We Told You So

As you know, kind reader, we sent out some rather deadly mince pies this Christmas, one of which was laced with extreme chili.
Well, it transpires that somebody at IMD, one of the unkowing recipients of these pies of death, consumed the dodgey one and promptly chundered in the office.
Get in.
With love from your friendly KarmaTerrorists

Bye Bye and Thanks For All The Fish

Well, that time has finally arrived and we're off to pastures new. In truth, Ben, Dave and Sid were not too sure whether they could be bothered and thought about winding the company up and going off to live in Canvy Island. But at the last moment a sudden rush of X-Factor style moody voting swayed their opinion, and Karamabananaharmana lives to fight another day.
So it's goodbye to Elsley Court in Great Titchfield St and hello to our new offices in Vernon St (check it out on its own website 31vernonstreet.co.uk) W14. 'W14!' I hear you say - 'are you insane?' Maybe so, but we don't care, so there.
Just to give you an idea of the difference, we're leaving this behind:



To move into this. Our own, brand spanking new building. Oh yes, do not underestimate the karma my friends - good things come to those who do the good, and we've been very good.


But we've also been very bad. Apparently Fallon will be moving in after us, so the boys and girls have been leaving a few cheeky pressies for the new arrivals in various odd, hard to fathom places. It's nice to think that we'll be leaving a little bit of ourselves behind.

Oh I Say! Another Newbie

Welcome all to Natalie, who joins creatives services to assist Black Rod and his iron fist. Creative Services is one of those functions where you're never quite sure what they do, until they don't do it and everything turns bananas. Nat joins us from Lowe Jo'Burg and JWT prior to that. She's much needed and very welcome and will help us get things done to time, so hopefully our clients will stay happy and we'll all enjoy the discipline. Lummy, this is all going a bit S&M

Czech us out

To celebrate Chriscrimble we had a massive knees up in Prague. Yes! Prague! Well, its been a good year. And what's more we managed to make it all the way there AND all the way back without losing anyone. We can't say the same for our dignity, our brain cells or Sarah's coat. It was a brilliant laugh and what with tattoos for the boys and lashes for the girls, eating at the finest restaurant in Prague, drinking at the finest (ahem) cocktail bars and dancing at the most.. prestigious hook up joints in town, the theme of Eastern European Glamour was well maintained.
here's the evidence:

We're Moving Home

And now, the end is near...
Yes, the inevitable has finally happened and we are being chucked out of our home at Karma Towers on December 24th.
What does this mean for adland's most intrepid pioneers of cutting-edge communications?
Well, we'll be homeless, that's what.
But not for long, as we have a nice new hoome to go to.
'Where?' you may ask.
Well, we 'aint going to tell you just yet in case the whole think jinxes.
But it will be more Karma Villas than Karam Towers.
Watch this space and all will be revealed.

Cry Santa, Cry!

Well it's Chrimbo time again and the time of year when your pals at Karmarama bestow another bit of their genius on an unsuspecting public.
Each year we try to come up with the perfect way to celebrate the festive season and to send friends a little seasonal pressie.
Last year it was the much talked about and much chucked about woolen pom-pom snowballs which are now on display in the Tate Modern and Saatchi Gallery. Possibly.
This year, we've gone a bit dark, a bit sinister, a bit surprising.
This year, it's Mince Pie Roulette.


The concept is simple: 6 tasty mince pie, one of which is infused with eye-wateringly and buttock-clenchingly strong chili sauce.
Oh yes my friend, this year there will be tears at Christmas.
Karma Towers has transformed itself into a hive of activity.
We've got Monty and Ray on filling duty.



Notice the precision with the syringe. That Babyshambles bloke would be proud. Incidentally, you would not believe how difficult it is to get hold of syringes nowadays.
This is the plutonium-grade chili sauce madness that's going in.


These are the finished pies.


Here's the packs ready to be assembled by our state of the art packing machine.


Here's our state of the art packing machine. She's called Lou and she's a professional. Watch it.


And then here's the little fellas all done and ready to be mailed out and cause havoc on the streets of Britain.



Ha ha ha ha! Or should that be Ho ho ho ho!

Vacancy: Runner Wanted

Do you have what it takes to work in the cut and thrust of one of the ad industry's most talked about companies?
Have you got stamina, intelligence and some form of genetic enhancement that makes you really good in a fight?
If so, perhaps you could be the Runner we need at Karmarama.
Runners at Karmarama make things happen. They help out in sorts of areas, do deliveries, take on their own projects, be handy to have around during pitches, and keep the good ship HMS Karma cruising steady.
It's a brilliant opportunity for someone who wants to get firsthand (as opposed to secondhand - how would that work?) experience of working in the ad industry.
The role is for a year, you'll get enough money to buy clothes, beer and on-line junk, and you'll join our happy family.
So if you are interested, drop Louise and email at louise@karmarama.com with your details, why you think you could be the chosen one, and what your favourite fancy dress outfit is and why.
The only downside is that Karmarama is not an equal opportunities employer. Sorry, we don't employ wankers. So if you're male, female or undecided, able bodied, disabled or just a bit unfit, a school leaver or a granny, even a scientologist, get in touch today. But make sure you're nice.

