technology crafts

Spent a few days in the tech wonderland that is Tokyo, a city that is so high-tech that it doesn't feel tech at all. If that makes sense. Nothing flashy or even that many touch screens, just tech embedded into daily life - mobile phones while commuting, to pay for the train rides, to open up promo codes and coupons, to buy a softdrink, cup of coffee, pack of cigarettes. Anywhere.

What is clear is that the infrastructure, specifically mobile, has slowly but surely been built into the structures of their everyday lives - trains, convenience stores. And while that has been inspiring and amazing to see, I haven't quite figured out the actionable learning for a city like Manila or a country like the Philippines. We are social, sure, but that happened in spite of a crappy telephony infrastructure. So how do we create value-add mobile solutions when there is nothing to build on? 

Just came across a TED talk about technology crafts:

Two-thirds of the world may not have access to the latest smartphone, but local electronic shops are adept at fixing older tech using low-cost parts. Vinay Venkatraman explains his work in "technology crafts," through which a mobile phone, a lunchbox and a flashlight can become a digital projector for a village school, or an alarm clock and a mouse can be melded into a medical device for local triage.

Maybe there is hope after all.

Hollywood says? This is the Philippines

The Philippines is blipping on the global radar (by "global" I of course mean American). But in true Filipino fashion, our Hollywood-ized identity is confused and a little bi-polar.

GRITTY.
Earlier this year, blockbuster production The Bourne Legacy was shot in several locations around Manila. Facebook and Twitter were abuzz with celebrity arrivals (from leads Jeremy Renner and Rachel Weisz, who star in the film, to Weisz's beau Daniel Craig), shooting schedules and casting calls for extras. When the trailer was released (below), we were all excited to see that Manila was featured prominently, replete with chubby cops, shanties and our iconic jeepney. I don't know how many people stopped to consider that the film actually portrays our city as an ideal escape for Americans on the run. The film wasn't shot here only to be billed as some other third-world country. It is absolutely, clearly, iconically the Philippines. 



QUIRKY.
On the completely opposite end of the spectrum, we have a glorious product "innovation" that could only have hailed from the Philippines. KFC has started offering a cheese top burger. Yes, a CHEESE TOP BURGER! Somehow, this is not a joke. Where does the wrapper go? How does anyone eat this? Is a sandwich made without meat still a burger? I can't imagine who came up with this, how it got approved and produced. Surely someone along the line would have realized what a ridiculous product it is? But it is actually available as a "Streetwise" offer and is so preposterous that it was recently featured in a Jimmy Kimmel's sketch.





From our gritty streets to a quirky product, the Philippines is all over the map in terms of Hollywood's assigned / derived imagery. Though I guess it wouldn't be possible to wrap up our personality in a neat little package. But you have to admit, this is a little confusing.

Maybe what we need to remember is that, with our world-class athletes, singers and internationally spread blue- and white-collar professionals (domestic helpers, nurses, teachers, entertainers, salespeople, etc.) and the unending string of American celebrities that have made it out here to be featured on our cityscape billboards, we are quickly gaining a voice in the world/American pop culture stage. Even our food is supposedly the next hot international cuisine. But with our massive representation on social media, through Twitter hashtags and user-generated YouTube videos, we get to set the agenda. We can shape how the world sees us. What that image will eventually add up to be, only time will tell.

ballet stretch

After getting addicted to a certain reality show, I've really started to appreciate all sorts of dance. And what better expression for Levi's stretch jeans than ballet? Gorgeous.



Watching this made me wonder, What was the brief?
It doesn't seem to be the most complicated leap to go from a product feature like "jeans that stretch" to a proposition of "the most flexible, graceful dancers can dance in them". Which made me wonder what the creative brief was. Did the client call out stretch as the best feature? Or was than an agency recommendation? It makes me wonder if dance/ballet was the creative leap or if the planner included that in the proposition.

Or is that the trademark of great creative work - so (both) clear and captivating tat you think that the idea practically wrote itself? Then again, this probably isn't the first time a brand has used dance to demonstrate the flexibility. So is the brilliance in the execution? Gorgeous music, storytelling within a simple narrative, excellent casting, a strategic partnership as credibility?


Or is the real lesson here that planners generally overthink?