Back in Jan 2007, I mentioned the Apple adverts ("I'm a Mac" ... "and I'm a PC"). As I said back then, I like the adverts, even though I disagree with them from a technical point of view.

More recently, Microsoft have been running their own advert campaign. They did a set of adverts a few months ago which had various people saying "I'm a PC": the ( Read more... )

Following up on yesterday's post, here's another dubious advert:

Click to view

The slogan is "Wouldn't it be a shame if birds never used their wings?", and this is illustrated by birds using machines to get around, e.g. standing on an escalator or using a skateboard. I agree with the sentiment, but I don't really see how it leads to their conclusion ("Buy our ( Read more... )

As I travel around London, I see various adverts from different branches of the government. Unfortunately, these don't always illustrate a consistent policy. Here's an example:


( Read more... )

baratron recently linked to "A Fantasy" (a story by Brian McNaught); the original link no longer works, but there's another copy here. Basically, it's a thought experiment about what it would be like to be heterosexual in a world where almost everyone is homosexual: the idea is to gain a bit of empathy for what homosexual people have to deal with in our ( Read more... )

I went off to the cinema tonight to watch National Treasure: Book of Secrets, which I really enjoyed. It's a completely ridiculous film, but it's fun; if you liked the first one, then I recommend watching this one too. (In fact, it's made me want to re-watch the first one.) It's also similar to the first Pirates of the Caribbean film, which makes ( Read more... )

Tonight I watched Dawn Gets Naked on BBC3. This was a documentary about female body image: the presenter (Dawn Porter) is concerned that the "ideal" body presented by the media is impossible to attain, so she tries to get comfortable with her body the way it is. If you saw the Dove evolution advert a couple of years ago (using Photoshop), this is ( Read more... )

I've been on holiday in France for the last week, staying at Les Deux Alpes with some friends (susannahf, mrpj_antarctica, elvum, and terpsichore1980) to do some snowboarding. This was a fun week; I've got a few bruises, but I've definitely improved during the week ( Read more... )

Last week, John Kovalic (the guy who does Dork Tower) posted some photos of his new kittens in his LiveJournal. I like cats, but I tend to steer clear of overly cute photos (e.g. long-haired kittens with bows tied around their heads). However, these pictures just made my heart melt, and whenever I look at them I just sit here with a big grin on my ( Read more... )

I went for a swim last night and I saw a sign up advertising lessons. Now, I think that there are various reasons to learn to swim: it's fun, good exercise, and it could save your life one day. However, I was less convinced by one of the reasons they listed: "Major CV benefits!" This does remind me of Arnold Rimmer (in Red Dwarf) who put BSC after ( Read more... )

I've recently started watching My Name is Earl. (This is shown on Channel 4 at 10pm on Thursdays, so it conveniently starts just after House finishes on Five.) I saw an advert for this in one of my comics a while back, which had a list of activities. I initially thought that this was one of those "100 things to do before you die" lists, and I was ( Read more... )