Push-me-Pull-you

I read all the Doctor Dolittle books as a child; I watched none of the Eddie Murphy movies as an adult! I can't tell you if it appeared in the films, but the books had a great animal called a Pushmepullyou. If I remeber right it was like an antelope with a head at both ends.

Today I was caught in a discussion about the comparitive merits of post physical mailings to a supporter base or using digital distribution. Someone commented that the problem with the digital domain is people have to come and get it - actually navigate over to your website. What about RSS? Obviously, this arguement is flawed, but perhaps only in regard to early adopters.

But then I'm not so sure.

I like design and I loved gettig things that can gather dust on my bookshelf. I can glance over my shoulder and see a postcard from Wembley Stadium, that ping-pong paddle from Mini, the Manhatten Portage label from my bag: the list goes on. However, unless you break into my house you'll never see these things. Digital advertising doesn't disappear once it's be posted though a cyber letter-box. It still exists for more to find and theres a good chance that some who received it will remix it and serve it up to a fresh audience.

Pushing or pulling,it is, of course, the quality of the content that matters most.

You gotta hand it too them

I was shopping today. Big mall, seasonal stock stacked high and a Friday rush. But all the hustle and bustle couldn't stop me noticing just how dialled Apple have got the next generation of physical retail. This become all the more obvious when you see the painfully try-hard attempts of certain competitors to reproduce that cooler-than-cool shopping environment.

I'll single out Virgin*, because they're a company always on the look for the limelight. It's widely accepted the Apple is sexy; sexy in a clean, cool kinda way. White works. Virgin Media try to go sexy with their red and black branding and end up with a look that's a very different sexy. Hot and dirty - and I don't mean either as a complimest. Caustraphobic.

They may be failing but at least they are trying to be this millenium. Woolworths remains firmly rooted in the 70s!

*Virgin's homepage points me to Superbrands, who've named Virgin Atlantic as their 10th coolest brand of 2007. They still lose to Apple and the iPod!