Burning our brains out in Warsaw

You know, it's not all strategic freestyling and stonking creative ideas at Karmarama. Oh no, every now and then we have to do some proper work. Like sending two of our Karma Krew for an adventure of a life time in Warsaw with our new Burn clients to sample a few delights and see if it's true that Burn just keeps you going and going and going.

Recollections of the night are a bit of a haze. But what we do recall are things like:

1. lots and lots of vodka, everywhere



2. lots of lots of of Burn everywhere




3. it all getting a bit retro



4. eating pineapple and cheese chunks



5. having a go of a hubbly bubbly thing



6. dancing badly



7. falling over



8. having a lovely client and said lovely client knocking back a fair few



9. filthy Phil turning up out of no where at 4 in the morning



10. the shocking morning after



We deserve a ruddy medal!

Poster Boys (and Girls)

People don't talk about posters as much as TV but what with being a purveyor of iconic print media and a hothouse of quality effective advertisements, we are quite fond of them. This week has been full of outdoorsy news:
The fabulous posters for our friends at Smart LPG (a liquid petroleum gas fuelled smart car, congestion charge free and cheap to run) have hit the streets of London, courtesy of our friends at Jack Liberties:



At the same time we have been seeing some great figures on the latest Ice Road Truckers series on The History Channel. The Official jury's out, but we are so proud of our posters, press and online campaign for this series, that we reckon they might well have something to do with it... You can play with the MPU here,
which is ACES, and see the 48s all over town. Most importantly, watch it, on the History Channel. It's kind of butch, but gripping nonetheless.

The Big Property Fight

So, new property time.



As you may recall, we're being chucked out of Karma Towers at the end of this year and we've been searching high and low (and very low) for new offices. And we've got our short-list down to two so they can do battle.
It's Covent Garden vs Clerkenwell.
Now, far be it from me to in anyway sway opinion, but as I see it, with Covent Garden you get a lovely location (albeit with a lot of tourists)



Whereas with Clerkenwell you street urchins.



With Covent Garden you get nice flowers and stuff.



With Clerkenwell you get shite.



And with Covent Garden you get opera singers and the arts.


Whereas, with Clerkenwell you get mugged.



It's going to be a tough decision...

Gawd Bless Her

More tat has appeared in the office.


At times it feels like a bring-and-buy sale here. Now I'm a big fan of Her Royal Lateness and all, but really, it this necessary? Does rather bring a tear to the old eye though

Who Is This Man?

Mugs. They're important to us here what with us consuming a right old load of tea and coffee and all. But who, I mean 'Who!' the bleedin' hell is this bloke?


This here mug turned up out of nowhere, found its way into our cupboard, and is now the agency's favourite drinking receptacle. If you know this chap, if you have ANY idea why he's want a personalised mug, please let us know as we are quite, quite baffled

Damn, Damn and Damn Again

Just when you think you are on the verge of a scientific breakthrough involving rotting fruit (you'll recall kind reader that we have been observing the slow rot of a satsuma and a digestive biscuit)


Well, it transpires (good word, wonder if it originates from the world of botany and plant transpiration - could be) that our satsuma has a somewhat older brother - older by a stonking 116 years. Crikey.


Still, we shall continue undeterred. A quick update for you: the satsuma is now near weightless having somehow been consumed from the inside out. It's what you'd call a husk I suppose. I asked Fernly, one of our more fearless (and peerless) planners to heft it, but she'd only do it with the protection of a copy of The Guardian.


Still, you can just about work out that she 'aint expending much energy in the heft, hence proving it's lightness. Sort of.

The Boy Done Good

Now you may ask, in between creating some of our fine country's most memorable media neutral and effective brand communication campaigns, exactly what is it that you boys and girls do all day long? You know, in your downtime and all? Well, good question. OK there's a fair amount of playful banter, a bit of magazine reading, and quite a bit of fruit eating and bicycle repairing. But most often you will find us improving our brain weight on the Karma-Wii. Currently, office champ is Aaron with the really quite extraordinary A--.


Now, if you've never played Big Brain Academy this may not mean much. But if you're a player like us, I think you'll be pretty impressed, just like we are.
Azzer, take a bow.

Calm Down, Calm Down, It's Only An Ad

Well, we all like to cause a stir with our ad campaigns don't we? Get them talked about, written about etc. Apparently all publicity is good publicity and the best ads polarise opinion blah blah blah.

So here's a funny piece that we just had to bring to your attention. We did a nice little campaign for The History Channel's 'Just Another Day' the ... other day ... and everyone seemed pretty happy.




Then we were hit by the acerbic wit and repartee of the Daily/Sunday Star's TV critic. Unfortunately I don't have the original, so I've done a cut-and-shut job. As you'll see, poor old Adam Hart-Davis comes in for a bit of stick.



What has the poor bloke ever done to our proud nation other than encourage us to get our tax returns in on time and present history in a more entertaining manner? Perhaps it was because we took his top off on one of the posters and had him in his skimpy nightware in the other. It must have offended the Daily Star's sensibilities. How queer...

For Queen and Country

The Imperial War Museum has a very nice exhibition on at the moment.


And if you pop along or buy the book, you'll be able to appreciate our delightful anti-war poster which occupies pride of place, alongside some of the world's more infamous political propaganda. Good company to keep, good exhibition. Go see and give the poster a kiss - we won't prosecute.