We're happy to be working with..Change for Climate Change

We've recently started working with new charity, Change for Climate Change.

This is very exciting for us because, for once, this is a climate change initiative that feels like it will work! This is because it understands that it's only when business and industry change their bad habits that this problem ever has a chance of going away. And with this in mind Change for Climate Change wants to harness the power of consumers all over world to inspire that change..since it's the consumers who drive industry.

More about Change for Climate Change at their blog over here. Unfortunately they don't have a website at the moment (we're still working on it)! But this post talks about how they've recruited their first partner, David Lloyd Leisure. And how together they have created a project called The David Lloyd Lefini Project which will empower their members to help fight the impact of deforestation across the world.

Watch this space for news of CFCC's lovely new website coming soon.

Authentic Italian gelati around the corner from my East Dulwich flat

Heaven in East Dulwich!

Scoop opened up next to the Italian restaurant on Melbourne Grove, East Dulwich on the August bank holiday..and I was one of their first customers.

Their ice cream is as good as the stuff we were eating every day in Rome earlier this year. It's a small shop + so they can only stock 7 varieties for now..but they change them around each week, so I think that's variety enough. And they take requests!

They also serve coffee + waffles in the morning (clever) + according to their post at the East Dulwich Forum (where they've received nothing but praise, thank goodness!), they'll soon be selling those yummy churros too.

I can highly recommend the mango + coconut flavours. And I'd also suggest having a sit-down on the cute little bench outside to get properly stuck in.

Good luck Scoop! x

Take 3D pics + vids with Fujifilm's new 3D camera!!

Just spotted this on Mintel..how very exciting!

As 3-D cinema offers an alternative to the download culture, 3-D cameras might offer manufacturers respite from the threat of phones.

Fujifilm is launching a camera which takes 3D video and photos, without recourse to special glasses. The FinePix REAL 3D W1 launches in the UK this month.

Its integrated processor creates an image from using two slightly different angles and as such harks back to the pioneers of sterescopics. Images can be vied on the camera’s LCD screen or shared on the FinePix REAL 3D V1 photo frame monitor or as prints on special lenticular sheets.

Source: Mintel, 22 September '09

Is this not the most VOM-INDUCING mousemat you've ever seen?!

I never get post at work. NEVER! So I was like stupidly excited this morning when a A4-sized envelope arrived on my desk. Little did I know I was about to be totally sickened by its contents...

Erreuggghhh! This mousemat demonstrates a shocking lack of any kind of creativity or understanding of its audience on the part of its sender. Why send a creative agency a mousemat..yea, hang on just the fact that its a mousemat makes it totally boring. And a mousemat that was seemingly designed in Word...even more disgusting. Waaa, why would I want this on my desk I ask you?!

Am I being a bit harsh? Maybe. Maybe it's our job to be creative + our suppliers job to communicate what they can supply. But I can't help think 'just don't try' or 'try a bit harder, yea?' Or send us what we want + need instead. Chocolate on a Friday afternoon (+ not that awful advent calendar chocolate), headache tablets on a Friday morning, oompa-loompas to sing + help us get into the swing of things on Mondays.

But guess what? This fine example of bad design is now a feature on my nextdesk neighbour's desk! Yes, he claims it's so ugly that it's cut through the clutter of the averagely designed mousemats sent by other suppliers. So maybe I'm totally wrong + these guys have a complex understanding of how to engage the agency world. Hmm..or maybe not.

10 reasons to buy local

Yesterday I went to my local East Dulwich green grocer and bought about 8 mushrooms, 4 tomatoes, a whole load of green beans, a pepper and 5 onions for £2.50! Bargainous. And that's not even the best bit - even though they were meant to have shut they let me in anyway, they then proceeded to make polite conversation with me (!) and they even smiled!! A very different experience to the one I'd have received had I gone to Somerfield.

Then today I came across this at PSFK + thought I'd share because I believe strongly that shopping locally is the thing to do + this gives a brilliant list of why we should all do it.

Local First, a Grand Rapids Michigan-based organization that encourages sustainable, locally-based economies has made a simple but effective illustration of how money flows if it’s spent at a locally owned business versus a non-local business. They also explain their top ten reasons to shop local first:

1. Significantly More Money Re-circulates

When you purchase at locally owned businesses rather than nationally owned, more money is kept in the community because locally-owned businesses often purchase from other local businesses, service providers and farms.

2. Non Profits Receive Greater Support

Local business owners donate more to local charities than non-local owners.

3. Unique Businesses Create Character & Prosperity

The unique character of Grand Rapids is what brought us here and keeps us here. Our tourism businesses also benefit.

4. Environmental Impact Is Reduced

Local businesses make more local purchases requiring less transportation and usually set up shop in town centers rather than on the fringe. This generally means contributing less to sprawl, congestion, habitat loss and pollution.

5. Most New Jobs Are Provided By Local Businesses

Small local businesses are the largest employers nationally.

6. Customer Service Is Better

Local businesses often hire people with more specific product expertise for better customer service.

7. Local Business Owners Invest In Community

Local businesses are owned by people who live in this community, are less likely to leave, and are more invested in the community’s future.

8. Public Benefits Far Outweigh Public Costs

Local businesses require comparatively little infrastructure and more efficiently utilize public services relative to chain stores.

9. Competition And Diversity Leads To More Consumer Choices

A marketplace of thousands of small businesses is the best way to ensure innovation and low prices over the long-term.

10. Investment In Greater Grand Rapids Is Encouraged

A growing body of economic research shows that in an increasingly homogenized world, entrepreneurs and skilled workers are more likely to invest and settle in communities that preserve their one-of-a-kind businesses and distinctive character.

Source: PSFK via Local First via Curbly

Who Killed Summer? - all is revealed TONIGHT!

It's been a long, hot summer for the Who Killed Summer? contestants. And for the most part it's been amazing fun rockin' up at festivals like Benicassim, the Croatia Garden Festivals + Relentless Boardmasters - they've met their idols, made new friends + some among the group have even reached more intimate levels of friendship!!

But recent events have seen the best summer ever turn into their worst nightmare..

It turns out that ex-junkie Tete's new boyfriend was actually paid by a warped blogger going by the name of David Hampton to seduce her and get her back on drugs. He also revealed pictures of sweet virgin Claire dragging a virtual stranger into a hotel room, destroying her relationship with her boyfriend. What sort of a weirdo would do this?

This is all just scratching the surface, but David Hampton fills in the gaps perfectly over here.

So needless to say, the whole group is hugely disturbed at how close David Hampton has been getting to them...and since finding out that David Hampton isn't even his real name + that he's in fact using the name of a dead conman, most are now convinced that David Hampton is one of them. He just couldn't have got hold of certain pictures and information any other way. This has led them to turn on each other and all the while David Hampton continues to twist the knife.

All will become clear tonight though. David Hampton sent each of the contestants a Facebook invite to meet him on a boat just off the Sussex coast..sounds a little fishy to me! They've all accepted, so all we can do now is sit back and watch as the mystery unfolds across 3 episodes going live tonight at 8pm, 9pm and concluding at 10pm over at www.wks09.com.

The Who Killed Summer? Facebook fan page will also be buzzing with activity as it works with fans to get to the bottom of this sinister storyline.

Who Killed Summer? is a collaboration between MWorks, Hideous Productions + Big Balls Films (the guys behind Kate Modern + Nokia's Somebody Else's Phone) + is sponsored by Vodafone. The depth + breadth of this combined expertise has delivered an online drama that demonstrates TV-quality production values, (properly) exploits the potential of social media to engage its audience, and allows people to watch it in (almost) real time, for the first time.