Victoria Turnbull

Pepsi Max

·         What do you make of that?

I enjoyed the advert. It’s one of those adverts I wouldn’t mind watching twice if it came on again during a programmes ad breaks

·         What kind of feelings do you have about it?

I thought it was amusing. Not laugh out loud, but funny. It’s not a typical soft drinks advert. It almost gone down the route of the WKD adverts. Blokes having a laugh.

·         What are your thoughts?

Not sure if it’s something that would happen in reality, but it’s almost like you would if you could, do something like that. Does a funny stunt with your mates, resulting in a job for one of them make you want to celebrate with a Pepsi Max – probably not, more like a beer or two.

·         Do you like it? Why / not?

I liked the Pepsi Max advert. There’s no cheesy soundtrack, the plot is amusing. A few criticisms: why not make a British version. I’m aware the angle is to probably get a few more blokes enjoying a diet beverage, but why not a mixed gender advert? And in that case a multi-racial advert? There’s a whole different kettle of fish right there – suited professionals for a all white-male group....anyway let’s not look at this too deep.

·         Give me some adjectives…

outrageous funny, silly, odd,

·         How would you describe the tone here?

Amusing, whimsical, tongue-in-cheek

·         What do you think it is trying to say?

I think it’s trying to say a few things. Don’t take life seriously, stick with your buddies and have a Pepsi Max to toast your daft stunts and that Pepsi Max are trying to be a brand that doesn’t take like seriously and doing it all with sense of humour.

·         What does it say to you?

It says to me that advertisers don’t generally have to make an advert focused on the product anymore. The advert could have easily been a blockbuster of an ad with graphics, images of cool brown liquid fizzing over cold ice cubes with a sexy voice over and pumping soundtrack. When what they actually did was focused on the narrative and left the product to the punchline.

·         What makes you say that?

I like these types of adverts. They are usually the ones that become classics. I’m not into ‘in your face’ marketing tactics.

·         Do you connect to it? Why / not?

I must have in a way if I found it funny. Do I want a Pepsi Max now? No.

·         How do you feel about the brand having seen the advert?

Like i said above. Pepsi Max come across as brand who have a sense of humour and know their target audience’s sense of humour. The latter is probably truer than the former.

·         Does it change the way you think about the brand in any way?

No

Coke Zero

·         What do you make of that?

I hated it. Good production, great SFX, but the narrative, the message is all wrong. Unlike the above, once is enough for me on that one.

·         What kind of feelings do you have about it?

I think it’s a bit Hollywood blockbuster for me. Typical plotline the man is the hero, saving the damsel in distress. It sort of relates more to the product that the Pepsi Max one.

·         What are your thoughts?

Again targeted towards a male audience, obviously. I can’t comment on the unrealistic aspect to it all as the slogan is ‘making the impossible possible’!

·         Do you like it? Why / not?

I didn’t like it. It’s loud, not memorable enough for me and it oozed macho.

·         Give me some adjectives…

Arrogant, terrible, loud,

·         How would you describe the tone here?
dramatic, hollywood

·         What do you think it is trying to say?

I think it’s trying to give the audience an impossible situation to reflect that even the Coke Zero has no sugar it is tasty (surly that can’t be possible!). Coke Zero have taken a situation that would resonate with their target demographic. An idealistic situation on one hand; a hot girl in bed. A bad situation on the other, angry parents catching you in the act.

·         What does it say to you?

It says to me that Coke Zero has no sugar and still tastes great. Hey, what happened to Diet Coke?

·         What makes you say that?

That was the message at the end. The rest of the advert is irrelevant to me.

·         Do you connect to it? Why / not?

I didn’t connect to it no, it’s a long time since I’ve had a hot girl in my bed.

·         How do you feel about the brand having seen the advert?

They must have a huge budget for marketing.

·         Does it change the way you think about the brand in any way?

I actually remember this advert, but couldn’t associate it with the product. Is that a bad thing?

And now… Compare the two!

·         How do the ads compare?

