Welcome to Idealog Weekly, the free email newsletter for New Zealand commercial creatives, entrepreneurs and anyone rich with ideas.

Corporations have spent the amount of money the United Nations believes it would take to end human poverty on getting people to trust them and their brands. Did it work? Was that $30 billion well-spent?
Well, no, says James Hurman. Despite all that money spent persuading people to trust businesses, consumer trust has steadily declined over the last decade. Instead, we look to our friends and contacts for honest opinions, and we seek out advice and ideas in conversations, not advertising and marketing.
This behaviour is becoming increasingly apparent and as Hurman says, it’s a frightening prospect for businesses and marketers, who no longer can rely on subtle Sullivan’s nod of advertising. Read about the ramifications of not being in charge of your brand anymore in the current issue of Idealog and on our website.
We like this for lots of reasons. So will you. Creator Nico Casavecchia has put several of his freakily inspired animations on Vimeo—check out his scratchin’ kitties, too.
http://vimeo.com/3577464

Motorcycle builder John Britten’s life was cut short, arguably before he had a chance to do his best work. His successful Grand Prix bike design that was years ahead of its time still looks great though. Britten overcame many difficulties to reach success and we should remember him and his wonderful bikes. I’ll be watching parts one to five of the Britten: Backyard Visionary documentary over at NZOnScreen.com for that reason. After deadline, that is.
Vincent Heeringa finds Todd Wackrow in the Icehouse, admires his stature and talks about POCKETVouchers on Idealog TV.


Poor Resn. They’re looking for a Senior Intawacktive Designer strong enough to carry the drunken art director home from client functions, and Seek the job site doesn’t like that kind of honesty in advertising. If only there were an alternative site …

Now you know that Semi-Permanent hits town next Friday, but did you know that Idealog will be there reporting from the floor?
ASB Theatre at the Aotea Centre will be crawling with creative designer types from New Zealand, Australia, UK and the US, talking about what drives and inspires them, so keep an eye on our website for interviews and live blogging from the event.
Tickets are $250 ($150 for students) for both days and VIP tickets cost $500, with goodie bags included in the price. Get them from The Edge.

And Ben Kepes will be at Wordcamp in Wellington this weekend, blogging up a storm on the Idealog blog. We’ll be tracking it on Twitter too, so if you’re tweet-enabled follow us at @idealogmag.

Time for some interpretative art courtesy of Lester Hall, a timber machinist in a past life. Hall is billed as an avid historian and a keen contributor to New Zealand’s constant cultural narrative and looking at his art, there’s no denying that. His Euro-Polynesian work provokes and fascinates in equal measure, and the idea of creating pieces that are living objects that can be used now and refurbished later has some real merit in these straitened economic times.
See the work of Lester Hall at the Momentum Gallery, Herne Bay, until September 11.

Monday is your last day to enter the yMedia Challenge 09, the new media event that aims to connect tertiary students with community groups and top businesses. Ambitious goal that, but should be fun short-term work experience.
The forms for the competition are now up on the yMediaChallenge site, so be quick.
“The pizza was soooo greasy. I am assuming this was in part due to the pig fat..”
—The words of a dissatisfied customer of San Francisco’s Pizza Delfina—as printed on t-shirts worn by staff at the very same joint.
Read more on our website: web exclusives, opinion, creative directory, Idealog TV, the Idealog blogs and the Idealog podcast. See you at idealog.co.nz.
Juha Saarinen
Ideologue, Weekly

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