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Entries for January 2006
The Phatgnat Challenge #22
'The Phatgnat Challenge' has been developed to demonstrate the services of Phatgnat and to illustrate how businesses can create high-profile youth projects which also satisfies public sectors aims and objectives. Brand: MySpace.com Potential Partners: Live Music Forum Project: Simple website and profile development workshops for bands. Benefits: Positive alignment…
Filed January 31 2006 | READ IT
Shoot To Thrill - Part 4
Just got back from the penultimate session for the Shoot To Thrill project. Going to miss my Tuesday night sessions with the group of young people who have inspired and impressed me throughout! Next week will be 'the showing' where the young people will present to parents and friends…
Filed January 31 2006 | READ IT
Underlining My Point About Awards…
(US) The Hispanic Heritage Awards have been launched by 'Southwest Airlines'. Told you… Related post: Hitachi Launches Awards Via PR Web….
Filed January 30 2006 | READ IT
Hitachi Launches Awards
(US) The Hitachi Foundation has a purpose of 'enhancing the well-being of economically isolated people in America' and have just launched their 'Yoshiyama Award for Exemplary Service to the Community'. Is it me or am I seeing a lot more of these types of community awards aimed at young…
Filed January 30 2006 | READ IT
Guerrilla Tactic Garage Bands
(World) Every now and then an explosion in music kicks off and unless you've had your head buried in the sand, you'll know that Arctic Monkeys are the most impressionable band of the moment. In a nutshell the band, penniless and label-less, recorded their set list, burnt the whole…
Filed January 30 2006 | READ IT
What Should I Do?
Rattling around in the net and 'blogosphere' (or more like 'clogosphere'?) I come across a vast amount of views, news and poohs (polite way of saying shit in the UK). Some of it relates directly to Phatgnat and my focus, of which I post about here, many news items…
Filed January 27 2006 | READ IT
LIPA Expands
(UK) Originally founded by Sir Paul McCartney, Liverpool Institute for Performing Arts (LIPA) is set to expand with sites in Europe, the Far East, North and South America being considered. They are also looking for partners as founding principal Mark Featherstone-Witty outlines: "People have approached us in Barcelona, Japan,…
Filed January 27 2006 | READ IT
Dancing Away Obesity: Take 2
(US) I posted about this news story in April last year but it's back again. This time with a nice little short video to accompany the story. CNN article link. Original April post: Dancing Away Obesity…
Filed January 27 2006 | READ IT
McDonalds Is Blogging On CSR
Check them out!…
Filed January 26 2006 | READ IT
Bono Sees Red
(World) Bono rocks. Today he launched Product Red, a new initiative which sees partners American Express, Gap, Converse and Giorgio Armani producing a range of "red" branded products with a share of profits to go to the fight against Aids in Africa. "Philanthropy is like hippy music, holding hands….