The Coke Zero ad looked like the bigger budget campaign, but didn’t have the same effect on me as the Pepsi Max one. Both had the same target audience, but I reckon the Pepsi Max one could make the girls chuckle too.

·         What different messages do you think they are trying to give?

Coke Zero’s message was more in your face and direct. You could get what they were trying to get across, Pepsi’s was a little more cryptic with no direct correlation between campaign and product.

·         Do you prefer one to the other?

I preferred the Pepsi one.

·         Which one feels like it’s talking to you the most? Do you connect with one more than the other?

I connected to the Pepsi one the most. However I don’t think that one is talking me either. I’m not a man of 16-30 (rough guess) dicking around with his mates. But like I said it has a cross-gender appeal. The Coke one is blockbuster, fast edit, SFX that would have women running to the hills screaming.

·         Who does it feel these ads are targeted towards? You?

I didn’t even know this question was coming! See last question

For the second part of the task, we’d like you talk to us about taste!

·         When did you last drink a Pepsi Max or a Coke Zero?

I have never drank Coke Zero, I tend to stick to Diet Coke. I drank a Pepsi Max a few months ago when you guys sent it me! To be honest, if I’m in situation where there’s no Diet Coke i go for Pepsi Max other that Diet Pepsi. The reason for this is that i remember drinking it when i was little and really enjoying it, and this has sorta stuck!

·         When was it? Describe the situation. Where were you? How did you feel? Why did you choose that particular drink? Did it taste good? How did you feel after you’d drunk it?

I drink Pepsi Max when there’s no Diet Coke. It’s very sweet as far as i remember and it makes me burp, which is another reason why i enjoy drinking it. I think it’s because i drink it far too fast.

·         What is the difference in taste between Coke Zero and Pepsi Max?

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·         Do you prefer one to the other? Why?

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·         What is the difference between in taste Coke Zero and Coke? Do you prefer one to the other? Why?

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·         And what is the difference in taste between Pepsi Max and Pepsi? Do you prefer one to the other? Why?

I can’t drink ‘Full Fat coke’ far too sickly. But Pepsi Max tastes a slightly sweeter.

·         Any other comments on taste?

Pepsi Max personality

• What are you spontaneous thoughts about Pepsi Max?

A well established product that has been on the market for years.

• If we say ‘Pepsi Max’, what 5 words come to mind?

Low-calorie, fizzy, tasty, sweet, brown

• Use photos from the web, magazines or drawings to make a collage of all the associations you have with Pepsi Max

• Imagine Pepsi Max was a person…what would they be like? Be creative and have fun…let your imagination run wild with this! Here are things to get you thinking, but tell us as much as possible

Pepsi Max would be a blonde haired (the type of hair that’s been a bit bleached with the sun, blue eyed bloke. Tanned, lots of muscles. Perhaps with an Australian accent. Knows he’s a bit ft, but doesn’t show it much. He wears sunscreen on his nose like cricket player.

He does anything for an adventure, he doesn’t sit still unless he’s climbing a mountain, riding a ‘sick’ wave or travelling round the Far East.

He wears Bermuda shorts, and flip flops even when he’s visiting his mates from travelling in January, in Manchester.

Everyone knows he’s a bit of twat. Not as cool as his big bro, but he’ll do when he’s older bros not around.

Even though he gives it the big I am, he suffers from terrible hayfever, can’t swim and calls his mum 3 times a day. Bit of a drip.

Other boys don’t really like him

• Imagine there is a Pepsi Max planet…what is it like?

Big blue, shiny with a red shiny ring. The people will be blue and very skinny. The rivers would run brown and fizz at the bottom of a waterfall.

People like me go to stay there to chill out, relax and stay off the sugar. You wouldn’t stay there for long as you get sugar cravings.

• Imagine the Pepsi Max planet threw an event of some kind, what would it be like? – just run with this, whatever comes to mind!)

