Represent Fashion Tips for the Boys
Laugh your head off if you must but we tell you all about it before it happens…watch this space and hang your head in shame… HI TOPS are back – remember those gross shoes from the 80’s? Well they have shrugged off their slime and come back bigger and bulkier and brighter than ever. They may look similar to Converse in this pic but they’re much fatter and bigger. These Nike …SUPREME COURTS are available at about R400 in South Africa. Or go to second hand shops in Boksburg and you’re sure to dig up a pair from the relics of 80s cool. PLEASE NOTE: On another tip – in an attempt to rid society of the Eastern Bloc BUFFALO scourge that seems to stick around and gather bad taste dust, we give you this appeal – pass it on to all that you know- Buffalo’s are just so not cool, if you know anyone with a pair of BUFFALO’s BURN the buggers. If they ever come back into decency you can buy a new pair and that will be…...
Jozi’s biggest turn on – Coke in the city.
We’ve been wondering what the strange new flashing signage is in downtown Joburg (see Hillbrow tower post) …well all has been revealed! It’s the new Coca Cola 3D 4-sided LED magnificent billboard and it’s with us for the next 5 years. We have to admit it looks AMAZING and gives Jozi that ‘NewYorkTokioLondon’ feel. Loving that! Our pic was taken while speeding by on the highw…ay – not v good – just look up at the city and you’ll see it. Or else go to this story on Joburg.org for a better pic and the full story: DOWNTOWN Joburg has a new landmark – a large, state-of-the-art electronic billboard atop the Marble Towers building. The board, erected by Coca-Cola, lights up the city skyline in vibrant colours – the famous red and white combination of the popular cold drink, as well as vivid pink, blue, green, purple and orange. Officially launched on Wednesday, 13 July, the billboard, at the corner of Pritchard and Von Weilligh streets, has been dubbed “Jozi’s biggest turn on”. The board is 44 metres by 32 metres by 12 metres in size, and the four-sided, free-standing towers soar 140 metres above the ground. “As one of the world’s largest free-standing, self-illuminated animated signs – and a first on the African continent – it’s bigger, brighter and funkier than anything we’ve seen in the country to date,” said Delia Maloney, Coca-Cola’s brand manager. The billboard is made up of 1,2 million LED (light emitting diode) tubes. It took three engineers and 15 artisans eight weeks to mount the LED tubes and test each of the 43 500 joints. “With the LED technology we are using it is so much more than just a static, two-dimensional sign with our logo and other branding elements displayed on it” Maloney said. The display of three-dimensional images will enable sponsors to communicate with the public before music concerts, sponsored football matches or on special...
What’s that funny new tobacco stuff called SNUS??
While doing our late-night munchie shopping at our local supermarket i.e. “garage shop”, we spotted these slick little tins with Peter Stuyvesant logos on them sitting in a neat little fridge (fridge?). The friendly guy behind the counter told us they were “tea-bags that you suck”… well he wasn’t far off: SNUS is a brand new new brand of tobacco just introduced by Peter Stuy…vesant to our shelves – it stems from that land of IKEA and blond bombshells, Sweden, where, according to Stuyvesant, more Swedes choose SNUS than ciggies. Here’s the beat from swedish-snus.com and the instructions pack: Snus is a pasteurised tobacco product that looks like a little teabag. It is kept in fridges, you take a pouch out your tin, put it behind your upper lip and let it ‘TINGLE’. Some people keep it in their mouths for up to 30 minutes. Swedish snus/snuff is a ground tobacco product dating from the late 1700s. Approximately 1,000,000 people in Sweden use snus – 90% are men and 10% are women. According to an article on Ebusinessforum SNUS is banned in many EU countries but will be tested on the SA market – “[Snus] is prohibited in other EU countries, but BAT head of science and regulation Christopher Procter showed slides from Action on Smoking and Health (Ash), the anti-tobacco group, that seemed to show it was far less harmful. He quoted Ash saying that snus was over a hundred times less harmful than cigarettes and that the law banning it was contradictory and illogical. Asked whether he thought that snus would be legalised in the EU he replied: ‘There’s not a cat’s chance in hell.” BAT said it would launch snus in South Africa, branded with its Peter Stuyvesant brand, and test it there for a year. South Africa has an advertising ban, so Mr Procter said that snus would have to come with instructions. It also has to be kept in special fridges.” According to our favourite online people’s encyclopedia WIKIPEDIA: “Since snus is not intended nor recommended for inhalation, it does not affect the lungs like cigarettes do, although it does contain more nicotine than cigarettes, and might pose a risk for oral cancer or cardiovascular disease. The World Health Organization (WHO) acknowledges that Swedish men have the lowest rate of lung cancer in Europe, partly due to the low tobacco smoking rate, but does not argue for substituting snus for smoking, citing that the effects of snus still remain unclear. The European Union banned the sale of snus in 1992, after a 1985 WHO study concluded that “oral use of snuffs of the types...
TWO MUST HAVE CD’s – believe us!
