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.