It would be a huge branded festival. Complete with sponsored climbing wall, drink associated bungee jumps, jumping out of planes onto big logo’ed trampolines etc

A big music stage, with a top name billing, all under a big banner. It’ll be in a huge park (never before has it seen the likes of a festival this big!). You’ll have to keep your beer in the tent, as no alcohol allowed in, just pepsi max and all the beer you could drink from the guys behind the fest (at reasonable prices of course!)

• Tell us about how this Pepsi Max person has changed and grown over the years, thinking about all the characteristics you’ve built up so far…

He’s matured in the sense that his muscles have grown. But he’s still a twat and not as cool as his older brother, who’s been out with Pink and Beyonce

I’d like him to become less sickly and sweet, and less bad to be around.

• Finally, how in tune with you and your life does Pepsi Max feel?

In tune as far as to say I drink it when I want a light option. In no other way is it ‘in tune’ with me and my life!

• Do you drink Pepsi Max? Tell us about when you drink it and how it fits into your life…

Same as the above I drink it when I need something sweet and a low calorie option. But when does Diet Pepsi become Pepsi Max hmmm

Pepsi Max advertising

• What have you heard from Pepsi Max in the last few months? This could be anything from stuff online, at events, on pack, in shops, or advertising. Tell us about it.

I can’t recall having seen/heard much really, if anything!

I don’t feel i can comment on Coke Zero as i have never drank it, as i stick to Diet Coke – same again when does one become the other?!

But to add a few more comments to this here was what I posted on Facebook

Thanks for your time!

I LOVE MUSIC. I need choonage on when i’m doing anything, from walkin’ to work in a mornin’, cookin me tea, doin’ the dishes, avin’ a bath and getting ready to go out on the town. I tend to get a bit antsy when I need new choons to explore, and I get bored of the same old.

The internet has revolutionised the way I access music. Starting from the way i hear about new bands, to purchasing a must have CD.

First up, the way I get hold of music has changed over the last 6 or so years. In the good old days I’d listen to chart music, read reviews in magazines and go get my music from a high street store, in person of course, and with cold hard cash.

Nowadays my musical purchases follow these trends:

n  Listening to Last.FM www.last.fm in the office and noting down tracks that pop up that take my fancy

n  Taking recommendations from my mates (the ones with the better taste)

n  Spending a few lonely hours on the web and Googling such bands, reading notable reviews in Observer Monthly or spotting connections between my next big things, and sourcing out bands on the same label etc...

n  Partaking in a monthly binge at my local store ‘Vinyl Exchange’ www.vinylexchange.co.uk. The Manchester institution stocks millions of CDs, the titles of which are never stored on a computer, and simply asking for what you want will never get you anywhere. You have to set a few hours aside to have a good root. Vinyl Exchange is where one mans forgotten tracks become another ones must have. They sell promo CDs, new releases, anything and everything. And one for a better thing, you’ll rarely pay over £9 for an album. This is how music should be. And this is why i avoid major music stores. £17 for an album? No thank you.

n  Vinyl Exchange can take a while, last time i was in there for 20min top and spent £30 and only managed to go through the ‘B’s’ of the Alt category. So once in a while i head to Amazon or Ebay. You can get an album for £7 or cheaper if you look. I think i have a bit of a blockage when it comes to paying too much for music. Probably down to being spoilt by peer to peer sharing and the bitorrent movement.

n  Finally! a resource to find the best new music without sifting through hours of shite, friend requests and emos. NOISEfestival.com

Once in a while i download from iTunes. I own an ipod touch but I’ve never downloaded a full album, I tend to download the singles of the week, which are free, and get a feel for the album from there.

I do also download. Illegally. I have done since the Napster days with a 56k modem connection. Peer to peer can be frustrating, and I love BitTorrent. I used to have an old 20gb iPod who’s little ass had whored it’s self around so many peoples iTunes that his bum was sore and stopped working.

I’ve been a bit weary of late, because out of sheer curiosity downloaded the new Oasis album from a torrent site and killed my computer with a virus. So as a matter of fact the new Gallaghers album cost me £70. My fingers are burnt for a wee while at least. And I can’t stand Oasis anyway so curiosity defo murdered the cat.

