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.

Rot Blog 9: Speechless

Our rotting chums are still here and the whiff is pretty overpowering. I think we're into week 17 at the moment, which is quite an incredible feat. I'm not sure what more we can say that we haven't already banged on about before. They are nasty, disgusting and smelly, but somehow beautiful. I've tried getting through to those book of records blokes to get some rot-orientated record or something, but they're not biting. If you're ever in the area and fancy a rotty fumble, give them a squeeze by all means. See it as a sort of pilgrimage. Nice.

Welcome to Hell 5: Look At The Size Of It!

Just in case you thought it had all gone nice and quiet here, thought you might like a quick update on the size of the gawd awful structure thing being built outside our window. To the sound of a constant 'TAP TAP DRIIIZZ BANG BANG EEEERRRRGGGGHHH', us happy Karma people ply our trade. The foundations have been laid, what looks like an underground carpark ('Darling I couldn't possibly work anywhere I couldn't park the Merc') has been built, and those little blighters have been hard at it, getting higher, higher and higher. But we'll be off soon to pastures new (don't know where yet, probably Balham at this rate) and the new tenants who will be paying an unholy amount of cash will have the pleasure of our friendly Pot Noodle eating neighbours. Unlucky.

Summer Party (Late) 07

By golly, it's been a right long time since we last wrote. It's all go here, very busy, lots of meetings, a couple of chuckles and some funny Autumn footwear.
But, above and beyond all that, I felt I just had to show you a few of our piccies from our rather late summer party.
This year's theme was a Karma treasure hunt around our great capital whilst travelling on a Duck Boat. If you've never been on one, do, but take a cushion and some waterproofs.




I won't go into too much detail other than to say we had to get up to all sorts of mischief including getting as many people as possible in a phone box, finding a dog and dressing it up, giving one of the beasts of Trafalger Square a rogering from behind, hanging off a tree, a company looki-likey (in this case Phil) and, to top it all off, the best 'aquatic' photo, won hands down by Jono and Craig who, in the pouring rain, put on trashy tourist pants and went for a swim in the Trafalger Square fountains.















Blimey, what a day. It all finished off with a very nice dinner indeed in some part of gentrified South London where the muggers say please before robbing you. All this organised by the lovely ladies at Karampharma, Hattie, Sarah, Gina and Alice.

Daft Hands - Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger

Time, work and tea drinking stopped at 415 today as we all crowded around Fern's computer to marvel at this film. I'm sure you super-cool people have already seen it, but for anyone else out there like me who's been trying to earn a crust rather than watch spoddy videos all day, enjoy...

I don't mean to brag, I don't mean to boast...

...but I'm like hot butter on your morning toast.
Or so the Sugarhill Gang sang on Rapper's Delight way back when.


So, look, we don't like to go on and on about how great we are, how we've bought a new kettle (those that know will know), or how we've created a spurious (good word) new department/discipline focusing on toilet seat behaviour. See, we're just not like that.
But, every now and then, it feels right to reassure you, kind reader, that we are a serious and somewhat successful company of fine and upstanding creative types.
So, I drawer you attention to the latest new business league where little old us, coiled like a spring at number 8 for the last 2 weeks, has only gone and leapfrogged (is that the right word?) our friends W&K to number 7. Bugger me sideways.


Next stop, let's take on our friends down the road at BMB. They're only a few grand ahead of us and we've got some new business wins in the pipeline that we'll be announcing soon.
After that, who knows? Obviously it will be disaster, deceit and debauchery. But let's enjoy it while we can.
I thank you.

Meet Rod - The family keeps on growing

Say hello to Rod, who joins us this week as our head of creative services. For people that don't know what that means, he's the person who makes everything that we ponder and argue about all day long actually happen. He also strides around the place a lot with pieces of paper saying things like 'is the registration any good on this?'.
Rod comes from AKQA and prior to that the world of publishing, so he's a sort of analogue/digital hybrid. He seems terribly nice, dresses very well and will fit in right well to your ever-growing family of happy folk. He's a great find and we're very chuffed to have him. Welcome.

Man Down, Man Down

This lovely little fella is, apparently, the common flu virus. And it's currently living the life at your one and only Karma-Hurrrahara. There's people falling all over the place, smashing foreheads into their Macs as they let forth with another spray of snot. It's bad. Fair enough, it's mainly the male of the species that's worse for wear and yeah yeah yeah, man-flu and all that, but I'm telling you, I don't know how the pesky little germ-thing gets about, but he 'aint half, what's the word, oh yes: virulent.

So, in honour of how your favourite 'gosh I thought they'd be at least twice the size' ad agency are being hit hard, I thought I'd bring you some really grisly pictures of fellow sufferers, so you can almost taste what it's like to be here at the moment.

First up, the snot drop:



Second up, the kiddie snot waterfall:


Third up, the super-sneeze:


Now of the above, my old Mum always used to say 'Oh my Gawd' whenever anyone sneezed near her 'that goes 15 bleedin' feet you know'. And this piccie seems to show that she's knows what she's talking about. So, next time you're squeezed into your local public transport and you hear a gurgle, a shuffle and then a big old sneeze... Duck!

Joy Joy Joy!

I am so in love with this website it makes me want to poop myself. It is absolute perfection and has given me more laughs than anything in living memory. Please visit and click on the explanation videos. The one about 'happiness' brings a tear to my eye.

Click here, please please please, and share the joy

Toto | Washlet - Flash Player Installation

LESS BANG BANG, MORE PING PONG

We're very proud to bring you our latest short film, showcasing the talents of the amazing Mr Dave

Want it!

The folks here at Karma-Kara-ma are a pretty right on bunch when it comes to matters of world peace, semi-skimmed milk and protecting our funny little planet (cos we have only one of 'em you know). We don't get taxis everywhere (well, some of the lazier ones do), we try and recycle paper and stuff (we got a bit confused about recycling toilet paper - it got all a bit messy), and of course, as you know dear reader who has nothing better to do with their day than read the ramblings of a bligblog, we loves our bicycles.
Well, I love this. You've probably seen it on all those coolhunting websites that you are subscribed to but delete every morning in-between all the cheap viagra spam. It's a scheme running in Amsterdam where the people of that fair city 'borrow' a bike from one of these dispensers, ride around a bit, buy some clogs and papers and stuff and then deposit it back at another dispenser. Oh the joy of altruistic behaviour.
Anyway upwards, I've found out the supplier and I'm very excited about getting a couple for our new building (which we still haven't found yet - more on that in another posting) so we can allow Karmacrew and clients alike to pootle around town on nice little bikes. What a lovely idea.
Of course it will never happen because the minimum order will be about 10 squillion, but I can dream can't I, I can dream?