The power of dreams.

While over at bleeding-edge blog The Musings of an Opinionated Sod I was reminded (again) of the power (and economy) of simplicity, clarity and candour in Asian marketing. Sex, in one form or other, is one of the dreams that sell; status – if you want to split the atom – is the other.

This was brought into sharp relief as my head returned to the psychobabble of the brief on my desk. Much of the marketing that surrounds us is blighted by impossibly broad and unobtainable communication objectives, a target market that's often as wide as the world market itself and the continual pestering of mass client intervention that W+K talk of here. The autonomy that Bernbach secured with Avis only very few (can) (dare) look for.

In the rural Cambodian shantytown of Poipet (described by the Lonely Planet as "the armpit of Southeast Asia") subsistence living forces a brevity and directness unheard of in the region's glitzy, excessive, neon capitals onto the locksmith and his brand. His communications – which contain the essential requisites, for his specific target, product illustration (literally, here) and call for action, are boosted by a simple but killer injection of emotional value – the power and status associated with getting a step closer to fulfilling one's dreams of (and with) owning Honda, even if it's just a key ring, at first.

Write it off.

More a passport office for the next life, rather than a graveyard for business careers in this one, Cards of Change celebrates the positives of being sacked by giving those that have been freshly laid off license to rewrite the scope of their new world post-job on their own business card. Online group therapy for a world still in recession.

Set up by former TBWA/Chiat/Day employees, united in Unknownlab.

Hitting back.

I've for a long time been a fan of the subversion of media in and by advertising – as in, and excuse the unabashed self-promotion, THEC's Thailand Open campaign – though this Cyberbullying spot is the first time I've seen media made as the idea online.

Although the video production quality is a just a bit too polished and the faux Youtube graphic ever so slightly off (both points are really only caveats) this work really punches.

Not taking stick anymore.

Fulfilling the societal potential Brand Republic's Rory Sutherland talks of while rejecting the weapons of Naomi Klein's noughties activism – propaganda, protests, lawsuits and boycotts – in favour of coaxing reform of vendor behaviour positively with financial reward and improved reputation, Carrotmob are re-enforcing the most basic rule of the market: that the market holds the force.

The collective support of outlets that apply previously agreed-upon changes to social and environmental working practices and procedures is achieved through none other than the materialist's favourite pastime – shopping.

At a supermarket aisle near you soon.

All we need.

I have a vile contempt for the use of emoticons and other such faddy pseudo-punctuation, but this, the SarcMark, for sarcasm – the first serious addition to the Arboretus Punctuationitis – there is a need for. Really.

Via The Guardian.

Prize draw.

Offering cash rewards to grasses of benefit fraudsters is one thing, but actually giving bounty directly to criminals seems an altogether wilder crime-tackling tactic – though scheming Bangkok police recently faked a prize draw by sending out congratulatory letters informing over a dozen convicted criminals that their ID card numbers had been picked out of a hat and they'd won big, all in a sly attempt to draw the hard criminals in.

The cons, many of them months on the run and among them rapists and thieves, were pounced on when they turned up to collect the swag – TV sets and cash cheques being amongst the advertised prizes – and given rather less attractive jail sentences instead.

Via popular redneck expat forum ThaiVisa.

How does £3.50 sound?

Following on from Schofield's marvelous vendor bullying spot comes another dramatization of the poor treatment of creative freelancers – this time in animated form using Xtranormal's Text-to-movie software.

Mental Designer's Graphic designer Versus Client melds all the madness and patronizing megalomania of every bitch of a client you've ever met into one brutal assault on honest decency, undervaluing and disregarding the creative process and spitting in the face of professionalism with the common client insult of half-hearted familiarity.

Obey the lure.

While the police mannequins that have popped up on Bangkok street corners over the past few months have not really posed a serious deterrent – as the boys in brown, in their last, permanent inactive posts, are far too easy to detect as being the dummies they are from a distance of even a block away – there is one theory that this is all part of a bigger, less innocuous ploy.