But I love the feeling of getting a CD, i love adding to my collection. I love sourcing CD’s that are hard to find, and it make me smile when they are delivered to my door.

As I mentioned above a lot of music comes from mates giving me the nod on a few new bands, and also of late I’ve been going to gigs played by the unknown.

Many of my friends don’t like my taste in music, hell, my boyfriend doesn’t. I usually have two or three people I share my music with.

I love a good old mix tape. Bring back the mix tape. There’s nothing that says I love you like a comp CD. Has this been lost with the influx of the MP3 generation? I don’t think so, a few years back an ex boyfriend made me a playlist on itunes and popped it on my ipod. That’s 21^st century love for you.

www.makeamixa.com -

I collect 7” vinyls but until recently didn’t have a record player (i did but blew the thing up by wiring it up wrong) my first dvd was bought when i didn’t have a dvd player....

I still love physically having music. I’m not sure if there’s a showing off ‘look at me and all my cd’s’ aspect to it. But there was a time when i was all about the downloads...the novelty wore off a few years ago, and certainly since i bust my laptop with the Gallagher brothers.

As I said before I can’t stop listening to music. Currently I’m sat in the living room with my new buy playing on the DVD player because the hi-fi’s broke. I don’t have a CD player in my room so I’ve borrowed my friends and it’s quite a task getting onto my room now because the wire stretches across the door. On a normal day i have my ipod touch, bose docking station and itunes & last FM at work.

My whole world came crashing down a few years ago when i refused all advice and disconnected my ipod when it was still synching and wiped my whole library. My gorgeous little ipod had whored it’s white ass into so many of my mates itunes, there was some stuff on there that was irreplaceable. Playlists by forgotten fellas, and little numbers to make me smile. How can a credit card bit of hard drive make you feel complete and then lost with out it. Ok so I’d won the dam thing in the first place, so a bit of karma there...

I used to be a girl who’s boyfriend was in a band. It was great. I’d like to find a girl who doesn’t find a man with a guitar a bit sexy. I had the album, t-shirt and had even got a mention on his MySpace. It was cool. But the tortured musician drivvle wore a bit thin after a while. You’re not hard done by, your parents are actually really nice and do get you, and get your hair cut, it’s beyond ‘rock’ now...

Moving to brands. I know you don’t wanna hear it, but an ipod. Great bit of kit. But lets go a bit further, Napster, Sony (Cassette walkman), Microsoft (Windows Media Player), Apple, MySpace and to make music accessible to all i think these guys are onto something www.creativecommons.org....

The future of music. These times are a changin’ and since the Napster days it was inevitable to predict that the music industry would never be the same again. I couldn’t imagine a world without the internet as my main source for music. Not only for buying but for finding out about new bands (and not just new in the sense of unsigned, but bands that have been around for ages that I somehow missed).

But 79p for a track on iTunes? And Apple get it sorted! I want to be able to take my music off the bloody ipod without tapping into it.

baked potatos, beans and cheese tastes sooo good when you've been waiting for food for 4 hours.

The VIP bit was cool dont get me wrong, but here's the dillio on the Saturday Shennanigans. The main arena bit dint open till 12 apparantly, so we were stuck in the VIP campin' area, with 2 food stalls and smelly bogs since we woke. And woke early we did...next door were some young 'uns exploring the world of Class A's for the first time until their mams picked them up at the gates.

But you weren't allowed in the VIP bit either. Apparantly someone forgot to order more beer for the bar. So queue, a er queue of 200 angry VIPers who's spent £60 for the privalage holed up in the bakin sun with no shade apart from the hot tent, or in the ever increasing warm, arid toilets. Eventutally an hour later we were let through, to grab a beer, another hour later we were let into the main bit.

Beans, cheese and potato has never tasted so good. Plus the sneaked in warm vodka went down a treat with the £1 pop.

Saturday was good, but when it got to 3am and realised I'd been dancing to what seemed like the same song for 3 hours, it was time for a wee and bed. Im starting to get concerned with my lack of stamina.

