2 minutes estimated reading time
Ian Hislop on the 2022 in UK politics
Ian Hislop is well known in the UK as being the editor of Private Eye and managing to bring the snark of the paper into real life. In this interview with the politics channel of Joe, he seems flummoxed by the state of politics in the UK over the past year or so.
In this video, Ian Hislop talks about the year with clear sense of exasperation. The laughs are for relief rather than humour. The commentary by Ian Hislop on collective short term memory is very interesting.
Tiananmen Square killings
CNN put together an interesting collection of footage around the Tianamen Square protests and put some context around what was happening in China when the protests happened. CNN seemed to have done a better job than most western media at the time in its coverage of the protests. If anything the footage seems even more harrowing now than the bit I remember from the time.
Darlie Malaysia travel promotion
Back when I worked on Colgate brands in Asia, Darlie was the ‘entry level’ brand. As such its one of the best selling toothpaste brands in Asia and you can see it in any pharmacy or supermarket you walk into in China, Hong Kong and across Southeast Asia. It’s actually an old brand founded in the 1930s in Shanghai that latched on to the popularity of Al Johnson to promote the teeth whitening effect of their toothpaste.
The brand seems to have changed to Darlie around about 1990.
Moving forward three decades Darlie is still wrestling with its heritage in the eyes of western stakeholders important to Colgate Palmolive. Darlie is a best selling brand.
In Malaysia it seems to have got involved in a package promotion with local travel brand Klook to provide travel vouchers and hotel discounts as Malaysia kick started its domestic tourism and hospitality industries. Much of the promotion revolves around the use of influencers (to appeal to the three main ethnic groups in Malaysia – Chinese, South Asians and Malays).
I am not a huge fan of their books generally, but if the Darlie adverts spark your interest, then the Lonely Planet travel guide is your best option for the two main areas to see: Kuala Lumpur (KL) and Georgetown on Penang island.
The Reflex
I have been listening to this mix a few times this week.
Zone Energy
Zone Energy drinks targeted students sitting exams with adverts on the Tokyo subway that only. they could see using the red plastic sheet lens that is used to decode answers in their work books.