Eventually, so familiar with seeing the plastic patrol cops all over town, Bangkok drivers may be lured into a false sense of security and naturally begin to speed by every intersection, confident that the only eyes upon them are resin; though the real police meanwhile may just take advantage of this lax attitude and reappear on duty, keeping as still as the dummies themselves (something that shouldn't prove to difficult for some considering their lack of manoeuvrability) thus catching out the lackadaisical motorists and fining them (all very fairly) on the spot.

Photography by Asit Prueangwet.

Downside up.

Thailand has long demonstrated true creative innovation in the fields of graphic, interior and product design but has, quite understandably, never been famed for its inventive use of English copy – not for want of trying – though the corner now might have been turned.

Either error has played the mother of invention and a poor parking lot signage order (double the amount of 'up' signs needed and no 'downs') forced Bumrungrad hospital into a resourceful rethink, or the signs are part of a deliberate design choice with an intentional economy of words. Either way it's a playful inversion and a sign that the craft of copywriting is on the, er, up.

Photography by Asit Prueangwet.

Plane Stupid.

In spite of rising scepticism – specifically the exposure of the conspiracy behind the 'anthropogenic warming myth' – climate change propaganda is continuing to get stronger it seems with agencies like Mother London creating hard-hitting commercials for the anti-aviation expansion group Plane Stupid featuring dead polar bears falling from the sky.

And whether or not you buy into the stat that there are more bears now than in 19XX, if you think shorthaul flights are, er, a bare necessity then in my opinion you are plane stupid. Our earth needs looking after whether it's getting dangerously hot or not right now and filling the atmosphere with CO2 is never (ever) going to make the world a better place to live.

Directed by Rattling Stick's Danny Kleinman.

Via Brand Republic.

The unfairest of them all.

Having spent too much in the hands of Apple Care recently, I'm starting to feel like duped Snow White. Despite the fact that I put my Mac through daily processor-heavy full-HD FCP rendering it still doesn't really seem fair.

Nothing though would sway me to switch to the world of PC.

Stencil by Banksy.

Slee-py TV?

With either malfunctioning units in the case of the Sondhi assassination attempt or unverifiable footage in the case of the King Power airport scandal, the CCTV unit has come under some scrutiny in Thailand of late.

It's still surprising though that dreamy, suburban hi-so shopper oasis The Crystal has stuck its neck out be offering customers that little extra bit of personalised car park care in the shape of security guards strategically sat aloft in high-seat Baywatch beach chairs – as although the context switch (from beach or tennis court to car lot) is a deft and innovative design move, it remains strangely DIY for such a luxury mall.

As to its efficiency, only time will tell. The guards we saw appeared upright and hawk-like when we were there exposed by the midday sun – even though the car lot was empty – but what with their general reputation for a snooze, we just hope that when dusk arrives sleepiness won't kick in.

Photography by Asit Prueangwet.

A nice change.

It's easy to knock True as a brand for their unfocussed and frivolous product line extensions and general air of unwarranted hype – but for showcasing relevant, utile and engaging design such as this one has to tip one's hat.

Easily mistaken as an architectural leftover or structural orphan, Thai architect Duangrit Bunnag's Magic Mirror, housed on the third floor of True's Siam Square boutique store, is a cleverly understated piece of function-led design that ensures you never have leave the fitting room to show off what you're trying on. The electrical current that charges the crystaline film that renders the walls opaque (for while you're getting changed) is disengaged when the door is pulled ajar, allowing the glass to return to its transparent state when you're ready to parade whatever you've picked up from off the rail.

The really nice change though is the appearance of such a truly genuine triumph of design in a site of such popular appeal.

Photography by Asit Prueangwet.

Modeled by Kwan & Gift.

Sillapim.

With US regulators extending current laws to end blogger payola I thought as an act of defiance I'd celebrate the occasion with some rampant cronyistic promotion.

Cutely-dubbed Thai illustrator and designer Sillapim (real name = Pimduan Watcharapruk, sillapin = artist in Thai) produces spectacular hand-drawn pieces in ink with luscious lines and exquisite organic details.

Check out her blog here.

Sweet home.