Wwe woke up the next mornig v early. The guys we had gone down with, we lost and presumed we'd meet them at the car. It was also the hottest day eva. eva.

We were the first ones in the shower, after sneaking round the back of the shower block and tryin to switch em on and getting rubbled. I stayed in so long my fingers were wrinkly. I grabbed some museli after venturing to the civilians camp site and trekked a mile for a wee. Well, i hear you cry, why didnt you just use the lush, plush uns? Well, because they decided to remove all the VIP toilets in the midle of the night, which left just 1 disabled toilet for 200 people.

Afters a very sweaty traffic jam outta there we got a pub lunch in Stratford and buggered back to Manc. It'son par with this years Glasto as one of the best fests I've been to, and a wekend of dance music is my idea of hell...

Now where did i put that glow stick?

Part1

First and formost, big thanks Flamingo for the ticks it was an amazing weekend…

So Here’s the low-down of my favourist 2 days of the year so far…. With 4 days notice and in the middle of a busy period at work I managed to get a days holiday and as it happens my new flat mate had been given a few tickets as well, so I was sorted for a lift down. Plus it saved me some well-needed spon-doolies on the train faire - £60 - you’re having a girraffe!

After a quick stop in Stratford to pick up Jonny’s sis. I say quick, there’s at least 5 coach stations in Stratford, and I think I’ve found the place where old people go to die. It was Global a go go!!

After a bit of excitable research a few days before we found out you couldn’t take booze into Global, so there was hundreds of folk at the entrance gates gagging after trying to neck as much of their crates of strongbow as possible. Defiance in the eye of an burly security guard with a rubber glove on. Incidentally there was a whole tent dedicated to the art of bag and possibly bum searching. I did feel a tad nervous going through the gates as we’d thought on a strategiously placed a few bottles of the Russian stuff in our shoes. Cunning? Yes very.

And I’m sorry, but we had to try. Jonny and his sis also had comp ticks (not the VIP ones we had) and tried a little ‘oh my god they’ve sent us the wrong ones’ schpeal, 20 minutes of pure blagging and a few tears later our pleas didn’t quite cut the mustard, so we parted ways and promised to meet up when the party started.

Me and Dave (my very very excited boyfriend) found a nice spot to put up the tent near the fence and away from the ruffians and attempted to squeeze a double mattress into a £15 Somerfield tent. I think it looked snug, but Dave said ‘it’s too fucking small’. Just you wait. We popped some warm OJ into a bottle of the warm vodka and went for an explore.

The VIP bit was cool, a smallish camping bit that had a shower block, and next to that a GHD tent. Where you could have your hair put in ‘rock chick curls’ or a ‘punk Mohican’ or straightened for £8. The next morning we saw girls queuing for it to open. Festival chiq? Oh come on! Come Sunday morning you’re probably going to have someone elses sick in your hair and paying a tenner to have it straightened will be the last thing on your mind.

A few fast food joints, a little bar (with the worst staff, who looked at me funny when I asked for juice (for the vodka) (can you do a brackets inside brackets?)) then the toilers. May I just take a few minutes to explain to you the spender of the toilets. Having spent 5 days hovering over the long drops at Glasto last month I was dead excited to finally have a sit down wee at a festival. These were not ordinary porta loos, these were Marks and Sparks porta loos. Wooden doors, sinks, carpet, weird book shelfs, hand cream, liquid soap, toilet paper, toilet seats no less, AND classical music piped through the whole thing. Day 2 they fooking stank, and carpet was moist. The novelty had wore off, but still not a long drop in sight.

The VIP area was a field with a chill out area, a bar, a tent, a bunch of Jacuzzis, which led into the main festival  bit and the golden circle - the front bit of the stage where i got good eye full of mmmmmMark Ronson. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Star- struck?

I'm rubbish around people i love. Crap example Mark Morris from once hot to trot Brit pop band The Bluetones. He was doing a solo gig at Manchester's Uber Cool Music fest 'In The City'.

I was rather excited at the prospect of seeing an all time favourite, thinking back to the day he was on TFI Friday and he screeched out their latest single with a sore throat and me and my school mate swooned like a Disney Cinderella.

