You know...

.... when you're just so fruckin busy that you might as well just throw your hands up in the air, down tools and update your blog?

Well that's where I am at the moment. I have been FRANTIC all morning, I am leaving the office in 1.5 hours to go to the venue of the event I'm organising tonight and if I don't take 15 minutes to stop running around, clear my head and do something completely different it's all going to go terribly wrong.

So here's the thing- this. I'm doing this.

My laptop is on the blink. It is under warranty and if I ever get home before 6.30 when the helpdesk closes I will get it fixed. But that's not going to happen tonight.

The good news is that I have tomorrow off to recover from the event I am organising (it's a party for 120 people celebrating the end of a MAJOR project - there will be a lot of free alcohol). I might get to it then.

Although I also have a gigantic amount of cleaning to do - more about this in future posts. I've just remembered something I need to do very urgently.

You see- taking time out really works.

Suzuki Swift

So back to my comments on other people's marketing...

There is currently and ad on the telly for the new suzuki swift. In case you haven't seen it I will summarize.

Two girls are on the side of the road attempting to hitch hike. The have a sign that says 'city'. A reasonably hot farmer type pulls up in his manly ute, complete with bales of hay. The girls wrinkle up their faces and give him he thumbs down. He drive off.

Next is the surfer dude, sun kissed with a board on the roof. The girls wave him on.

The next candidate is a guy in a suzuki swift. The girls high five and wave their 'city' sign frantically. The gent looks like he can't believe his luck.

Cut to next scene. Girls are driving away in the Swift and the guy is on the side of the road looking glum and holding a sign that says 'help'.

Advertising campaigns generally have a 'single minded proposition', if there is one message you want potential consumers to take away, this is it. For example, "This will get my clothes clean and keep my whites white" or "These people will really look after my money" or "Using this product will get me laid".

So with this in mind what did the folks at Suzuki want their SMP to be for this ad?

"Driven by the kind of blokes who get car jacked by girls"??

Well hello there

Someone emailed me the other day to point out it had been more than a month since I wrote in this.

Bad Lorraine.

So what should we talk about?

Well today I went to see the Dalai Lama. In a stadium with 10,000 other people, including the Mayor of Auckland who introduced the Dalai Lama and wrapped up at the end.

Note I say the Mayor of Auckland. Not the Prime Minister. Both the leader of the government and the opposition in New Zealand refused to meet this man.

The title of his speech was compassion and kindness. In that vein I will refrain from the rant that is simmering away at the moment. However I don't think I'm being unkind in saying what I'm about to.

There are a number of global leaders who are objectionable above and beyond merely their politics; leaders who infringe on human rights or allow infringements to go unchecked in the countries they lead; leaders who are mouth pieces for terrorists or overtly terrorists themselves. Morally you can legitimately reject the opportunity to meet with these people. And by that standard you could include Nelson Mandela and most of the current political leadership in Northern Ireland in the list of people you have the right to not meet.

But somehow I don't see that happening.

I am not a particularly political person and I don't claim to know every in and out of this situation. However, this is a man who represents to pretty much everyone, well, compassion and kindness. And for the Prime Minister to refuse to meet him is shameful.