Hasta La Creative!

These boots are made for killing. Nike Air Stab trainer withdrawn after spate of knife murders reports the Telegraph. The – at this time – badly named “Air Stab” has had that name since 1988, but in the current knife-happy climate in the UK it takes on a far more sinister meaning.

“While it may be an unfortunate coincidence timing-wise, given current problems regarding knife crime, we completely reject the idea that we are in any way condoning or encouraging the issue of knife usage,” said a Nike spokesman.

Yeah, knife usage. They don’t really do guns (as much) over in the UK. But they can kill you anyway. Or, in the rants of Bill Hicks –

….last year in England, they had fourteen thousand deaths per every soccer game, okay. I’m not saying every system is flawless, I’m just saying, if you’re in England, don’t go to a goddamn soccer game, and you’re coming home. It’s weird-they don’t have guns in England, but they have a very high crime rate, which tells you how polite the fucking English are. (English voices) Give me your wallet! All right. At least no one was hurt. How do you have a crime rate and no weapons, man? Does a guy walk into a bank: (English voices) Give me all your money! I’ve got a soccer ball! Shit, Ian, that’s a Spalding, he’s serious! Hand over the pounds!

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LONDON – Customer contact and insight specialist Broadsystem has appointed Zhuman Zamiri as customer intelligence consultant.

LONDON – Digital marketing company Mailtrack has appointed Gary Powell, consultant sales director at LBM Direct Marketing, as head of sales and customer relations.

LONDON – Ofcom is to remove “outdated and unnecessary” rules that require a 20-minute interval between ad breaks on TV, as part of a new advertising code to come into force on 1 September.

LONDON – Miles Calcraft Briginshaw Duffy has appointed Matt Wyatt, previously planning director at Leo Burnett, as board planner.

LONDON – Bauer Media has appointed Marco Nadotti to the newly created position of head of video acquisition and syndication.

LONDON – GCap’s move to reunite Johnny Vaughan and Denise Van Outen on Capital 95.8’s breakfast show has failed to generate significant audience gains, with the latest Rajars showing the show’s listener numbers between the all-important 6am to 9am slot fell by 7.6% year on year.

SINGAPORE – Coca-Cola wants to boost its sustainability credentials and has hired Ogilvy as its marketing partner in Asia-Pacific following a three-way pitch.

We’ve seen the “person painted as the background” thing used to sell everything from secure internet to chocolate-chip cookies before – but here it finally makes total sense. In fact, the only way I think this could be made better is if these were real kids sitting around all day like this in an ambient/guerilla stunt. Well done O&M Shanghai. There are 1.5 million underprivileged children in China.

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