Fast Forward to me 1 bottle of cheap bogof free vino later and a mate of a mate arranges for us to meet him and say hi, well in my drunk little mind i thought 'lets tell him something he'll remember'

My turn comes, actually now i think i tugged his shirt and said to him "you were my teenage fanatsy"

The jaws of my mates dropped so far that im sure i heard them slam a little in the floor...

Soon after i made it to a dirty indie club and straight back out after 5 minutes. i made it home..... and this is me asleep on my bathroom floor. If you look closly you can just spot a fag end to the left (your left) of me head....proof kids- dont mix wine with Brit pop idols.

Stay tuned for more tales of when Vic met Paul Hendy of 90's CBBC fame and threw chips at him; had a pants party in her basement with the 2006 Edinburgh Perrier Awards winner; confused Badly Drawn Boy; helped Michael Jackson apply his make-up;and more shit stories of people you dont actually know, but it's something to tell your grad-kids

I’m amazed by my body sometimes. It wakes me up in the middle of night when I need a wee and it also tells me I’ve been hammering it far too much over the last month and has decided to repay me by cruelly giving me a top of the range, full body illness. So just for you to picture the scene now, I’m writing this task back at my parents snuggled up in bed with a cat at my feet and a coffee so strong it’s stinging my eyes but I cant even taste- wondering what the hell happened back there, and why I’m so broken.

My June has been a whirlwind of little nuggets of stress, late nights, cardboard boxes, tents and babywipes. It more or less all started with me and the rest of my 3 housemates finally going our separate ways after 5 years of living together. From that first day when we were Big Brother stylee randomly placed together in a student accommodation in the middle of Salford. A bunch of 18-19 having their first flavour of independent living with a grand over-draft in their pockets and not even caring to call your mum where you are when you roll in at 3.30 in the morning after walking home in your bra in the rain (that actually happened, and I wouldn’t recommend it, after all it was the middle of December and Salford is not usually renowned for it’s hospitality towards young girls walking home in the dead of the night).

So while I’ve been tinkering around, moving out (did you know that moving house is up there with divorce and the death of a parent as one of the most stressful things in life?) a few things have tickled me and my mates and I shall tell you about those in the next few long winded paragraphs. I may go off on a few tangents, but bear with me on these – I have antibiotics and lemsip all up in my grill doing wonders for my vocabulary.

You know when something becomes an all time favourite amongst your friends and you start popping in quotes here and there. Little Britainisms have started to dwindle somewhat now, and the Peep Show ones are just too obscure (My Facebook status that read ‘This Crack’s a bit morish’ didn’t go down that well, ‘I’m a Sexer now, that’s what I do for a living, I’m a sexer’ – old school friends and people I never even speak to, thought I’d become a lady of the night. Throughout Glasto (more on that later) Sacha Cohen Barons character Julien in Madagascar became a staple for quotes. You can’t do it without the voice so don’t even try. My mates like a 80's end of pier turn with all the voices she has in her repetoire- tickles me even more.

“Come on, everybody! Let's go and meet the pansies!”
“Shh! Who's making that noise? Oh, it's me again...”
“Does anyone else have the heebie-jeebies? No? Good. So shut up.”

This was hilarious to us drunk on the finest Somerset cider. Perhaps no one else though. Bizarre we were choosing to get giggles from a kids film, and the guys in the next tent were doing stonking but cruel impressions of Mickey from Big Brother.

“Purple Rinse izzet?” Take something simple as a camera fitted into a car that follows a mini cab driver on various trips around London. YouTube ‘Tony Izzet’. Probably the best thing to come out of BBC Three’s ‘The Wall’. Sorry the only good thing to come out of that show. You can use Tony Izzetisms in most situations during your daily doings, and may I suggest they follow on loosely from where you may have fit your Ali G quotes all those millennia ago.

