Handy eBay signage points out arse from elbow

Listing our dead car on eBay, I was strangely taken with the instructional graphics helping me along. Here is my favourite:



Many thanks for that, eBay.

Email to IT

SUBJECT: iChat files?

Hi there – please could you remind me which impenetrable circle of hell my godforsaken Apple computer hides the files that someone iChats me?

Many thanks in advance,
Jon
---
Jon Silk
Creative Director

LEWIS - Global Public Relations
Millbank Tower, Millbank
London, SW1P 4RS

Tel: +44 (0)20 7802 2626
Web: www.lewispr.com, www.lewiswire.com & www.lewismediacentre.com
Blog: www.lewis360.com
Imagebank: www.lewisimagebank.com

Computing Excellence Awards - IT PR Company of the Year winner, 2008
Chartered Institute of Public Relations (CIPR) Excellence finalists, 2008
CNET Networks - UK Technology PR Campaign of the Year winner, 2006, 2007
PRWEEK - International Consultancy of the Year finalist, 2006, 2007
PRWEEK - Not-for-profit Campaign of the Year short listed, 2007
The Holmes Report - European SABRE awards finalists, 2008
Best Companies accreditation, 2006, 2007, 2008, 2009
Investors in People accreditation, 2006-2009

Registered 2370504, England, Lewis Communications Limited, Millbank Tower, Millbank, London, SW1P 4RS

Quote of the day: Liam Fox

The writer in me is drawn to well-crafted phrases I read in the papers, whoever they're from. Sometimes, people are able to sum up one situation so devastatingly that I'm compelled to reproduce the comment here.

Today, the papers reprise shadow defence secretary Liam Fox's comments to the BBC on Gordon Brown's silence over the release of the Lockerbie bomber:

"Gorden Brown is willing to give us his opinion on the death of Michael Jackson, he gave us his opinion on the racism row in Big Brother, he has taken time out to give us his vews on England's victorious cricket team... But there is a deafening silence on the release of a mass murderer – a decision which is likely to impact on Britain's reputation for justice and our relations with the United States. I think it's inexplicable, in fact, I think it's cowardly."

The old home of Internet World (and my old office)

The old home of Internet World (and my old office),
originally uploaded by PR Geek.

The LG watchphone gets its official airing

LG's watchphone - something most people thought was just LG showing off at CES - will be available from this Thursday at its London store. Is it wrong that I considered it for a few seconds before coming to my senses?

clipped from stuff.tv Orange will start selling the LG GD910 watchphone from its London Bond Street shop from next Thursday, August 27 for £500.

Borough Tube

Borough Tube,
originally uploaded by PR Geek.

Ghostbuster + Marshmallow Man = normal night in Clapham

Ghostbuster + Marshmallow Man = normal night in Clapham,
originally uploaded by PR Geek.

The LEWIS Byte Night bake sale goes mobile and adds hot beverages

The LEWIS Byte Night bake sale goes mobile,
originally uploaded by PR Geek.

Let the LEWIS bake sale commence

Let the LEWIS bake sale commence,
originally uploaded by PR Geek.

"They came out of nowhere": Our corporate photoshoot gets serious

Our agency photographer was out today getting shots of the management team for our annual report. Based in Westminster, there are a lot of really grand buildings around that create the perfect backdrop for a reportage-style executive portrait.

Except one of them is MI5.



A couple of shots into what my colleagues (our photographer is Canadian, the VP he was shooting is German) thought was an innocent shoot, and suddenly "the police are all over them".

With three cars on the scene - one intercepting them, two shutting down the road at each end - and a helicopter overhead, they soon learn that taking photos outside a significant government building can get very scary, rather quickly.

The officers, it turns out, were friendly. After taking their details, checking the pictures on the camera and listening to some hurried explanations, they let them go (complete with carbon copy of their statement and a leaflet on 'increasing community confidence').

We got to keep the pictures too.

Fat, depressed geek? You must be a gamer

"Gamers are fat, depressed geeks," says the Metro today.

According to the report, two universities in the US have not only found links between playing computer games and health risks, but they have discovered that gamers use the net for socialising.

Apparently, female gamers are more likely to be depressed than non-gamers, while male ones are more likely to be fatter. The average gamer age is 35.

But digging deeper around the story, there are some key details that shed a bit more light.

• The study was commissioned by the Center for Disease Control & Prevention (CDC) (and carried out by the universities)
• The study was of 500 people in the Seattle area, chosen for high web usage (so not universally relevant to all social, cultural or economic areas)
• People were aged between 19 and 90 (so all adults, and missing one large segment of gamers, while potentially interviewing a large proportion of non-gamers)
• 45% of them said they were gamers (nearly half of the study’s universe but questionably representative)
• Questions were self-assessed (so depression and health status – even Body Mass Index – were people's own opinion, not clinically measured)

The results, to be published in the October issue of the American Journal of Preventative Medicine, included a quote from Dr. James B Weaver III, PhD, MPH, from the CDC’s National Center for Health Marketing in Atlanta.

He said (among other things): “The data illustrate the need for further research among adults to clarify how to use digital opportunities more effectively to promote health and prevent disease.”