We like to share all things fabulous with our readers – here are two bands that are filling our work hours and play hours – BUY BUY BUY – you may have to buy from Amazon for now or order them from your favourite music shop. PINK MARTINI and LHASA DE SELA. Thanks to Generalista for introducing us to PINK MARTINI an unusual 14-piece band with …the most diverse and eclectic inspiring sounds PINK MARTINI Here’s a review of their latest album “Hold on little Tomato” from the BBC – click here for more: What comes to your mind when you think of a pink martini? A belle ýpoque somewhere tropical? A kind of classy camp that is no more? Glamorous sexuality and silk gowns worn on nights of sin? Well, drink deeply on the cocktail offered by Cuban beauty China Forbes and her 14-piece band (plus her heavenly chorus of male vocalists) and you’ll be sated. Every song on this album is deliciously different. You get the swing of Afro-Cuban rhythms, the existential sadness of Parisian cafý tunes, some Caribbean calypso and then a Hollywood golden-era string arrangement, all of it polished to near-perfection, with the sassy wit of the 1930s and none of the shrinking self-parody of the noughties. China sings in Spanish, Italian, French, Croatian and English, and with feeling and confidence whatever the tongue. Her sidekick Timothy Nishimoto does a song in Japanese, with Forbes on faraway vocals. For the sultry piano bar song, “Veronique”, Robert Taylor sings and plays a wistful trumpet against the tinkling keys of Thomas Lauderdale, the force behind most of Pink Martini’s lyrics and scores. It’s cabaret showtime throughout, delievered by a band that loves live performance. ***************************************************** And thanks to our very own Aquoibon for sharing this incredible voice with us – LHASA DE SELA. Her unique voice is haunting and reaches deep into your soul. The recent career of Canadian singer/songwriter Lhasa de Sela brings new meaning to the expression ‘runaway success’. After sales of her first album “La Llorona” (1998) went beyond cult status to something approaching ballistic, she took fright at the prospect of international stardom. Feeling overwhelmed by the extensive tours of Europe and North America she ran away to France to join her three sisters, who were travelling with a circus. (Pic and info Courtesy of BBC – click here for the rest.) We love them.. Hope you do too. For more info see their sites: PINK MARTINI LHASA...
REPRESENT has RSS – U should have it too!
So you want to keep in touch with what’s going on all the time? You like to be the first to know the news? You don’t always have time to surf the net? BUT you like to be on top of technology and keep up to date with what’s going down on the information superhighway? Answer this: Would you like information from REPRESENT to come to your inbox everytime we update but not to bomba…rd your email inbox with newsletters ‘coz you’re spammed already? Is there a sports website you want to keep up to date with so you’re the first to know when the team for Saturday’s match has been announced? Do you like to hear from BBC news everyday so you know what’s going on in the World News? If you answered YES – then YOU NEED RSS … the revolutionary content driver. We’re gonna tell you what it is and how to get it. It’s really easy and anyone that’s a web freak should have it already. Don’t forget REPRESENT told you first. RSS is one of the most popular information sharing systems on the internet It stands for Really Simple Syndication or Rich Site Summary and “is a format for delivering summaries of regularly changing web content.” Many news-related sites, weblogs and other online publishers syndicate their content as an RSS Feed to whoever wants it. “ So in other words – instead of receiving news-letters, you get mini-content summaries from your favourite website everytime they update and you can decide whether or not you want to visit the site for the full article. It’s really useful if there are certain topics, blogs or websites that you are passionate about and that update their content regularly. To receive RSS feeds you need to use a newsreader – this is either a standalone software program, many of which you can dowload for free, or you can use a web-based reader, such as those now integrated with myyahoo or mymsn. Our personal preference is a reader which integrates with Outlook because that’s where we spend most of our waking hours – we suggest the trial version of YOU SUBSCRIBE as it’s easy to install – but note that it is still on TRIAL and may not be free forever but there are plenty of others which are established such as RSS POPPER. It’s really easy to install and should take less than 10 minutes. If you’re behind a fire-wall you may have to ask your IT guy to help you do it or just use the web based newsreader . Instructions on how to get RSS feeds...
Super clever URBAN COMMUNICATION in Sydney, Oz
In this world of cut-throat marketing creative thinkers have to really think big in order to keep on churning out the next big idea in brand communication… This marketing concept would go down a storm in SA – any car companies QUICK and GENEROUS enough??? Come on car people… We offer to drive the first one around for you! It’s not often that you see a clever scheme where eve…rybody wins but Sydney-based mobile communication company KahDo has come up with a unique medium that brings advertisers and consumers together. More than just outdoor advertising, KahDo’s fleet of 100 branded Smart Cars are driven by real consumers, and aims to achieve advertising effectiveness through unexpectedness. The drivers are hand picked for their socially active, urban lifestyle. Kahdo recruits a select community of opinion leaders by offering them a fully maintained Smart car for a subsidised cost of AUD$35 (US$26) per week. In return for the subsidised car, exclusive product usage, free samples and invitations to special events, these influential 18 to 34 year old urban consumers agree to ambassador status and minimum usage levels of the cars that are wrapped in advertising. Telecommunications giant Nokia was the first to take to the streets of Australia’s two largest cities (Sydney and Melbourne) this week using the innovative, new marketing concept to reach young, urban consumers with unique messages about the brand. The KahDo Smart Cars are driven by carefully selected consumers, who are happy to drive a branded vehicle for only $35 per week. Each driver is selected through a process of demographic and psychographic testing to ensure they fit the profile of a ‘social influencer’. The cars will carry Nokia’s Music Goes Mobile messaging – reference to a dedicated Nokia website and platform designed to promote Nokia handsets and music to the youth market. CLICK HERE FOR THE KAHDO...
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