Another nugget of genius that has had me in fits of giggles is this young mans website. Either a comedy genius, or an accidental hapless fella. Check out Bretts ‘Things I Believe’ and ‘Bretts News’ – start right at the very bottom…and be in for a most random insight into this young mans life, including why he hates Robin Williams, complete with crap Photoshop collages.

http://home.wildit.net.au/hellohelloben/index

How did I find Brett, one of my friends showed him me whilst round at his having a crap BBQ. It wouldn’t light and it was only £1.50 anyways from Asda. I got hungry and took a nibble from a pork kebab, even though I haven’t eaten meat in 5 years. Instantly regretted that decision.

to be continued...

You’ve got to admire some brands for the way in which they reach their target audience or the means in which they attempt to gain completely new ones. I’d love to see the figures to see if these brand associations really do have an impact in the sales of the particular product. Are people starting to correlate events, virals, to the products behind these marketing campaigns? Does it really work?? And the bottom line you want to know is- will it work for Pepsi?!

Being a blatant internet junkie – there’s a number of things I see on my day to day wasting of time on the net- actually it’s pretty hard to surf the www- dot with out being inundated by company branded campaigns, events and ‘stunts’.

I think major companies are now taking heed (and have been or a very long time) about the benefits of internet marketing, even more so “word of mouth” marketing. Majors have been jumping on the ‘guerrilla/ DIY’ concepts for years. Stretching back (and further) to the nineties when Nike looked to dominate the then niche skateboarding market in the US through targeting well known skater names at the time and endorsements through such; to gaming consoles risking fines and community backlash by adorning New York streets with Graffitti advertising their latest gaming release.

Recently I’ve come across 'Red Bull's Bedroom Jam' - the search for the best new music and offering young bands the chance to have a gig streamed on the web live from their bedroom http://www.redbullbedroomjam.com/; last year's Hugo Urban music competition; a personalised greeting potato greeting card flash-made number from McCains; the Simpsons Movie's 'Simpsonize me' www.simpsonizeme.com(one for the MySpace/Facebook cool kids); and the best one so far: Brought to you by K-Y Touch Massage 2 in 1. Find out your true sexual nationality by taking the online test on www.areyoubritishinbed.co.uk. I'm Swedish by the way.

These brand associations don’t bother me too much. But is it a fact that I’m desensitized to these, or that I'm aware that brands and products need to sell products in this manner to sell, sell sell. I can't think actually if these campaigns actually make me want to purchase something from the companies involved. Did I want to test out the K-Y Touch Massage Gel? No, it was fun to-do but there's better things in your average kitchen cupboard to do the same job (answers on a postcard). Did i want a McCains chip after i sent my mate a singing potato email? No i like Aunt Bessies - but did my mate? who knows... Looking back into my yoof I did actually buy all the Spice Girl Chuppa Chupp lollies, only to see if they’ll be worth some money in the future. I might scrape 20p for the set now…

I have attended an event sponsored by a brand; the Hugo Boss Urban comp last year at Sankeys in Manchester. It was packed to the rafters. But could any normally funded company/ charity stage and fund same nationwide talent search, with the same celebrity endorsement - i think not. Would the guys behind reading and Leeds be able to stage a 3 day music fest without a major sponsor. Nope. Interesting to see that Carling dropped it's sponsorship of Reading and Leeds after all these years.

I enjoy non-tradition marketing campaigns, and I'm interested in what's coming next. I like the allure of the youth to big companies, after all we are 'the voice of the future' lol Brand sponsorship is the way forward, just look at how MySpace has jumped on the 'band'wagon - and Facebook is slowly catching up. One of my favourite brand  ‘association’ stories of late is Groove Armada signing a 1 year record deal with Bacardi.

A good book to read on all things DIY/ Guerrilla, youth marketing and the touchy subject of 'selling out' get your mitts on  Unmarketable: Brandalism, Copyfighting, Mocketing, and the Erosion of Integrity by Anne Elizabeth Moore

I’ve started to say ‘lovely’ quite a bit.
i.e “ooo lovely” (when something quite pleasing happens)
“that’s lovely” (instead of thanks you)
or simply “lovely”

I have no idea where this has come from…but if you check my sent emails you’ll find I’m starting to creep in other words such as ‘great’, ‘fab’ and ‘ace’…

I’m ok with this, as it happens I’m starting to sound more “street” but I’ll start to get worried when am saying stuff like “let’s touch base”…I’m only 5 steps away from David Brent..