Filed January 26 2006 | READ IT
EdComs
(UK) I didn't get a great response to my email on the CSRBlokes forum asking for any youth specific CSR work (thought I would for some reason) but I did get an email from those lovely people at EdComs. EdComs is an educational consultancy. We provide creative and innovative…
Filed January 26 2006 | READ IT
Respect
(UK) About a week ago. I saw a bloke washing some graffiti off a wall on a website, and claiming to start a campaign of 'respect' across the country. 'That's nice of him' I thought. I like it when a decision gets made to 'change things' for the good…
Filed January 25 2006 | READ IT
Self-governance
(EU) In a bold move, several global drink brands have announced a Europian inititiative to tackle childhood obesity. Basically they will make the drink cartoons smaller, take branding off the vending machines, limit youth advertising, control sales in schools and improve nutritional labels. Stephen Kehoe, chair of the Unesda…
Filed January 25 2006 | READ IT
New Blog
(World) Just come across a new blog which looks very interesting. The Business Ethics blog is written by Chris MacDonald, focuses on corporate ethics (obviously) and states if you believe either of the following: a) that corporations have a god-given right to accumulate as much capital as possible without…
Filed January 25 2006 | READ IT
Bookcycling
(UK) Just outside the 'youth' remit but scalable is the bookcycling project from the Early Learning Centre. Put simply, take back some books your toddlers are done with and get 50% off future purchases. Maybe should have saved this one for a Phatgnat Challenge? But it doesn't take much…
Filed January 25 2006 | READ IT
Sorry…
…for the lapse in posting but been on the move and had fun trying to get online again—normal service will now resume!…
Filed January 25 2006 | READ IT
The Phatgnat Challenge #21
'The Phatgnat Challenge' has been developed to demonstrate the services of Phatgnat and to illustrate how businesses can create high-profile youth projects which also satisfies public sectors aims and objectives. Brand: EA Games Potential Partners: UK Youth Parliament Project: Develop a 'political' game based on the UK parties and…
Filed January 17 2006 | READ IT
Fame vs School
These stories revolve around every 6 months or so—how young people today would rather be famous than have an education. However, once you step past the 'moral panic' of a headline you get into the story and find out only 1 in 10 kids actually want this. 1 in…
Filed January 16 2006 | READ IT
Parkour
Le Parkour has massive potiental. If I was 13 again and looking to get into something, parkour would be it. And if I was 44 and a parent and looking for my child to get into something… parkor would probably be it too. its free, instantly available, athletic, disciplined…
Filed January 16 2006 | READ IT
Going, Going… GONE!
I want to thank all those who attended my leaving party last night. It's always sad leaving friends but at least it was on a high! The party was a chilled out affair with candles, lots of wine, chats and acoustic tunes played by various friends/young people I've worked…
Filed January 15 2006 | READ IT
Cheesy…But Still Works—F.A.R.O.U.T.
Last July I wrote a post in reaction to an article about selling to marketing-averse teens—read it here—I devised a very 'cheesy' acronym outlining what I thought a successful youth product/marketing/project needed to achieve acceptance or at least register on young peoples radars. Here's a quick refresh: You want…
Filed January 11 2006 | READ IT
Cause Marketing Grows
(US) Brands and companies will invest $1.34 billion in 2006, according to the IEG Sponsorship Report, Chicago. They've also gone further and predicted the areas of growth: Sports: $8.9 billion, 66% Entertainment Tours/Attractions: $1.41 billion, 11% Causes: $1.34 billion, 10% Arts: $0.735 billion, 5% Festivals, fairs, annual events: $0.604…
Filed January 11 2006 | READ IT
HELP WANTED
The Phatgnat log is always looking for contributors—if you are a like-minded, have a youth-interest, are a social-observer, a hip cultural-voyeur or a net-curtain-twitcher, then come join the team. Q. What is the Phatgnat log? A. The Phatgnat log reviews the space between the commercial and public sectors, focusing…
Filed January 11 2006 | READ IT
Shoot To Thrill - Part 3
With five more sessions left on the Shoot To Thrill programme, last night the young participants got shooting. They had storyboarded and scripted their films over the Christmas break and it was great to see the creative juices flowing. Assisted by Mark and Charles (our film-makers), the step from…
Filed January 11 2006 | READ IT
The Phatgnat Youth Report - Revisited
Downloaded nearly 2,000 times since being published in October 2005, the Phatgnat Youth Report 2005 has certainly proved popular. The report has been linked to and syndicated in numerous places, but the original motivation behind it was simple—I couldn't find any research asking young people what the influencing factors…
Filed January 10 2006 | READ IT
Let's Paint
