Friday 11 December 2009

Lynx Action

Following my rather dull and 'deep' posting earlier, I thought it best to liven up the mood with two brilliant ads for Lynx deodorant.

They're so on-brand and massively appeal to the Scorpio* in me.

And most importantly, a good laugh for a festive Friday!


(Click on images to enlarge. The picture that is, nothing else!)



(Hats off to BBH London)

*Very passionate in everything they do, often thought of as the sexual sign. (Ha ha ha)

Loyalty & Commitment

With the recent transfer of Bradley Wiggins to Team Sky from Garmin, it got me thinking about the kind of world we seem to live in these days. (It's not as 'deep' as this sounds so bear with me!)

Before I start, I want to state that I love the fact that Wiggo's going to ride for a British team, with British sponsors and British staff. It's going to do wonders for GB road cycling and will hopefully transfer some more of the amazing track cycling success to the road genre. (Wiggo and Cav are already doing a great job.) How far away is GB from a podium place in the Tour? It could even be next year.

So what follows is going to sound like a contradiction, but hear me out...

What has happened to good old fashioned loyalty and commitment? Sportsmen and woman are such strong role models but what kind of example do they set when they show off the lack of the two words already mentioned. I don't know the legal ins and outs of contracts, etc but what's the point of signing them anyway? You sign a contract, something better comes up, tear up said contract and move to the next highest bidder/better option.

It reminds me of being a kid, getting invited to a classmate's party. After accepting the invite, a few days later a more popular kid sent out invites for a party on the same day. Not a chance would my parents let me cancel the boring party for the popular party! And I'm so grateful this is how they brought me up. (This is just one example, there were many others.) Yes it's easy to say this not being a pro sportsperson and I understand that it's their salary and future earnings but if you make a commitment for a certain length of time, should you not stick to it?

Yes it's big money for football teams to sell players while they're still contracted so maybe this is where it all stems from, but what message does this give to the youth? I totally appreciate the decision to move isn't made over night and loads of factors come in to it, but as a neutral member of the public, all I see are people taking the better option.

So yes, Wiggo should ride for Team Sky but maybe not next year. Had he fulfilled his prior commitment to Garmin?

I'm not naive, this happens in the working world and if someone offered me more money to do my job elsewhere, who'd be the fool to not take it? It just seems different to that of the world of professional sport. One could argue that employers aren't loyal either so it's a dog eat dog environment? The same's probably true for pro sports teams?

Wouldn't it be great to every so often see a sportsperson come out and say, 'thanks for the amazing offer, but I'm going to stick to my commitment'?

Yes I'm reading into it all a bit much and maybe it's only important that these characteristics are drilled into us as children and when we get older it's about looking out for one's self (and own family in terms of income).

I try to live by the mantra of not to criticise someone until you've been in their shoes and have understood the full set of circumstances. It's too easy to comment as as outsider, so maybe I should just put this loyalty & commitment dilemma to rest and stop boring you.

Who knows, the way the world works changes every second so as long as I can go to bed every night and not have my conscious keep me awake, that's all I can ask for.

(Let's not even get started on Tiger, or should it not be Cheetah?)

Sunday 6 December 2009

Passion Pop

It's so great to come across people like the dude above. To have such a love and dedication for something as simple as soda is remarkable. It's a bit of a long vid at 12 minutes, but honestly worth every minute.

It just goes to show that you don't always have to be in bed with the giants of the trade be be successful.

I'm not a massive fan of soda, although at times a Coke has saved me from bonking on a ride or helped me recover from a hangover. That said, I'd love to spend some money buying a few of the different flavours his store has to offer. And I'd certainly make the effort to visit the store if I went to LA. What's impressive is that even the owner understands the need for moderation. Drink less and enjoy the little bits you like more seems to be his message among others on being green and recycling.

I heart his no bullsh*t approach to Coke and Pepsi. Imagine every store in the world operated like his. Christmas shopping would be an absolute joy!

More people like John Nese please.