mmmmmm......gu (dot dot above the u)

Thanks to Hattie's always very friendly emails and gu's limitless generosity (they are the nice dessert people who put a couple of funny dots above the u of their gu) we are all spending our Thursday afternoon full to the brim with chocolate goodness. In return, Tom agreed to pose with a pack of their gu (above).

The Bodeans video

You may know we at Karmarama love Bodeans. You may also know that to celebrate our love Tom and Robin wrote a song. If you are a little bit weird you may also know that Dave, Sam and Nick from Bucks. produced the tune. What you didn't know is that this thumping tune now has a video featuring cardboard cut outs of Will and Aaron.



You now probably know this is all just a bit weird.

(Rumor has it Will and Aaron owe Dave, Sam and Nick a Bodeans, but we're not getting involved)

Hyde the hen- The night out.

Last Thursday saw us all go out to celebrate Alex getting married next Saturday, and in true hen night style there are a few stories to tell.

The evening began in the garden with potent cocktails served by Paul, our in house naked butler (below). Presents were given to the hen and in keeping with UK hen night standards and regulations 97.5% of them were cock based products.

We lined our stomachs with some great food made by Siobhan, jumped into some of Fern's amazing fancy dress (again adhering to UK hen night standards and regulations) and headed into town.

And to a karaoke bar. Thanks to the bottle of wine Craig drank on the way from W14 to Leicester Square it did not take long for him to take control of the mic and start the proceedings. Eventually Nathalie (below) managed to wrestle him off the mic and proceeded to belt out some classic Britney Spears.

Fern 'Sandy' Miller led the girls in a bit of Summer Loving...


Will 'Danny' Flack replaced the inferior mic for a more traditional beer bottle approach to lead the T-birds.

Jono put the mouse head on...


...and The Hen finished things off with a bit of Tina Turner. Good Times.

Karmarama Kake Off

It's been an awful long time since we held a huge baking competition in aid of Shelter's Cake Time
But your forgetful correspondent was nudged into action by a letter from Shelter thanking us for our contribution of £71.23 and promising to send us a special cookbook as a present for getting our funds in early. I'm a bit worried that this effectively cancels out our contribution (I know every little helps and everyone was very generous but I was reminded of this sketch)
but anyway, we all had a lovely time and filled our faces with the offerings.
True to form, the competition was extremely hard fought.
From Sid's emotional blackmail (he named his offering the tears of tiny children), to Jono's shameless last minute icing sugar branding

to Siobhann's handpicked blossom embellishments to K-Broadcast's employment of a professional cookery writer to Phil's recruitment of a special friend to bake an extravaganza in 6 layers of coffee cake and fondant icing (which backfired somewhat as the judges insisted he had bought it from a shop) every tactic was employed to make the judge's job as difficult as possible.

Luckily we had some genuine expertise on the panel... Phil's family friend, the celebrated Polish bon viveur as chairmen, our own Ann Hunter as a fearsome quality control expert and Natalie who, despite looking like a frail wisp of a thing, proved she could put away as much cake as both of them combined.
In the end prizes were give for Originality (my own Giant Jaffa Cake, an idea purloined from this brilliant website as a tribute to the famous Cake or Biscuit ruling ), for Prettiness (Rod's boyfriend's coffee cream confection. Apparently he avoided disqualification because sift the flour himself) for Deliciousness (Sarah's delectable Pineapple Upside Down Aussie Cake) and lastly, the overall Grand Prix to Hattie's astonishing fresh stawberry & cream gateau.


And now we are all morbidly obese. Hey ho.

More New People - What it this, the jobcentre!

And here's the last two for a while because they are more than a handful to deal with. Going by the name of Gemma and Lisa, but we've no idea which is which, they are currently lighting up the creative discipline here. But you don't want to hear it from boring old me - here they are in their own inimitable style:

We made the smallest ad in the world. (in the process of being put in the Guinness book of world records)
We were hungover when the pic was taken.
Were not actually northern. Though both of our dads were miners.
Gemma is a qualified ear piercer.
Lisa hates ice cream.
Robson Green saved Gemma’s life.
Lisa has met Paul Daniels.
We wrote the tag line for the home office.
We both appear alongside Stelios on the Easycruise documentary on Living TV.

Welcome daughters of miners, mine's a pint of black pudding

Step up Steph

And it's another hello to a newbie. Steph joins us by way of a couple of flakey agencies (only joking - honest) to help our growing team on Nintendo in the glamourous and highly enviable role of Account Manager. Now Alex and Claire can relax just a tad, especially as Alex (or Geezer Bird as she is affectionately know here) is getting married very very bum-clenchingly soon. So thank gawd for Steph. And here's a little know secret of hers:
"I am a true cowgirl at heart and worked in rodeo when I travelled through Australia. I even had a rodeo name, Stephie-lee! I have a real Stetson and through the Winter months, am rarely seen without my cowboy boots. In fact, I have been known to wear them to bed."
We shall be exploring the last revelation in some detail over the coming months, and Tom has put himself forward to get to the bottom of things. Nice one.
Welcome Steph - back to work now tho'