 I live in Manchester and have done for nearly 5 years now. I’m a Sheffield bird, born n bred but came to Salford for uni n sorta went with the flow and stayed. I like it oop Norf and can’t believe how much of the world I’ve seen and not ever been to Norwich, which upsets me.

 My house is an an area of Manchester that nestles between student central and a young professional/ yummy mummy haven. I love it because when you walk around you can find a rich mix of people from students, to homeless folk who wear too many layers of clothes, old people, Vicki Pollards, tracki wearing home boys and the odd crazy folk who shout 'beans' at people walking past. I've been broke into 2 times now, but i still love the view from my bedroom window, and i have a back garden where i keep meaning to cultivate herbs.

 I also have the worlds best wardrobe, that the landlord dropped off when i moaned i didnt have enough space. The landlord owns a charity furniture shop and two nice boys dropped it off, so he thought i might like it. I'm very well aware that there's probably a very disturbed man in prison with Stepmom playing on a loop while he polishes spoons.
 

I’m still living with the guys who I lived in halls with, apart from one lass who went a bit skyward and now “lives” with another lass in a dead rough part of Manchester.

 After I finshed uni I went to work in a comedy club, where I served drunk people, waited on tables and buggered up their stock count. It was the best two years of my life; and in conjunction with living in a house of 10, and having parties with Cement Mixers- I pretended I was a student for another year.

 Twas all well and good till I thought I best grow up a tiny bit and applied for work ex’ at a charity based in Manc. Two years on, and a bizarre set of incidents, events, experience and stress later (that sometimes I cant quite believe I’m doin’ what I’m doin) I’m a full time employee of a workforce of 3 people, I have a huge creative input- which comes with eye bags down to my knees and boyfriends that quite don’t understand.

I want to be a pirate when i grow up...
and i dinosaur hunter
and i like taking pictures of funny things on my camera when i'm out and about...

In the midst of working I like to go out with my ladies - which also means that i dont get to go out as much as my hedonistic student days so when i do it's usually a mad 'un. I think some spontaneity of my youth has been lost and defo parts of my liver to go wih it, but we all have to grow up sometimes dont we?

Sometimes i like to have a tidy house and sit in my jim jams and get lost in the web or shite tv. I dont want to be here forever- i want to trail blaze across the US, Thelma and Louise Stylee; get into wigs and play triangle for a band that are on the verge of being signed.

 But for now, with my feet getting itcher i suppose we'll see where the wind takes me next.

I managed to successfully tick box most of my profile details in the last few days or so...

Today
I ate noodles at this new sushi bar in Manchester, and drank far too much green tea and needed a wee on the bus all the way home..it don't half go through as me mam would say.

I watched America's Next Top Model - Heather you freakin' wierdo, and did a spot of social 'homie' networking and played catch up and had a little bitch over what had happened over the weekend, because i went home to vist the folks...

i took a posey pic of my self on my phone..just testing the fancy camera and it's cool settings..honest. Eat your heart out MySpace emos.

Saturday
Had a bit of the 'emergency chair' situation at me parents house over dinner. I had to use the computer chair (which incidently had broken so my chin was touching the table top). and I discoverd that swivvy chairs with wheels is bags of fun on laminate flooring whilst eating curry with a few glasses of wine down you.

Whilst at the folks their broadband had broke (note to ma, new modem, new computer chair) so whilst fun was being had in the kitchen i was unsocially surfin the net waiting for my Facebook page to load on dial-up...then the phone went.....tsk i give up

Last week
My mate was at SWSW and i get a phone call at 2am from Texas, with no other than Taylor Hanson on the other end. Well the 13 year old inside me wet her pants and fainted...

I'm still working on the Hoff and Lambrini..maybe i could combine the two..hmmmmmm