The whole country (and me) is getting pissed off with the news that rail prices are increasing by 9% or more without noticable improvement to service. In Brazil several artists were invited to paint a whole train which is used daily by thousands of passengers. Not hard to see…
Filed January 6 2006 | READ IT
Not A Problem But A Challenge
Recently, Phatgnat devised and developed a project proposal for a major fashion brand—well actually it wasn't one proposal it was four as the ideas just kept on coming. Unfortunately, today I had notification that the client was not going to invest and adopt any of them—obviously dissapointing but part…
Filed January 6 2006 | READ IT
Ecko Quote
'We live in an extraordinary time, where the definition of hip-hop and rock cross boundaries… where street and couture are on the same playing field… where white kids have black role models and black kids have white role models…' Marc Ecko, Designer & Founder of Ecko Unlimited Ecko Unlimited Clothing…
Filed January 6 2006 | READ IT
Sony Reader
Sony has launched it's 'Sony Reader' which is about the size of a paperback, is 14mm thick at its widest and weighs little more than 250g. It has done deals with major publishers, including Random House, Penguin and HarperCollins, to sell digital e-books via its Connect online store. Not…
Filed January 6 2006 | READ IT
My Fellow Bloggers
Even though weblogs are as common as teenagers wearing hoodies, I am still constantly trying to educate people/associates/colleagues/family members/strangers on trains about their benefits. I have recently been getting quite a few queries from people looking for information, and finding my usual response is to point them to one/some…
Filed January 5 2006 | READ IT
Causing A Ruckus
(UK) RUCKUS is a new youth magazine from those lovely people at the National Youth Agency. To find out more about it and download the inaugural copy click here. I have over 4 years experience of project managing a very successful local youth magazine so was very interested in…
Filed January 5 2006 | READ IT
The Phatgnat Spotlight #3: Innocent Drinks
This feature presents individuals, departments or foundations who help raise the profile of their brand through positive community youth projects and initiatives, plus the interviews disseminate examples of good practice to other businesses. Name: Ailana Title: Juice Press Company: Innocent Drinks 1. Describe the philosophy, or values, behind your…
Filed January 3 2006 | READ IT
The Phatgnat Challenge #20
'The Phatgnat Challenge' has been developed to demonstrate the services of Phatgnat and to illustrate how businesses can create high-profile youth projects which also satisfies public sectors aims and objectives. Brand: Dulux Potential Partners: Local Secondary Schools (with possible National rollo-out) Project: A programme educating young people about the…
Filed January 3 2006 | READ IT
Deutsche Bank Spotlight Awards: Revisited
(UK) (As posted here) The Deutsche Bank Spotlight Awards are for ordinary teenagers who aren't afraid to speak up and take action on the issues they care about. Check out this great film on the 2004 winners and here's a list of the 2005 winners. Maybe they could get…
Filed January 3 2006 | READ IT
Phatgnat Relationship Guide / Motorola Brush-Off
On the Motorola website there's a nice online interview with CEO Ed Zander, discussing their 'global corporate citizenship' activities and agenda. They have a Motorola Foundation which does some great work so I contacted them about it. I asked to hear more about their activities with young people in…
Filed January 3 2006 | READ IT
The Big Boost
(UK) Launched at the end of last year, 'The Big Boost' aims to help young people get their community ideas of the ground. Funded by the National Lottery with grants available from £250 to £5,000. Check out the examples page for some great illustrations of what projects some young…
Filed January 2 2006 | READ IT
Liber8 - revisited
Liber8 was 'launched' just before Christmas (probably not the best time in hindsight) with this post (plus me ringing round many of my contacts). It's an inspirational employee relations programme and an opportunity to align your brand/company to a bold and pro-social community education project. Usually Phatgnat devises and…
Filed January 2 2006 | READ IT
More Is Less
(World) Check out this very interesting podcast from Barry Schwartz, Dorwin Cartwright Professor of Social Theory and Social Action Psychology, Swarthmore College, and author of The Paradox of Choice: Why More is Less. The basic premise is that we all have more of everything but at what price: —We…
Filed January 1 2006 | READ IT
Selling To Teens
(US) Just before Chrimbo I came across this interesting article from those clever folks at 'Knowledge @ Wharton' debating the marketing trends of selling to teens. The article focuses on the presentations and discussion from many CEO's at their conference and includes some eye-brow raising gems like this one…
Filed January 1 2006 | READ IT
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