Meet Lucy - Front of house ain't taking no more crap

Hello To Lucy, our new front of house receptionist thing person.
She's great, right northern and not to be messed with. Here she is in her own words:
"The mighty Carlisle has the enviable title in the UK as being the city with the highest Teenage pregnancy rate, and it is with great shame that I confess I let my town of origin down in this department.
Rather than bringing a hungry bairn to the table and a stabbing outside Gregg's, I instead offer an arts degree from the toon and a year spent in Brooklyn NYC working at Teen Vogue magazine, on a film set and completing a jewelry design course.
I went to art College in Barcelona and would love to ultimately settle there in the sun, with sangria, cigarettes and lots of loons.
I have a borderline obsession with traveling and mountaineering sports, and hope to complete my second attempt of the Haute route this year.
Celebrities do my nut in (apart from Karl kennedy) and I'm a bit of a tree hugger at heart.
Favourite karaoke tune is sweet child o’mine and I'm proud of my northern roots because we have the best banter."
See, she's clearly bonkers. Say hello and ask if it really is grim up North next time you're in

Happy 8th Birthday!

May 1st. A day of drama, revolution and the birth of adland's best kept secret. 8 years ago, sat round his kitchen table, Dave 'do you want to feel my head' Bonawhatsit decided he should go straight, lose the red boot laces, and get a proper job, so he created what we now lovingly refer to as 'Karmarama'.

To mark this important occasion we had cake and a few drinks around our newly opened Barmarama. Taking a break from a busy work schedule, manic pitching and frenzied shopping for anything lemon for our summer wardrobe (you read it first here, lemon is going to be oh so very big this coming season), we gathered and had a couple of drinks to say 'Thanks for the job Dave' and general chit chat.


And in an eye-wateringly poignant moment, the Karma partners were presented with their very own steel tankards to keep behind the bar at all times, whenever a bit of magical lubrication is needed.


A marvelous time was had by all. A bit of fun and frolics in the garden. And then we all went back to work because we are a hard-working bunch.
Happy birthday us. All cards, presents, hugs or kisses gratefully received

Loud mouthed, hard as nails bar staff?

It seems someone didn't enjoy their visit to the bond themed pub down the road. 'Slaggy' bar staff!? We're going in to find out more!

It's a lovely day in W14

Sometimes trekking out to W14 can feel a bit, well, wearisome, and being such a long way away from all our friends in adland can make us a bit cut off, to be honest. But today the sun is out, the suburban blossom is on the branch and all is well with the world. Feels so much nicer to be out of the inner-city blues that make us wanna holler, and out here in the sticks where the birds are on the wing:
Here are some snaps. Our house:

In the middle of our street

And our new trusty local (which couldn't be conceptually further away from the one Sid is on about, even if it is geographically right next door) is attracting a great crowd of locals to make friends with outside in the sunshine for a gentle evening pint. Who needs the Yorkshire Grey?

How Many Ad Folk Does It Take To Change A Lightbulb?

I don't know and frankly it's a rather stupid question.
Now a far more interesting one is 'how many does it take to move a ping pong table?'.
We're going through a few changes and move arounds here at the West London Metropolitan Museum of Modern Advertising, and we've had a bit of fun relocating the sacred ping pong table from the upstairs to the downstairs.
Not a tough job you may think. And not the sort of thing to get into a tis about. But ask for a few burly blokes to lend a hand and the lads just have to get involved. But they can be a bit too enthusiastic, especially when the stairwell is the width of Paris Hilton on a fasting day.


Still, they huffed, puffed, grunted and generally made right tits of themselves.



And there, steering it all the way done is our IT genius and all-round good guy Dan looking somewhat terrified to be out in the real world for a change.


Dan, get right back up those stairs where you belong.

The Secret to Great Planning

Many people stop the hard-working planners of our splendid agency when they are mulling their way around W14 asking "This planning malarky - how do you do that then?'. Well, a bit like that masked magician fella off the telly who keeps revealing the magic circle's secrets, here's the skinny: it's all about the books baby. And to prove it, have a quick butcher's at a bit of our planning library I encountered just today.


Crammed full of the most insightful tomes on the ways of modern marketing, the most revealing book is 'The Good Pub Guide 2008'. In this radical, thrilling and ingenious book the authors draw cunning analogies between well know brands, consumer behaviours and emerging cultural trends and ... pubs. Yes, I know, quite brilliant. We've had your archetypes, your onions, your temples, now we've got your pubs!
Of course it could be that we've got a planner with a serious drink problem and they are having a right laugh at our expense, but I live in hope.

The Most Terrifying Pub in the Known World

We're a pretty beefy bunch at KarmaBrama. Not hard, not tough, not cocky. But beefy.
We can 'look after ourselves' if you know what I mean. And I reckon, in a straight out fist fight we could hold our own with some of the smaller regional offices of multinational pharmaceutical companies.
Possibly.
But that's besides the point. The point is this: there isn't that much that your beefy friends are scared of. But there is one place, one place that almost chills me to the bone to even think about let alone blog about, that is absolutely bleedin' terrifying.
It is, without any doubt in the world, the scariest pub ever.
Now we like a drink here and have been known to venture into some right dodgey boozers, get aquainted with the locals like and stand a few rounds. But this place? It's just so ... terrifying!. Absurdly, ironically and mindboglingly it's called 'The Live And Let Live' which is the very last thing on the clientele's humanitarian agenda.


