cann’d

Hands up who loves Masterchef? (waving hand wildly in the air).

Masterchef Australia sure has hit a nerve with something like one fifth of the Australian population tuning in for the finale. Being a sucker for all things cooking - Ready Steady Cook, a plethora of foodie mag subscriptions and dare I say it a bit of a crush on Huey - I can understand it.

The thing that gets me in everytime is watching this fantastic food being created and even if it is just for a minute actually thinking that there is some kind of possibility that you are creating that beautiful food yourself.

And I think that’s where Masterchef got it right. Because these were “amateur chefs”. And so am I!

I wonder how many viewers saw that Crokenbush (sp) and thought to themselves - I’m gonna try that. Or the layered mousse cake which I’ve promised my husband I’d have a crack at. Sometime soon.

Mouth watering? Again, such is the appeal of Masterchef. Smack on dinner time let’s look at some delectable food. Made by ordinary people. Like you and me. What are you having for dinner?

But for me, what was the most fun with Masterchef was the Twittering that went on while it was on. I heard somewhere that during the finale #masterchef was actually trending which is phenomenal. Twitterers everywhere bonded for an hour or so every night, making like a big group of people in the same roon, drooling over food and thinking they can do it themselves.

Where could they go wrong?

Was watching a Shots Reel at Adschool last night, and just loved this ad.

When watching these ads, we were asked to seperate them out in our minds. So think about the strategy behind them and how the strategy inspired the creative. Luckily with this one we were also given a bit of background.

The Independant is just that - independant. It is not owned or influenced by either one of the big political parties. So they tell you what to think. They tell you what to do. They tell you how to vote. Do this, do that. Or more frquently, don’t.

So what would have been the proposition behind this ad? I reckon it would have been something like go against the grain, do you what you want to do, not what they tell you to do. Be, well, independent.

And I think the creative does this brilliantly. Being bombarded by “don’t, don’t, don’t” stirs up the desire to rebel against this, to tell them to go shove it. And not only that, all of these things can be related to real life. “Don’t put your elbows on the table, don’t stand on chairs”. Certainly made me want to tell them to go shove it.

It is such a powerful brand message that makes me connect with the brand itself and makes me want to read it even though it is not sold in Sydney.

Fabbo I reckon. Great job.

Got this one from over at Anthill Online - some whacky inventions here. Must say though, I do like the stair shoe storage and the thumb wrestling ring.

As a woman, it’s hard not to fall prey to the pressure to be thin. To have perfect skin, shiny hair, perky breasts and shapely legs. To be, well, beautiful.

But the problem with this you see is that we are trying to live up to something that comes pretty close to being unattainable. Beauty that is man made and on the most part bought as opposed to made.

But the biggest irony of it all is that it is us, those women who will probably never live up to this “beautiful” image, that actually allow the image to exist by aiming for it - does that make sense?

So where am I going with all of this? To one of my favourite campaigns ever - The Campaign for Real Beauty by Dove. Their attempt to reprogram the female mind - to expose what “normal” really is.

But this one hits the hardest I think.

Agency: Ogilvy & Mather, Toronto