Woolworths and Lolita

You could not make it up, and I guess that is the beauty of news stories like this.

Woolworths have withdrawn from sale a range of childrens furniture called Lolita.

A Woolies spokesman has said : ” none of our staff realised the connotations of the name”

That none of their staff could have realised the connotations is a sad indictment on either Woolworths or our society, or both.

Builders Bums

Good and well made workwear is the best investment anyone in the building trade can make. Far more important than your tool-set, your ass sorted hammers, screwdrivers, pliers, wrenches, picks and shovels is your clothing. This can be likened to the military where uniform and especially footwear are considered the prime factors in allowing a soldier to function.

Proper work clothing should do many things, but here is a summary of the main purposes and functions that it will provide:

• Naturally the prime area of concern must be safety. It is imperative that sensitive and vulnerable areas are protected. Hence sturdy work boots or even rigger boots are a must to protect feet from impalement or crushing. It is also important that these boots afford a good level of grip and moveability so that the wearer has a suitable freedon of movement. Trousers/ Overalls, Gloves and Headwear should also be worn in keeping with the specifics of the industry involved to protect areas most likely to be at risk.
• A secondary, yet imperative requirement of workwear is that it provides comfort. Clothes should not restrict movement and should provide a good level of protection from the elements. Most workclothes now have padding and reinforced areas to protect the wearer. They also have brought into the industry new materials such as GoreTex and other water resistant finishes which simultaneously allow the body to breate and provide protection.
• Of course far less important than the above reasons, but one, nontheless a contributory factor in choosing workwear is one of fashion. Workwear in now made by some leading brands who also have a foothold and influence on the highstreet such as Caterpillar, Timberland and Helly Hansen. Simply workwear, an online retailer of workwear and apparel have good selection of just such workwear in the section : work jackets, similarly a thorough selection of work boots is to be found in their safety footwear section. It is interesting to note how the fashion industry has been influenced by both military and other such rugged trades’ work uniforms.

In summary, a builder or other such tradesman needs to equip himself just like a soldier, with military precision. Careful thought needs to be applied with regards to protection, mobility and style ( even soldiers care about how they look you see. )

Business Gifts

Now this is a true story, I have changed the names to avoid any potential embarrassment or future legal proceedings.

I work in a small office where we work hard, 5 of us as a team, we build, develop and market websites, each area of our enterprise is kind of symbiotic, mutually supportive and generally intertwined with each other. A designer designs a site in order for the task of development to be as easy as possible, he/ she also takes into consideration how the elements of the design will perform with regards to search engine optimisation and customer retention. So you see, we are a team with many disciplines working towards a common goal.

We, as an agency, make use of some of the major web players as marketing tools, we use Google, Overture and other such companies to make online marketing a more profitable process.

One of these companies, who I should not name, though I will : “Google”, makes a well appreciated effort each year in sending out Business Gifts to agency staff. In the past they have famously distributed Google radios, Computer Accessories and other such well received gifts.

Last year the search engine company decided to present marketing staff worldwide with some beautiful LCD screens. This would have been a great idea had the search engine company not taken the decision to award these most enviable gifts to only 2 members of our team. To see the two ‘marketing’ people swaggering around with their corporate gifts irked me hugely. I took this up with the search engine company immediately, I emailed complaining that their antics had caused division and resentment in our office.

Now you may wonder how a company gains global dominance in a few years, reaches a turnover of billions and sits, with the untrendiest man on the planet, as pioneering leaders and shakers of the Internet can be trendier than sliced bread. Well the answer is this… they sent me and my other colleagues LCD Screens as Business Gifts, they saw the humour in my request and ensured that their logo made it into our hearts and Christmas stockings.