Once a luxury (think 867 cable stations) and now the bane of many gadget geeks, choice or rather a desire to have it filtrated into a united form, has motivated 173 mostly frothy comments and 153 diggs, a response that has in turn egged on web programmers and platform providers Teehan + Lax to actualize a dream interface the pair were initially only speculating about in their blog.

The dream app is a live iPhone home screen featuring bespoke, scrollable lists of notifications tracking everything from missed calls, unread email and calendar events to Facebook, Twitter and Tripit updates. T+L describe it as: "A screen that doesn't require you to scan for red dots with numbers inside of them. Instead it displays information and notifications of things that are new and relevant to you."

Deadly simple and very sweet.

Follow T+L's progress on Twitter.

'Sor' point.

To manipulate the impact of the truth via a mass media smokescreen relying on the timely release of important news from one government department to distract public attention away from the error or evil of another is without question wicked; to attempt to achieve this effect through trumping one's own foul play with still greater controversy is pure insanity – though it seems such an improbable ploy may not be entirely without success.

It's by no mere coincidence that in a matter of days the Thai Ministry of Culture have unveiled their motion-picture industries ratings system and announced their plan to sponsor the historical epic Tamnan Somdej Phra Naresuan (Legend of King Naresuan) Parts III and IV. Neither moves have gone totally unnoticed, though as per usual it's the back pages and the web blogs where all the real reporting is going on – largely the result of course of self-censorship.

Bangkok Post columnist Kong Rithdee points out both banning and cutting of a film are still possible and that it remains uncertain if the board will demand scenes cut before issuing a rating or not. And while it’s this hidden seventh category – apparent by its omission or at least lack of icon – which has caused the most consternation (as it clearly poses the greatest threat to filmmakers) it's the ส่งเสริม (promote) category that is, in my view, potentially the most worrying – especially in light of the financial aid that seems to be given to particular films of a certain ilk.

(Khun Kong also makes a case for the unjustness of arguably Thailand’s most successful film director receiving funding for his latest project while hundreds of indie filmmakers are left translating their treatments so they can hunt for cash overseas.)

Not only will the existence of official endorsement allow (possibly even encourage) censors to act corruptly, pocketing bribes for an official stamp of approval, but with such an official PR blessing in place (unquestionably as part of a continued overall panic to force the populous to abide to a strict conservative moral code) the very fabric of the currently flagging Thai liberal culture will be put under threat – with anyone at least slightly susceptible to a fad being turned away from the avant-garde by being turned on to screenings of didactic, preachy poppycock and pointless, saccharine fluff.

Via one of my favourite Thai-based Twitterers – Wise Kwai.

Pretty vacant?

Numbers are everything. Looks are more.

Pretty or pretty vacant?

Spotted in Bangkok marble mall Mahboonkrong.

A cut above.

Business cards that allow brand ambassadors (= staff) to demonstrate brand talent to potential citizens/clients on the spot. What Stefan Sagmeister was going on about back at Adfest last year.

For the Glamour Institute of Hair & Design.

Via Swiss Miss.

Far from child's play.

Another campaign for the much-scammed Land Rover brand, but nothing complicated or tenuous, just super-efficient, clear-as-day dramatization of the thought – truly powerful as a piece of communication as the execution is so startlingly close to the insight.

All in all, deadly simple – but far from easy to pull off.

Animal farm.

I never give much time to the forwarded junk that enters my email inbox, but with all this talk of remodeling the financial architecture of the world the following models seemed relevant.

Socialism: You have two cows, and you give one to your neighbour.

Communism: You have two cows. The State takes both and gives you some milk.

Fascism: You have two cows. The State takes both and sells you some milk.

Nazism: You have two cows. The State takes both and shoots you.

Bureaucratism: You have two cows. The State takes both, shoots one, milks the other, then throws the milk away.

Traditional Capitalism: You have two cows. You sell one and buy a bull. Your herd multiplies, and the economy grows. You sell them and retire on the income.

Surrealism: You have two giraffes. The government requires you to take harmonica lessons.

A Corporation: You have two cows. You sell one, and force the other to produce the milk of four cows. Later, you hire a consultant to analyse why the cow has dropped dead.

Via Nicky.