Many people enter, but very few ever leave. We've watched from afar, but pooped our pants (the girls especially which is like way stinky) at the thought of going in.
We're considering, in the near future, doing a MacIntyre reports sort of thing where we strap a steady-cam to young Tobin to see what occurs, but for the moment we're keeping our distance.
If you know of a scarier pub, or indeed anyone who has ever drunk in the 'Live...' and 'lived' to tell the tale, please let us know.

3 days till the great kake off

Friday sees the great Karmaramamama kake off. Ideas and recipes are being kept firmly under wraps as the atmosphere builds around the office in anticipation. 2008 favorites include Fern, Dave and Craig all with formidable reputations in the kitchen. However, new comers will no doubt be looking to make their mark on the competition as well as the old-hand of Aaron looking to protect his Best Sandwich 2007 glory.

Stay tuned for more news...

New girls

Recently, we got two new girls here at Karmarama High: Nicola (left) and Ann (right).
Nicola's fairly important (she's our chairman) but Ann's the most important hiring of the year/ decade. She's our Operations Manager and is responsible for whipping us into shape, sorting out the building, looking after our 'front-of-house' and organising all the parties. And look - we haven't broken her yet!
Please don't pull their pigtails or steal their lunch money, they'll kick your ass.

Getting stuff done, well done.

Noise: The Return

You may recall, kind reader, way back when your favourite 'fastest growing agency in the top 50' was in their previous location that we had a little problem with NOISE! Builders builders everywhere, driving us to despair (they kinda rhymes don't it - you see, we're very, very creative here).

With our move out west to a road that genuinely resembles Coronation Street, but without the Rovers and that mad lad that wants to kill people, we settled in to a quieter way of life. A nice garden, nice neighbours, lovely and ... quiet.

But not for long as we have enlisted the help of a posse of builders to sort out a few drainage problems (long story, very dull). The awful truth is that not only is it bonkers noisey as they drill, grind and sump (technical term), but it's our fault! Our quiet little oasis of calm is now no longer calm. It's right bleedin' noisey!


We're sorry, very sorry to our neighbours and the gods of silence. Fern and Hattie are currently baking muffins to atone and hand out to the local folk. Please don't hurt us nice W14 people.

Another One Bites The Dust

We're a brave bunch here at Kristerama, but none more so that the intrepid cyclists who have to navigate the harsh streets of London to get to and from the Kube, our lovely new building way out west. So we support them with fresh fruit, sticky plasters and a loving hug.

But there are casualties I'm afraid, and Filthy Phil is the latest. Poor lad was cut up by some mad petrol-head as he was on his way to work. Phil, wearing the standard issue Karmarama Kamouflage of black top, black bottoms and free flowing locks, took a nasty tumble, did a spiral, landed on his head and took a right old hefty bang. Thankfully, years of drinking cheap Polish vodka has resulted in most of Phil's brain cells having already taken early retirement, so no serious damage there. Unfortunately his hand got pretty messed up and he's on operation number two as I write.


So, if you happen to be passing the Chelsea and Westminster and you see a moppy haired lad high on morphine but still trying to chat up the nurses, chances are it'll be our boy, so give him a quick kiss. Meantime, Dave is prowling the streets looking to rain down a bit of bad karma on a very rubbish London driver. Be warned.

Royal Ping-Pong

Last night saw the world's ping-pong stars descend upon The Royal Albert Hall for the Dunlop Masters 2008, and of course we went.

Highlights included the legend Jan-Ove Waldner struggle to carry a rather larger figure of himself around the table, the young Darius Knight overcome with nerves, "The Austrian Chopper" Chen Weixing putting up a good fight with an incredible defence and 'The Pocket Rocket" Kalinikos Kreanga from Greece overcoming everyone by unleashing his furious back-hand attack whenever possible.

But the star of the night (apart from a drunk, old bloke who was highly entertaining 4 rows from the front throughout) was bandanna donned, Jean Michel Saive who brought real showmanship to the event as well as fine 90's dress sense. Thank you Jean.

Karmarama go back to the races

After our win last week at the races resulting in a 'better than average lunch' we donned our flat caps and wellies once again and headed trackside with our tummies rumbling. The running was firm at Vaal and with only 7 horses in the 1.30pm we thought it looked a good race to wager our lunch money. Let's Rock and Roll an outsider at 5-1 had by far the best name and accordingly the fate of our lunch once again was handed to a horse.

After a slow start, Let's Rock and Roll finally picked up the pace and with a gutsy sprint through the last furlong grabbed an honorable second place. Not enough for myself and Craig to once again dine with Olympia royalty at The Cumberland instead Tesco awaited. The savvy Fern however collected a cool 60p profit from an each way bet and treated herself to some Peppermint Swirls- Yummy.