent No.1 Golden Bûche de Noël. Shop our seasonal stars: https://t.co/LKdmmpN6nZ 🌟 #TimeForTheGoodStuff

[Simon Blackburn @sjb92]

@Vitality_UK Football under slide only on right hand photo.