Two other UK media outlets picked this up. The BBC’s ‘Video gamers older than thought’, led with the age story, paraphrased the research and compared with a similar survey from 2002.

The Telegraph also led with the age stat but added some more comment around active lifestyles in ‘Average age of adult computer game addicts is 35’. It got the ‘adult’ part right, but for some reason assumed that these people were addicts.

Nobody commented on how the results might be skewed, or inconclusive.

Nobody explored the CDC’s conclusion of web-based information being a way to spread positive health messages.

Nobody sank as low as the Metro.

Google opt-out

Via Will.

Nightclubbing with Facebook, Google (and Twitter)

There has been a flurry of announcements from our favourite web 2.0 (haven't said that in a while so felt the need for emphasis) companies this week.

Some have been significant, others may be just a tactic to divert the media's attention their way.

But whatever the reason, it's created a wonderful battle. Imagine the world's press is a group of attractive ladies on a night out in Reading* while the companies are blokes vying for their attention, and you get a nice feeling of the kind of preening and strutting that's been going on.

One. Facebook buys Friendfeed, which is suggested by many to herald another all-out assault on Twitter's simple and real-time interface.

Two. About four hours later, Google 'leaks' details of Google Caffeine, a super fast, super accurate version of its search platform that will one day become the new Google.

Three. About six hours later, Facebook 'accidentally' rolls out Facebook Lite, a new version of Facebook that'll make it super fast, simpler and lighter on processing power.

Four. Around about the same time, Facebook tweaks its code to work better with external applications. You know, like the one you use for Twitter.

The 916 articles currently registering as related to these topics on Google News all mention Twitter. According to the reports, Facebook and Google want to be like Twitter, fearing its speed, simplicity and ability to provide real-time search results.

So what has Twitter done in the last 24 hours?

Twitter's the good looking bloke sitting at the bar, doing nothing, who the ladies are staring at.

* Don't knock it until you've tried it.

I'm setting up a linkblog

I'm currently setting up a linkblog, with lots of links and posts that automatically feed in from my various bookmarking, video and blog sites. This post is a bit of a test too, just to see if it updates OK based on a Blogger post tag.

So far, I've had to contact Tumblr customer support four times. For future reference, the angrier you get, the quicker they respond.

Will share the link when it's ready.

The freecycling phenomenon fail

I enjoyed my first freecycling experience the other night. Julia and Richard now have three wonderful bookcases for their new flat in London, and I have a lot of extra space in my lounge.

I was amazed at how quick it was to get responses. With over 14,000 people registered to freecycle in my area alone, I had 10 takers within a few hours. And they all explained why they wanted my bookcases (for books, mainly). How frightfully civilised.

But the movement is making a mistake by allowing people to 'want' stuff, rather than just 'offer' it.

Check this out, from this morning's email digests:



And...



C'mon people. Let's think this through a bit, shall we?

And for all of you worrying, don't - I've emailed them both and put them in touch. Someone's got to be the intellectual glue that holds all this together.

Michael Gonzalez, salesforce.com Evangelist

LEWIS Senior Media Strategist Michael 'Gonzo' Gonzalez flies the flag.

Michael Gonzales, salesforce.com Evangelist,
originally uploaded by PR Geek

Video: A year in print

Made by my esteemed colleague at LEWIS PR, Head of Media Strategy, CEO of Bald Spot Productions, PR swashbuckler, lover, fighter, the one, the only... Mr Will Sturgeon.



Sorry Will. Didn't manage expectations well there, did I?

Tweet delete?

Big tech blog TechCrunch Europe accidentally published a half-finished article last night, deleting it quickly but not before its RSS feed had logged it and shared it with the world.

The piece is a work in progress about a chap who may or may not be leaving his job at a technology startup. It's not earthshatteringly interesting, apart from to a small subsection of industry watchers (or maybe his Twitter followers).

TechCrunch took the piece down quickly, but not before screenshots of the piece (complete with headline 'DO NOT PUBLISH' - guaranteed to get people to notice a story) had started to circulate around the web. The reaction of the TechCrunch writers was shocking - they apparently started messaging anyone who had spread the story and asked them to delete their Tweets.

Now, it's worth noting that TechCrunch recently published details of 300 confidential Twitter documents that 'landed in their inbox'. TechCrunch's Michael Arrington is famous for his feelings about PR embargoes (he ignores them).

Recently, I got a note from TechCrunch Europe's Mike Butcher for retweeting a conversation between a TechCrunch journo and the CEO of a company they'd exposed as stealing some competitor's code. In this case, I was on TechCrunch's side and Mike's always been fine with me, but he came in hard asking me if I'd "actually read (the) article" or "did I just retweet for laugh?"

This approach is becoming very normal for TechCrunch now. They know their position, and seem to be more and more comfortable with direct attacks on people that threaten it - no matter how little the issue. Ignoring embargoes and exposing corporate theft is fine, and defending the right to do that is up to them. I'm in no doubt that TechCrunch is one of the most important technology news sites out there. They have also published a decent apology.

But personally singling out people that share things already in the public domain? Are they in danger of losing the moral high ground?

Also published on The Media Blog.