It's been a long time since I last worked on a "creative pitch" for something. Actually the last one was earlier last year when we tried (unsuccessfully) to win an account in collaboration with uber-creatives Gloo. Apart from that, my creative director days are quite long behind me.

 

Still, this is a big account and worth the battle, so my rusty creative gears are being fed lots of nourishing grease and hopefully what's coming out the other end isn't, as someone accused me a while ago, the product of a 1998 Creative Director's brain.

Two of the world's great tyrants -- Radovan Karadzic, the Bosnian
President who murdered thousands in the former Yugoslavia -- and
Robert Mugabe, the current President of Zimbacle, today got served a
helping of just desserts.

Karadzic has been captured in Serbia after 13 years of evading the
law, and will now face charges at the Tribunal on the Former
Yugoslavia. It is highly likely that he will be found guilty and made
to pay at last for the horrors during his reign. His buddy Slobodan
Milosovic died last year before being convicted of any crimes.

Mugabe was today seen shaking hands with Morgan Tsvangirai at the
start of what looks like a possible deal for power-sharing up north.
This deal could go some way to vindicating Thabo Mbeki's long-standing
desire for a peaceful, negotiated solution, although it has come very
late in the day, and only because of enormous international pressure
and almost complete annihilation of the Zimbabwean economy. With a
Zim$100,000,000,000 note just issued it is economy that would fit
nicely into a Monty Python film rather than a world map.

The desire to see Mugabe dragged before his own hearing in The Hague
may very well be frustrated forever -- but if a negotiated settlement
is reached it could be another miracle story from near the southern
tip of Africa which has a few of them under its belt already.

My latest Thought Leader post deals with the issue of ex-pat South Africans.

You know, I'm getting kind of sick of being told I shouldn't be a "thought leader" because I can't think, can't be a leader, am naive, am stupid, if I can be a 'thought leader' anyone can, am too trusting of politicians, unfair, unreasonable and only trying to shock everyone...

Thought Leader is a forum designed to elicit commentary from interesting and provocative people in order to present points of view unlikely to be found in the normal media. That was my brief, and that is what I do. The quality of the comments posted in response to my articles is sometimes excellent, but oftentimes tedious, and riddled with ad hominems. My overwhelming conclusion is that people are too quick to bash out their knee-jerk reaction to what I'm saying, instead of taking the time to actually read and digest it.

I'm not being arrogant here. Maybe what I say is wrong or unreasonable. But just stating that adds nothing to the discussion. Nor does trumpeting out a bunch of stereotypical chiches which are available by the dozen for 50c on any radio station, bus stop or dinner party.

Read my latest Thought Leader post where I explain my enthusiasm for the recent announcement that Kgalema Motlanthe is to join the Cabinet.

 

C and I did a photo shoot for her PR efforts at her studio a while
back. Whilst the PR chick didn't rate the photos (bitch) I liked some
of them a lot. Not exactly an unbiased point-of-view I know.

Ok, today is freezing in Johannesburg.

Also I'm less jealous about not being part of the iPhone madness after
all the chaos with the launch over the past couple of days. Apple's
great genius is to make people feel like they're doing something edgy,
different and cool by buying exactly the same product as everyone
else. Not since The Beatles has being mainstream felt this radical.
And having seen the iPhone, I have to admit that it is one of the most
fuck-off cool things ever made. It is most likely going to change the
face of mobile completely, and move us finally into an era where
mobile devices are as easy to use for Web and Internet apps as a PC.
They did that for the MP3 player, and they're doing it again.

My only resentment toward them is their almost religious fervour for
DRM and the arrogance with which they are delivering these products
into the marketplace. Apple is an arrogant brand. And arrogant brands
are fine as long as they succeed, but when they fail, geez do people
turn on them.

For some reason, and it usually doesn't, this feels like a welcome relief this week. Feels like its been a LONG one, even though it was actually only four days. Am looking forward to resting this weekend, and some special spa day treatment thing Cherryl has arranged for sunday.

 

We are also briefing in the photography for our new Cambrient website at last this evening -- so watch this space for news on that one. My return to creative director role after what, like 8 years hiatus. I was accused the other week of still thinking like I was in 1999, which I guess makes sense since that was the last time I actually was a creative director.

The only really great thing about today is Sigur Ros' new album:

Med Sud I Eyrum Vid Spilum Endalaust

 

It's more gorgeous, soul-wrenching stuff from one of my favourite bands. A little lighter than Takk, with some fairly upbeat, rhythmic numbers, it's really made an otherwise stressful day bearable. Well, that and the delicious lunch from The Wild Olive in Greenside.

I've been trying to figure out for a while now the ideal way to connect my house to the Internet. A simple matter, one would think. But one that has caused some amount of problems.